HeatingSave cuts biomass fuel usage for large house in Derbyshire
Mr Matt Killingley lives in a large house near Chesterfield, in Derbyshire. As with most large houses, it is expensive to heat. This is the reason why, in early 2017, Mr. Killingley decided to take some active steps towards reducing his heating costs.
“We live in a very large house so we decided to install a biomass boiler to cut the heating costs. We also needed to intelligently manage how we used the heating and that is why I looked at installing a BMS system. I needed a BMS that would use a mixture of wired and wireless controls and sensors as it was not possible to cable all parts of the house. It also had to control the biomass boiler with the ability to switch on and off the heating for specific areas of the house depending upon whether these areas were being used?” Mr. Killingley explained to the HeatingSave reporter when asked about his decision to choose HeatingSave. “We looked at a few BMS systems apart from HeatingSave but no other system I have found at was able to deliver that type of functionality at a reasonable price.“ he said.
Biomass boilers incinerate organic material such as wood pellets, wood chip and animal/waste by-products. Apart from cheap energy, a new Biomass system controlled by also helps you zone every room to exactly mirror the way in which you use the building. Fuel savings here can be in excess of 50%. Quite simply, HeatingSave only heats areas being used.
The HeatingSave system also has the ability to better manage air quality reporting and managing carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic substances within the atmosphere.
HeatingSave can also constantly measure the carbon monoxide (“CO”) parts-per-million (“ppm”) levels; something very important with Biomass systems. Virtually all other biomass boiler have go/not-go CO sensors set to specific CO danger levels. The new HeatingSave CO sensor constantly measures low levels of CO which create poor air quality leading to cause long term health issues. HeatingSave is the only Biomass system that constantly measures CO, as low as 9ppm, alerting you via Text or email of any potential problems.
The HeatingSave system was installed in mid-2017 and Mr Killingley opted for a self-install, carried out by an approved 3’rd party installer. By his own admission, “the self-install had its challenges, but we’ve managed to successfully complete it with help from the HeatingSave help desk analysts.”
Has HeatingSave managed to cut energy bills and biomass consumption? Mr Killingley’s immediate reply was: “Most certainly “yes”, by using the graph function I was immediately able to see the areas where we were wasting energy. HeatingSave has enabled us to fine tune the biomass boiler’s functionality, significantly cutting biomass fuel usage. I am sure that I’m saving at least 10% of wood pellet consumption. I could not have done that without the visualisation of what’s happening minute-by-minute provided by HeatingSave.“
Large houses are the big winners when it comes to HeatingSave where is can control not only boilers, pumps, valves and radiators but also lights, air quality, smoke alarms, and security; this includes Smart Intruder Detection, panic buttons, control of safe rooms and smart card access control and CCTV systems.
Energy management starts by not heating the whole house through zoning and using occupancy management of rooms but also includes the monitoring of gas, electricity, solar PV and water. All of this is managed by the owner using a web browser on a PC or mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet.
Since the HeatingSave heating diary can be used by on mobile devices, you do not need to be “on-site” to manage you energy usage or control security. The heating diary can be set months or even years in advance so that the “house” knows when people are at home where they will be located via the geo-location system?
HeatingSave’s software in-built alert system can Text or email a cascading set of people when something happens or goes wrong.
When asked whether they’re using HeatingSave Building Management System at its full potential, Mr Killingley’s answered “While we are not using the system at 100% – we still have to add carbon monoxide sensors and a few other bits – we’re as close as possible to using it at its full potential.”
Asked what he liked most about HeatingSave, Mr. Killingley immediately replied, “The depth of information it provides and how easy it was to configure with our biomass boiler and heating system.”
The HeatingSave simple-to-use software lets you to easily manage the heating and security with a tap on your smart phone with the settings and parameters for the entire Building Management System from one place. Besides heat-loss algorithm that “self learns” the heating profile of each room, the advanced planning of heating patterns and diary allows 365 day programming of different patterns for each zone. This is supported by the Occupancy Management module that fine turns can trims heating costs.
HeatingSave also stores 1,000’s of transactions a day so that it has the data available to make the right decisions and prove to you that its cutting fuel costs. Fault logging, reporting and alerting by Text or email helps avoid expensive repair and maintenance costs by determining where it is and the nature of problem. Running costs of boilers and equipment like pumps, valves, immersions, air conditioning units and lights can be view in real-time.
HeatingSave is clearly a product of the “Internet of things”, but unlike other products HeatingSave stores all of your data locally on the T3521 hub – not on some cloud server for unscrupulous people to steal or businesses to bombard you with advertising – your data is safe with HeatingSave.
Mr Killingley’s verdict on the user-friendliness of HeatingSave was, “It depends on what level you are using it. The overview panel is really easy to use and intuitive, but getting accustomed to the more in-depth advanced features does require some extra effort.”
Asked whether he uses graphing and visualization features within HeatingSave, Mr. Killingley answered, “The graph and visualization software is very good”, adding that the “schematics are absolutely brilliant for the system’s setup and functionality.”
The HeatingSave visualisation, graphing and schematics software updates temperatures, air quality, occupancy and on/off event as they happen or at least every minute. These are great for instant identification of what’s happening and keeping track of the site, especially whilst on the move.
Mr. Killingley has used HeatingSave help desk several times and is happy with the level of support they provided. ”We have called the help desk on several occasions, especially during the install phase, and the service has always been very good.” he said.
Summing up HeatingSave, Mr. Killingley concluded, “HeatingSave is a powerful, easily configurable building management system that enables substantial energy savings, as well as a very high level of control over the heating system.” – and would he recommend HeatingSave to other home owners? “Yes, I would and in fact, I already have!” was the reply.
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Customer information:
Mr. Matt Killingley
Chesterfield
Derbyshire