User:Bennyfactor/District heating in the United States

District heating in the United States, or steam systems, are a utility present in several major US cities. Smaller-scale districting heating systems have been built to serve American colleges and universities. The basic parts of a district heating system are a generation plant which creates the steam, and a network of pipes (usually underground) which distribute the steam to buildings. If the generation plant also produces electricity while generating steam, it is called a cogeneration plant, also known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP). Generation plants which only make steam, on the other hand, are heat-only boiler stations.

History

While steam-based heating systems existed as early as the Roman Empire in the form of hypocausts, and have been occasionally built and used in other places since that time, the first modern commercial district heating system in the United States was built in 1877. Birdsill Holly, who had previously commercialized a direct pressure water supply system and created a popular design for an early fire hydrant, developed a district heating system for Lockport, New York. This system was the basis for many more district heating systems which were begun at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries.