Heating Systems - Explained

Heating systems are necessary to heat the hot water from our taps for washing and cleaning and to keep us warm in the winter; it protects us and our property from frost damage, condensation and damp to an extent.

At the heart of any heating system is the heat source, this can be an oil boiler, gas boiler, wood burning stove, open fire, condensing boiler, or a ground source heat pump.

These heat generators heat the water that passes through our pipes to help with heating and cleaning.

Generally most heating systems would consist of a boiler, hot water cylinder, radiators, a timer / room thermostat and a pump, the boiler heats the water and the pump pushes the hot water through to your heat emitters (radiators) or the coil in your hot water tank to heat you domestic hot water.

Heat emitters are commonly radiators on walls in the form of steel panels with a large surface area that heat up to warm the air that moves across them.

These are generally quick to get hot and warm your home quickly, however more commonly today installers are installing under floor heating, this is deemed to be more energy efficient as the operating temperatures are lower thus reducing the amount of fuel burned.

Time clocks and thermostats are as important as the radiators and boilers alike, for your system to function economically and for your comfort you must use controls to turn the heating on and off as and when required and be able to control the temperature without peaks and troughs allowing you to be nice and snug, the Warmworld Dataterm does all of this and more.

Hot water tanks come in different shapes and sizes, some gravity fed and others are mains pressure, some even have solar panels connected for free hot water when the days are bright. They all do the same job that is to hold large amounts of hot water to be used as and when required.

If you don't have a hot water tank then you probably have a combination boiler, these boilers are instantaneous water heaters that turn on when you run the hot water tap, sort of hot water on demand and in most cases there is no stored hot water. These boilers also do the central heating for radiators and under floor systems and are available in natural gas, LPG and oil.

Dataterm provides a new way of controlling the heating in houses and small non-domestic properties alike. It's "fuzzy logic" replaces the standard on/off programming of conventional programmers to give you the control you normally only get with complex expensive systems installed in larger commercial buildings. It is truly self-learning and easy to use and install and has won a millennium product award for it's potential to save energy and help the environment.