DISTRICT HEATING & DOMESTIC WATER SYSTEMS

Westwood Cohousing Community, build in 1998, is a cooperative community with a centralized / district heating and domestic water system. This district system, designed and installed by Shelter Technology, supplies the entire community with heat from the central Community Building. It was designed with energy efficiency and water conservation in mind. To show the scale of the district heating system, please take a look at the site map below.

The Westwood Community Building was built with an ideal solar orientation. The roof holds large-scale active solar collectors.  The solar collectors heat water which is then collected in a large holding tank housed in the mechanical room of the Community Building.

From this central area, the hot water is the piped via an underground system directly to each individual home, supplying each household with domestic hot water and heat. Each town home is heated with hydronic in-floor radiant heat. On days when the solar collector cannot produce enough hot water, gas fired boilers kick in to supplement the supply of hot water.

During peak use times, such as mornings and evenings, hot water circulates throughout the community. During off-peak times, the hot water goes into a dormant mode, circulating within the mechanical room. This dormant mode insures that energy is only being used to circulate the hot water when it is needed. Each house has a button next to each faucet, which when pressed “calls” hot water to that home during this dormant period.

To find out more about the Westwood Cohousing Community and the company, Neighborhood Design/Build, which designed and constructed the community, please visit their website at www.ndbweb.com.  To get more information on district heating and hot water systems, please contact us at Shelter Technology.