Solution
Heat networks
Shared pipes that carry heat from one low-carbon source to many buildings.
The source might be large heat pumps, waste heat from industry or deep geothermal heat.
A heat network for a town centre
Connecting public buildings and homes to shared low-carbon heat through underground pipes.
Context
Where buildings sit close together, one shared heat source can replace many individual boilers.
What the work involves.
Step 0101
Map
Map heat demand, building ages and the streets that pipes could follow.
Step 0202
Source
Choose a low-carbon source, such as large heat pumps or waste heat.
Step 0303
Connect
Lay pipes in phases, connecting anchor buildings first and homes after.
Considerations
What it has to weigh up.
- 01
Disruption from street works.
- 02
Fair pricing for connected households.
- 03
Keeping heat losses in the pipes low.
At a glance
- Systems
- Buildings, Energy
- Solutions
- Heat networks, Air-source heat pumps
- Steps
- Map, Source, Connect
- Year
- 2025
How projects are sourced and reviewed is set out in our methodology.
Solutions and systems
What it connects.
Solution
Air-source heat pumps
Moving heat from outside air into a building using electricity, instead of burning fuel.
Many models can also run in reverse, cooling the building in warmer months.
System
Buildings
The homes, offices and public buildings we heat, cool and build, and the materials they are made from.
Construction, heating, cooling and efficiency
System
Energy
How power is generated, moved and stored, and how grids adapt as more of the economy runs on electricity.
Electricity, renewables, grids and storage
Your questions, answered.
Quick answers about the platform and its content.
The context, the work step by step, what it has to weigh up, and the solutions and systems it connects.
To show how approaches come together in practice across different systems, from restoring land to electrifying transport.
Every project links to the solutions it puts to use and the systems it touches, each with its own page.
Yes. Tell us about it through the contact page, and we can look at documenting it with its evidence.
