Efficient Central Heating That Will Keep Your Home Warm

As the temperature drops, proper central heating becomes more and more important. Ensuring that your central heating system is working correctly should be a top priority for you and your family with a single faulty part capable of ruining your winter holiday season. There are a number of issues that can surface during the cold winter months. One common issue is frost damage, which can harm boilers and pipes, preventing them from working efficiently.

In previous years, the central heating system was designed with the frost thermostat located near the boiler. Its job was to start the boiler when the air temperature dropped and stop the boiler when the air temperature reached an acceptable level. If the thermostat detected excessive heat escaping from the boiler or surrounding pipes it quickly turned off the system, in order to conserve energy and prevent excessive heating of the home.

Modern central heating design has solved the problem of heat escape through improved insulation but in doing so, created another problem. The boiler and pipes are now much more insulated, in an attempt to conserve energy. Unfortunately, the frost thermostat is no longer capable of accurately determining the temperature. As a result, wasteful overheating can easily occur.

Installing a pipe thermostat can solve this problem. A pipe thermostat is typically placed on the outside of the boiler return pipe, measuring the temperature of the pipe (assuming copper pipes are good heat conductive materials). Its purpose is to turn off the boiler before overheating occurs. There are several new products that contain both a frost thermostat and low limit pipe thermostat, providing standard room temperature setting capabilities along with frost protection capabilities.

Installation and set up of these new thermostats is simple and quite intuitive. Guidelines for complete wiring and installation arrive in the kit, ensuring simple installation. The frost thermostat is usually set to 5C and the pipe thermostat is commonly set to 25C. Additional pipe thermostats can be bought for other exposed pipes, to further insure that your system is completely protected.

Another heating regulation solution is the fully programmable room thermostat. Such devices are normally installed inside the living area (typically the hallway or the living room) to take a typical measure of the room temperature. Modern designs can be set to alter the temperature several times throughout the course of a day. More recent kits have wireless models that operate via a radio signal from the thermostat to the boiler. Such RF (Radio Frequency) thermostats are easy to install as they do not require wiring, but rather use a secure radio frequency to relay their reading to the boiler control unit.

However, it is important to note that a thermostat is not the only way to heat your home in the most effective way. Adjusting the zones where heat is distributed can be a big energy saver. Focus heat where most time is spent and allow rooms that are not frequently used to remain cooler. This simple change will impact the efficiency of your central heating system greatly and help you reduce your heating bills.