alt Hacker NewsBlew my mind living in a Berlin apartment, that the heating & hot water was managed centrally for the entire block (not the apartment block, the whole city block). Too used to Anglo cities where everyone does for themselves.
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There are about 17,000 heat networks in the UK: https://energysavingtrust.org.uk/business/consultancy-and-st...
Only about 2% of the total heating used though...
It makes a lot of sense when there is waste heat. But in places where there isn't, having per house or per apartment block heating unit is preferable because you cut on transmission losses and infrastructure cost
New York has central steam heating.
My parents city in eastern Europe just recently switched from burning russian oil to biomass. Even then prices are constantly increasing while converting entire building to heat pump would drop prices by half. However it’s near impossible due to bureaucracy.
Blew my mind in stockholm that they have hot water at all. In my home country we just have electric heaters at the shower tap.
(seriously though, I knew they had hot water, it just never occurred to me how awesome it is to have hot water on the tap)