Central Heating
Central Heating Services
Central heating is the system to provide warmth in the whole interior of your building or a proportion of the building to every room in the home from a heating source or a central point.
It can also be combined with other systems to control the temperature of the building. For example, it is often used to heat buildings or building rooms in a colder climates. In a residential setting, the central heating system is your boiler and the radiators and pipework that is all connected around your home to keep it warm.
What is a central heating system?
There are different types of central heating systems that change how the heat is generated and distributed. It’s a fair assumption that you probably have a wet central heating system, as 89% of homes in England & Wales have it. These include a wet system, warm air, storage heater and district heating. We are only to focus on a wet system, but should you require further information on the other methods, we are here to help.
Wet system
In a wet system, your boiler will heat water which is then pumped through a network of pipes that connect to radiators in the house. Each radiator has valves that control the rate at which water flows through them and the amount of heat that’s given off.
In the UK, wet systems are typically dual-purpose. They serve as a heating source for the building as well as a supply of hot water for taps. In tankless systems, the boilers operate on demand in which cold water is heated as soon as it comes from the tap. In contrast, when a hot water storage tank is used, they need to be filled with hot water in advance.
How does the central heating system work?
Your central heating system will operate differently depending on the system type. For example, most households in the UK have a wet central heating system. So understanding how this system works is essential in understanding your current heating system’s capabilities and helps you transition to a wet system.
A wet central heating system includes a heating appliance, usually a combi boiler, connected to pipework and radiators, which circulate heat throughout the house. Depending on the system, either water or air will be heated. This heating process happens in one centralised location in the building.
Nowadays, most wet systems operate using two pipes. In this system, hot water is pumped to each radiator using one pipe, and then a second pipe collects the cooled water to return it to the boiler for reheating. A single-pipe layout is less common as the hot water travels through each radiator and loses temperature throughout the system.
In the heating process, the boiler burns fuel to ignite a flame that heats a copper pipe containing water. Burning gas or oil is the most common way to fuel boilers. As the copper pipe increases in temperature, the heat generated is transferred to the water within the pipe.
Whether the boiler is a combi boiler, the heated water will be sent to a hot water storage tank or straight to a water tap. A pump transports the hot water or air from the boiler to the radiators in a storage tank through pipes.
