District heating & heat networks

What is district heating?

Currently in the UK the most popular heating system is an individual gas boiler, however this is not the most efficient heating method.  

District Heating is the concept of one large energy centre to provide the heat demand for a number of properties, residential, commercial or multi occupancy.

The Energy Centre can use a variety of heat sources such as fossil fuels (e.g. gas CHP), Energy from Waste, industrial waste heat or renewable energy sources such as heat pumps, biomass or anaerobic digestion to heat the water.

The hot water travels through an underground insulated pipe network to a heat interface unit (HIU) located in each building. This provides heating and hot water to each building which allows individual temperature control to each building.  The cold water then returns back to the energy centre to be heated and circulated again.