How Do Commercial Heating Systems Operate?

Having a commercial heating system can be a vital necessity of any company, but its importance is usually ignored by most business owners and their customers.

Commercial heating systems provide sufficient heat that makes business spaces warm, comfortable, and conducive. And this ensures that business carries on in a pleasant atmosphere, especially on chilly or cold days. So, suppose business owners pay no attention to them. In that case, they may fail to produce a productive business climate, harming business success. For all your commercial heating needs, be sure to visit the expert technicians at Anderson Air.

There are various types of commercial heaters. But the type you choose to use depends on the type of structure and the variety of systems that they have. Bigger buildings have significantly different requirements that are met by various types of heating systems. The same applies to smaller buildings.

Commercial heating systems don’t only differ in the size of the buildings they work in, but they also vary in cost, efficiency, and components/materials.

Also, some commercial building heating systems have more features than others, say, zoning systems and boilers.

Knowing what commercial heating system suits your business or building best and how it functions/operates will help you understand all the necessary maintenance requirements regarding your premises/building. It will also help you know how to maintain your building heater to provide for your customers’ heating needs.

Join us as we discuss how commercial heating systems operate.

What are the types of commercial heating systems?

There are four types of commercial heating systems. And these range in terms of function (purpose) and efficiency. These systems use different fuels (power sources/supply). Some units are more energy-efficient, while other models are more costly than their counterparts.

Here they are in detail:

The heat pump

A heat pump ranks high among the most efficient ways of heating a commercial building.

The heat pump uses no fuel. It instead uses the refrigerant in its coils to transfer heat from the outside of the building to its inside. And because its operation is a lot like that of a refrigerator (using coils and refrigerant), you can use it to heat and cool your building.

The heating system with water

A water-based heating system uses a boiler. This system transfers hot water from the boiler through a system of pipework spread throughout the building. And as the hot water runs through the pipes, it heats up the rooms as it passes, effectively heating up the building. And once the water cools, it is either returned to the boiler or instantly reheated, going through the same heating process again.

The heating system with gas

This heating system relies on fuel burning, making it one of the least efficient heating systems in a building.

This heating system with gas converts the heat produced as a result of burning gas into steam using a boiler. Once the boiler heats up, it causes the water to evaporate, forming steam that spreads throughout the building, providing warmth.

Natural healing systems

Natural heating systems are by far the most eco-friendly heating systems. These heating systems use natural energy sources to provide the building with warmth. Examples of these heating systems include:

Solar energy heating system: Here, the building has devices like solar panels that absorb and store solar energy. The energy is then transferred into a building’s heating system as heat energy.

Geothermal heating system: This takes heat from under the soil or earth’s surface and heats up the entire building.

Although natural healing systems are eco-friendly, they are very costly in terms of implementation and installation. But in the long run, they save more in terms of routine maintenance and fuel sources.

Features of a commercial heating system

Boilers

Boilers are a common fixture in older buildings that rely mostly on steam and water heating systems. They are a heating system’s component where water is boiled.

Boilers use a heating mechanism that heats water at very high temperatures to a point where the water evaporates into steam, transferring it through the commercial building’s heating pipework.

Once the water becomes sufficiently heated, it changes into steam and rises to the top. More evaporation means that the steam becomes very concentrated. And once the steam pressure is high, it is released through the heating pipe network, warming every room in the building.

Types of boilers

There are two main types of boilers. They differ in how they heat the water. There is the fire tube and water tube boiler.

Water-tube boilers

Water-tube boilers send water through various tubes that are covered in heated substances, changing the water in the pipe system to steam along the way as they pass through the hot substances.

Fire-tube boilers

In contrast, fire tube boilers transfer heating substances throughout the tubes covered in fluids, heating the water throughout the process.

Zoning

Most modern heating systems have a zoning feature to allow a system to serve all the building’s occupants’ different heating needs.

Zoning is a practice that enables you to provide every customer in your building with their unique heating requirements. It allows you to set or program different temperatures for different rooms, providing all areas with their warmth needs.

Zoning doesn’t require different heating systems. All zoning needs are set on the same unit, where you calibrate different temperatures on the same heating system using a zone control system. And in doing so, you save money on getting individual heating systems to meet different heating requirements/needs. It also allows you to direct your heating system’s energy to the rooms or areas that need more heat.

In zoning, different thermostats are put in different rooms or areas throughout the building. And this enables you to control the temperature of the whole commercial building.

Conclusion

Heating systems are an essential component of a commercial building’s functionality. And learning how they operate will help business owners understand them better and communicate to professional technicians how best to maintain them so that they efficiently meet the heating needs of their customers and employees.