Local heating
If a district heating system is not available in your district, you presumably have your own heating system in your house. An alternative to district heating would be to build a small district heating plant together with your neighbours, which is known as local heating or joint heating.
The illustration shows a local heating system consisting of a boiler and a system of pipes that serves four single-family houses. Illustration: Bo Reinerdahl
The differences compared to conventional district heating are not very large. The local heating system also includes a network of pipes and a common boiler plant that delivers heat through the pipework to the single-family houses.
Two or more single-family houses
A local heating plant involves a number of home owners getting together and replacing their individual heating systems with a jointly owned heating plant. Depending on the conditions, a local heating plant may be appropriate for anything from two single-family houses to entire districts with hundreds of houses, or even more.
Common in the 1960s and 1970s
When single-family houses or terraced houses were built in the 1960s and 1970s, it was usual for these to be supplied with heat from a local heating plant. New fuels and new technology for combustion, laying of pipes, etc. continue to make local heating systems of interest to existing single-family houses.
