Harsewinkel is a medium-sized town belonging to a district with around 25,500 inhabitants in the North Rhine-Westphalian district of Gütersloh and is located about 30 km west of Bielefeld. The city’s best-known company is the agricultural machinery manufacturer Claas. Against this background, Harsewinkel is also known as “the combine harvester city”.

For over 10 years, Geoplex has been managing the county-wide solar cadastre of the Gütersloh district, in the creation and continuation of which the city has also actively participated. Now Harsewinkel wants to expand its own offerings with a heat register. The tool provides citizens with free and neutral initial advice for converting their own heating system away from fossil fuels and towards climate-friendly technologies.

PlexMap Heating goes far beyond the mere calculation of heat demands. We do not see our heat register as a static map, but as an interactive decision-making tool. Through the integrated cost-efficiency calculator, we enable property owners to run through various scenarios for their own building. The system individually determines the best-adapted heating technology – whether a heat pump, connection to a heating network, or hybrid solutions.

The decisive added value of PlexMap Heating lies in its consistent user guidance: “From theory to practice.” Local energy consultants can be contacted via a directly connected search feature. In doing so, we kick-start the renovation process where it often stalls – at the transition from initial information to concrete professional advice.

At the same time, the heat register is explicitly a useful addition to municipal heat planning (MHP). While MHP defines strategic focus areas (e.g., for the expansion of district heating networks) and offers attractive solutions for certain sub-areas of the municipality, citizens outside these areas often feel left alone with the complex question of the future heat supply for their property. Our heat register closes this gap by providing a neutral and free advisory service for the entire city area. It serves as a low-threshold entry portal that brings the city’s strategic goals right to the citizens’ doorstep.

We look forward to continued cooperation with the city of Harsewinkel!

Photo: Luftbild der Stadt Harsewinkel, Kreis Gütersloh, Author: Daniel Brockpähler, License: This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.