Hydronics is use of water or glycol as a heat transfer medium in heating systems. The most common and the oldest examples of hydronic heating are hot water and steam radiators. The hydronic heating panel has a beautiful way of heating our home.
Technology behind hydronic heating
Modern technology of hydronics heating enables the heat to be delivered where and when it is needed. There are many possible system configurations that are exactly capable to meet the comfort level. The water within this system is neither its destination nor the source of the heat but the conveyor belt.
There are both single pipe and double pipe steam systems
The single pipe systems deliver steam to the radiators. Here the steam gets condensed back to water after giving up its heat. The steam supply pipes and the radiators are pitched so that the condensate is eventually taken back to the boiler by gravity where it is turned back into steam once again and returned to the radiators. In the double pipe return system, manual or automatic valves are used to modulate the flow of steam to the radiators. For the condensate, there is a return path which involves gravity-induced flow and pumps as per the necessity.
How the heating panel gets installed
The installation of hydronic heating panel is noninvasive. It is connected to the radiant panels mounted in the rooms which require heating up, via specially designed insulated plastic piping. Trench heaters are installed in the floor where wall space is not available for the panels.
Components making up the heating system
The Panels: There is a wide range of indoor radiant panels that are differently styled with different dimensions. This helps in matching the heating load required inside an individual room and the specific size desired. Generally, these panels are available in lengths from 300mm to 3000mm and a varying height of 300, 500, 600 and 900mm. the hydronic heating panel has a variety of
- The towel rail panels commonly going with the bathroom areas.
- And the amazing designer styled radiator panels popular with modern designed homes and architects.
This is quite an agile and responsive procedure of radiant heating. The water reaches the temperature within 10 to 15 minutes and changes the room temperature noticeably within 25 to 30 minutes.
Controls: The hydronic heating panels has a room thermostat installed in the main living room regulates the temperature of the main living zone according to the set timer. A thermostatic control is installed individually on the supply valve at the bottom of wall mounted radiator panel in each room. This is how the temperature of each room can be operated individually.
Boilers: Various brands of boilers are installed that are differently ranged as either LPG or natural gas, sizes varying from 18Kw to 50kw. In the whole hydronic heating panel set up, either remote or wall mounted room controllers are available. Intelligent controllers contain external sensors that read the outdoor temperature and calculate the desired heating.
Advantages of this heating system
As it involves radial heating, no fans are used. As a result, no air is being pushed around and there is no noise. This proves to be a perfect option for asthma and other allergy sufferers as there is no dust or air circulation. This system uses small flexible tubing making a lot easy to retrofit into existing structures of buildings.
Despite being a bit expensive, the many benefits of hydronic heating panels. One can design a system exactly fitting our needs hereby extracting the maximum it has to offer. They are quite effective for making us feel comfortable at our homes.
