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Heating & Zone Controls
Typically homeowners can reduce their energy usage by up to 30% by installing easy to use Heating & Zone Controls in their home and using these controls in an efficient manner.
There is now Grant Aid available through the SEAI Home Energy Savings Scheme to help you improve your home using this measure.
Adequate heating & zone controls can help a homeowner to accurately match your space heating and hot water schedules to the working and living patterns in the home, i.e. when heat and hot water are required, it is there; when it is not, it is turned off.
As a minimum, your heating system should be split into two or more independently controlled zones. They are your 'Space Heating Zone' and your 'Domestic Hot Water Zone'. This allows you to heat your domestic hot water without being forced to turn on your space heating. Additional zones can also be put in place in large homes to split upstairs and downstairs or living areas and bedrooms.
The Benefits of Heating Controls
Reduction in Heating Bills
Increased Comfort Levels
Reduction in Greenhouse Gas Emissions.
Do I Need Heating Controls?
You can do a quick check on your heating control requirements by answering the simple questions below. If you answer NO to all or the majority of the below questions, it would be beneficial for you to install some heating controls:
Can you heat your domestic hot water without switching on your radiators or an electric immersion heater?
Can you turn on your heating without heating your domestic hot water?
Can you easily adjust the heat output from radiators in the rooms you use most often?
Have you temperature control on your boiler?
Have you time control on your boiler that you can set for different days of the week?
Have you a separate temperature control for your hot water cylinder?
Have you a separate time control on your hot water cylinder?
CASE STUDY
Patrick has a four bedroom detached house with a footprint of 150m² and previously had an annual heating bill of 1,700.
Despite having installed a new boiler several years earlier, Patrick had very poor control of the system. He had no time or temperature control of the space and water heating and could not heat water without turning on all the radiators in the house or the electric immersion heater. This meant both were left on for long periods throughout the year, unnecessarily increasing the heating bill.
Patrick decided to get some simple control measures installed in his house which enabled him to significantly reduce his annual energy consumption and heating bill. The heating system was divided into 2 zones (1 for space heating and 1 for hot water) by getting his registered installer to install a 7 day programmer with room and cylinder thermostats and motorized control valves. Patrick can now heat his water without having to turn on radiators or the electric immersion heater and the programmable timer also allows him much greater control of when the heating should operate in each zone. Before installing these control measures, Patrick used to regularly leave the heating system running all night to make sure that house was warm in the morning and that there was enough hot water for his family to have showers.
The installation of these new control measures now mean that he has much greater control over his heating system and has reduced his annual fuel bill by 30% - an annual saving of nearly 600 per year. Patrick was also able to secure grant aid from the Home Energy Saving Scheme to help him with the cost of this. Typical costs for this type of upgrade are approx. 800 - 1200 (excluding grant).
Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV's)
A TRV is a thermostat that regulates the amount of heat going into a radiator according to the temperature in the room. You can set a specific temperature level for a room that you are comfortable with, and then as the room heats up to that comfortable temperature, heat flow is reduced into the radiator, stopping when it reaches your comfortable set level. TRV's are particularly useful in rooms where the temperature requirement is different to that required in the main living area bedrooms, or rooms where there are other heat sources such as in kitchens.
7-Day Programmable Timer
A 7-Day programmable timer will allow you to set your heating system to match your occupancy patterns on a daily and weekly basis. The separation of space heating and domestic hot water controls into zones will also allow you to set each zone to operate for required periods only. For example: you can set your boiler to switch on automatically before you wake in the morning to heat water for showers without turning on the central heating.
Boiler Interlock
Boiler interlock is a method of interconnecting your heating system controls with your boiler to ensure that the boiler only operates when required. It ensures that the boiler is not firing when there is no request for heat.
Time and Temperature Control of Electric Immersion Heater (Hot Water Cylinder Heater)
Time and temperature controls installed on immersion heaters allow householders to pre-set the time period required for water heating and the temperature to which water is heated. This means that water need not be heated for longer than required or to higher temperatures than required. Temperatures for hot water should be set to a maximum of 60°C. To heat water above this temperature only to add cold water to it afterwards is a waste of your energy. Please note that if you have a solar water heating system in place, this temperature may need to be set higher. SEAI also recommend that lagging jackets are fitted to hot water cylinders to ensure that minimum energy is lost.
A Buyers Guide to Heating Controls
Choosing and installing heating controls should not prove to be a difficult process. However, there are important decisions to make and a few rules to apply to ensure that your heating controls will be to your satisfaction and meet your requirements.
It is vital to look for high quality when choosing your heating controls. To achieve this, products should only be chosen that comply with the appropriate Irish, British or European standards (IS, BS or EN).
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