Welcome!

Hotmaps toolbox

Heating and cooling in residential and industrial sectors account for half of the EU’s energy consumption. More than 80% of heating and cooling is still generated from fossil fuels [1]. Meanwhile, heat losses are also significantly high. This sector needs to be transformed! Hotmaps is a website that allows you to provide within 5 minutes a first estimation of the heating and cooling demand in any European region as well as the local renewable energy potential to meet this demand. Subsequently, by using more detailed data and applying Hotmpas calculation modules, much more comprehensive heating and cooling strategies can be elaborate. What we offer is open-source online software that supports the planning processes of the energy sector at local and national levels in a transparent manner. We provide:

  • A starting data set,
  • Customisations of the software for your specific needs,
  • Training and support services.

Thanks to this software, you will be able to make practical decisions in your area of interest (village, town, city, region, etc.). The value of Hotmaps has been applied and demonstrated in seven pilot areas. The Hotmaps website was developed by leading research institutions across Europe together with city administrations. Go on the website by clicking HERE and discover your city’s climate-neutral energy future.

How to use the Hotmaps toolbox for heating and cooling planning

Welcome to the Hotmaps Wiki!

The Hotmaps Wiki hosts the documentation, guidance and manual of the Hotmaps toolbox. It consists of the following main parts:

  1. Data sets
  2. General toolbox functionalities,
  3. Calculation modules,
  4. How to apply the Hotmaps toolbox?
  5. Developers section.

The Data sets section provides information about Hotmaps data set repositories and also methodologies for gathering these data sets.

The General tool functionalities and strucure section guides the user through the interface of the toolbox. The section covers all general aspects of the toolbox, which are related to the user experience, e.g. navigating through different parts of the toolbox, layer selection, retrieving indicators, data upload and export functionalities etc.

The Calculation Modules section provides an in-depth explanation of concepts and methodologies behind the calculation modules. Besides the explanation of the methodology, the provided examples and test runs for each calculation module help the user to obtain an understanding of input parameters and output results. Some calculation modules are integrated into the toolbox, while others are stand-alone.

The How to apply the Hotmaps toolbox? section is to guide the Hotmaps users to perform heating and cooling planning with the Hotmaps toolbox. It includes guidelines on the use of Hotmaps at the local and national level, as well and training materials and handbooks.

The Developers section contains all information required for developers to contribute to the Hotmaps toolbox or to understand how it works. It explains the IT infrastructure of the Hotmaps toolbox, data set integration, contribution in calculation module development etc.

The Hotmaps Wiki is a living document, i.e. it grows as the Hotmaps toolbox grows. The Hotmaps developers continue updating Hotmaps Wiki pages by the introduction of new updates, improvements, functionalities, and calculation modules. Please use this guideline for writing a Hotmaps Wiki page.

We hope you enjoy exploring the toolbox and find it helpful for your heating and cooling planning!

Data sets

General tool functionalities and structure

Calculation modules (CM)

How to apply the Hotmaps toolbox

Each calculation module can be used to analyse different parts of the heating and cooling system and different research questions. The calculation modules can also be used as a chain of tools to derive scenarios for heating and cooling of defined regions/areas. For the demonstration of the Hotmaps toolbox the calculation modules are used according to the following toolchain:

For additional supports on heating and cooling planning, please refer to the Hotmaps handbooks and to the Training Material page:

For developers

HAVE FUN EXPLORING THE HOTMAPS TOOLBOX!

References

[1] EU H2020 Project: Mapping and analyses of the current and future (2020 - 2030) heating/cooling fuel deployment (fossil/renewables). WP1 Report. 2016. accessed via https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/Report%20WP1.pdf

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How to cite

The Hotmaps Team, in Hotmaps-Wiki, Welcome page (September 2020)

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Authors and reviewers

This page is written by the Hotmaps Team and namely by:

Lukas Kranzl, Mostafa Fallahnejad, Jeton Hasani,*

Thierry Bernhard, Lesly Houndole and Albain Dufils,**

Marcus Hummel, Andreas Müller, Giulia Conforto, David Schmidinger,***

Pietro Zambelli, Giulia Garegnani,****

Ali Aydemir, David Schilling, Lisa Neusel, Tobias Fleiter.*****

Daniel Hunacek, Lucien Zuber, Matthieu Dayer,******

This page was reviewed by Giulia Conforto***.

* Energy Economics Group - TU Wien,

Institute of Energy Systems and Electrical Drives,

Gusshausstrasse 27-29/370,

1040 Wien, Austria

** CREM

Centre de Recherches Energétiques et Municipales

Rue Marconi 19 - CP 256,

CH-1920 Martigny, Switzerland

*** e-think,

Zentrum f. Energiewirtschaft und Umwelt,

Argentinierstrasse 18/10,

1040 Wien, Austria

**** EURAC Bozen - Urban and Regional Energy System Group

Institute of Renewable Energy Drususallee,

Viale Druso 1,

I-39100 Bozen/Bolzano, Italy

***** Fraunhofer ISI

Breslauer Str. 48,

76139 Karlsruhe, Germany

****** HES-SO Valais-Wallis - Institute of Sustainable Energy

Route du Rawyl 47,

1950 Sion, Switzerland

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License

Copyright © 2016-2019: Lukas Kranzl, Mostafa Fallahnejad, Jeton Hasani, Thierry Bernhard, Lesly Houndole and Albain Dufils, Marcus Hummel, Giulia Conforto, David Schmidinger, Pietro Zambelli, Giulia Garegnani, Ali Aydemir, David Schilling, Lisa Neusel, Tobias Fleiter, Daniel Hunacek, Lucien Zuber, Matthieu Dayer.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 International License.

SPDX-License-Identifier: CC-BY-4.0

License-Text: https://spdx.org/licenses/CC-BY-4.0.html

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Acknowledgement

We would like to convey our deepest appreciation to the Horizon 2020 Hotmaps Project (Grant Agreement number 723677), which provided the funding to carry out the present investigation.

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View in another language:

German*

* machine translated