FEATURE
BATHROOMS
& SHOWERS
“Children are a lot more sensitive to
heat and cold stress than adults, and as
we get older our body takes longer to
Zonal heating ideal
for young and old
Nigel Sanger, divisional director for technical support at
JG Speedfit, discusses how zonal heating systems can
add vital health and fuel saving benefits in the home,
particularly in the bathroom.
What is the first thing that you
are told to do when you come
out of the swimming pool?
Wrap yourself up with a towel
and dry up.
Of course, the reason for this is simple
– if you don’t dry yourself, your body
temperature starts to fall rapidly, because
it is using up its internal heat to evaporate
the water.
This begs the question, are we heating
our bathrooms enough to keep ourselves
warm after a shower or bath?
More than adults, babies and the elderly
need a warm environment, as they are
more vulnerable to health risks, such as
hypothermia. This is a medical condition
where the body is losing heat faster than it
can produce heat.
Children are a lot more sensitive to heat
and cold stress than adults, and as we get
older our body takes longer to regain heat
after a shower.
This calls for a serious need to make
our bathrooms much warmer than the
rest of the house for these age groups.
regain heat after a shower”
One of the first reasons why we
should employ zonal heating for infants
and the elderly is that we can directly
programme certain rooms to be
warmer (or colder), than other rooms in
the home.
The optimal body temperature
that older people and babies need to
maintain is around 37°C.
BODY TEMPERATURE
Letting the body temperature drop
below 35°C can lead to hypothermia,
which is particularly dangerous for these
two age groups as their bodies are less
able to regulate or produce heat.
In a bathroom environment, where
not only will there be the moisture from
the bath but also in the air, the body
temperature can drop quickly if care is
not taken.
By providing the option to raise the
temperature in bathrooms and other
rooms in use at certain times, we can
greatly reduce these health risks.
The NHS page for hypothermia states
that homes should be at a temperature
of at least 18°C, while baby rooms should
be up to 20°C.
Another wider problem that we are
experiencing is fuel poverty, which is the
second reason to consider zonal heating
systems for saving much more money in
the long run.
According to the Daily Express, this
is a particularly prevalent problem with
pensioners. Pensioners on fixed incomes
are driven to make significant economies
if they want to stay warm as temperatures
plummet, according to the survey of 2,000
over-65s by a leading loan firm.
The danger comes when pensioners
can’t afford to heat their homes and must
make a fair compromise. With zonal
heating controls, homeowners have the
option to heat up only the rooms in use
and save up on energy used in heating up
the whole house.
SMART CONTROL SOLUTION
An effective smart control solution can
programme the heating from a smart
phone app and desired temperature can
be achieved in individual rooms, helping
save up to 30% on fuel bills.
One of the biggest myths of zonal
heating systems is that they are expensive
to install. While there is of course an
associated cost of installing separate
thermostats in each room, the payback
period on these thermostats is a lot
quicker than you might expect, when you
consider how much money you could save
on fuel bills.
ENQUIRY NUMBER 107
Clever smart control systems, such as JG Aura, are readily available on the market and can be programmed
to suit many scenarios
Smart controls can be installed wirelessly to cause less disruption and
to minimise installation costs
46 Heating & Plumbing Monthly | MAY 2018 | www.hpmmag.com
/www.hpmmag.com
