District cooling systems provide a variety of benefits, both qualitative and economic. The qualitative advantages are perceived in terms of better comfort, better reliability, and maximized convenience. Mechanical cooling and air conditioning requirements are growing rapidly throughout the world, partly because there are many new buildings being built and partly because those buildings are being built in warm climates. However, no matter where those buildings are built, they tend to be tighter and more densely packed than they used to be. This creates a need for air conditioning even in very cold climates.

People are also increasingly emitting more and more heat into buildings through all types of electronic equipment that generate extra heat such as computers and various other gadgets. All this has led to a growing demand for comfort in homes and offices, a need that is directly addressed by District Cooling.

The economic benefits can be experienced by both the owner and the tenant, where the capital costs of control panels, internal power distribution, annual maintenance and power consumption inside the building are reduced and the cost of chillers are eliminated.

• Better quality of cooling
• Maximum cost effectiveness
• Capital cost elimination
• Space saving
• Decrease in sound pollution
• Environmentally friendly

• Individual space or room temperature control using multiple indoor fan-coil units.
• Better indoor humidity control.
• Elimination of noise and freeing space, by eliminating the need for chillers on every roof.
• Minimum maintenance requirements, giving tenants more privacy and security.
• Higher system reliability due to a high-tech plant room design.
• Better building aesthetics - no bulky outdoor equipment.
• More outdoor space made available.
• An overall high comfort factor means happy tenants.

• Units used are high-tech and industrial which dramatically decreases the failure frequency compared to commercial equipment. District cooling reliability is in excess of 99.94%. (Source: IDEA)
• Standby units always available at every cooling facility.
• The average lifespan of industrial equipment is 30 years compared to 15 years for commercial equipment.
• Round the clock operation and maintenance at the Central plant room ensuring preventive maintenance and a swift response in case of malfunctions.

• Industrial equipment are by far more efficient than commercial equipment.
• District cooling systems consume far less energy than air-cooled and water cooled systems.
• Using different techniques that help reduce the annual energy consumption by 55%.
• Flexibility of using different energy sources such as natural gas, electricity etc...

• A small maintenance team can maintain the central plant, as compared to the large number of maintenance team required to maintain many smaller plants or hundreds of condensing units. Fan coil units and air handling units require minimal maintenance and rear breakdown occurrence.
• Reduced frequency of equipment replacement due to longer equipment lifetime compared to commercial equipment.

• Improved efficiency reduces CO2 emission. Each 1 KW-Hr used from Electric utility network produces 1.05 Kg of CO2.
• Central plant room uses ozone friendly refrigerant such as HFC-134a. Leakage from one central plant is much lower than from many scattered plants or units.

• Air conditioning equipment consume around 70% of total building energy and constitutes 70% of the peak electric demand. By shifting that load from individual houses to a central plant, the housing electric load is reduced substantially and along with it the number of electric substations and length and sizes of electric cables.
• District cooling requires far less electric power than multiple plant rooms or ducted splits. Furthermore the plant room can house the electric substation, enormously reducing the electric works.
• Electric demand and peak shaving are easily controlled when district cooling is applied. This especially important in the case of on-site continuous or standby power generation.
• Gas engine chiller can be used for standby or peak shaving operation in parallel with electric chillers.