District heating requires careful engineeringTo best utilize the full advantages of district heating, all parts of the system -- from the heat generating plant down to the radiators in homes -- have to be engineered carefully to function well together.

Designing the optimal system requires extensive expertise and experience. You will find both in SweHeat & Cooling member companies, which have been involved in many projects at home and in other countries. In no other organisation will you find better partners for realising a district heating system that will serve you and your customers for decades to come

Supervision and Control
Automation systems for district heating involve much more than controlling pumps and valves in the distribution network. Today's computerised supervision and control systems integrate heat generation and distribution to ensure the most economical energy supply at all times, whatever the demand and supply situation.

Every substation normally has its own local controller for heating and tap water. This control unit can also be connected in a network and supervised by a central station.

Basic Swedish design
Swedish district heating systems use mainly water to transport heat to customers. Steam is used only in special cases to supply energy to local industries, among other customers. Tradition Swedish systems are based on a closed loop, in which water is returned to the heating plant after passing through a heat exchanger at the customers' end.

The design temperature in the supply pipe is kept as low as possible, commonly below 100C, to reduce transmission losses and increase efficiency and to facilitate the use of low temperature heat sources.

Energy conservation
Saving energy is one important reason for investing in district heating. Based on the experience SweHeat & Cooling companies have gained from many international projects, energy consumption can be reduced considerably also in existing systems.

Energy conservation starts with simple measures that can save much energy, such as eliminating draughts, insulting roofs, hydronic balancing of the heating system and installing modern control and supervisory systems in the buildings.

In international projects, SweHeat & Cooling companies have also introduced modern operational and maintenance programmes in district heating systems to optimise network efficiency and economy.

Several heat sources for the best energy mix
Heat for district heating networks is normally supplied from more than one source to ensure a safe supply.
With a number of heat sources, it is also easier to meet varying load demands in the network. In addition, the systems often use a mixture of different primary fuels and available waste heat sources. The operator can then optimize the system for the most economical energy mix, at any given heat load, in any price situation.