Selected cost considerations for geothermal district heating in existing single-family residential areas
- Geo-Heat Center, Klamath Falls, OR (United States)
District heating in existing single-family residential areas has long been considered to be uneconomical due to the low heating load density. In comparison to the typical downtown business districts load density is low; however, there are some characteristics of residential areas which could serve to enhance the economics of district heating. Among these are: (1) wide variety of heating fuels (and costs) which can result in a range of conventional heating costs of 3 or more to 1 for the same heating load density, (2) availability of unpaved areas for installation of distribution system, (3) fewer utilities in the pipeline corridor, (4) less traffic control requirements during construction, (5) potential for the use of uninsulated piping, and (6) older, poorly insulated structures with high energy use. In addition to these considerations, the Geo-Heat Center has recently completed work which identified 271 western US population centers which are collocated with geothermal resources of greater than 50{degrees}C. In many of these sites, due to the absence of industrial facilities, district heating would be the most useful application of the resource. With these factors in mind, this report explores some of the issues related costs involved in the installation of geothermal district heating (GDH) in existing single-family residential areas. Using an actual residential area as an example, individual sections of the report examine: (1) distribution piping costs and potential savings areas, (2) central plant vs. individual-home heat exchangers, (3) customer branch lines costs, and (4) current conventional heating costs vs. district system debt service revenue requirements.
- OSTI ID:
- 508610
- Journal Information:
- Geo-Heat Center Quarterly Bulletin, Vol. 17, Issue 3; Other Information: PBD: Aug 1996
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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