In July 2009, Gordon Brown pledged £1.5 billion for affordable housing. He said this strategy would increase the number of affordable homes built before 2011 by 20,000, to 110,000. Apparently, funds available for council house building will triple to £350 million; a further £500 million will be allocated to the kick-start fund for stalled private sector developments and £750 million to the national affordable housing programme.
Advanced controls
For some time, the UK trade media has exhorted domestic heating installers to fit advanced controls whenever possible. This is sound advice because, in most cases, these latest devices can provide energy savings beyond the scope of conventional controls.
Danfoss, the major controls manufacturer, has always remained at the forefront of innovation. It has developed and produced its comprehensive range of cutting-edge electronic time controls, pioneered the use of programmable room thermostats in the UK, developed fast-response electronic thermostats and introduced energy-saving chrono-proportional control.
But all this does not mean that we should turn our backs on those other essential controls that have served us so well and even now make it possible to achieve today’s higher levels of savings.
Support controls
Danfoss engineers also understand that advanced controls need to be installed in well-designed systems to attain optimum results and that success depends upon support products such as motorised valves, cylinder thermostats, room thermostats and automatic by-pass valves. Also, as the inventors of the TRV - the oldest room temperature control of them all - they do not need to be told about the huge contribution this has made to energy-saving.
Accuracy, reliability and ease-of-use are the prime requirements for these ‘support’ controls and it is in these areas that Danfoss has continually developed its conventional products year-by-year. Decades of global experience in central heating application coupled with the finest R & D resources means the company is exceptionally well-placed to create ground-breaking product designs.
Bi-directional TRVs
As just one example, Danfoss development engineers recognised that widely varying hydraulic dynamics in ‘wet’ central heating systems made it physically impossible to produce one single bi-directional TRV design that could totally prevent system noise in every case. The solution was the patented ‘Revolver’ mechanism – now standard in all Danfoss domestic TRVs - that quickly and easily enables ‘water-hammer’ to be overcome, whenever it occurs, without draining down and re-plumbing.
Motorised valves
Also, Danfoss motorised valves – both paddle and shoe types – have been extensively developed. Operating on proven principles, they were massively re-engineered to give them additional strength and reliability. Danfoss introduced features such as higher-than-usual test pressures, support bearings at both top and bottom of the shoe and paddle spindles and tough polycarbonate actuator covers – all without any price premium for the added quality, robustness and performance.
Thermostatic control
Again, Danfoss in-depth research confirmed that one conventional product in particular – the electro-mechanical room thermostat - requires careful consideration before its continued use in a system after the boiler has been replaced with a new condensing type. In such situations, it is often necessary to fit a faster-acting electronic thermostat that allows the boiler to operate in condensing mode for the majority of its time. Obviously, unless the boiler is operating in condensing mode, it is saving little more than the one it replaced.
Making correct choices
The choice of controls, therefore, is vital to the efficiency of any central heating system. Advanced devices are designed to provide extra savings made possible by latest technologies, but these very devices themselves rely for their success upon quality conventional products. Making correct controls selections is a complex decision that, for most installers, needs assistance from heating control specialists such as Danfoss.
Building Regulations require that, each time an ageing boiler is replaced, the controls are updated where necessary. Danfoss can provide both the advice and the controls to allow this requirement to be met. Visit website www.danfoss-randall.co.uk for information and literature.