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MEDIUM TEMPERATURE HOT WATER HEATING

HEALTH AND SAFETY
Temperatures at which MTHW systems operate represent a health risk. Measures should be
provided to prevent direct contact with heated surfaces. The requirements of NHS Estates
Health Guidance Note 1Safe hot water and surface temperatures should be considered and
are a statutory requirements in many government establishments and buildings.

GUIDANCE
Design water temperatures for MTHW are 1000C to 1200C (see CIBSE Guide B1).
This covers the complete distribution system, covering everything but the boiler plant.
Therefore, this will cover equipment such as pumps, pressurisation plant, pipework, valves
and emitters.
Pressurisation:
Where systems operating above 1100C are pressurised by means of a header tank, an
expansion vessel should be incorporated in the feed and expansion pipe. This vessel should
be adequately sized to take the volume of expansion of the whole system so that boiling will
not occur in the upper part of the feed pipe. On no account should an open vent be provided
for this type of system.
Additional safety measures are required in closed or sealed systems to avoid excess
pressure building up. These include high and low temperature cut-outs, and also a high
pressure cut-out.
If reliability is an important factor, then pressurisation plant should be selected with duty and
stand-by motors or pumps. They can also be provided with the facility to be controlled via a
BMS, and also to give remote fault reporting.
Pipework:
When sizing pipework, keep pressure drops to manageable levels as high resistances result
in high pump heads and excessive energy consumption. Such systems can be noisy, and
also difficult to balance and commission properly.
Pipework must be adequately supported in both the vertical and horizontal applications, and
should not have its weight borne by plant or equipment.
When routing pipework, ensure that the pipes are laid to fall to facilitate filling and venting,
and adequate fittings are provided for draining down in suitable locations to avoid dead legs
and stagnant lines. Make sure that valves and other equipment are accessible once installed
for future commissioning or testing.
Emitters:
Carefully consider the use of the space before selecting heat emitters. In some specialist
applications such as health care premises or primary schools, emitters must have low surface
temperatures to avoid the risk of injury to the occupants.
However, due to the low surface temperature usually being achieved by using lower flow and
return temperatures within the distribution system, the radiator output is reduced for a given

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surface area. This could result in increased costs and a greater space requirement.
Check the performance data produced by the manufacturer very carefully. The performance
figures quoted by them will have been tested at very specific conditions which may not be the
same as for the system under consideration, and correction factors must be applied to get
accurate output information. Typically with radiators, for example, the performance data has
been produced from tests using a mean water temperature in the radiator of 800C and a room
temperature of 200C, thus giving a difference of 600C. In practice, however, if design
conditions of 1100C flow and 900C are used, these will give a mean water temperature in the
emitter of 1000C. With a room temperature of 210C, the temperature difference becomes
790C, and the appropriate correction factors must be applied.
Similarly, the manufacturers data should also state the connection arrangement, with
correction factors for variations. The normal arrangement for testing may be tboe (top and
bottom opposite end), where in practice boe (bottom opposite end) is more commonly used.
Fan convectors provide greater output than radiators but care has to be taken in selection to
avoid excessive noise.
Emitters in high spaces need to be carefully selected to heat the occupied space rather than
wasting energy by heating up to the roof. To this end, radiant heating has been used
successfully in large spaces such as workshops and warehouses.
Commissioning:
Ensure that the division of responsibility between the designer and the commissioning
specialist contractor is clearly defined to avoid duplication of work, and possible site
disagreements.
Select pipework components and layouts to ensure that the system is as inherently stable and
self-balancing as can be economically justified. This will reduce the time required to regulate
branch flow rates and will often make it unnecessary to balance flow rates through terminal
units.
Consider the requirements for two and three port valves, gauges and fittings for measuring
system performance.
Check that design pressure losses across terminal units fed from the same branch are not
significantly different, e.g. within around 20kPa of each other. Mixing low resistance terminal
units such as radiators with high resistance units such as fan coils should be avoided.
Where possible ensure that terminal unit design pressure losses on reverse return branches
are the same in order for flows to these terminal units fed from a reverse return branch to
achieve some degree of self-balancing.
Check that flow regulating and measurement valves are properly located. Usual locations
include risers, branches, sub-branches, terminal branches, by-passes from three way control
valves, pump sets, individual boiler and chiller circuits. Only where a degree of self-balancing
has been achieved might they be omitted.
Check that design flow rates are achievable with regulating valves more than 25% open.
Select regulating valves such that at their design flow rates the required pressure losses
across them can be achieved without the need to close below the 25% open position. Valves
closed beyond this point can be prone to dirt and air blockages. Low flow 15mm valves have
a minute orifice and should be considered with caution.
Check the accuracy of the specified flow measurement device is adequate to achieve the
required flow balance tolerance. Depending on the device selected, accuracy can vary
between +/-3% and +/-10%.
Flow measurement devices should be selected such that at design flow rates the pressure

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signals across them are greater than 1kPa. Anything less than this becomes difficult to
measure with site instruments which affects accuracy.
Tolerances of final flow measurements should be assessed and specified, and the
commissioning specialist given a realistic flow rate tolerance within which to establish a flow
balance. (see CIBSE Commissioning Codes and BSRIA Guides). Note that the total of
tolerances may affect pump selection.
Valve and flow measurement device locations should be indicated on design schematic
drawings and contractor installation drawings with commissioning data.
Units such as fan coils can be grouped together to reduce the number of commissioning
valves required.

REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
The following documents provide further guidance:
BSRIA TM 1/88 Commissioning of HVAC systems. 1988
BSRIA AG 2/89.2 Commissioning of water systems in buildings. 1989
BSRIA AG 20/95 Commissioning of pipework systems. 1995
BSRIA AG 1/01 Pre-commissioning cleaning of water systems. 2001
CIBSE Commissioning Code B: 2002 Boiler plant
CIBSE Commissioning Code W: 2003 Water distribution systems
CIBSE Guide B1: 2002 Heating
NHS Estates Health Guidance Note 1: 1998 Safe hot water and surface temperatures

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