Back in the day, before the invention of boilers and central heating systems, heating a home was a somewhat arduous task. The only form of heating in those days was fire, and you would have needed a separate fireplace in each room that you wanted warmed up. Loading a fire with coal or wood was a job in itself, and lighting it was no picnic either. Thankfully, us humans are an ingenious bunch, and somehow we managed to figure out a way to heat our homes without the need for all this palaver. The basic idea behind a central heating system is this – have one easily controllable furnace in one room, such as a kitchen or bathroom, and have it heat water that can be pumped around the house via a network of pipes and radiators.

The modern central heating system works in much the same way, with a few refinements. Most boilers in use today are powered by natural gas, which comes via a pipe from a centralised gas supply network, with an electric pump and lighting mechanism. When you switch on a gas boiler, a valve opens which lets gas enter a sealed combustion chamber inside the boiler, and an electric ignition system lights the jets of gas emitted from the valve. These heat a pipe containing cold water, heating up the water to a temperature of around sixty degrees Celsius.

This pipe forms part of a larger network of pipes that travel all the way around your home. These pipes are connected to radiators, which convey the heat from the hot water inside them into the room by means of their large surface area. The water travels all the way round all the pipes and radiators in the house, and by the time it returns to the boiler, it has cooled down by a fair amount, as much of its heat energy has been dissipated into the room. It is then passed over the flame again and the whole process is repeated indefinitely until the heating is switched off.

Needless to say, a lot of energy is wasted in this process. Quite a lot of the energy is lost to the atmosphere, through windows, walls, and the roof. However, by installing double glazing and fitting extra insulation to your home, you can reduce the amount of heat that you lose this way. A significant amount is also lost within the boiler itself, although modern boilers are a lot more efficient than their older counterparts. If your boiler is over ten years old, the chances are that it is only 75% efficient or less, whereas modern condensing boilers can be made over 90% efficient. Look up the British Gas website for more information on gas boilers.

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