Introduction to heating controls
Heating controls are key to helping saving money once you have installed other energy efficiency measures such as loft or wall insulation.
Room Thermostats
What is a thermostat? The thermostat is a common fixture in most homes, helping to maintain an even temperature in the house all year round. In the winter, room thermostats (sometimes referred to as roomstats) prevent rooms from overheating. In…
Heating Programmers
What are heating programmers? Programmers are a key component of heating control systems in the UK. Since many homes are unoccupied for parts of the day, there is little point in heating them if no one is there to benefit.…
Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs)
What are thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs)? Thermostatic radiator valves are commonly referred to as TRVs and are used to control the air temperature of different rooms – you will normally find them on the side of your radiators. TRVs are…
Colour Temperature, Colour Rendering and Lumen Efficiency
Understanding lighting Before looking at buying LED lighting for your home, it is really important to understand how light works and what makes some light different to others. The importance of light in the home cannot be understated; about 80% of…
Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI)
The Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive – what is it? The Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) is a government scheme that pays people that produce their own heating and hot water using renewable energy sources such as heat pumps or solar thermal…
Non-Domestic Renewable Heat Incentive
[Update: Significant changes have recently been made to the RHI. Read more about it here.] What is the RHI? The Renewable Heat Incentive is a funding mechanism created by the government to encourage the installation of renewable energy technologies. The non-domestic…
Commercial Biomass Boilers – Introduction
Why biomass? Biomass involves the burning of any number of organic fuels to create heat and/or electricity. Despite the carbon emissions created by the burning of these fuels, biomass is considered a sustainable energy source. This is because the carbon…
Types of biomass boiler
Choosing a biomass boiler Domestic biomass boilers are usually divided into the following categories: moving grate, plane grate, batch fired and stoker. Here we will look at each of these systems to help you decide which is best for you.…
Maintaining your biomass system
If you’re considering installing a biomass boiler, you’ll probably know it will need a bit more looking after than an ordinary gas boiler. A gas boiler needs to be checked by an engineer every year, but with a biomass boiler,…