Plant Room Efficiency

Plant rooms will also typically contain various interfaces and other pieces of fixed equipment, such as plate heat exchangers, pumps and pipework.  Almost all installations should also contain buffer tanks (also referred to as accumulator tanks) that store water heated by the boiler.  These system components hold, move or exchange hot water, with the result that energy is lost from the system.

A high stable heat load reduces standing losses, compared to situations where the heat load varies significantly over the day or over the year.

Plant room losses are typically between 5% and 10% in most situations.

The two most common causes of high losses in plant rooms are inadequate insulation and poor control or stratification in the buffer tanks.