A mixture of old and new
September 22nd, 2008
Our customer was a couple in South Godstone. Their house was an unusual stables conversion, comprising three buildings arranged around a courtyard, in a ‘U’ shape.
Keeping the house warm was a struggle in the past, and the room used as the lounge, with superb views over rolling farmland, was the coldest room in the house. It had three external walls, some skylights, and was probably the furthest from the boiler.
We recommended a new Vaillant ecoTEC plus 6 series boiler, which would work alongside their existing hot water cylinder and tanks.
New Vaillant ecoTEC 624 boiler mounted in cupboard with existing cylinder
The heating problem was addressed by Honeywell Hometronic.
The Hometronic electronic valves were fitted to each of the existing 15 radiators and towel rails.
Hometronic valve being fitted to existing radiator
Without adapting any of the old pipework we thus enabled the customer to have 16 separate zones of heating……
The Hometronic control panel (called Hometronic Manager) was conveniently mounted in the kitchen. From this small panel all the rooms can be preset on a time and temperature basis.
Our customer can set the lounge to 20C from 7pm to 10pm, and the Hometronic system will cycle the radiators in this area as often as necessary to keep the room at temperature, irrespective of the settings or conditions elsewhere in the property.
Hometronic Manager, fitted in the kitchen at South Godstone. All heating and hot water is managed from this simple interface.
Other reception rooms, hall and bedrooms can be preset to lower temperatures at times they are not occupied. In this way, Hometronic will enable increased comfort whilst lowering the temperature (and thus energy wasted) in rooms not in use.
So, to recap, this property now offers a typical 90% efficiency in burning gas. But the amount of fuel used is directed to the parts of the property only where it is needed, when it is needed.
It is often overlooked that you can have the most efficient boiler plant in the World, but managing how it is used is just as important. Heating 10 rooms to occupational temperatures when there are only 2 people in residence is a massive waste of energy, especially in older, poorly insulated (but characterful!) homes.
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