- Joe Crawford, Marketing Manager at Schneider Electric.
As smart heating systems have gained popularity in recent years, consumers have become more demanding when it comes to the level of control they have over home temperature.
Bespoke temperature control is now possible, meaning homeowners are opting to divide their home into distinct heating zones for increased convenience – often on a room-by-room basis.
With systems becoming more sophisticated, creating and installing heating zones has become more simple, as long as you have the correct products and know-how.
So what are the considerations that need to be made by installers when designing and installing heating zones?
Zones for Every Home
No longer just for new-build properties, multi-zoned heating systems are designed to work alongside a property’s existing system with no need to alter pipework or valves. This means that they can be easily installed into any home, regardless of age or size.
With no need for re-wiring or re-plumbing, many systems can be easily retrofitted. Installer friendly features such as UK standard wallplates, mean that traditional heating controls can be easily switched for smart versions like Schneider Electrics WISER Heat Hub.
Products like smart radiator thermostats can often be retrofitted onto existing radiators in seconds making specifically zoned heating achievable for every home.
Zoning Locations
Before installing heating zones, it’s important to establish where zones will work most effectively. One of the simplest ways to define where best to designate a heating zone is to consider the function of the area needing to be heated.
Different areas of the home are better suited to certain temperatures, for example it’s recommended that bedrooms are kept at a cooler 180C compared to the recommended 210C for living areas.
Installing an individual radiator thermostat into each of these rooms means not only that specific temperatures can be set but each room can follow its own individual heating schedule. For maximum heating efficiency, it is recommended that a radiator thermostat is included on every radiator.
Buildable systems allow users to expand their system over time, adding additional radiator thermostats as required, which presents installers with further installation opportunities
Enhanced Safety, Remotely
Coupled with the ease of installation, multi-zoned systems can also enhance home safety by allowing for more accurate temperature adjustment.
For example, research shows that keeping a consistent temperature of 180c can minimise health risks for infants. Having a separate heating zone in a baby’s room will allow parents to set and monitor the temperature from anywhere in the house.
Thanks to convenient app control, users can adjust their heating remotely from anywhere in the world, even from a different property, making a multi-zoned system a great choice for those with elderly relatives or those with health issues. Users can control not only their own system, but the system in another property even from a significant distance offering peace of mind.
Energy Efficiency
Multi-zoned heating systems can vastly improve the energy efficiency of a property, giving homeowners more control to heat only the rooms they need to heat. Reducing the temperature of a room by just 1 degree can provide savings on annual energy bills making a multi-zoned system a great option for those looking to save on energy costs.
Smart heating systems have also evolved to intelligently ‘learn’ from a property. With features like Eco Mode, the thermostat can utilise ‘optimum stop’ by understanding the thermal profile of a home and sensing how long a room will take to reach the desired temperature. Smart systems will also take into account the impact the weather has on the heating and adjust in response to changes in the weather.
So, the constant innovation of smart heating products has made heating zones more achievable for consumers, by using the correct products and smart heating know-how, installation is simpler too, presenting a unique and lucrative business opportunity for installers.
Box Out
Allowing installers to work wiser, not harder, Schneider Electric’s new WISER range of smart heating controls is set to offer the fastest install on the market. Featuring a standard UK wallplate, the WISER Heat Hub can be retrofitted in minutes.
Innovative new smart radiator thermostats allow users to create up to 16 heating zones, while app control allows multiple users to easily control heating and water temperatures remotely, wherever they are in the world. WISER is also compatible with internet connected voice control systems like Amazon Alexa for hands-free heating control.
