How does district heating work? Explained in a simple and understandable way

This is how district heating works

District heating actually works very simply. It uses the waste heat from industrial plants such as power plants or waste incineration plants.
The heat generated by the combustion first heats water. What is burned is not important. A temperature of at least 210 degrees only has to be reached.
The hot water finally transports the heat into the apartment via insulated pipes and heats it. The water can either flow through the pipes in liquid form at high pressure or as steam.
In order for a house or apartment to be heated with district heating, the hot water must first be fed into the hot water circuit of the consumer and his heating system at the correct temperature. A compact station is interposed for this.
It is important that the temperature of the does not fall below 60 degrees. Otherwise there is a risk of contamination by Salmonella.
By the way, we explain in detail how a heating works in another article.

If you use district heating for your house or apartment, you are heating in an environmentally friendly way.
It is not only the environment that benefits, you too. Since this type of heating does not produce any exhaust gases, you do not need any exhaust gas routing and therefore no chimney sweep. That saves hard cash.
Oil or gas heaters work with combustion and therefore take up a lot of space. This is not the case with district heating. There are also no maintenance costs.
However, you are very dependent on the supplier of district heating. Since there are not so many providers, the selection is limited and the lack of competition is reflected in the offers. Saving costs by changing suppliers is not as easy as with gas or oil.
If you are still undecided which type of heating is the right one for you, another article on this topic may help. We compare district heating and gas and ask what is cheaper and better.

The next post will deal with whether a night reduction makes sense or not.