Central Heating Control

[Jon LawesParticipant @jonlawes51698]

My Grandfather was the foreman of the Boiler House at Boscombe Down which supplied superheated steam to heat exchangers fitted to all the other buildings of the site. It was an interesting system, but I suspect it wasn't very efficient. Oddities included the Weighbridge hangar with an air curtain system coming up from the floor to try to retain heat when the doors were open, and the heat exchanger connected to a merlin engine radiator/heat exhanger to warm fuel up for tropical testing. Don't fancy being near that when its all toasty.

Back on topic I'm finding my house heating far more efficient now I'm heating specific areas rather than all of it. It's a tall and narrow house on three stories so all the heat goes to the top. I've suggested using a fan and ducting to bring the hot air back to the bottom but my wife really doesn't like the idea of my experimental duct-work…

[john fletcher 1Participant @johnfletcher1]

My brother in law lives in Canada and in their house each room has a ceiling fan built in, which keep the house cool in summer, the blade can be twisted, such that in the winter the hot air in the ceilings of the rooms is force downwards. I tried a similar idea several years ago using a slow six inch fan and a clear plastic tube, it was very effective but didn't look very good, so out it went. John

[John Doe 2Participant @johndoe2]

I have installed a ceiling fan in our bedroom mainly to keep us cool at night in the summer, but you can simply select reverse rotation to push the heat down in the winter – you don't need to twist the blades.

I remember working in a helicopter hangar many moons ago and they had long 6 or 8" diameter plastic tubes hung at each corner with an electric fan in each tube blowing the warm air from just under the roof back down to floor level.

I hope to install a system working on similar principles to our next house – it needs an extensive make-over so I hope to be able to install suitable ducting as I go, along with a heat recovery system on the bathroom and kitchen extractors.

[HopperParticipant @hopper]

We have electrically reversible ceiling fans in every room in every house in Queensland. Usually we run them to blow air downwards in the summer so you get a nice breeze on you that evaporates sweat and cools you. Then reverse the rotation and draw air upwards in the winter. That way you do not feel a chilling breeze under the fan and it seems to draw the cooler air upwards and that displaces the warmer air, forcing it downwards to the occupied area.

They seem to work much better for cooling in summer than heating in winter. But our winters here are like summer most other places. 26C daily and 19 overnight on average. I rarely have to get the electric fan heater out of the cupboard.

Edited By Hopper on 15/04/2022 10:08:03

Edited By Hopper on 15/04/2022 10:10:14

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

I am glad that five years ago we took the decision to install an inset woodburner in our lounge, our house is 50 odd years old and was built with an open fireplace in the lounge. The woodburner is rated at 5kw output which is more than enough to heat our lounge, we leave the door open all the time and the heat percolates throughout the house so in winter when the woodburner is in use we use very little gas for heating. Our cats have sussed out that the bedroom above the lounge, where the chimney runs, gets very warm when the fire is in use and they compete for the space next to the chimney. It seems a retrograde step burning wood instead of the convenience of gas but it makes sense financially as the price of gas is only going to go in one direction. Dave W

[Graham StoppaniParticipant @grahamstoppani46499]

Posted by John Doe 2 on 15/04/2022 09:28:36:

I hope to install a system working on similar principles to our next house – it needs an extensive make-over so I hope to be able to install suitable ducting as I go, along with a heat recovery system on the bathroom and kitchen extractors.

We have such a system installed. Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery (MVHR) The bedrooms and living rooms have outside air ducted into them through ceiling vents while the kitchen, toilets and bathrooms have similar vents extracting air. The two systems pass through a heat exchanger that recovers about 60% of the heat.

The benefit is that the in coming air is filtered, and living in a bungalow we have the added security of not needing to open any windows. The down side is that it makes it slightly more difficult to keep rooms at different temperatures.

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