Desirable properties for controls in community buildings#
The building regulations specify control in terms of function, not format. As long as a control system can achieve the properties and energy savings required in the regulations, they are allowed - otherwise the regulations would stifle the innovations we so badly need for improvement.
Our ideal end user control would have two buttons on the wall of every room controlling just that room. The buttons would get users turn the heating up a bit or down a bit and would reset automatically when they leave. This control doesn’t exist. Thinking about what you want building users and the heating operator to be able to do will help you assess the controls that are available. There are new ones going on the market all the time, and some of them are much more configurable than the traditional ones.
Because choosing controls is complicated, we’ve tried to bring together a list of features. Most of these we have discussed already and others just need a brief explanation. Once you have an idea what you are looking for, The Heating Hub website might help you find out which controls are most likely for you even if your heating supplier isn’t interested in thinking about your needs.
These are controls aimed at houses. There are also companies that make custom controls aimed at larger buildings and community building operators with more complex needs or more powerful boilers should consider using them.
Smart vs. traditional. Smart controls are programmed using a phone app or website and are much more configurable to meet your needs; traditional controls are programmed at the box on the wall. Smart controls need wifi internet in the building and traditional controls don’t. You might check which you find more intuitive. Most of the general public don’t know how to program a heating system using traditional controls, so they don’t necessarily make it easier for your organisation to run their heating.
Wired vs. wireless. With traditional wired controls, a wire runs between the boiler and the programmer, and thermostat, if it is separate. Wireless controls use a radio to communicate between the two. Wired controls are more reliable because they don’t rely on a radio and they never run out of battery. The wiring is also the most expensive and disruptive part of getting new controls. If you get wireless, think about what happens if the batteries go flat and how you will notice. Some wireless controls default to 24/7 heating if a battery is flat.
Wiring plan. If you have trouble engaging a good electrician in your locale, you may struggle to find anyone willing to wire anything apart from what they already know. There are standard wiring patterns shared across the manufacturers. Choosing controls with the same wiring plan can make them more comfortable with the work.
Limits to what building users can do. You want your heating volunteer or staff member to be able to change what the heating does, and your building users to be able to make minor variations only for when they are using the building. Sometimes this is achieved by having the timeswitch in a locked location separate from the end user controls, sometimes through a physical lock or tamper-proof cover that might have a cut out hole for the part of the control the user needs to reach, sometimes through a plastic panel the user won’t think to flip down, and sometimes through special keypresses that allow access to more features. Tamper-proof covers and keypresses that can be found using Google will not always deter the determined user. It definitely helps if you make clear how your users can contact you if the heating isn’t right. Think about limits to:
Whether users can turn the heating on at all. If they are in for half an hour and it takes an hour before the system has any effect on comfort, they shouldn’t.
How large a change they can make. If there is an elderly group in just after and the heating is slow to recover, you don’t want them turning the heating all the way off.
How long their change should last. You want all changes to be only for a set amount of time or until the next step in the heating program. For this, you need to think about the effects of any thermostat changes but also “holiday” mode or “override” buttons.
Offset temperature readings. Being able to correct the temperature reading at each thermostat location is a useful feature.
Technical energy efficiency features. Try to find controls with whichever combination of optimised start control, weather compensation, or load compensation is right for your boiler and how you use the building.