  Observed thermal emission from accreting neutron stars (NSs) in a quiescent
state is believed to be powered by nonequilibrium nuclear reactions that heat
the stellar crust (deep crustal heating paradigm). We derive a simple universal
formula for the heating efficiency, assuming that an NS has a fully accreted
crust. We further show that, within the recently proposed thermodynamically
consistent approach to the accreted crust, the heat release can be parametrized
by the only one parameter -- the pressure $P_{\rm oi}$ at the outer-inner crust
interface (as we argue, this pressure should not necessarily coincide with the
neutron-drip pressure). We discuss possible values of $P_{\rm oi}$ for a
selection of nuclear models that account for shell effects, and determine the
net heat release and its distribution in the crust as a function of $P_{\rm
oi}$. We conclude that the heat release should be reduced by a factor of few in
comparison to previous works.
