ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the commonly encountered installations for space heating in houses. It examines the two most commonly installed and commonly encountered domestic space heating systems – central heating and electrical heating systems. Space heating should provide an appropriate level of thermal comfort for the occupiers of houses which is efficient, effective, economic and as ecologically benign as possible. Appropriate space heating contributes to human health and happiness as well as supporting the economic maintenance of the fabric of the house. Until relatively recently, the most common means of space heating was in the form of open fires. Wood burning stoves have been a source of local heating in housing for many years, particularly in rural areas – where access to free or easily available logs meant that this was an economic proposal. Central heating is an approach in which heat is produced by a boiler and then distributed around the house utilising hot water and, very occasionally, heated air.
