Boiler and heat distribution 

	Introduction		Upgrading equipment and systems
	Operational advice		Replacing your boiler
	Maintenance advice		Publications and resources

Introduction

Hot water systems

Hot water heating systems can be either of these types:

• Low temperature hot water (LTHW) boilers
  Produce hot water at around 90ºC, for use in homes and commercial premises. The hot water produced is distributed via pipework to ‘wet’ heating systems and hot water storage tanks.
  Low temperature hot water boilers technology overview
• Medium/high temperature boilers
  Located on large multi-building sites or industrial premises. Not suitable for smaller commercial premises or offices for safety reasons.
  Steam and high temperature hot water boilers technology overview

For both types - our top 3 recommended carbon saving measures are:

• Reduce waste
  Save money by making sure that your schedules take account of occupancy patterns and the weather. Check that controls or optimisers are correctly set up for this.
• Maintenance
  Make sure that burners, heat exchangers and primary plant items are adequately maintained.  This will reduce energy costs and avoid costly breakdowns.
• Insulation
  All pipework (including valves and flanges) should be insulated. By checking insulation regularly and taking corrective action, you can save up to 5% on your energy costs. See video below for more details or download our guide How To - Fit Pipework Insulation (GIL151).

Watch this short video on pipework insulation:

Steam systems

Our top 3 recommended carbon saving measures for steam systems are:

• Automatic combustion control with oxygen trim
  Automatic digital combustion controls allows the burner to be constantly adjusted to ensure that optimum efficiency is achieved at all times. Typically, these systems can reduce fuel costs by 5%.
  How to implement advanced combustion control
  How to implement oxygen trim control
• Flue-gas economisers
  A flue gas economiser uses the heat of steam leaving the boiler to preheat the boiler feed-water (or some other part of the process). A well-installed economiser can give a 5% fuel saving (depending on the load applied to the boiler).
• Insulation
  All boilers, tanks, steam, condensate and feed-water pipework (including valves and flanges) should be adequately insulated. Good insulation and fixing steam leaks regularly can achieve cost savings of up to 5%.