buildings, factories and wind mills tied together with red and blue lines. illustration
A complex heat distribution network. Ill. © Maryna Miliushchanka, Fraunhofer IEE, from the book cover of Averfalk H et al, Low-Temperature District Heating Implementation Guidebook. IEA DHC Report, 2021

In our new guidebook on low-temperature district heating implementation, we propose a toolbox.

Our guidebook contains aggregated information about the main economic drivers for low-temperature district heating. It shows how to obtain lower temperatures in heating systems inside existing and new buildings, as well as in existing and new heat distribution networks.

Toolbox to obtain low temperatures

Given customers have a substantial influence on a district heating system’s return temperature, a simple method is described for identifying crucial customers from an operator’s point of view.

In chapter 4, we go deeper into the following measures to obtain low temperatures:

  1. Tracking malfunctioning substations
  2. Identification of unintentional circulation flows
  3. Addressing bottlenecks in network sections
  4. Successful cases of reduced temperatures
  5. Sub-networks
  6. Cascading solutions
  7. Heat pumps to address subsection demands
  8. Increased decentralized supply
  9. Digitalization opportunities
  10. Design criteria for new systems
  11. New innovative supply and distribution concepts

Video from project overview

On Tuesday 7 September 2021, from 4.30 PM to 6:00 PM there was a live event where we presented the book. See video from the special session in the International Energy Agency Technology Collaboration programme:

text on blue illustration on earth. screenshot from video presentation
Click here or the photo to see recording from the special session via Teams.

About the book

This guidebook was written between 2018 and 2021 by seventeen authors that used approximately 15 000 hours of work within the IEA DHC TS2 annex. The content is based on more than 250 literature references and 165 inspiration initiatives to obtain lower temperatures in buildings and heat distribution networks. The author group wrote 40 internal documents about early implementations of low-temperature district heating. Book info by the publisher

Read full book here (PDF)

Author(s): Averfalk, H.; Benakopoulos, T.; Best, I.; Dammel, F.; Engel, C.; Geyer, R.; Gudmundsson, O.; Lygnerud, K.; Nord, N.; Oltmanns, J.; Ponweiser, K.; Schmidt, D.; Schrammel, H.; Skaarup Østergaard, D.; Svendsen, S.; Tunzi, M.; Werner, S.
Involved: Lygnerud, K.; Werner, S.

woman portrait on white background. photo
Natasa Nord

Natasa Nord is Professor at NTNU - Department of Energy and Process Engineering.