Update your heating controls#
Heating controls in community buildings often waste a lot of energy. Often they allow users to do things that will use energy beyond what they need to make themselves more comfortable – for instance, by turning on the heating permanently until someone else turns it off. Ideally, they should only let the users change the heating for a limited time or until the next setting, rather than change a thermostat setting permanently. Sometimes they are just too difficult for users to understand, so they bring in space heaters. Understanding what is best for how you use your building is a key part of session 3.
If you are using an old, analogue thermostat, just switching to a digital one will help some. They are more accurate and make users more comfortable by keeping the temperature from varying too much, so they will often allow you to set the temperature a little lower.
Even if you have controls that suit your users, outdated controls can still waste energy because of how they control the boiler. Modern controls can:
predict when to turn the heating on to get a space to a given temperature by a given time, taking away the need to guess and change the timings when the weather changes. This is usually called “optimum start control”. One big benefit of having it is that you can specify different temperatures at different times, making it cooler for people who are physically active.
vary their output so they put out less heat when it’s warm outside. This is called “weather compensation”.
put out less heat when the building is close to the target temperature, to avoid overshooting. This is called “load” or “room compensation”.
Controls designed for houses rarely limit the temperature range, although sometimes there are hidden settings that will, for instance, restrict the top temperature to the value you specify. It’s also relatively hard to find models that allow users to make temporary changes - essential for keeping them happy - but not permanent ones. Where this exists, it’s usually described as a “lock” that you have to overcome to make permanent changes. It is more common in controls designed for social housing.
Some new “smart” controls can be programmed via an app but still let the user make some changes at the radiator. We expect these to be very useful for community buildings with lots of rooms that aren’t all always in use, but you need to be careful to understand what they do and don’t allow. Some are fully automated, learning how a room is used over time from when it sees lights go on and off and when people make changes to the thermostats. These are only useful with very regular heating schedules. The more appropriate ones for community buildings have “zonal controls” with heating schedules for each zone, let you set upper and lower temperature limits, but might still allow space users to make some changes. None of them appear to have optimised start control, which is very important in buildings that are leaky and only heated occasionally.
Boilers that use the “OpenTherm” standard can be matched to a range of controls. Some other boilers can only used controls from the same manufacturer or lack the ability to work with modern control features. On the other hand, some installers will say the controls can’t be changed just because they don’t want the hassle of wiring anything but the model they know.
What you need will vary with your circumstances. We don’t have experience of all the systems below and sometimes to get enough detail you have to call the manufacturer. We are happy to work with groups to try to work out what they need and develop better information for everyone.