Low-temperature areas
Iceland's low-temperature areas lie outside the active volcanic belt that runs from Reykjanestá north across the country out into Öxarfjörður. They extend from the margins of the volcanic zones, across the whole country and out onto the continental shelf. Admittedly, decent low-temperature water can also be obtained within the volcanic belt, whether for space heating, horticulture or aquaculture, and the Reykjanes peninsula and Öxarfjörður are good examples of this.
Low-temperature exploration
The search for hot water in low-temperature areas for space heating, horticulture, aquaculture or other uses is about finding hot water as cheaply as possible. Low-temperature water competes with other energy sources for space heating. Individuals and smaller communities are therefore at something of a disadvantage, since the combined cost of geothermal exploration and production must not exceed a certain maximum over some acceptable depreciation period, even though in practice several generations benefit from sometimes risky geothermal exploration.
With changing technology in drilling, a new exploration technique has been developed at ÍSOR known as geothermal exploration in cold areas (dry areas), and such exploration consists of making numerous resistivity measurements or drilling many cheap temperature-gradient holes 50-60 m deep in a particular area, and thereby finding where usable geothermal heat for space heating (preferably >60°C) lies closest to the surface. If a promising option is found, a production well a few hundred metres deep is drilled.