Central heating

Central heating,,,

What is Central Heating?

Central Heating is a heating system in which air or water is heated at a central point and sent through the whole interior of a building via vents or pipes and radiators to provide warmth in multiple rooms or parts of a building.

Central heat sources can be boilers for oil, gas, biomass or solar heating systems. Depending on the size of the building and available energy sources, a central heating solution might have multiple shapes. 

How does Central Heating work?

In one-family houses a boiler is often installed and fueled by fossils such as oil or gas, in areas where district heating is not available. Additional renewable energy sources could be utilized, such as solar heating or heat pumps.

In multi-family houses the heat produced centrally in the building is typically distributed to apartments through circulation- and riser pipes. Another solution is to produce domestic hot water locally, while maintaining heat supply through pipes.

Environmental Friendliness & Energy Efficiency

If a building needs to be fully heated and not only heating of individual rooms in it, then central heating systems offer a more environmentally friendly solution than direct electric heating devices. This due to the fact that most electricity is made by burning fossil fuels, and these loose up to two-thirds of the energy (unless utilized for district heating) at the power station and in transmission losses.

But in cases where single room heating is necessary, central heating systems are less energy-efficient, since the system may heat some unoccupied rooms without need and thereby considerable heat is wasted.  

In contrast, hot water central-heating systems can use water heated in or close to the building using high-efficiency condensing boilers, biofuels or district heating.

Central heating in Russia

In most Russian cities, district-level combined heat and power plants (Russian: ТЭЦ, теплоэлектроцентраль) produce more than 50% of the nation's electricity and simultaneously provide hot water for neighbouring city blocks. They mostly use coal and oil-powered steam turbines for cogeneration of heat. Now, gas turbines and combined cycle designs are beginning to be widely used as well. A Soviet-era approach of using very large central stations to heat large districts of a big city or entire small cities is fading away as due to inefficiency, much heat is lost in the piping network because of leakages and lack of proper thermal insulation.

References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating#Russia
• http://heating.danfoss.com/Content/FAE6E2D2-A450-4866-A7C3-6C6C5B0D8ED2.html