The Size Effect for District Space Heating in Boise, Idaho
- Key words
- Direct use; Economics; Piping; Utilization factor; Boise; Idaho; USA
- Location
- Boise, Idaho
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1977
- Session
- Direct use; District heating/cooling; Space heating/cooling;
- Language
- English
Abstract
Heating portions of the city of Boise with geothermal water seems attractive, because the 170°F resource was confirmed with drilling in the summer of 1976 to be within 1-1/2 miles of the downtown business district. However, the capital cost of installing pipelines to transport the hot water under the city streets is so large a capital investment that nearly full capacity utilization is necessary to recover the investment. Furthermore, enhancing the annual utilization factor on the pipelines to the maximum is necessary in the moderate temperate climate. A doubling of the utilization factor is possible by using fossil fuel to peak the system on the few cold days. Design of the geothermal system so fossil must peak for about 6% of the heating needs during the season appears to give the optimum return on investment.
Copyright 1977, Geothermal Resources Council. Readers who download papers from this site should honour the copyright of the original authors, and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.