services
Heating System Designs
Heating Installers
As heating installers, the parameters laid out for us in the past have led to some flawed approaches to heating design and a technology of appliances have worked to mask these issues so it’s of little wonder that you, the consumer are frequently ill advised in this regard.
Environment
In essence though, the benefits of low temperature heating are fairly easy to grasp. The less energy required to heat the building to an appropriate level, the less energy wasted and the greater the savings, financially & environmentally.
This sounds great, you might say but does this mean our house will be colder?
The answer in a nutshell is NO but it’s all about emitting the correct amount of heat for the room for
the temperature provided by the heat source.
It’s in the system design….
How well your home/property is heated and how efficiently this is done is all in the design. Using the
information gathered in the Heat Loss calculation (how much heat the property losses) determines
how much heat is needs to be emitted to maintain a design temperature (Room Temperature)
History
The vast majority of our heating systems were designed in the 60s/70’s & 80s long before the
condensing or modulating boilers. Boilers were designed to operate around a 70C mean temperature, so radiators were sized to emit the correct heat to reach the required room temperature.
For Instance
If your required room temperature is 20 and the boiler mean temperature is 70, then the radiators need to be chosen based upon their output of 50C above room temperature (DT50). Radiators will still, of course. emit heat at below DT50 but if say, the boiler was running at 50C then the radiators output would be reduced to DT30 so the radiator would no longer emit enough heat to bring the room up to design temperature of 20.
Condensing Boilers
Since 2005, it has been compulsory to install condensing boilers to improve the efficiency of heating…. Or at least that was the plan. Unfortunately to get the boiler to work within the condensing window, the boiler needs to operate below 55 C flow temperature, in other words with a low temperature heating system.
Now & The future
New Building Regulations ‘ Part L’ has been released to direct Heating Installers and housebuilders
towards a Low temperature and lower carbon future. The drive towards efficiency will require a far
more concise technical approach.
services
Heat Loss Surveys
It’s a simple fact, buildings lose heat, how quickly depends on their insulation quality (resistance to Heat loss). In turn, calculating or measuring the Heat lost from a building, directly relates to the size (output) of the Heat Source (Boilers/Heat Pumps) and Emitters (Radiators/Underfloor Heating) being used to heat it.
- It starts with a plan of action.
- Knowledge of your losses to balance your system.
- Make your emitters efficient.
In Balance
It’s not too tricky, if we balance what heat goes in with what Heat comes out as closely as possible, then we reduce waste and increase efficiency.
Think of a bucket with a hole as a representation of a building, keep filling it at the same rate the level will be maintained. Fill to slowly it can’t maintain the level, too fast and its overflowing. (Credit: Michael DePodesta)
Performance
Far too often, very little effort is put into determining how efficient a building is. Its staggering how frequently this is overlooked when choosing what appliance will be used to generate heat or verifying that the existing system is capable. Therefore, it’s no real surprise, that many are seeing such poor performance results from their system, whether it be new or old. It’s rarely down to the Boiler or Heat Pump though, just the incorrect specification in the first instance.
For us, we simply cannot begin to offer assurances of performance without first understanding how a building is performing. Once we know what heat is being lost, we can design the system correctly.
Calculation
The heat Loss calculation is more than this though. It can be used to highlight poor performing areas of a building and the impact changes, such as improved insulation or restricting ventilation losses can have. Sometimes small changes to the fabric of a building can reap massive rewards.
We carry out Heat loss calculations using ‘Heat Engineer’ software. We firstly measure and assess the building & inspect the building fabric specifics. With this knowledge and our experience, input and adapt the calculations to closely reflect the Property heat loss as is possible.
Report
The report details, a room-by-room calculation, specific to your property and can give an indication of the improvements changes can make.
Compiling the report is a time-consuming process and is chargeable as a stand-alone service, though is included as part of a Heat Pump installation for MCS registration purposes.
Get in touch if you’d like to know more.