The home heating system consumes the largest chunk of energy used in your home. Upgrading the heating controls of an average Irish home would save on the average about 20% of it’s annual energy bills. Interestingly some might even find that their upgrading has brought about a saving of up to 30%.

It is not only low energy bills that the heating controls bring about. They will also make your home interior more comfortable and reduce the overall green house gas emissions as well.

how would upgrading controls save energy?

Average home requires hot water for two purposes;

• Space Heating – (Heating home interior)

• Domestic hot water requirement – (for eg. Laundering, dishwashing, bathing, sanitary needs etc.)

The annual usage patterns of the above two are not the same but individually they follow their own .In most of the existing installations the two requirements are catered to by a single zone which necessitates the operation of the energy consuming heaters and other devices every time even when you need only a hot water bath.

A properly upgraded heating controls system would mean matching your home heating needs schedule with your home hot water usage patterns so that when you need any one of them the other will not have to run.

what are these much spoken about upgrades?

The use of a commonly adopted single hot water source and zone creates problems in operations such as temperature regulation for applications, proper room temperature regulation, lack of capacity control measures and optimization of operational time etc. leading to wasted energy. Upgrading the system with measures such as the following is therefore currently adopted.

• Zoning the system (at least two zones one for space heating and the other for home hot water needs)

• 7-day Programmable Timers will cater for your daily or weekly usage patterns in the two (or more) different zones.

• Thermostatic regulating valves for space heating terminal devices such as radiators, heat exchangers etc and also the different zones.

• Interlocking the Boiler controls such as cylinder thermostat with heating system controls such as Room Thermostat, TRV etc.

• Variable capacity circulating pumps (generally for high capacity or high end applications)

Generally there are financial grants for the first four upgrades from authorities while the last which is an expensive proposition (rarely used in average homes) is not considered.