## 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 offers an open-source online software that supports the planning processes of the energy sector at local and national levels in a transparent manner. It 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 Hotmaps calculation modules, much more comprehensive heating and cooling strategies can be elaborated. Thanks to this software, you will be able to make practical decisions in your area of interest (village, town, city, region, etc.). The applicability of Hotmaps has been proven and demonstrated in seven pilot areas.

The Hotmaps toolbox 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.

## 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.

These sections are accessible in all Wiki pages in the sidebar.

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

The General tool functionalities and structure 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 section "How to apply the Hotmaps toolbox?" is one of the most important sections of this wiki. It helps Hotmaps users to perform heating and cooling planning with the Hotmaps toolbox and includes guidelines on using Hotmaps at the local and national levels, as well and training materials. This section illustrates how different calculation module can be used to analyze different aspects of the heating and cooling system and different research questions. Furthermore, it shows, how the calculation modules can also be used as a chain of tools to derive scenarios for heating and cooling of certain areas. This toolchain is depicted schematically below:

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

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 these Guidelines for writing a Hotmaps Wiki page.

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

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 was written by the Hotmaps Team and namely by:

EEG - TU Wien: Lukas Kranzl, Mostafa Fallahnejad, Jeton Hasani

CREM: Thierry Bernhard, Lesly Houndole, Albain Dufils

e-think: Marcus Hummel, Andreas Müller, Giulia Conforto, David Schmidinger

EURAC: Pietro Zambelli, Giulia Garegnani, Simon Pezzutto

Fraunhofer ISI: Ali Aydemir, David Schilling, Lisa Neusel, Tobias Fleiter

HES-SO: Daniel Hunacek, Lucien Zuber, Matthieu Dayer

Planenergi: Anders M. Odgaard

☑ This page was reviewed by Giulia Conforto.

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Copyright © 2016-2020: 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.

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