Benefits of District Heating
WHY SHOULD YOU USE DISTRICT HEATING?
LOWER CAPITAL COSTS. The principal and interest payments, property taxes, and insurance costs associated with new boiler and chiller installations are all eliminated with district heating and cooling, the only initial costs in most buildings opting for district heating service are for a heat exchanger and related piping and valves.
LOWER ENERGY COSTS. With district thermal energy, a building purchases annually the energy it needs to meet its requirements. There is no ongoing capital expenses to upgrade, rebuild, or maintain excess capacity. In-building boilers typically carry excess capacity to meet occasional peak demand, which leads to inefficient partial boiler loading during most of the year. This results in poor seasonal efficiency. By contrast, central boilers are operated to achieve the highest seasonal efficiency possible.
LOWER OPERATING AND MAINTENANCE COSTS. With district energy a building has less need for highly trained on-site maintenance and operating personnel and costly annual maintenance contracts. Boiler operating expenses (i.e. electricity, water treatment chemicals, insurance, and make-up water are all eliminated.
STABLE COMPETITIVE ENERGY RATES. District heating systems can convert to the least costly and most available fuel, and thus achieve economics of scale with volume purchasing. Systems are able to take advantage of alternate fuels where they are available. They can also utilize waste heat from electrical generation plants, which is not practical with in-building systems due to an imbalance of electrical and thermal loads. Since 1983 we have co generated 125 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.
MORE REVENUE-GENERATING SPACE. Eliminations of production systems and their auxiliaries within a building free up valuable floor space for income producing purposes and increases architectural flexibility. The use of district heating reduces vibration and noise problems and eliminates the need for stacks going up through a building.
RELIABLE HEATING SERVICE. Central utility systems typically are better maintained and operated than in-building systems. They are manned 24 hours a day by highly qualified operators. Are on strict maintenance schedule, and can be switched to a reserve fuel source as needed. Backup capacity and backup energy plant redundancy, is always available, without the need for in building reserve boilers.
LOWER COSTS THROUGH EXPANSION. As more customers join each district heating system the fixed capital and operating cost are spread over a larger base and individual energy bills are reduced or stabilized.
A CLEANER ENVIRONMENT. Central energy service from a thermal plant reduces the number of smokestacks throughout a city and protects air quality by rigid control of emissions. District heating eliminates problems and concerns associated with fuel availability and storage as well as other operating and maintenance responsibilities. Many central heating plants have oil or gas pipelines to facilitate volume fuel delivery. Our district heating plant has state of the art pollution control and monitoring systems. Burning wood rather than oil prevented the emissions of more than 6,000 tons of sulfur oxides to the atmosphere.
SUPPORTING THE LOCAL ECONOMY. Since the conversion to wood fuel, Concord Steam has burned more than 800,000 tons of woodchips, replacing 36 million gallons of imported oil and sending $12 million back to the local forest industry rather than overseas. We employ 15 people, and each year pay $125,000 in city taxes, $187,000 in city water and sewer fees. Over 90% of our maintenance and repair materials are bought from local merchants generating over $100,000 annually back to the local economy.
We have heated Concord safely, cleanly, reliably, and cost effectively with steam for more than 70 years, and look forward to doing so for another half century.
Our thermal energy specialists include highly qualified customer service personnel, engineers, operations managers, full service maintenance department and energy management analysts. And we're committed to providing you top-notch service in support of our stable-priced, high-quality product.
* OUR CENTRAL POWER PLANT IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING LOWER-PRICED STEAM THAN FACILITIES THAT HAVE THEIR OWN BOILERS.
* WE'VE DIVERSIFIED OUR FUEL SUPPLIES TO ENSURE THE LOWEST POSSIBLE ENERGY COSTS.
* WE'VE UPGRADED OUR SYSTEM EFFICIENCY BY INCREASING OUR SERVICE RELIABILITY.
By specifying steam for new construction or building rehabilitation, you eliminate boiler and installation expenses, ongoing maintenance charges and operating labor costs.
To learn more about the advantages of steam, please call us at Concord Steam Corporation, where providing today's thermal energy needs and conserving tomorrow's resources is our business. We can be reached at 603-224-1461.