Boiler Plus: A New Standard in Heating
Heating expert David Hilton explains how the changes will affect your build from April
“‘Boiler Plus’ will affect all new installations of boiler systems in England from April”
In December 2016, the government carried out a consultation on policy consumers they more One new all er These systems new ‘Boiler heat result control installations standards their more Plus’ is in the over England homes standards. proposals choice introduction will their of and affect from boil- over energy potentially to the of bills. give way the April all isting imum new systems 2018 ERP boilers and (Energy to installed will have Related require a in min- exProducts) ard ERP used methodology in efficiency the UK of by is 92%. the manufacturers EU standto ing calculate products. the Over performance 65% of boilers of heat- in the current market are already higher than this level. The new standards will also require time and temperature controls to be installed when a new boiler is installed, if not already installed and operational. Many households already have some form of control. The key here is that the control must turn off the boiler. Thermostatic radiator valves (TRVS) are not enough. Simple wireless room controls, though, can start at around £40 and can be installed by any competent heating engineer, so won’t break the bank. Combination (‘combi’) boilers in- stalled be gy-efficiency reflect of the required homeowner, the in a circumstances domestic to measures. have and property additional allow These and will abilities a range ener- must also of (FGHRS): technology Flue gas These heat options, devices recovery including: are systems fitted to the entering boiler the flue boiler, and preheat using the the waste water heat, thus lowering the amount of primary energy required to heat the water to a fixed point. Most modern condensing boilers do recover a large amount of the flue heat but FGHRS can lower the gas consumption by around 4%. FGHRS cost around £300, but are only compatible with certain boiler models and are most effective in properties demand when that have compared a higher with hot water space heating, such as very efficient homes or those with high occupancy. Weather compensation: External sensors send information back to the boiler to help it react intelligently in a predictive manner to a fall or rise with external temperature. The boiler can then maintain a steady optimised output rather than a short stop-start cycle reacting to only internal variations. Simple weather compensation sensors can start at around £30 and are also best suited to fairly efficient homes. Load compensation: This is another way of improving efficiency through low temperature-optimised operation. Load compensation is an optional feature of many programmable controls and adds about £30 to the cost of the device. The feature measures the gap between the actual room temperature and the target room temperature and modulates the boiler to only add the heat required to close that gap. Smart controls: These controls allow the homeowner to control the home central heating system from a remote device. Load compensation and weather compensation can also be included, as well as the ability to react to changing requirements. To be compliant, these devices need to have automation and optimisation functionality. Automation allows the device to automatically control the heating in response to programmed details or occupancy detection. Optimisation is an advanced form of load compensation where the device calculates how long it will take to reach the programmed targets and modulates the boiler accordingly to minimise the amount of fuel used. In many cases, however, these products will not help improve efficiency where there are routine occupancy patterns in the home. These measures have been included in the amendments to the domestic building services compliance guide that your heating engineer should follow, but as homeowners, we need to ensure that we’re not sold unnecessary and inappropriate products in the name of compliance. The measures outlined are the minimum requirement for heating technologies, and we should optimise the insulation and airtightness of our home as well as ensure that the systems and radiators are fit for purpose, regularly serviced and properly balanced, in order to achieve a truly efficient heating system.