<story><title>Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland</title><url>https://www.energy-storage.news/worlds-first-large-scale-sand-battery-goes-online-in-finland/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavon</author><text>As an American it completely breaks my expectations that district heating not only works can be more efficient that decentralized heating. The amount of heat lost just moving water from the water heater on one side of the house to the shower on the other is ridiculously high in houses here. The idea that you can insulate well enough to efficiently move heat across a city is amazing to me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gamegoblin</author><text>Many American universities use district heating for the whole campus.&lt;p&gt;Also, as made famous by the many steam vents in NYC movie shots: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;New_York_City_steam_system&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;New_York_City_steam_system&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;p&gt;More info: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;District_heating#United_States&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;District_heating#United_States&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland</title><url>https://www.energy-storage.news/worlds-first-large-scale-sand-battery-goes-online-in-finland/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>pavon</author><text>As an American it completely breaks my expectations that district heating not only works can be more efficient that decentralized heating. The amount of heat lost just moving water from the water heater on one side of the house to the shower on the other is ridiculously high in houses here. The idea that you can insulate well enough to efficiently move heat across a city is amazing to me.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>konschubert</author><text>As a German living in a city with mandatory district heating... the end result is to be that people seem pay more for heating than they would with a decentralised system.&lt;p&gt;I think that&amp;#x27;s mostly due to the high upkeep costs of the system, though, the transmission loss is quite manageable, I think.
Of course there are arguments to be made that when accounting for the cost of installing a heating system, and the space it takes, the premium paid for district heating is not that high.&lt;p&gt;But still... if district heating is so smart, why ain&amp;#x27;t it cheaper?&lt;p&gt;What&amp;#x27;s nice about it, and maybe hard to quantify, is how this limits air pollution in the city. However, people are still allowed wood burning ovens... which they are now all turning to since the district heat is getting really, really expensive..</text></comment>