With the final master plan for Whistle Bend now adopted, the city will continue looking at different home heating options for the next major neighbourhood.

"So far, we have been able to collect data from onsite investigations of soil conditions, underground water source and geoexchange potential," city planning manager Mike Gau said in a statement late last week.

"Now that the Whistle Bend master plan has been approved by council, we can continue with other aspects of the project, including system design and cost analysis."

EBA Engineering has been contracted by the city to look at the possible development of a district heating system, that would include looking using geoexchange from waste heat from underground sewer lines.

In an earlier interview, Scott Schillereff, EBA's renewable resource team leader, compared the technology to that of a fridge.

In much the same way a fridge extracts warm air to keep the inside cool, this would extract cold air to keep a place warm or warm air to keep a place cool, he said.

"It's a very convenient way of moving heat around," he said.

Funding for the work is coming primarily from a $120,500 grant from the Federation of Canadian Municipalities, along with a further $96,400 from the Yukon government and $24,100 the city is putting in itself.

"In order to reduce the amount of fossil fuel we use to heat our homes in a way that is affordable for families, we need to think outside the box," Mayor Bev Buckway said in a statement.

"This is a project that examines the possibility of having multiple homes use a common heat source, which results in lower greenhouse gas emissions and energy bills."

Meanwhile, planning will continue as well with city officials set to look at zoning and subdivision approval for the first two phases of the neighbourhood next.

It's expected the first set of lots in Whistle Bend will go on sale in 2012.