In Scandic’s hotel rooms in Turku, district cooling cools an element on the ceiling which in turn cools down the room to a comfortable temperature without any disturbing noise or draught. Hotel guests can adjust the cooling of the element steplessly. In meeting rooms, district cooling is used in conventional ventilation devices. This makes it possible to achieve the fast and efficient cooling required by spaces with a large number of people.

In ecological cooling, Turku is one of the most advanced cities in the country

Hot summer days and nights make people dream of pleasant coolness.
District cooling is one of properties’ cooling options. The system circulates cooled water to buildings to cool them.

According to Jari Kuivanen, Vice President, Heat, at Turku Energia, this is an excellent example of the circular economy.
“The water cooled in the system is circulated and nothing is wasted. This is a fixed, centralised system. Turku has been a pioneering city in district cooling. After Helsinki, it was the second city in Finland to de-velop an efficient system, but currently the system used in the Turku region is among the most advanced in the country.”

“We have a large ‘battery’ where we store cooling water and which makes cooling available at all times. District cooling is marketed as an efficient means of cooling buildings during hot weather. However, as such, the system is intended for large properties and a densely populated urban environment.”
“District cooling requires major investments from the property company,” Kuivanen describes. Nevertheless, a district cooling system is well suited to today’s trend where the goal in cooling and heating properties is energy efficiency.

“Nowadays, the increasing number of electronics and electrical appliances in properties generates a lot of excess heat. District cooling is an alternative to noisy, energyconsuming and even ugly cooling systems,” Kuivanen summarises. When talking about district cooling, people also mention another megatrend: the environmental friendliness of the energy economy. Environmental friendliness is now more emphasised by energy economy operators and ordinary consumers alike.
“The system is ecological as cooling is generated with completely emission-free electricity and there are no other emissions either,” underlines Kuivanen.

A district cooling system is similar to the systems used in district heating. The cooling of a property is arranged through a large unit, from where cooled water is transferred via pipes to the property to be cooled. The method arrived in Finland in the late 1990s. The cooling system of the Turku region was taken into use in 2000.