Cost efficiency of district heating for low energy buildings of the future

Hansen, Chris; Guðmundsson, Oddgeir; Detlefsen, Nina

doi:10.1016/j.energy.2019.04.046

Cited by 29 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…For this reason, it is difficult to assess quantitively the steps necessary for 4/5GDHN compatible building stock; instead a qualitative approach can be adopted based on progress elsewhere. There have been many studies on the compatibility of LTDHN with current building stock [23,67,[70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81]. Several of these papers present an analysis of the existing radiator system [67,81].…”

Section: Political: Low Energy Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

et al. 2020

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Energy usage in buildings is coming increasingly under the spotlight as carbon policy focus shifts towards the utilization of thermal energy. In the UK, heating and hot water accounts for around 40% of energy consumption and 20% of greenhouse gas emissions. Heating is typically produced onsite, making widescale carbon or energetic improvements challenging. District heating networks (DHNs) can offer significant carbon reduction for many users but can only be implemented if the end user buildings have good thermal energy efficiency. This greatly limits the ability to implement advancing 4th and 5th generation DHNs, which are the most advanced systems available. We elucidate the current state of thermal efficiency in buildings in the UK and provide recommendations for necessary building requirements and modifications in order to accommodate 4th and 5th generation district heating. We conclude that key sectors must be addressed including creating a skilled workforce, producing relevant metrics and benchmarks, and providing financial support for early stage design exploration.

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Section: Political: Low Energy Buildingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

et al. 2020

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“…Hence, in line with the findings of Refs. [23,58], the district heating networks were technically and economically more feasible than the individual heat pump solutions due to the economies of scale and higher efficiency of the energy generation. Instead, Case 1 was competitive with all the other cases, even in the reference scenario with 60% heat from the groundwater systems and 40% from ASHPs-see Sections 2.6 and 4.1.…”

Section: Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Case 1 Case 2 Case 3 Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Double Loop Network for Combined Heating and Cooling in Low Heat Density Areas

et al. 2020

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This study investigated a double loop network operated with ultra-low supply/return temperatures of 45/25 °C as a novel solution for low heat-density areas in Denmark and compared the proposed concept with a typical tree network and with individual heat pumps to each end-users rather than district networks. It is a pump-driven system, where the separate circulation of supply and return flow increased the flexibility of the system to integrate and displace heating and cooling energy along the network. Despite the increased use of central and local water pumps to operate and control the system, the simulated overall pump energy consumption was 0.9% of the total energy consumption. This was also an advantage at the design stage as the larger pressure gradient, up to 570 Pa/m, allowed minimal pipe diameters. In addition, the authors proposed the installation of electrically heated vacuum-insulated micro tanks of 10 L on the primary side of each building substation as a supplementary heating solution to meet the comfort and hygiene requirements for domestic hot water (DHW). This, combined with supply water circulation in the loop network, served as a technical solution to remove the need for bypass valves during summer periods with no load in the network. The proposed double loop system reduced distribution heat losses from 19% to 12% of the total energy consumption and decreased average return temperatures from 33 °C to 23 °C compared to the tree network. While excess heat recovery can be limited due to hydraulic issues in tree networks, the study investigated the double loop concept for scenarios with heat source temperatures of 30 °C and 45 °C. The double loop network was cost-competitive when considering the required capital and operating costs. Furthermore, district networks outperformed individual heat pump solutions for low-heat density areas when waste heat was available locally. Finally, although few in Denmark envisage residential cooling as a priority, this study investigated the potential of embedding heating and cooling in the same infrastructure. It found that the return line could deliver cold water to the end-users and that the maximum cooling power was 1.4 kW to each end-user, which corresponded to 47% of the total peak heat demand used to dimension the double loop network.

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“…4, Section 2, Consumers). Small-scale production of heat is generally less efficient in comparison to the DH system [19]. New challenges to consumers are caused by the demand side management when consumers modify their consumption profile by transferring consumption from peak hours to another time, thus the consumers' heat demand can be satisfied by a lower installed capacity and savings of capital investments can be obtained [29].…”

Section: Transition Towards 4gdh: Possibilities Bottlenecks and Chamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• Economic parameters: fuel and electricity prices [15], tax payments, specific investments in technologies [16]; • Institutional parameters: standards of building efficiency, heat and power generating plants, policy instruments for implementation of various measures [17]; • Social parameters: sufficiency of heat for households, arrangement of the city environment [18]. Improvement of efficiency at consumers, by implementing energy efficiency measures, installing heat insulation of buildings and implementing innovative projects (passive buildings or buildings as a heat storage) [19], is among the most important factors forcing a DH utility to plan its operations in advance and affecting heat costs [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenges and Barriers by Transition Towards 4^th Generation District Heating System: A Strategy to Establish a Pricing Mechanism

Osis¹,

Talcis²,

Ziemele³

2019

Latvian Journal of Physics and Technical Sciences

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Transition of the district heating (DH) system to the 4th generation system involves several challenges, which refer not only to the introduction of state-of-art technologies, but also to the development of a sustainable pricing methodology. Introduction of the 4th generation systems will soon force the DH industry to solve issues regarding the possibility of organisation of the market in the same way as it happened in the power industry (Directive 2009/72/EC) by complete separation of producers from the transmission system service providers. The present article discusses various development scenarios of a DH utility within the framework of an organised market and their pricing methodologies, as well as evaluates their sustainability considering the transition to the 4th generation system.

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Cost efficiency of district heating for low energy buildings of the future

Cited by 29 publications

References 5 publications

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

Double Loop Network for Combined Heating and Cooling in Low Heat Density Areas

Challenges and Barriers by Transition Towards 4^th Generation District Heating System: A Strategy to Establish a Pricing Mechanism

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Cost efficiency of district heating for low energy buildings of the future

Cited by 29 publications

References 5 publications

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

Roadblocks to Low Temperature District Heating

Double Loop Network for Combined Heating and Cooling in Low Heat Density Areas

Challenges and Barriers by Transition Towards 4th Generation District Heating System: A Strategy to Establish a Pricing Mechanism

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Product

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About

Challenges and Barriers by Transition Towards 4^th Generation District Heating System: A Strategy to Establish a Pricing Mechanism