Building a home

[Asher]

Again, these are all downtown core only or for campuses. I've already addressed those. None of these technologies are at all close to being viable for houses. That's what this thread is about. Houses.

I am not building a downtown skyscraper.

[Asher]

From your link, BlackCat:

A Soviet-era approach of using very large central stations to heat large districts of a big city or entire small cities is fading away as due to inefficiency, much heat is lost in the piping network because of leakages and lack of proper thermal insulation.[20]

This is exactly what I'm talking about. It makes no sense at all for houses or large areas.

[BlackCat]

Ehrm, danish cities doesn't have skyscrapers but plenty of houses, and most of those use it.

[BlackCat]

From your link, BlackCat:

A Soviet-era approach of using very large central stations to heat large districts of a big city or entire small cities is fading away as due to inefficiency, much heat is lost in the piping network because of leakages and lack of proper thermal insulation.[20]

This is exactly what I'm talking about. It makes no sense at all for houses or large areas.

Russian technology and maintenance

[Asher]

Ehrm, danish cities doesn't have skyscrapers but plenty of houses, and most of those use it.

And it's just as inefficient there as every other country who has tried that. The idea of district heating for residential units seems to be a Soviet thing and Nordic thing. It just doesn't make any sense.

In countries with cheap and readily available natural gas it makes even less sense.

[Nikolai]

I've been following your house building on G+ Asher, it's a nice home you're getting. What's the size again? 600k canadian dollars should be about the price for 140 square meters around my place of living. Prices vary a lot though, ofc.

[Asher]

In Denmark, district heating covers more than 60% of space heating and water heating.[10] In 2007, 80.5% of this heat was produced on combined heat and power plants. Heat recovered from waste incineration accounted for 20.4% of the total Danish district heat production.[11] Most major cities in Denmark have big district heating networks including transmission networks operation with up to 125°C and 25 bar pressure and distribution networks operating with up to 95°C and between 6 and 10 bar pressure. The largest district heating system in Denmark is in the Copenhagen area operated by CTR I/S and VEKS I/S. In central Copenhagen, the CTR network serves 275,000 households (90-95% of the area's population) through one network of 54-kilometer double district heating distribution pipes providing a peak capacity of 663 MW.[12] The consumer price of heat from CTR is approximately €49 per MWh plus taxes (2009).

In Alberta, with our decentralized system, this price is €36 per MWh.

Efficiency

[Asher]

I've been following your house building on G+ Asher, it's a nice home you're getting. What's the size again? 600k canadian dollars should be about the price for 140 square meters around my place of living. Prices vary a lot though, ofc.

It's 2187 square feet (203 sq meters) in the main floor & upper floor. There's an additional 700 sq feet of (currently) undeveloped basement, but it's a walkout so when it's developed it'll seem just like every other floor of the house. So about 2887 sq feet (268 sq meters) total.

[BlackCat]

In Alberta, with our decentralized system, this price is €36 per MWh.

Efficiency

Nah, that's more a sign of cheap oil/gas/coal in canuckistan

[Nikolai]

It's 2187 square feet (203 sq meters) in the main floor & upper floor. There's an additional 700 sq feet of (currently) undeveloped basement, but it's a walkout so when it's developed it'll seem just like every other floor of the house. So about 2887 sq feet (268 sq meters) total.

Aha. You got a great price then. Or is houses that cheap in Canada?

[Asher]

Nah, that's more a sign of cheap oil/gas/coal in canuckistan

Natural gas price in Denmark: € 0.1130 per kWh.
Alberta: € 0.0584 per kWh

[Asher]

Aha. You got a great price then. Or is houses that cheap in Canada?

It's highly dependent on the region. You'd pay 3x as much to get the same house in Vancouver.

[Hauldren Collider]

How so? There must be a power plant nearby. They always produce lots of waste heat. You can use this heat to heat up water and deliver it via insulated pipes to houses. This might be a tad inefficient for suburbs, but this must be the way it is done in cities in all civilized countries.

I have never heard of this happening anywhere.

[onodera]

I have never heard of this happening anywhere.

You should visit New York, then.

[MikeH]

I've not heard of any country doing that. The amount of heat lost would be enormous, insulated or not. Particularly in the winter.

Er. It's really common.