The growing urgency to reduce carbon emissions and energy consumption means the focus of our industry’s efforts will increasingly be on retrofitting existing buildings. This creates both an opportunity and a necessity to marry existing traditional heating technologies with renewables.
According to manufacturer Vaillant, it is vital that design engineers focus on creating solutions that can be applied without disrupting the operation of occupied buildings. They must include the necessary controls and integration strategies to extract the maximum benefit from all the technologies available to building contractors.
While renewables will take a greater share, the evolving refurbishment market will remain dependent on high efficiency gas boilers for some time to come and their importance should not be overlooked.
Focus on renewables
Dave Lacey, Commercial Director (UK & Ireland) at Vaillant commented: “As focus on renewable technologies continues to increase, traditional heating technologies can be overlooked. However, most design professionals will tell you that high efficiency condensing boilers will have an even more important role to play when the commercial new build and refurbishment markets fully recover.
“Commercial boilers still have a key role to play in cutting carbon emissions. While renewables and microgeneration technologies will take an increasingly large share of the market in the coming years, boilers will still be relied on to provide the lion’s share of commercial heating. This will be particularly apparent in areas where the market is strong, such as in schools and retail properties.”
He continued: “It is also imperative that we continue to make our commercial boilers as efficient as possible and, when they are working in tandem with renewables, to get the configuration and controls strategy spot on.
“Condensing boilers will only achieve their maximum efficiency in situ if the flow and return temperatures are closely controlled. This is why weather compensation control is being included in more of today’s designs, in order to keep systems in condensing mode for longer without compromising on comfort.”