Virtual district heating, small projects come in from the cold. Feasibility Study

Boxergy是可再生能源技术的安装商，包括热泵、太阳能光伏、电池和储热。我们想要研究一个与区域供热（DH）相关的问题的解决方案，随着住房变得更加节能，这个问题将变得至关重要。我们的解决方案建立在与ETP、电网示范中心（斯特拉斯克莱德大学）和爱丁堡大学工程学院完成的联合项目的基础上。区域供热是一种非常有效和高效的为屋苑供暖的方式。然而，产生热量所需的设备和分配热量的基础设施是专门的，并且是对现有基础设施的补充。这意味着它的建设需要大量的前期成本，而收回这些成本需要很长的回收期。然而，随着保温标准的提高，客户的供暖需求减少了。这意味着供热网络的投资回收期将进一步延长到未来，或者被认为具有商业可行性的地产的最小规模将变得更大。目前，少于130户家庭的开发项目被认为不适用于传统的热网。将于2025年生效的新标准将进一步减少可行开发项目的数量。这意味着这些开发项目以及现有开发项目的低碳选择将会减少，实现净零排放的主要障碍将会增加。Boxergy的目的是开发一种新型的网络，为小型住宅带来区域供热的好处。我们已经生产了一个系统，通过我们自己的控制器连接热泵、储热装置、电池和太阳能电池板。该控制器将数据上传到我们的云服务器，以便我们的客户可以监控他们的能源使用情况。我们想研究一下将这个系统扩展到为所有客户自动管理能源采购策略的可行性。通过协调能源购买，我们可以为我们的客户和为他们提供能源的公司提供利益。这样一来，我们就可以生产出虚拟区域供热系统（VDH），它不需要新的基础设施，产生热量的效率非常高，并以一种显著降低客户成本的方式将采购与需求脱钩。整个电网的存储和发电的巨大规模也可以减少电网在高峰时段的压力，并允许我们为能源分配公司提供额外的服务。

Boxergy is an installer of renewable technologies including heat pumps, solar PV, electrical batteries, and thermal storage. We want to investigate a solution to a problem related to District Heating (DH) that will become critical as housing stock becomes more energy efficient. Our solution builds on completed joint projects with ETP and the Power Network Demonstration Centre (Strathclyde University), and Edinburgh University School of Engineering.District Heating can prove a highly effective and efficient way of heating housing estates. However, the equipment needed to generate the heat, and the infrastructure to distribute it, is specialised, and additive to existing infrastructure. This means there are significant up-front costs associated with its construction and long pay-back periods needed to recover these costs.As insulation standards improve, however, customer heating needs reduce. This means either payback periods for the heat networks stretch further into the future, or the minimum size of an estate that is considered commercially viable becomes larger. Currently, developments less than about 130 homes are not considered viable for conventional heat networks. New standards due to take effect in 2025 will reduce the number of viable developments further. This means the low carbon options open to these developments, and existing developments, is reduced and a major obstacle to net zero grows.Boxergy's intention is to develop a new kind of network that brings district heating benefits to smaller scale estates. We already produce a system that connects heat pumps, thermal storage, electric batteries and solar panels through our own controller. This controller uploads data to our cloud servers so that our customers can monitor their energy use. We would like to investigate the feasibility of extending this system to automatically manage an energy purchasing strategy for all our customers. By co-ordinating the energy purchase we can provide benefits to our customers and to the energy companies that supply them. In doing this we would have produced virtual district heating (VDH) that needs no new infrastructure, generates heat extremely efficiently, and decouples purchasing from demand in a way that significantly reduces costs for our customers. The substantial size of the whole network's storage and energy generation could also reduce pressure on the grid at peak times and allow us to offer additional services to the energy distribution companies.