Tumalucious

Central Heating System In UK

A central heating system provides warmth to the whole interior of a building (or portion of a building) from one point to multiple rooms. When combined with other systems in order to control the building climate, the whole system may be an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system

The Romans invented a central heating system to keep their villas warm. It must have got a bit chilly for them as they wandered around in a toga crying “infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.” So their engineers developed a hypocaust system to heat Roman homes.

*In the 19th century:

It appears that after the end of Roman rule in Britain in the year 410 we seemed to forget about central heating until the nineteenth century. In the intervening fifteen hundred years we just had fires or maybe we have just got used to the cold.

In the 1830s an American who worked in the UK called Angier March Perkins developed a steam heating system which he installed in the home of the Governor of the Bank of England John Horley Palmer.The esteemed banker did not fit this system into his home to keep himself and his family warm. He wanted to create a Mediterranean atmosphere in his home so that he could go grow grapes. However, Perkins did fit his system into commercial premises to keep them warm. He went on to develop his system and designed piping and plumbing fittings to improve its efficiency. 

*In the modern age:

When a Russian businessman called Franz San Galli invented the radiator in about 1857 the basis for the modern central heating system was born.

The radiator was the major step in the development of the modern heating system. These great convectors of heat could be plumbed in and placed on walls in people’s homes and instantly heat up the room.

A typical modern central heating system includes a boiler, a pump and the magical radiators. These days the radiator is not an unattractive hunk of metal stuck on the wall. There aredesigner radiators and vertical radiators to create interest as well as warmth.

It was not until the 1970s that most homes in the UK started to get a central heating system fitted. A gas fitter Martyn Jarvis told the BBC that in the 70s, “Central heating was just taking off then and there was a sense of excitement. It was like getting the first colour television – Ooooh! I’ve got central heating.”

Only a small fraction of UK homes are without central heating today. In the last comprehensive survey, in 2004, it was 7% of households, and that has probably dropped further since.