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What
is Central Heating?
Central
Heating means heating from a central source.
Even
the Romans had central heating, this was in the form of an open fire under the
floor. The heat from the fire was channelled through large ducts built into the
floor giving a type of under floor heating.
Most
modern central heating systems use water as the medium to get heat from the
central source (boiler) to all the areas to be heated.
The
correct term for a boiler is a Heat generator because the water is not
“boiled”, although water in a modern central heating system can reach 100
deg.°C and above, the normal running temperature is about 78 deg.°C
There
is no such thing as a standard central heating system, you can tailor the system
to suit your needs and, if working correctly, it should look after itself with
regards to turning itself on & off automatically, should use no more fuel
than necessary for your needs and always have the house at the correct
temperature. It should also provide all the hot water you need, when you need
it.
A centrally heated house will normally be cheaper to run than any other form of heating. For instance independent fires, even just one fire can be more expensive to run than a well designed central heating system with good quality controles.
Below is a diagram of a typical gas central heating system. The diagram shows an open vented, fully pumped small bore system controlled by a programmer, cylinder stat and room stat
