Conventional vs Non-Conventional
Please Explore our website where you find details of our investigation into district heating solutions. After reading our results you are welcome to download our proceedure in the form of a tool we have created for users to discover!
We found examples of all these systems but no information comparing the systems and evaluating when to use one system instead of another. Read our "Method" section to find out more about how we went about our appraisal
While we assessed these different approaches to District Heating, we managed to come up with a tool for assessing the merits of each system for our readers to enjoy
Heating accounts for around 40% of the UK energy bill. Decarbonising our electricity only solves part of the problem faced by governments wishing to reduce emissions that contribute to climate change. The roadmap for the transport sector seems relatively clear, with investment in electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cells from government and industry. However, the heating sector has no clear or easy route to decarbonisation. Scotland aims for 11% renewable heat by 2020 and seem unlikely to meet that target, even with the Renewable Heat Incentive. We identify three routes to district heating.
There is plenty of information available about each of these systems. However, we could not find any resource that compared the 3 approaches, defining where and when a particular system is better suited over another. This project aims to rectify this by developing a methodology for appraisal of each system in different circumstances. The end result will be a matrix of criteria and circumstance, grading each system between 1 and 10. We then consulted a focus group and industry contacts to weight each criteria and develop a method for the overall average grade of each heating system.
As an extra deliverable for the project, we proceduralised our methods for appraisal into a tool for general consumption. We hope that readers of this website will be able to download this tool and use it to assess district heating options for a project they are working on, or simply to explore the topic of district heating.
We hope you enjoy finding out more about the project by exploring this website!