Katie Plumstead, Marketing Manager with ESP, examines how a better understanding of heating controls can help installers and end users limit their energy usage and put a cap on their bills.
Householders are continuing to look at ways to reduce their energy consumption to help combat rising bills. Understanding how their heating system is performing and how they can make small changes to improve its efficiency is one consideration.
Research shows that few people really understand their heating controls and many simply just don’t use them. This is where installers, supported by manufacturers, can play a part in advising and educating consumers on the best products for their circumstances and how to use them.
TPI control
Modern controls are designed to allow you to get the best energy efficiency possible from the heating system. Look out for those with TPI (Time Proportional & Integral) control – a feature in room thermostats that ensures the boiler fires for the shortest possible time in order to reach and maintain a room at the comfort level selected and thus optimise heating efficiency.
Tamper protected thermostat
With a tamperproof thermostat the ‘temperature set’ dial is hidden away, and the set temperature can be maintained without interference. This is particularly advantageous for landlords or where the thermostat is installed in public areas. If a thermostat is set unnecessarily high, this will lead to uncomfortable temperatures and higher than necessary bills.
Programmable thermostat
A programmable thermostat gives the user an option to schedule at what time and day a call for heat can be made, thus reducing the possibility of wasting energy when the property is empty. This is advantageous when the occupants are at work, and therefore do not have to remember
to switch the heating ON/OFF manually. A programmable thermostat ensures that the heating is not activated longer than required.
Immersion heater control
For some systems immersion heaters are used. A metal element heats up a water cylinder and it can take between one to two hours to produce hot water. An immersion heater is manually switched by the user, which means there is the risk that they will not remember to turn it off. Timer controlled solutions can ensure that the immersion heater is switched off after a set duration. In addition, programmable timer controllers can be used to schedule exactly when the immersion heater is switched on, automatically ensuring hot water is available when required.
Smart controls
The evolution of smart technology continues to play a key role in energy efficiency. It provides homeowners with a real opportunity to make conscious decisions about how they heat their homes and what effect this can have on their energy bills.
A smart thermostat is something that installers can easily add to their customers’ home heating, allowing householders to control and monitor the room temperature and thermostat activity from anywhere in the world, via an app on a smart phone or tablet.
Sangamo controls
Available from ESP is the Sangamo range of Choice Thermostats and Choice Controllers. Last year the range underwent a revamp and was relaunched as the Sangamo Plus range of heating and timer controls.
Sangamo Choice Plus offers a wide range of heating and timer controls for domestic, commercial, and industrial use. The range can be broken down into four main product categories – Timer Controllers, Thermostats, Programmable Thermostats and Programmers – with a total of 15 products making up the range. Sangamo recently expanded the range further to introduce two new colour options across all products offered. The full range is now available in white, silver and black versions.
