Cold thermal networks are also referred to as anergy networks and are characterized by being operated at ambient temperature.
What are cold thermal networks?
Cold thermal networks are operated at network temperatures below 40 °C. More precisely, cold thermal networks no longer supply buildings with directly usable heat, but with anergy, which is raised to a usable temperature level by heat pumps inside the buildings. For this reason, cold thermal networks are also referred to as anergy networks.
What is special about cold thermal networks?
Cold thermal networks can supply buildings with both heat and cooling. This is not possible with conventional district heating networks. In summer, the network temperatures are kept below the temperature level required to cool the buildings. Cooling can therefore be provided via heat exchangers, and the resulting waste heat can be fed into the network. This results in a bidirectional exchange of energy with the network. The advantage of providing heat and cooling with a single network is that buildings with a cooling demand can help supply other buildings with a heat demand (balancing of heating and cooling demands). Waste heat is thus reused directly within the district and does not have to be rejected to the environment.