Modern Building Services

FEATURE HEATING 16 MODERN BUILDING SERVICES FEBRUARY 2023 S pecifying the right products for the right applications is essential to the long-term health of new buildings or renovations. Key to this is the cooperation between specifiers and contractors; ensuring that what’s outlined in the planning stage is actually carried out at the build stage, and that all parties involved in building and maintenance understand how to properly manage it to ensure optimum health and efficiency. When it comes to designing an effective heating system, the key to getting it right requires specifying a mix of the right equipment to do the job, a thorough understanding of the technology and its application, as well as sufficient knowledge and care during installation. Where heating systems are concerned, though, this sadly is too often not the case. Rather than understanding why certain products have been specified, contractors will frequently strip out essential kit in favour of often cheaper alternatives. This usually occurs when they have under- priced a particular project and are looking for ways to bring it back within the budget, or perhaps do not appreciate that the particular product chosen for the job was far superior to some of the other products on the market that looked like they would be okay! However, thankfully, the key component, the boiler, is rarely sacrificed. Rather it’s the additional elements which are key to long- term health that is either replaced or removed without consideration as to what role these elements play in the overall system health. When setting up any system, a number of key factors need to be taken into account including pressurisation, correctly sized expansion tanks and hydraulic balancing. If these are miscalculated, then malfunctions become pre-programmed, inefficiency is in-built and breakdowns are almost inevitable, even if not immediately apparent. The removal of dirt and air separators is far too common, despite the fact that good quality products – will safeguard against the costly breakdown of boilers and other system components by preventing the build-up of dirt and air. To avoid issues like this persisting, it’s key for all parties to understand the various stages of design, commissioning and installation, and how each one is interconnected. The specifier and engineer may be very knowledgeable and understand all the key principles of design and installation, but if the value engineer or contractor chooses to strip out what they consider to be unnecessary extras, then all the hard work can be quickly undone. Steve Simmonds , Special Projects Engineer for Spirotech , outlines the importance of better collaboration between system designers, specifiers and contractors to ensure the optimum health of heating systems. Joined-up thinking – the key to success