Space Heating  »  District heating

The energy balance of district heating in comparison to individual heating systems is influenced by

• The physical quality of the district heating network
• The quality of the heat generation
• The heat losses of the distribution system. These are reflected in the density of the heat deliv-ery (kilowatt-hour per meter road), the insulation quality and the temperature of the distribution network

The figures below show the wide variety of the primary energy balances. The following systems are compared:

Steam network is classified as to have 30% heat losses and water network as to have 15% heat losses of the heat input to the district heating system. The amount of energy savings and CO₂ emissions reductions of a district heating scheme with a CHP plant will also depend on the reference power generator. The figures below show the wide variety of the primary energy balances with coal power plants and gas power plants as reference.

The selection of the appropriate comparison, i.e., reference coal vs reference gas depends on the main power generation source of a given country or more precisely on the power generation source which will be usually displaced by the operation of the CHP. For example, space heating CHP-plants in Germany displace primarily the coal power generation. When coal power plant is taken as reference, the CHP on base of combined cycle (CC) in combination with efficient district heating leads to a particular high primary energy savings. When the reference is gas power plant, CHP-technology remains an advantage in comparison to separated gas power and gas heat generation especially if the CHP bases on CC.