District heating/cogeneration application studies for the Minneapolis-St. Paul area: methods and cost estimates for converting existing buildings to hot-water district heating

Technical Report · Sat Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5624740

Sundberg, R E; Nyman, H O

This report presents the results of a study of the costs and techniques required to convert existing buildings in Minneapolis and St. Paul to use 150/sup 0/C (300/sup 0/F) hot-water district heating. The buildings and heating systems in the high-density areas in both downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul were surveyed, and a computer data base was assembled. A total of 280 buildings were surveyed, representing a peak thermal load of about 400 MW. The return-water temperature was selected for minimum cost and maximum power yield at the cogeneration plant. The cost of converting heating systems in existing buildings to district heating was determined by two separate approaches: theoretical cost studies of heating systems and engineering cost studies of heating systems in existing buildings. In the first approach, cost estimates were generated by designing conversion systems for a range of building sizes for each of the major types of heating systems. In the second approach, engineering cost studies were done for five buildings that were representative of the buildings in the study area. The heating-system conversions of the five buildings were designed for three return-water temperatures to determine the effect on conversion costs of varying the water flow rate and the difference between the supply-water temperature and return-water temperature. The conversion costs for the three return-water temperatures can be used to estimate the optimum return-water temperature. Conversion costs were determined from detailed bids submitted by a heating, ventilating, and air conditioning contractor.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-26
• OSTI ID: 5624740
• Report Number(s): ORNL/TM-6830/P4
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
290800 -- Energy Planning & Policy-- Heat Utilization-- (1980-)
32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATION
320100 -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Buildings
320603* -- Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization-- Municipalities & Community Systems-- Public Utilities-- (1980-)
BUILDINGS
CO-GENERATION
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CONVERSION
COST
DATA
DATA FORMS
DEUS
DISTRICT HEATING
EVALUATED DATA
GRAPHS
GREAT LAKES REGION
HEATING
HOT WATER
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
INFORMATION
MINNESOTA
NORTH AMERICA
NUMERICAL DATA
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
POWER GENERATION
RETROFITTING
SIMULATION
STEAM GENERATION
TABLES
THEORETICAL DATA
USA
WATER