Heating systems
www.heatingandventilating.net
Quick wins for efficiency with heating controls
Mark Wilkins, technologies and training director at Glow-worm, discusses how a simple swap to a smart control can help deliver quick energy efficiency wins for your customers.
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as prices in the UK are at a record high, and with more homeowners working from home, it’s likely installers will see more and more
customers coming to them looking for ways to reduce their energy use and improve efficiencies. While upgrading to a low carbon technology such as a heat pump may be an option for some – others may want to wait, particularly if their existing boiler has a lot of life left in it. For these customers, the good news is that new boilers are the most energy efficient they have ever been, however that’s not to say that homeowners can’t achieve further efficiency wins with smart controls.
Making the case
New research commissioned by BEAMA revealed that the use of advanced room thermostats can have a positive impact on fuel reductions, which is great news for homeowners and makes it easier for installers to justify to their customers the additional cost of a smart thermostat. The study found that something as simple as
replacing a standard room thermostat with a directly modulating one in a central heating system, could reduce the gas used by up to 12 per cent over the heating season. In addition, installing a room thermostat with
proportional on/off load compensation, as a direct replacement for a standard thermostat, can reduce the gas used for heating by around 10 per cent over the peak period.
More control
With boilers more efficient than ever, installers may find it useful to look at how a customer is currently controlling their heating to understand where energy might be being used unnecessarily. For end users that are now working from home
more regularly, the ability to control their heating on the go can make a real difference. Here, installers have an opportunity to build customer loyalty and upsell through smart controls, helping their customers to reduce energy usage and save money. For example, the MiGo personal heating assistant starts learning about a customer’s energy needs from day one. Providing a control and app in one, your customers can control their heating and hot water needs wherever they are, whenever they need to. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS,
10 June 2022
with an easy-to-use, intuitive interface that allows the homeowner to control their heating system quickly and easily via their smart phones.
Virtual assistance
In a world where technology is constantly evolving, voice-activated assistant technology remains ever- popular and, according to consumer research from Ampere Analysis, 52% of internet households own a voice assistant device. Whether this is an Alexa or a Google Home, more
of us are using these devices in our daily lives. From turning the lights off to setting reminders, or simply accessing news and music – the rise of voice assistance technology has been huge. MiGo is compatible with both Amazon Alexa and Google Home devices. Customers can simply say “Alexa, set the temperature to 20 degrees” or “OK Google, lower the temperature by two degrees” to set a manual override of the set temperature, which will last for three hours before converting back. This compatibility enables customers to control their heating, and as they will already be familiar with voice activated devices, it means they can start using MiGo straightaway, without having to learn how to use a new system or interface.
It’s good to talk
Using eBUS technology the MiGo communicates with all Glow-worm boilers manufactured from 2006 onwards to ensure homeowners are only using the required amount of energy. Meaning they can save even more energy and money than with any other Wi-Fi enabled thermostat. MiGo only ever uses energy as and when it needs
to. Thanks to its weather compensation technology, it automatically makes a calculation based on its location and the surrounding weather stations to obtain the outside temperature the property, all without the need for a separate external temperature sensor.
On the journey
Depending on where a customer is in their journey towards a low-carbon solution, it’s clear that advanced heating controls will be key to unlocking efficiencies in the immediate term. Installers are in a unique position to guide their customers through the entire process, and with millions of UK properties having none, or inadequate controls for their heating system, there is plenty to play for.
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