THE HEATING SYSTEM

CENTRAL HEATING

For many people heating means central heating with a boiler and radiators. Most boilers need elctricity to operate or at least circulate the water around the radiators. A power failure may leave you without any form of heat.

Positioning radiators

Assuming that there is an existing central heating circuit you may still want to move radiators around or add more. In this case you could just either want to re-run the 15mm pipework or install a whole new circuit. First think of where you want radiators. In fact the term radiator is misleading: most of the heating comes from convection. Therefore a radiator must be placed where it will have a good flow of air past it. The best place is under a window because the air is coldest there and heat is released faster to a cold environment. The only problem is what to do if you want floor-length curtains ( a good insulator in themselves). In this case the next best place to put a radiator is either side of the window.

Text readapted from Unit 7, Systems in the House," Walking through the buildings"