Central Heating

The concept of central heating is – or should be – well understood by householders in the United Kingdom with no fewer than 22 million households relying on a central heating system to provide them with warmth and hot water on demand. The most popular central heating systems involve the combustion of a fossil fuel – oil, gas, or LPG (”Liquified Petroleum Gas”) – in a boiler and the subsequent distribution of heat around the home by water or steam circulating through pipes.

A typical domestic central heating system comprises a hot water system feed tank and storage cylinder, along with a heating system feed tank. The storage cylinder holds a large quantity of hot water – available immediately or as quickly as the feed tank allows – but once the supply is exhausted the cylinder and its contents need to be reheated.

It would be fair to say, however, that central heating has evolved significantly in recent years. Many older boilers – in other words boilers installed prior to 1990 – were deliberately oversized, by as much as 30%, to make sure that they provided sufficient heat for the home in which they were installed. This is no longer the case and the emphasis is on compact wall hung boilers of the high energy efficiency, “condensing” type, to comply with legislation in England and Wales. The boilers can be installed almost anywhere in the modern home. A condensing boiler utilises much of the heat that would otherwise be wasted in the flue of a standard boiler and may convert more than 90% of its fuel into useful heat.

Reference: Encarta

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