Conventional vs Non-Conventional
Because all systems are site specific and can differ greatly, the most appropriate way to evaluate the cost of a district heating system does not attempt to quantify all of the costs of components, infrastructure and development; rather it works backwards from the following known values to calculate the maximum possible capital investment into the project:
Inputting these into the following formula:
Where C is the maximum loan possible to break even after the required payback period. Using this method, different systems can be evaluated for the same district; systems with a larger value for C will be more profitable for the project developer.
The following image is an example of these values within the cost calculator within the tool:
Figure 1: Screenshot from the "cost" tab of the tool