Are your heating systems prepared for what is to come?

The mild autumn is sadly coming to an end and inevitably cold winter weather on its way. Well that’s fairly easy to predict as for most winters the likelihood of freezing temperatures, cold winds and a few inches of snow are what you would expect.

Here in the UK we don’t seem to have learnt enough from past experiences and always appear to be caught out by the first snowfall. The predictability that the weather is likely to get cold over winter and how our transport systems fail to deal with winter weather effectively always amaze me. Other countries manage to keep running in winter without it being a major crisis so why can’t we?

In these times of austerity I don’t suppose I can influence the government much to take the threat of bad weather more seriously but perhaps I can influence readers of my blog to look seriously at the heating systems you have in place at both home and at work.

The autumn is a good time to get boilers serviced and check that all pipe and cylinder lagging is in good order and adequate for the conditions. Check that radiators are bled and are warm from the top to the bottom. If the top of a radiator is cold when your system is running this is usually a sign that you have some air trapped. This can be vented by using a radiator key by opening the bleed valve and holding a cloth to catch the water (carefully as this may be hot) when all the air has been released. If when you have bled the radiator the bottom doesn’t warm up you may have a build up of sediment which would require your heating engineer to conduct a power flush to clean the sediment from your system.

Check that any Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRV’s) are working correctly by fully opening and shutting. This helps release the mechanisms which sometimes get stuck during the summer off periods.

 If this doesn’t free it you can unscrew the top part of the TRV to expose the pin valve which you can ease up gently with a pair of pliers adding a bit of lubricant like WD40 and ease the pin up and down a few times (if in doubt call a professional). 

Make sure to check all TRV’s are set correctly and try turning each valve down a notch to save some energy. In rooms which have less frequent use or require lower heating loads try turning down even further. This will help to allow more heat to be available for other more demanding areas.

Air handling equipment should always be professionally serviced. It makes good sense to have a regular Air conditioning inspection and is a legal requirement to do so if your system has a cooling load over 12kW. The inspection may recommend some remedial work to bring it up to the regulatory standards but it can also be a good idea to have your Air Handling Units (AHU’s) refurbished and updated to make use of the latest energy efficient technologies available.

The other often forgotten part of a commercial heating system to keep maintained and working at peak performance and is often left until the first blast of arctic weather are the door curtains or air barriers protecting the buildings entrances. These are a special interest to me as I have spent nearly 30 years in this industry. 

Door curtains often get mistaken for over door heaters. They are not used to heat your building but are there to help protect your conditioned environment from the outside elements. A correctly sized, correctly installed, well maintained and effectively controlled air curtain will be an energy saving device. (Please see previous blog posts) So please make sure that this underrated energy saving product gets some TLC.

If you require any more information or would like some help with your air conditioning systems please contact me stevebrown@envirotec.co.uk .