How does central heating work?
The idea of central heating is very simple; your boiler which is normally located in an easy to access part of your house like your kitchen, it uses water which is moved by an electricity powered pump to carry heat into the radiators in all the other rooms around your home. This way is easy, efficient, convenient and its makes those winter days that little more enjoyable.
What does a boiler actually do?
Your boiler is the most important asset to your central heating system. It’s essentially a big fire that has a continuous supply of natural gas going into it from a pipe that goes out to the mains in the street. When you like your heating on, you switch on your boiler which an electric switch; which then in turn lets a valve open allowing the gas to enter a sealed combustion chamber inside your boiler. An electric ignition system sets the gas alight and the jets play onto a heat exchanger connected to a pipe carrying cold water. The water pipe is just one small section of large and continuous circuit of pipes which travel all around your home. This system passes through each hot water radiator in turn and then returns back to the boiler. When the water is flowing through your radiators, it gives off some of its heat and warms up your rooms.
How do radiators work?
A radiator is essentially a copper pipe which has been bent back and forth around 10 or 20 times to create a large surface area which can heat an entire room. It’s either completely on or completely off. Each radiator has a little screw valve which when turned, either turns it off or on there’s no in between. With a thermostatic radiator valve the amount of heat allowed through your radiators can be controlled. It works simply by having it fitted on your screw valve and turning the screw one way for a warmer room and another way for a less warm room.
You should try and keep as warm as possibly coming up to winter. Here at Plumbing for Less we offer a range of boilers, radiators and heating systems perfect for your home.
