ENERGY AND ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY OF DISTRICT STEAM HEATING

by

Marina Collette,
Chris Bailey

Mech 404 Heat Transfer

PROJECT REPORT

Mechanical Engineering
Washington State University Vancouver

04/27/2011
Abstract

(to be performed on conclusion of report).

 Introduction

This report contains an analysis of the relative economic and energy efficiencies of
centralized “district” steam heating and internal building heating, the later represented by the
latest kind of natural gas thermal generation systems available for large corporate buildings. The
report therefore seeks to make clear the relative economic costs of the two alternative sources of
energy generation, as well as their energy efficiency. Both are needed because in the cases of
many companies a small increase in heating costs might be considered acceptable to burnish
“green” credentials, so the more environmentally friendly source in terms of waste heat and
reduced carbon emissions and natural gas burned may be more preferable in some cases to the
cheapest option.
District steam heating must first be introduced. Steam piping through concentrated
industrial centres and major city centres became normal in the Industrial Revolution,
proliferating before the introduction of electricity. The straightforward idea, like early pneumatic
power systems running through similarly concentrated areas, was to allow one very large steam
fired plant to provide heating services and process steam to industry and buildings. Several
square miles could be successfully served by such a facility, and by extension, hundreds of
buildings. Steam pipes would be run underground like water and sewer pipes and buildings
would be linked into the system like they would for any other utility.
Many of these systems became defunction in the period subsequent to the Second World
War as the urban cores emptied of populations and maintain was not kept up on, as well as the
easily installed option of individual room electric heat and standardized air conditioning systems
providing both heating and cooling were broadly adopted. In the later case, steam heat can
provide refridgeration, but through the use of ammonia. In the early 20th century the chemical
properties of ammonia were considered worse than those of freon for safety reasons, so this kind
of air conditioning did not become widespread. With the understanding that refridgerants that
operate in electrically powered refridgerators are threatening to the Earth’s atmosphere, however,
there has been a revival in ammonia based air conditioning.
In the city of Seattle in particular the comparative health of the downtown urban core and
the culture popularity of the green movement allowed one surviving district heating utility,
Seattle Steam, to cast itself with its modern natural gas and biomass boilers as a green alternative
to individual building heat. This allowed for their increase by four times their market share for
heating of buildings in downtown Seattle within the space of less than 15 years as many
buildings reconnected to their steam network—from 48 buildings in 2000 to 200 buildings in
2011. (citations to be worked in from the Seattle Steam Company website and from Scultz’s
article as appropriate).
It is important to determine, however, the actual energy efficiency involved in district
steam heating, as well as the relative economic costs. The question of whether or not this form of
is actually ‘green’ may be answered using a heat transfer analysis of the pipe system to
determine the amount of energy lost to the environment by needing to send steam under the city
streets, and therefore the greater amounts of natural gas that must be burned. However, there are
also clearly energy inefficiencies in having many sources of production with many heating
systems in all of the various buildings, and the simple fact that larger steam generators can
achieve greater efficiencies than smaller ones. Efficiency ratings for the main generators and
distributed natural gas heating in individual buildings can be constructed to provide an estimate
of this. Likewise, the sunk costs of buying in-building heating equipment and the operational
cost shall be compared against Seattle Steam market rates for relative economics of the two
alternatives.

Procedures and Analyses

Procedurally there were several phases to the analysis required to develop a detailed
picture. The first was cost. Steam heat cost per unit energy had to be acquired for Seattle Steam’s
services. The typical energy used for a building in Seattle had to be measured—and the relative
sizes of the buildings had to be standardized around an average. To further simplify, however,
the existing energy production of Seattle Steam was used as a baseline for their heating
requirements. 7,400lb/hr of saturated 150psi steam in the 6 miles of high-pressure steam line is
provided per building. It shall be assumed that the steam is used to keep each building at a
temperature of 68 degress fahrenheit. Another 12 miles of 25psi low-pressure steam pipe is used
for distrbutory purposes, and the 6 miles of high-pressure pipe shall be modeled as 12 inches in
diameter, the low pressure steam as 1.5-inch in diameter pipes. The pipes are surrounded by a
square block of concrete wrapped in a PVC membrane, with the width of the block being 1.75
times greater than the diameter of the pipe buried within its centre in both cases. Losses inside
the buildings themselves may be disregarded due to the fact that they are the same for both
methods of heating. Therefore the losses in the pipe system will provide a target for the amount
of heating required in each average building for a comparable gas heating system.
In economic terms, a further bonus is available, however. Seattle Steam aggressively
markets condensers to its customs so that they can trap the condensed steam as water at
temperatures of up to 95 degrees to provide hot water for buildings as well as cool water. Steam
is also used for sterilizing medical instruments at the serviced hospitals. Based on relatively
ratios of water costs to heating costs (more detail to be provided in the appendices) a multiple-
use factor of 1/8th is being used in cost effectiveness terms; or, 12.5% of the actual cost of the
Seattle Steam heat provided to customers is recouped through secondary uses which gas heating
systems cannot readily provide.
Therefore the necessary heat transfer calculations require that the losses in the 6 miles of
high-pressure 12-inch steam pipes and 12 miles of 1.5-inch low-pressure steam pipes be
modeled. Constant pressure and a relatively slow velocity of steam for laminar flow shall be
assumed with the system properly pressurized in working order. Maximum temperatures to be
obtained in the pressurized system are 250 degrees fahrenheit and the system shall be modeled at
that temperature. Once losses in the system have been calculated the energy being sent to each
building can be related to generation cost and amount of fuel burned to generate based on
corporate reports from Seattle Steam, and then compared to industry standards for in-building
natural gas heat generation for large multiestory buildings.