Heating multiple buildings

[Rdack]

I have a project in southern alberta where im planning to move 6 houses over the next couple years into a small town where I own property. The 6 houses will be spread over 300' and im wondering about heating them with a single multi boiler system. I'd use thermopex between the houses and put the main boiler room in the middle of the block. So the houses will be 12-1400 sqft, and Id convert the existing furnaces to heat exchangers and put pex in the basement floors.

I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this idea and how do I go about sizing a boiler(s) for this project.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

An engineering nightmare and a service nightmare all wrapped up in one package. Horrible idea. Heat the homes with their own units.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[BadgerBoilerMN]

It is called district heating and very common in Europe and many older American cities. If you are paying the fuel bills having a central heating plant, like most large hospitals, universities, et al can be a very good plan. We normally use a multi-boiler configuration staging and rotating the boilers as they serve to heat space and domestic hot water, which is then efficiently pumped between buildings.

The boilers are simply sized the sum of the 6 houses and the DHW the same with economies of scale and mechanical piping costs greatly reduced since 5 vent pipes, gas services, electrical work and condensate drains will be eliminated from your initial cost. Radiating the slab is a given and a properly sized hot water coil is brilliant given the need for DHW and radiant slab has already been established.

Naturally only condensing boilers should be considered.

First, the layout and feasibility work to see if the numbers work for you, i.e. cost, ROI and performance.

It may be an engineer's nightmare, but it's a hydronic designer's dream!