District Heating

A district heating network operated from a biomass installation is a highly effective means of heating a group of buildings or even whole parts of a town.

A district heat network means the distribution of thermal energy in the form of steam, hot water or chilled liquids from a central source of production through a network to multiple buildings or sites for the use of space heating or process heating, cooling or hot water.

The generally accepted minimum criteria for an installation to be considered a district heat network are 2 buildings being supplied with heat and at least 1 final customer.

Once heat has been created in a plant room, it must be delivered to the points of use and there will be some losses in transmitting the heat from the plant room to the heat demand.  Read more about district heat network efficiencies.

District heating pipes can be made in fixed lengths of steel, or supplied in longer rolls of flexible pre-insulated pipes. Typically steel pipes are used in higher temperature situations and flexible pre-insulated pipes are used in lower temperature situations.

Further information:

Heat Trust is leading customer protection for the district heating sector.

Produced by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) and the Association for Decentralised Energy (ADE) to assist in achieving that aim by raising standards right across the supply chain by providing a set of design, installation and commissioning standards.

If you are supplying and charging for heat, or planning to, you need to understand these requirements.