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Ask HN: Why not have a heating unit shared by many houses?

4 points by amichail ↗ HN
Such a unit could be owned and maintained by the city.

Wouldn't this be safer than expecting the owners of a house to maintain one?

Similarly, you could have an air conditioning unit shared by many houses and maintained by the city.

20 comments

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HarryHirsch
You mean district heating and district cooling? That has been invented but requires a certain density.
humblefactory
Right. And with the current scale of infrastructure that's used, financing models, market incentives, and cost of fuel, the current density required mostly only occurs in the downtown core of cities, or in industrial parks near a power station (where the waste heat from power generation can be used to heat industrial processes like refining petroleum or cook paper pulp - sometimes this is called "co-generation"). But that's not to say it's a bad idea! You would just need to move the needle on any of those things in the list - for example, making denser homes around a lower cost heat source like a ground sources heat pump powered by solar.
coretx
No. Two houses connected to each other can already save money and energy by means of sharing one larger/better installation instead of two "small" ones.
willcipriano
Can they? Aren't most modern heaters (oil, gas) close to 100% efficient? If you get an extra percent or two out of a larger system I'd expect that to be lost in transmission between the heater shed and the house.
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bartmika
I think this is called "district heating" [0]? And such a thing is practised around the world.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating

8bitsrule
This will undoubtedly become more commonplace now that 'waste heat' is no longer thought of as a mere inconvenience. I've seen large in-city facilities that dump 'waste heat' through windows that open into the outdoor air in wintertime, right across the street from a row of multi-story apartment buildings.

For example, the article cited mentions that: "ADE estimates that 54 percent of energy used to produce electricity is being wasted via conventional power production, which relates to £9.5 billion ($US12.5 billion) per year." Siting housing next to power plants (and other plants with 'waste heat') is likely worth considering!

Matthias247
Yes. I had it in my previous home in germany.
kylecordes
I think this was more common many years ago, when it was difficult to make a reasonably reliable and efficient heating/cooling system, particularly the small scale.

Modern HVAC systems can be very efficient, use minimal materials, and require only electricity lines run between homes, for a considerably lower overall infrastructure cost and good efficiency compared to a district system with very extensive plumbing.

brtkdotse
If you have housing near a heat producing industry, it’s wasteful to not use the heat that’s getting cooled out anyway.
solardev
I lived in Chicago recently and it was pretty common there, with fat heat pipes running through several apartments channeling heat from some central distribution system.
timonoko
Most Nordic cities have central heating plants for millions of homes. This water is recycled, colored bright green and have non-corrosive additives.

Helsinki has also central cooling system utilizing near-by Baltic sea. There is also yearly discussion about using the heating radiators for cooling. Unfortunately system is not designed for that and condensation will damage buildings.

dendrite9
90% of houses in Linkoping get heating from the power utility. https://www.tekniskaverken.se/about-tekniska-verken/products...

I think I posted a comment here about a family friend who had two heating circuits, one for the house and one for a pool which was only used/heated in the summers.

2rsf
So is the Stockholm area, they also "buy" excess heat from data centers and other places and offer district cooling as well
tacostakohashi
This is a great idea; so much so that steam has been available as a utility in NYC since 1882!
rasz
Whats next? Not building houses out of cardboard?
brtkdotse
It’s not uncommon to see multiple duplexes share a single geothermal heat pump is Sweden.