district heating
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CG: n

CT: Boilers to burn woodfuels such as wood chips and pellets tends to be physically larger and more expensive than equivalent gas or oil boilers. This is partly as a result of the physical requirements for a high temperature combustion environment and transporting the solid fuel. As boilers get larger however the disparity with gas and oil boilers becomes comparatively smaller, and so woodfuel becomes more economically attractive, especially for installations of the scale of a few hundred kW. District heating makes use of these cost advantages, as well as the administrative benefits of using a single boiler installation to provide heat to a number of buildings. These might be a number of individual houses, blocks of social housing, local council offices, a school, etc.

S: BEC – http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=77,97356&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL (last access: 16 December 2014).

N: 1. district (n): 1610s, “territory under the jurisdiction of a lord or officer,” from French district (16c.), from Medieval Latin districtus “restraining of offenders, jurisdiction,” then under the feudal system “area of jurisdiction,” noun use of past participle of Latin distringere “hinder, detain”. Used vaguely of “any tract of land” from 1712. District attorney attested by 1789, American English.
heating (n): from heat (n), Old English hætu, hæto “heat, warmth; fervor ardor,” from Proto-Germanic haita– “heat” (cognates: Old Saxon hittia, Old Norse hiti, Old Frisian hete, German hitze “heat,” Gothic heito “fever”), from PIE *kaid-, from root kai– “heat.” The same root is the source of Old English hat “hot” and hæða “hot weather”. Heat wave “period of excessive hot weather” first attested 1890; earlier in reference to solar cycles.
2. District heating is a separate energy system that forms a natural part of the energy supply for towns and cities and densely populated areas. District heating based on renewable energy sources has a positive environmental effect.
3. District heating is much more common in some European countries than in the UK. In Denmark for instance district heating provides around 60% of heating. However there are now a number of successful district heating schemes in the UK, both using fossil fuels and biomass.
4. District heating can be provided using the co-generated heat from electrical power generation in a Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installation. This can increase the overall efficiency of power generation by a factor of three or more.

S: 1. OED – http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=heat&searchmode=none (last access: 16 December 2014). 2. STATKRAFT – http://www.statkraft.com/energy-sources/district-heating/ (last access: 16 December 2014). 3 & 4. BEC – http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=77,97356&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL (last access: 16 December 2014).

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CR: air conditioning, energy, [thermal energy].