Operating principles of an ‘S’ plan system.
An S plan system is an arrangement, which, in its simplest form uses two valves to control where the hot water from a boiler is sent. Normally
one valve sends the hot water to the central heating radiators and the other valve sends the water to the hot water cylinder. These valves
must be open in order for the boiler and pump to start working. If they remained closed then the heat from the boiler would have nowhere to
go and this could lead to the boiler being damaged.
From a plumbing point of view, drawn simply, it looks like this:
Hot water valve HW cylinder
Boiler Pump
Central heating valve Radiators
Electrically, the process is, the programmer says that it’s that time of day when we should have the heating on. This sends a feed to the room
thermostat. If the temperature is too low in the room, the room stat will ’ask’ the boiler for heat and does this by sending a signal (the brown
wire) to the motor in the valve asking it to open. As the valve opens, the permanent feed (grey wire) passes through the micro switch and
emerges at the other side on the orange wire, which goes to the pump and boiler letting them know that they should begin operating.
Electrically, the previous diagram looks complicated. However, bearing in mind our simplified view of what is happening, we can simplify the
diagram if we concentrate only on line conductors and ignore the earth and neutral conductors.
Focussing on the central heating aspect, it would look like this:
Supply Programmer Heating zone valve
Boiler
Pump
Room thermostat
Solar Thermal Heating
Solar thermal water heating systems use heat from the sun to work alongside a conventional water heater. They collect heat from the sun’s
radiation via a flat plate system or an evacuated glass tube system before being stored in a hot water cylinder. The system is normally not
pressurised and often uses ‘drain back’ technology, in that pipework slopes between items and therefore doesn’t have water in once used and
therefore there is no need for insulation.
When a solar water heating and hot‐water central heating system are used in conjunction, solar heat will either be concentrated inside a pre‐
heating tank that feeds into the tank heated by the central heating, or the solar heat exchanger will replace the lower heating element and the
upper element will remain in place to provide for any heating that solar cannot provide.
In the first instance the solar heated water is effectively warming the water in
the hot water cylinder so that the boiler has to perform less work (and
therefore use less energy) to bring the water up to the required temperature.
However, we all normally use our central heating at night and in winter when
solar gain is lower. Therefore, solar water heating for washing and bathing can
often be a better application than using it for central heating because supply
and demand are better matched.
We’ve shown the basic concept opposite with a twin coil hot water cylinder
and boiler.
If such a system were to integrate with a central heating system, then we
would normally see sensors fitted at the solar collector and boiler via a solar
controller. Note that as hot water rises, Sensor S2 is at the cooler part of the
cylinder.
Our diagram now becomes modified to include these components as follows:, where the controller calculates the temperature difference
between the collector sensor S1 and
tank sensor S2. If the difference
between them is larger than or identical
to the specified switch‐on temperature Solar Controller
difference, the solar pump will be
operated and the tank will be warmed
until the switch‐off temperature is
reached, which is detected by sensor
S3.
Sensor S3 being used in this way is
performing a thermostatic function, and
therefore tells the DHW system that
water of the correct temperature is
available by allowing a signal to the
central heating controller.
Should the timer in the controller now Boiler
ask for hot water, the system will
operate the DHW zone valve shown in
our original drawing in the manner
described.
