The property, which I inhabit, is an end of terraced two storey property situated in Belfast. There is an open plan kitchen and living room on the ground floor and three bedrooms and a bathroom on the first floor. Below is a simple sketch of the layout of my house:

This second sketch identifies clearly where the heat producing appliances, heat emitters, cold water storage, hot water storage and cold and hot water outlets are in the property in more detail:

Task 1

Firstly I will discuss the heating system that is in use in my student house. My home is heated through oiled fired central heating system. The main components of this are the oil tank and boiler, which are both located in the yard at the back of my student house. Oil fired central heating is a form of indirect heating. Indirect heating is where the energy purchased is consumed at some point outside the space to be heated and then transferred to equipment in that space for liberation.  Below is a sketch illustrating how an indirect heating system operates:

The medium used to transmit the thermal energy may be either liquid (water) or a vapour (steam) or a gas (air) and each may be used over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. In my home the medium used to transmit the thermal energy is liquid, as in my house a water based heating system is in operation. A water central heating system consists of basically the boiler, the radiators and the interconnecting piping. The boiler is powered from the oil in the tank and heats the water. In the boiler the fuel must be atomised if the process of combustion is to be efficient, as combustion is the way in which the boiler heats. Then a pump circulates the water through the pipework and radiators. The radiators are the emitters of heat in my household and release heat by radiation and convection. Below are pictures of the main components of my heating system:

 

Water based systems operate at atmospheric pressure and the maximum temperature will be limited by the boiling point of water and even perhaps by the surface temperature of emitters. The pipe work for water based systems may be arranged as either a one pipe or two piped system. In my dwelling a two pipe system is used. The two pipe system, which is shown above is more efficient than the single pipe loop. The heated water from the boiler is fed to one side of every radiator (the feed pipe) while the other end of each radiator is connected to a separate common return pipe. This means that the temperature of the water entering each radiator is more or less the same so each radiator should heat the local environment by the same amount. Below is a diagram showing a two pipe system and how it would work in my house:

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Task 2

I will now look at the hot water system in my house. Hot water must be capable of meeting the demands of the user i.e. how much they require and at what time of the day it is needed.

In my student house the hot water cylinder is stored in a cupboard in bedroom two, which is situated beside the bathroom. Below is a typical example of a hot water cylinder showing all its various components.

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