By: Eugene Sabri
Submitted: 2009-05-24 23:59:43 | Word Count: 486
In its truest sense, a household central heating system consists of one heat source, such as a boiler or furnace, and a network of ducting or piping that carries the heat to all the rooms in the house.
Systems that channel hot air from a furnace around the home through a network of ducts and convectors, are known as dry central heating systems. In more modern systems, fans are often used to force the warm air to circulate more evenly from room to room. Room temperatures can be controlled individually using adjustable dampers in the ducting.
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Systems that channel hot water from a central boiler through pipes and radiators around the home are known as hydronic central heating systems. This is by far the most common type of central heating system in use today. Hydronic systems come in all shapes and sizes, but there are two basic categories, namely open-vented and sealed. When water is heated, it expands.
The main difference between the two types of hydronic central heating systems lies in the way that this problem is dealt with from an engineering perspective. Systems which compensate for the expansion of hot water by using a separate feed and expansion cylinder, which channels the excess water back into the boiler once it has cooled, are known as open-vented systems.
Sealed Systems use a flexible diaphragm to compensate for the expansion of the water as it heats. If the pressure inside the cylinder becomes too great, then a safety valve comes into play which drains the tank to below dangerous levels, while ensuring that none of this water ends up in the mains supply. When the cylinder has cooled down, a topping up bottle comes into play which replaces the lost water and maintains pressure within the cylinder.
Although ceiling and underfloor heating systems are often referred to as being types of central heating systems, it is more common for them to use an independent electrical heating element rather than a shared heat supply. These systems work by using a combination of a heating element and a certain amount of insulation which both disperses the heat and prevents it from going out of the room.
Electric storage heaters are a popular choice in lower cost housing due to their cheap installation, maintenance, and running costs. Each heater contains firebricks which are capable of storing heat energy for a long time, hence the term ‘storage heater’. They are usually set to heat up during off-peak times when electricity demand is low and therefore comparatively cheap, and then release this heat slowly over the course of the day using fans or convectors. This is one of the cheapest ways to heat your home, although it is one of the least flexible for obvious reasons.
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