What Is Central Heating ?

Central Heating

A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building (or portion of a building) from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system.

Overview

Central heating differs from space heating in that the heat generation occurs in one place, such as a furnace room or basement in a house or a mechanical room in a large building (though not necessarily at the geometrically "central" point). The heat is distributed throughout the building, typically by forced-air through duct work, by water circulating through pipes, or by steam fed through pipes. The most common method of heat generation involves the combustion of fossil fuel-in a furnace or boiler.

In much of the temperate climate zone, most detached housing has had central heating installed since before the Second World War. Where coal was readily available (i.e. the Anthracite coal region in northeast Pennsylvania) coal-fired steam or hot water systems were common. In more recent times, these have been updated to use fuel oil or gas as the source of combustion, eliminating the need for a large coal storage bin near the boiler and the need to remove and discard ashes after the coal is burned. Coal-fired systems are now mostly reserved for larger buildings.

A cheaper alternative to hot water or steam heat is forced hot air. A furnace burns fuel oil, which heats air in a heat exchanger, and blower fans circulate the warmed air through a network of ducts to the rooms in the building. This system is cheaper because the air moves through a series of ducts instead of pipes, and does not require a pipe fitter to install. The space between floor joists can be boxed in and used as some of the duct work, further lowering costs.

Electrical heating systems occur less commonly and are practical only with low-cost electricity or when ground source heat pumps are used. Considering the combined system of thermal power station and electric resistance heating, the overall efficiency will be less than for direct use of fossil fuel for space heating.

More and more buildings utilize solar-powered heat sources, in which case the distribution system normally uses water circulation.

Alternatives to such systems are gas heaters and district heating. District heating uses the waste heat from an industrial process or electrical generating plant to provide heat for neighboring buildings. Similar to co generation, this requires underground piping to circulate hot water or steam, and is only practical in a relatively small area (i.e. several city blocks).

History

Ancient Rome and Greece

The ancient Greeks originally developed central heating. The temple of Ephesus was heated by flues planted in the ground and circulating the heat which was generated by fire. Some buildings in the Roman Empire used central heating systems, conducting air heated by furnaces through empty spaces under the floors and out of pipes in the walls—a system known as a hypocaust.

The Roman hypocaust continued to be used on a smaller scale during late Antiquity and by the Umayyad caliphate, while later Muslim builders employed a simpler system of underfloor pipes.

After the collapse of the Roman Empire, overwhelmingly across Europe, heating reverted to more primitive fireplaces for almost a thousand years.

In the early medieval Alpine upland, a simpler central heating system where heat travelled through underfloor channels from the furnace room replaced the Roman hypocaust at some places. In Reichenau Abbey a network of interconnected underfloor channels heated the 300 m² large assembly room of the monks during the winter months. The degree of efficiency of the system has been calculated at 90%.

In the 13th century, the Cistercian monks revived central heating in Christian Europe using river diversions combined with indoor wood-fired furnaces. The well-preserved Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Wheel (founded 1202) on the Ebro River in the Aragon region of Spain provides an excellent example of such an application.

Modern central heating systems

The three main methods of central heating were developed in the late 18th to mid-19th centuries

Hot air Heating

William Strutt designed a new mill building in Derby with a central hot air furnace in 1793, although the idea had been already proposed by John Evelyn almost a hundred years earlier. Strutt's design consisted of a large stove that heated air brought from the outside by a large underground passage. The air was ventilated through the building by large central ducts.

In 1807, he collaborated with another eminent engineer, Charles Sylvester, on the construction of a new building to house Derby's Royal Infirmary. Sylvester was instrumental in applying Strutt's novel heating system for the new hospital. He published his ideas in The Philosophy of Domestic Economy; as exemplified in the mode of Warming, Ventilating, Washing, Drying, & Cooking, ... in the Derbyshire General Infirmary in 1819. Sylvester documented the new ways of heating hospitals that were included in the design, and the healthier features such as self-cleaning and air-refreshing toilets.The infirmary's novel heating system allowed the patients to breathe fresh heated air whilst old air was channeled up to a glass and iron dome at the centre.

Their designs proved very influential. They were widely copied in the new mills of the Midlands and were constantly improved, reaching maturity with the work of de Chabannes on the ventilation of the House of Commons in the 1810s. This system remained the standard for heating small buildings for the rest of the century.

Steam Heating

The English writer Hugh Plat proposed a steam-based central heating system for a greenhouse in 1594, although this was an isolated occurrence and was not followed up until the 18th century. Colonel Coke devised a system of pipes that would carry steam around the house from a central boiler, but it was James Wattthe Scottish inventor who was the first to build a working system in his house.

A central boiler supplied high-pressure steam that then distributed the heat within the building through a system of pipes embedded in the columns. He implemented the system on a much larger scale at a textile factory in Manchester. Robertson Buchanan wrote the definitive description of these installations in his treatises published in 1807 and 1815. Thomas Tredgold's work Principles of Warming and Ventilating Public Buildings, delineated the method of the application of hot steam heating to smaller, non-industrial buildings. This method had superseded the hot air systems by the late 19th century.

Hot water Heating

Early hot water systems were used in Russia for central heating of the Summer Palace (1710–1714) of Peter the Greatin Saint Petersburg. Slightly later, in 1716, came the first use of water in Sweden to distribute heating in buildings. Mårten Triewald, a Swedish engineer, used this method for a greenhouse at Newcastle upon Tyne. Jean Simon Bonnemain (1743–1830), a French architect,[10] introduced the technique to industry on a cooperative, at Château du Pêcq, near Paris.

However, these scattered attempts were isolated and mainly confined in their application to greenhouses. Tredgold originally dismissed its use as impractical, but changed his mind in 1836, when the technology went into a phase of rapid development.

Early systems had used low pressure water systems, which required very large pipes. One of the first modern hot water central heating systems to remedy this deficiency were installed by Angier March Perkins in London in the 1830s. At that time central heating was coming into fashion in Britain, with steam or hot air systems generally being used.

Perkins' 1832 apparatus distributed water at 200 degrees Celsius (392 °F) through small diameter pipes at high pressure. A crucial invention to make the system viable was the thread screwed joint, that allowed the joint between the pipes to bear a similar pressure to the pipe itself. He also separated the boiler from the heat source to reduce the risk of explosion. The first unit was installed in the home of Governor of the Bank of England John Horsley Palmer so that he could grow grapes in England's cold climate.

His systems were installed in factories and churches across the country, many of them remaining in usable condition for over 150 years. His system was also adapted for use by bakers in the heating of their ovens and in the making of paper from wood pulp.

Franz San Galli, a Prussian-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg, invented the radiator between 1855 and 1857, which was a major step in the final shaping of modern central heating.The Victorian cast iron radiator became widespread by the end of the 19th century as companies, such as the American Radiator Company, expanded the market for low cost radiators in the US and Europe.

Calculating output of heater required

Heater outputs are measured in kilowatts or BTU per hour. For placement in a house, the heater, and the level of output required for the house, needs to be calculated. This calculation is achieved by recording a variety of factors - namely, what is above and below the room you wish to heat, how many windows there are, the type of external walls in the property and a variety of other factors that will determine the level of heat output that is required to adequately heat the space. This calculation is called a heat loss calculation and can be done with a BTU Calculator. Depending on the outcome of this calculation, the heater can be exactly matched to the house.

Water heating

Circulating hot water can be used for central heating. Sometimes these systems are called hydronic heating systems.[18]

Common components of a central heating system using water-circulation include:

• A supply of fuel, electric power or district heating supply lines

• A Boiler (or a heat exchanger for district heating) which heats water in the system

• Pump to circulate the water

• Radiators which are wall-mounted panels through which the heated water passes in order to release heat into rooms.

The circulating water systems use a closed loop; the same water is heated and then reheated. A sealed system provides a form of central heating in which the water used for heating circulates independently of the building's normal water supply.

An expansion tank contains compressed gas, separated from the sealed-system water by a diaphragm. This allows for normal variations of pressure in the system. A safety valve allows water to escape from the system when pressure becomes too high, and a valve can open to replenish water from the normal water supply if the pressure drops too low. Sealed systems offer an alternative to open-vent systems, in which steam can escape from the system, and gets replaced from the building's water supply via a feed and central storage system.

Heating systems in the United Kingdom and in other parts of Europe commonly combine the needs of space heating with domestic hot-water heating. These systems occur less commonly in the USA. In this case, the heated water in a sealed system flows through a heat exchanger in a hot-water tank or hot-water cylinder where it heats water from the regular potable water supply for use at hot-water taps or appliances such as washing machines or dishwashers.

Hydronic radiant floor heating systems use a boiler or district heating to heat water and a pump to circulate the hot water in plastic pipes installed in a concrete slab. The pipes, embedded in the floor, carry heated water that conducts warmth to the surface of the floor, where it broadcasts heat energy to the room above. Hydronic heating systems are also used with antifreeze solutions in ice and snow melt systems for walkways, parking lots and streets. They are more commonly used in commercial and whole house radiant floor heat projects, whereas electric radiant heat systems are more commonly used in smaller "spot warming" applications.

Steam heating

A steam heating system takes advantage of the high latent heat which is given off when steam condenses to liquid water. In a steam heating system, each room is equipped with a so-called "radiator" which is connected to a source of low-pressure steam (a boiler). Steam entering the radiator condenses and gives up its latent heat, returning to liquid water. The radiator in turn heats the air of the room, and provides some direct radiant heat. The condensate water returns to the boiler either by gravity or with the assistance of a pump. Some systems use only a single pipe for combined steam and condensate return. Since trapped air prevents proper circulation, such systems have vent valves to allow air to be purged. In domestic and small commercial buildings, the steam is generated at relatively low pressure, less than 15 psig (200 kPa)

Steam heating systems are rarely installed in new single-family residential construction owing to the cost of the piping installation. Pipes must be carefully sloped to prevent trapped condensate blockage. Compared to other methods of heating, it is more difficult to control the output of a steam system. However, steam can be sent, for example, between buildings on a campus to allow use of an efficient central boiler and low cost fuel. Tall buildings take advantage of the low density of steam to avoid the excessive pressure required to circulate hot water from a basement-mounted boiler. In industrial systems, process steam used for power generation or other purposes can also be tapped for space heating. Steam for heating systems may also be obtained from heat recovery boilers using otherwise wasted heat from industrial processes.

Electric heaters

Electric heating or resistance heating converts electricity directly to heat. Electric heat is often more expensive than heat produced by combustion appliances like natural gas, propane, and oil. Electric resistance heat can be provided by baseboard heaters, space heaters, radiant heaters, furnaces, wall heaters, or thermal storage systems.

Electric heaters are usually part of a fan coil which is part of a central air conditioner. They circulate heat by blowing air across the heating element which is supplied to the furnace through return air ducts. Blowers in electric furnaces move air over one to five resistance coils or elements which are usually rated at five kilowatts. The heating elements activate one at a time to avoid overloading the electrical system. Overheating is prevented by a safety switch called a limit controller or limit switch. This limit controller may shut the furnace off if the blower fails or if something is blocking the air flow. The heated air is then sent back through the home through supply ducts.

In larger commercial applications, central heating is provided through an air handler which incorporates similar components as a furnace but on a larger scale.

Heat pumps

A heat pump is a device that transfers heat energy from a source of heat to a destination called a "heat sink". Heat pumps are designed to move thermal energy in the opposite direction of spontaneous heat transfer by absorbing heat from a cold space and releasing it to a warmer one. A heat pump uses a small amount of external power to accomplish the work of transferring energy from the heat source to the heat sink.

While air conditioners and freezers are familiar examples of heat pumps, the term "heat pump" is more general and applies to many HVAC(heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) devices used for space heating or space cooling. When a heat pump is used for heating, it employs the same basic refrigeration-type cycle used by an air conditioner or a refrigerator, but in the opposite direction - releasing heat into the conditioned space rather than the surrounding environment. In this use, heat pumps generally draw heat from the cooler external air or from the ground.

In heating mode, heat pumps are three to four times more effective at heating than simple electrical resistance heaters using the same amount of electricity. Typically installed cost for a heat pump is about 20 times greater than for resistance heaters.

In mild climates an air source heat pump can be used to air condition the building during hot weather, and to warm the building using heat extracted from outdoor air in cold weather. Air-source heat pumps are generally uneconomic for outdoor temperatures much below freezing. In colder climates, geothermal heat pumps can be used to extract heat from the ground. For economy, these systems are designed for average low winter temperatures and use supplemental heating for extreme low temperature conditions. The advantage of the heat pump is that it reduces the purchased energy required for building heating; often geothermal source systems also supply domestic hot water. Even in places where fossil fuels provide most electricity, a geothermal system may offset greenhouse gas production since most of the heat is supplied from the surrounding environment, with only 15–30% as electrical consumption.

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