AR-461: BUILDING SCIENCE
By:
RAVINDAR KUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Architecture and Planning
NED University of Engineering and Technology
Karachi
LECTURE NO. 11
TOPIC: HEATING: STUDY OF VARIOUS TYPES OF HEATING SYSTEMS AND THEIR EQUIPMENTS;
HEAT INSULATION
INTRODUCTION:[1]
There are many different types of standard heating systems. Central heating is often used in cold climates to heat private houses and public buildings. Such a system contains a boiler, furnace, or heat pump to heat water, steam, or air, all in a central location such as a furnace room in a home or a mechanical room in a large building. The use of water as the heat transfer medium is known as hydronics. The system also contains either ductwork, for forced air systems, or piping to distribute a heated fluid and radiators to transfer this heat to the air. The term radiator in this context is misleading since most heat transfer from the heat exchanger is by convection, not radiation. The radiators may be mounted on walls or buried in the floor to give under-floor heat. In boiler fed or radiant heating systems, all but the simplest systems have a pump to circulate the water and ensure an equal supply of heat to all the radiators. The heated water can also be fed through another (secondary) heat exchanger inside a storage cylinder to provide hot running water. Forced air systems send heated air through ductwork. During warm weather the same ductwork can be used for air conditioning. The forced air can also be filtered or put through air cleaners. Heating can also be provided from electric, or resistance heating using a filament that becomes hot when electric current is caused to pass through it. This type of heat can be found in electric baseboard heaters, portable electric heaters, and as backup or supplemental heating for heat pump (or reverse heating) system. The heating elements (radiators or vents) should be located in the coldest part of the room, typically next to the windows to minimize condensation and offset the convective air current formed in the room due to the air next to the window becoming negatively buoyant due to the cold glass. Devices that direct vents away from windows to prevent "wasted" heat defeat this design intent. Cold air drafts can contribute significantly to subjectively feeling colder than the average room temperature. Therefore, it is important to control the air leaks from outside in addition to proper design of the heating system. The invention of central heating is often credited to the ancient Romans, who installed a system of air ducts called a hypocaust in the walls and floors of public baths and private villas.[2]
CENTRAL HEATING:[3]
A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building (or portion of a building) from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be a HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system. Central heating differs from local heating in that the heat generation occurs in one place, such as a furnace room in a house or a mechanical room in a large building (though not necessarily at the "central" geometric point).
The most common method of heat generation involves the combustion of fossil fuel in a furnace or boiler. The resultant heat then gets distributed: typically by forced-air through ductwork, by water circulating through pipes, or by steam fed through pipes. Increasingly, buildings utilize solar-powered heat sources, in which case the distribution system normally uses water circulation. In much of northern Europe and in urban portions of Russia, where people seldom require air conditioning in homes due to the temperate climate, most new housing comes with central heating installed. Such areas normally use gas heaters, district heating, or oil-fired systems. In the western and southern United States natural-gas-fired central forced-air systems occur most commonly; these systems and central-boiler systems both occur in the far northern regions of the USA. Steam-heating systems, fired by coal, oil or gas, feature in the USA, Russia and Europe: primarily for larger buildings. Electrical heating systems occur less commonly and are only practical with low cost electricity or when geothermal heat pumps are used. Considering the combined system of central generating plant and electric resistance heating, the overall efficiency will be less than for direct use of fossil fuel for space heating.
HISTORY OF HEATING:
Some buildings in the Roman Empire used central heating systems, conducting air heated by furnaces through empty spaces under the floors and out of pipes in the walls—a system known as a hypocaust.[4] A similar system of central heating was used in ancient Korea, where it is known as ondol. It is thought that the ondol system dates back to the Koguryo or Three Kingdoms (37 BC-AD 668) period when excess heat from stoves were used to warm homes. In the early medieval Alpine upland, a simpler central heating system where heat travelled through under floor channels from the furnace room replaced the Roman hypocaust at some places. In Reichenau Abbey a network of interconnected under floor channels heated the 300 m² large assembly room of the monks during the winter months. The degree of efficiency of the system has been calculated at 90%.[5] In the 13th century, the Cistercian monks revived central heating in Christian Europe using river diversions combined with indoor wood-fired furnaces. The well-preserved Royal Monastery of Our Lady of the Wheel (founded 1202) on the Ebro River in the Aragon region of Spain provides an excellent example of such an application. The Roman hypocaust continued to be used on a smaller scale during late Antiquity and by the Umayyad caliphate, while later Muslim builder employed a simpler system of underfloor pipes.[6] By about 1700 Russian engineers had started designing hydrologically based systems for central heating. The Summer Palace (1710–1714) of Peter the Great in Saint Petersburg provides the best extant example. Slightly later, in 1716, came the first use of water in Sweden to distribute heat in buildings. Martin Triewald, a Swedish engineer, used this method for a greenhouse at Newcastle upon Tyne. Jean Simon Bonnemain (1743–1830), a French architect,[7] introduced the technique to industry on a cooperative, at Château du Pêcq, near Paris. Angier March Perkins developed and installed some of the earliest steam-heating systems in the 1830s. The first was installed in the home of Governor of the Bank of England John Horley Palmer so that he could grow grapes in England's cold climate.[8]
Franz San Galli, a Polish-born Russian businessman living in St. Petersburg, b/w 1855-1857 invented the radiator, which was a major step in the final shaping of modern central heating.[9]
WATER HEATING:
Common components of a central heating system using water-circulation include:
· Gas supply lines (sometimes including a propane tank), oil tank and supply lines or district heating supply lines
· Boiler (or a heat exchanger for district heating) — heats water in a closed-water system
· Pump — circulates the water in the closed system
· Radiators — wall-mounted panels through which the heated water passes in order to release heat into rooms
Engineers in the United Kingdom and in other parts of Europe commonly combine the needs of room heating with hot-water heating and storage. These systems occur less commonly in the USA. In this case, the heated water in a sealed system flows through a heat exchanger in a hot-water tank or hot-water cylinder where it heats water from the normal water supply before that water gets fed to hot-water outlets in the house. These outlets may service hot-water taps or appliances such as washing machines or dishwashers.
SEALED WATER-CIRCULATING SYSTEM:
A sealed system provides a form of central heating in which the water used for heating usually circulates independently of the building's normal water supply. An expansion tank contains compressed gas, separated from the sealed-system water by a diaphragm. This allows for normal variations of pressure in the system. A safety valve allows water to escape from the system when pressure becomes too high, and a valve can open to replenish water from the normal water supply if the pressure drops too low. Sealed systems offer an alternative to open-vent systems, in which steam can escape from the system, and gets replaced from the building's water supply via a feed and central storage system.
ELECTRIC AND GAS-FIRED HEATERS:
Electric heating or resistance heating converts electricity directly to heat. Electric heat is often more expensive than heat produced by combustion appliances like natural gas, propane, and oil. Electric resistance heat can be provided by baseboard heaters, space heaters, radiant heaters, furnaces, wall heaters, or thermal storage systems.
Electric heaters are usually part of a fan coil which is part of a central air conditioner. They circulate heat by blowing air across the heating element which is supplied to the furnace through return air ducts. Blowers in electric furnaces move air over one to five resistance coils or elements which are usually rated at five kilowatts. The heating elements activate one at a time to avoid overloading the electrical system. Overheating is prevented by a safety switch called a limit controller or limit switch. This limit controller may shut the furnace off if the blower fails or if something is blocking the air flow. The heated air is then sent back through the home through supply ducts.
In larger commercial applications, central heating is provided through an air handler which incorporates similar components as a furnace but on a larger scale.
HYDRONIC AND STEAM SYSTEMS:
Hydronic heating systems are systems that circulate a medium for heating. Hydronic radiant floor heating systems use a boiler or district heating to heat water and a pump to circulate the hot water in plastic pipes installed in a concrete slab. The pipes, embedded in the floor, carry heated water that conducts warmth to the surface of the floor where it broadcasts heat energy to the room above. Hydronic systems circulate hot water for heating. Steam heating systems are similar to heating water systems, except steam is used as the heating medium instead of water. Hydronic heating systems generally consist of a boiler or district heating heat exchanger, hot water circulating pumps, distribution piping, and a fan coil unit or a radiator located in the room or space. Steam heating systems are similar except no circulating pumps are required. Hydronic systems are closed loop: the same fluid is heated and then reheated. Hydronic heating systems are also used with antifreeze solutions in ice and snow melt systems for walkways, parking lots and streets. They are more commonly used in commercial and whole house radiant floor heat projects, while electric radiant heat systems are more commonly used in smaller "spot warming" applications.
HEAT PUMPS:
In mild climates a heat pump can be used to air condition the building during hot weather, and to warm the building using heat extracted from outdoor air in cold weather. Air-source heat pumps are generally uneconomic for outdoor temperatures much below freezing. In colder climates, geothermal heat pumps can be used to extract heat from the ground. For economy, these systems are designed for average low winter temperatures and use supplemental heating for extreme low temperature conditions. The advantage of the heat pump is that it reduces the purchased energy required for building heating; often geothermal source systems also supply domestic hot water. Even in places where fossil fuels provide most electricity, a geothermal system may offset greenhouse gas production since most of the energy furnished for heating is supplied from the environment, with only 15–30% purchased.
ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS:
From an energy-efficiency standpoint considerable heat gets lost or goes to waste if only a single room needs heating, since central heating has distribution losses and (in the case of forced-air systems particularly) may heat some unoccupied rooms without need. In such buildings which require isolated heating, one may wish to consider non-central systems such as individual room heaters, fireplaces or other devices. Alternatively, architects can design new buildings to use low-energy building techniques which can virtually eliminate the need for heating, such as those built to the Passive House standard. However, if a building does need full heating, combustion central heating offers a more environmentally friendly solution than electric-air central heating or than other direct electric heating devices. This stems from the fact that most electricity originates remotely using fossil fuels, with up to two-thirds of the energy in the fuel lost (unless utilized for district heating) at the power station and in transmission losses. In Sweden proposals exist to phase out direct electric heating for this reason (see oil phase-out in Sweden). Nuclear and hydroelectric sources reduce this factor. In contrast, hot-water central heating systems can use water heated in or close to the building using high-efficiency condensing boilers, biofuels, or district heating. Wet underfloor heating has proven ideal. This offers the option of relatively easy conversion in the future to use developing technologies such as heat pumps and solar combisystems, thereby also providing future-proofing. Typical efficiencies for central heating are: 85-97% for gas fired heating; 80-89% for oil-fired, and 45-60% for coal-fired heating.[10]
HEAT INSULATION OR THERMAL INSULATION:[11]
Thermal insulation is the reduction of the effects of the various processes of heat transfer between objects in thermal contact or in range of radiative influence. Heat is the transfer of thermal energy between objects of differing temperature. The means to stem heat flow may be especially engineered methods or processes, as well as suitable static objects and materials. Heat flow is an inevitable consequence of contact of objects of differing temperature. Thermal insulation provides a means to maintain a gradient of temperature, by providing a region of insulation in which heat flow is reduced or thermal radiation is reflected rather than absorbed. In building construction, insulating materials are assigned a quantitative measure of the insulating capability, called the R-value.
R-VALUE:[12]
The R-value is a measure of thermal resistance[13] used in the building and construction industry. Under uniform conditions it is the ratio of the temperature difference across an insulator and the heat flux (heat transfer per unit area QA) through it.
The R-value being discussed is the unit thermal resistance. This is used for a unit value of any particular material. It is expressed as the thickness of the material divided by the thermal conductivity. For the thermal resistance of an entire section of material, instead of the unit resistance, divide the unit thermal resistance by the area of the material. For example, if you have the unit thermal resistance of a wall, divide by the cross-sectional area of the depth of the wall to compute the thermal resistance. The unit thermal conductance of a material is denoted as C and is the reciprocal of the unit thermal resistance. This can also be called the unit surface conductance and denoted by h.[14] the bigger the number, the better the building insulation's effectiveness.[15] R-value is the reciprocal of U-value.
U-VALUE:[16]
U is the inverse of R with SI units of W/(m²K) and US units of BTU/(h °F ft²)
Around most of the world, R-values are given in SI units, typically square-meter kelvins per watt or m²·K/W (or equivalently to m²·°C/W). In the United States customary units, R-values are given in units of ft²·°F·h/Btu. It is particularly easy to confuse SI and US R-values, because R-values both in the US and elsewhere are often cited without their units, e.g. R-3.5. Usually, however, the correct units can be inferred from the context and from the magnitudes of the values. United States R-values are approximately six times SI R-values.
REFERENCES:
[1]HVAC; From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HVAC (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[2] Hypocaust; Encyclopedia Britannica Online From: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/279869/hypocaust (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[3] Central Heating; From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_heating (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[4] BBC: Romans Technology From: http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/romans/tech.shtml (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[5] Hägermann & Schneider (1997) pp. 456–459 Hägermann, Dieter; Schneider, Helmuth (1997), Propyläen Technikgeschichte. Landbau und Handwerk, 750 v. Chr. bis 1000 n. Chr. (2nd ed.), Berlin, ISBN 3-549-05632-X
[6] Hugh N. Kennedy, Hugh (1985). "From Polis To Madina: Urban Change In Late Antique And Early Islamic Syria". Past & Present (Oxford University Press) 106 (1): 3–27 [10–1]. doi:10.1093/past/106.1.3
[7] Emmanuelle Gallo: "Jean Simon Bonnemain (1743-1830) and the Origins of Hot Water Central Heating" in Proceedings of the Second International Congress on Construction History (2006-06-17), pages 1043-1060; From: http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00080479/en/ (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[8] McConnell, A. (2004) "Perkins, Angier March (1799–1881)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, accessed 14 Aug 2007
[9] Family Sangalli / San Galli; From: http://www.gruner-fam.de/SanGalli-E.html (Retrieved April 5, 2011) The hot boxes of San Galli (Russian); From: http://www.votgk.com/press/energyhistory/sangalli/ (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[10] EERE Consumer's Guide: Selecting Heating Fuel and System Types; From: http://www.eere.energy.gov/consumer/your_home/space_heating_cooling/index.cfm/mytopic=12330 (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[11] Heat Insulation; From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_insulation (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[12] R-Value (Insulation); From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-value_(insulation) (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[13] Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Which Kind of Insulation Is Best? From: http://www.ornl.gov/sci/roofs+walls/insulation/ins_02.html (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[14] McQuiston, Parker, Spitler. Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning: Analysis and Design, Sixth Edition. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley and Sons Inc., 2005.
[15] US Department of Energy, The R-Value of Insulation; From: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/insulation_airsealing/index.cfm/mytopic=11340 (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[16] U-Value; From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-value#U-value (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
[17] From: http://www.p2000insulation.com/ (Retrieved April 5, 2011)
