[BfloGuy]

How antique and inefficient is it to try to heat a city by piping hot water around, anyhow?

Well, I, for one, am shocked. Don't you know about "district heating"? This is the latest and the greatest idea in energy-efficiency currently sweeping the stylish circles of the northeast.

I kid you not. The theory is that one big old boiler downtown can heat dozens and dozens of buildings so much more efficiently than our nasty old system of a furnace in each. Why, it's the next best thing to eliminating the car and urban sprawl.

Calling Dr. Lomborg, calling Dr. Lomborg.

[texas booster]

I understand that district heating systems have been used forever, starting with geothermal forced water systems. Idaho has used district heating for government buildings, and I think that many universities use it also. We recognize it mostly in eastern apartment buildings where the heat is either "on" or "off".

The Russians built many of their cities on master plans that would use waste heat from manufacturing to heat the rest of the city. The systems were not built with efficiency in mind, and can use a lot of upgrading. Entire cities such as Omsk (couple of million people) use district heating. With the closing of many factories, this source of heat has become very problematic for them.