District heating for housing and premises

District heating takes care of itself year after year, regardless of the season or weather. The heat is always there and the hot water doesn’t run out. The heat distribution centre is largely maintenance-free, and a residential district heating central often has a lifespan of more than 40 years. In small houses, the heat exchanger does not take up much more space than a bathroom cabinet and you don’t need to service or refill fuel. District heating takes care of itself, quite simply.

We at Adven are with you during the installation of your district heating and ensure that you get a functioning heating system with us as a heat supplier. After installation, the heat distribution center is very easy to operate and maintain.

In many of Adven’s district heating locations, we work closely with local industrial companies. These are collaborations where we recycle waste heat to heat homes and premises. Using industrial waste heat that would otherwise have been wasted means that we get less emissions and save fuel.

As an example, in Sweden, 8 percent of district heating comes from waste heat use, but in Adven Sweden the figure is higher than 15 percent.

Examples of how we make use of resources:

In Hanko, Finland, Adven cools the equipment of the nearby industry’s, IFF Group’s plant, and utilizes the waste heat generated in the process in Hanko’s district heating network. Currently, seven per cent of the district heating is covered by waste heat. The rest of the production is covered by Finnish wood chips, which means that the district heating production in Hanko is entirely free of CO2 emissions.

In Grums, Sweden, the city is heated to 90 percent by waste heat from the nearby saw mill, and in Timrå, large parts of the urban area are supplied with heat from the local paper mill.

In Nynäshamn, Sweden the district heating system and the partnership with the Nynas refinery have meant that the entire city’s CO2 emissions have been reduced by more than 100,000 tonnes per year. This is roughly equivalent to the emissions of a modern car (127 g CO2/km) driving 14,000 laps around the world.

By extracting heat from flue gases, we have been able to save energy equivalent to 108 million kWh per year that would have gone up in smoke. This is enough to heat about 5,500 villas.

When society has faced new challenges with power shortages, there are also heating solutions that do not burden the electricity grid. By using district heating for heating your property instead of electricity, district heating releases electricity for things that need it better. For example, to switch the transport sector from fossil fuels to electricity, to new data centers or for charging stations for electric vehicles at offices and homes.

District heating provides major environmental benefits thanks to a high proportion of renewable and recycled fuels such as the recovery of waste heat. This, together with a high level of service and delivery, makes district heating from Adven very affordable.

We cannot guarantee that district heating is always the cheapest heating alternative, just as other heating options cannot guarantee that electricity and oil prices are constant. Over time, however, it has been shown that the price development of district heating has been more stable than other alternatives. Thus, overall, it has proven to be both a cost-effective and convenient heating method for properties.

District heating works quietly, it is almost boring. It works year after year – whether the sun is shining or overcast, whether it is windless or windy. The heat is always there and the hot water never runs out. Those who have district heating rarely have to worry about colder days. The delivery is reliable and in the event of interruptions, backup facilities are usually connected before you notice any difference. Should an unplanned outage nevertheless occur, we will work as hard as we can to make sure you have your heat back.

District heating plays an important role in the energy system and is the most important reason why, for example, Sweden has succeeded in reducing its carbon dioxide emissions. Through the industry’s transition to renewable fuels, more efficient energy use, combined heat and power, recovery of waste heat and heat from waste incineration, Sweden’s total emissions have decreased by one fifth in two decades.

Greenhouse gas emissions from electricity and district heating production account for only about 8 percent of Sweden’s total emissions, which corresponds to 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents. Compared with 1990, the sector’s emissions have decreased by 39%. The decrease is due to the fact that a large part of fossil fuels and energy peat has been replaced with bio fuels, but also waste fuels.

District heating changes the heating of cities. From every household having its own heating solution to a plant heating many, it has of course a positive impact on the environment. Having a controlled process in a heating plant or combined heat and power plant means more efficient combustion and efficient flue gas cleaning.

At Adven, we are constantly working to reduce our climate footprint and today our Group district heating operations are based on renewable and recycled energy to more than 80 percent. However, we are not stopping there, we are now working to increase that figure!