Weather Compensation Controls
Our homes need efficient heating to overcome the difference in temperature between indoors and outdoors, and to replace the internal heat which is lost through walls and windows. Weather compensating boilers can offer fuel savings by taking into account the external temperature and reducing the boiler heat output accordingly.
The colder it is outside, the more heat is lost, and the more we have to heat our buildings. Weather compensation boilers are controlled to ensure the boiler burns just the right amount of fuel required to match the heat loss from the building. Your house maintains the required temperature, and uses the minimum amount of energy necessary.
Conventional boilers
have only an internal thermostat to control when they fire and when they stop firing, which can be quite a slow process. The outside temperature drops, increasing the loss of heat from the house, which is then registered on the internal thermostat as a drop in room temperature, and probably results in you turning up your thermostat as you feel chilly. The thermostat then “tells” the conventional boiler to fire/work harder, and your rooms eventually regain the desired temperature. The reverse is also true that if outside temperatures begin to rise, the boiler is not told to stop firing until room temperatures have become uncomfortably warm. So as well as adjusting your thermostat back down, you would probably open windows, releasing more energy and letting out the heat.
With a compensation boiler system
this sequence occurs much more quickly and more efficiently. A small temperature sensor is located on an external wall which is wired to the internal controls of the boiler. Every few seconds, this sensor sends the boiler a message to tell the boiler the temperature outside. As soon as this temperature begins to change, the boiler responds and starts to increase or decrease the radiator temperature to compensate.