Hot Water

Borehole by Kringlumýrarbraut, the Japanese Embassy and Valhöll, the Independence Party’s headquarters, in the background.

There is a borehole at the west end of the Hilton hotel by Suðurlandsbraut. At the entrance of the American Embassy at Engjateigur is hot water well.

When the price of fossil fuels is high and the pollution that such combustion emits into the atmosphere is a serious problem, it is very beneficial to have district heating as 89.6% of all housing in Iceland uses.

Iceland’s first real district heating was installed in Laugaskóli, the school in Reykjadalur, Suður-Þingeyjarsýsla. It was first used in 1924. The first district heating in Reykjavík was in Austurbæjarskóli. A 3 km pipeline was laid from Laugardalur to heat the school in 1930.

Today Veitur operates thirteen district heating utilities, one in the entire capital area, five in the West, and seven in the South. The company serves up to 70% of the population, a truly giant company in its field in the world. The company distributes 89.9 million cubic metres of hot water per year. The length of the district heating pipes is 3,066 km or 1,905 miles, from 78 utilized boreholes. The average annual consumption of Icelandic homes is 4.5 tonnes of hot water per square metre of housing.