I think you'll find district heating has been a success where a "new town" or "new estate" type development occurred i.e. prefabricated "panels" built into apartment blocks. They where able to pump the "heat" from a power station/large factory in overland pipelines that snake (due to necessary 90degree expansion joints) for km's without any care for the environmental effect (visual or otherwise). And the consumers are still not happy.

It required central planning in execution and operation. Everything about these places was planned to such a degree that of course after the initial gloss wore off (shops, schools, clinics), it was everyone's desire to move to their own space,under their own control.

CHP has been around in the UK since the Singer factory. it was the source of so many many studies and site visits.

It just isn't that simple, if it was it would have taken off. It can make sense. Many of the old apartment block boilers where oil fired. Converting them to gas made senses. Taking a further step to CHP may be cost effective.

But... it still goes back to same issues with Wind and Solar. Does it make sense to invest in high maintenance, large capital investment projects, with a payback period of 20-30 years, often beyond the actual working life of the infrastructure (despite the marketing and design claims)? In a country like the UK?

It's like putting in telegraph cables with Wifi 10 years away.

Nov 5, 2017 at 9:44 AM | Jiminy Cricket

It also works with geothermal, if the amount of heat available is volcanic, and steaming hot.

tomo, they are a no-brainer if housing developments are adjacent to industrial processes, producing a lot of heat that would otherwise go to waste. It also helps if residents have minimal ability to tamper with heat settings, or complain about reliability issues. The Communist Eastern Block loved them.

Heat losses from the long lengths of distribution pipework could be high, and Crocidolite was very cost effective. This is more commonly known as Blue Asbestos. The cost of maintaining anything encased with Blue Asbestos became prohibitive.

The Green Blob oppose burning of household waste, and homeowners do not want to live next to an incinerator. Industrial processes requiring a lot of heat are not economic within the EU, so have been exported to the Far East, which is too far away to send the surplus heat back again.

There is insufficient heat beneath the ground of the UK to make it worthwhile to "Recover" for District Heating Systems. Where there is a cooling tower, there is surplus heat being wasted. Where are they going to get unwanred heat from? Solar?

How is The Eden Project?

Nov 5, 2017 at 11:32 PM | tomo

I have found that free paper for lighting a wood burner is regularly posted through the letter box. Even more is available if you ask for free information packs about recycling, renewable energy etc, and it gets delivered.

tomo, my wife's (large) village has just installed two large thermal storage tanks fed from underground by two deep wells - this is to heat the municipal buildings (probably oil heated before). With the added benefit of now being able to build a swimming pool for the village (a positive side effect.)

However, this was achieved only with large EU grants. And the village sits in an old sea basin (1000km now from the sea) where if you sink a well anywhere in the mostly sandy (rock free) soil you'll get a geyser effect after going down 20 or 30 metres.

They also run one of the largest solar farms in the country, paid for by the EU. However, the power they generate offsets the heat pumps. People forget that heat pumps require a lot of energy (just a fridge in reverse), last time I looked they use up at least 60-70% of the energy they generate, sometimes more.

They also have wonderful new cycle paths to nowhere... paid for by the EU.

If you don't ask you don't get.