Whatever the weather

Weather compensation in domestic boilers ensures that appropriate temperatures are maintained at all times, increasing comfort levels, reducing boiler wear, cutting fuel costs and helping the environment. John Foster, sales and marketing director for Keston, explains.

 

Two compelling statistics make the installation of domestic boiler weather compensation a no-brainer.

• First, energy consumed in buildings is responsible for more than half of all UK carbon emissions. Each household creates around 6 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) a year - double that produced by the average car. Anything that can be done to reduce this shocking discharge rate is sure to be welcomed.
• Second, the EnergySaving Trust reckons that the nation's energy bill could be slashed by around £1.3 billion a year if everyone with central heating installed a condensing boiler - that's equivalent to an annual saving of more than £50 for every household in country.
  
  
  Weather compensation fitted to these boilers would result in even higher savings. Tests in our laboratory have indicated that we would expect to get a 20% reduction in fuel usage by using weather compensation.
  For property owners, weather compensation represents one of the easiest and most effective ways to cut both harmful emissions and unnecessary energy usage. But energy and emissions savings are not the only benefit; weather compensation heating controls also avoid large temperature fluctuations, which adversely affect comfort levels and cost a great deal, both financially and environmentally.
  
  Another key selling point for these controls is their ability to dramatically reduce the wear and tear on a boiler, prolonging its life and maximizing the customer's return on the investment. On tope of this, they reduce boiler noise levels.
  
  These are powerful arguments for engineers to employ in order to persuade householders to install weather compensation and thereby increase profit margins.
  
  A few manufacturers supply weather compensation technology as a plug-in feature on selected models, but at a significant additional cost.
  
  Keston's belief in the value of this technology is illustrated by the fact that all its boilers feature these controls as standard. The engineer simply needs to add a small sensor to the outside of the property, linking it to theboiler with a single wire connection.
  
  We would liketo see the government make weather compensation controls a mandatory features acrossthe boiler market, not only becausethey make economic sense for thehouseholderand environmental sense in terms of helping emissions, but also because they have the potential to increase the profit margins of hard-pressedheating engineers.
  
  

Working with the elements - The principles of weather compensation

• Heating engineers generally design systems for an outside temperature of - 1 degree Celsius, or sometimes lower. Yet, it is unlikely that the outside temperature will only be at or below this for more than a few weeks of the year. For the remainder of the year, the radiators will run at a higher temperature than necessary, missing out on additional efficiency savings beyond those already achieved from the condensing boiler.
  In mild winter conditions, and without weather compensation, the boiler will still attempt to drive the flow temperature up to 82 degree Celsius flow temperature, and so on.
  This has two consequences. First, the boiler will run inefficiently, not only because it is constantly cycling in short bursts and striving to reach a temperature which is not required, but also because each time it switches off it retains heat that is not normally useful. Although the heat may be retained in the building, it is unlikely to be in occupied areas and, therefore, not directly useful in keeping occupants warm.
  Second, the comfort levels will be adversely affected because of large temperature fluctuations in the rooms.
  Weather compensation controls address these issues by constantly adjusting the boiler flow temperature to the outside temperature.

 

Source - Gas Safe Register

Posted Date: 03rd Jun 2010