Many commercial and industrial premises in the UK are too old to have been built using the modern materials that are now readily available to conserve energy. Heating such buildings effectively and cost-efficiently is often a secondary consideration at best. Warehouses are large and open-plan, with high ceilings, so it is extremely difficult to provide comfort heating to staff in such spaces. How can you specify an energy-efficient heating system in such a building? Basically, you have three choices: conduction, convection and projection. Conduction is clearly not a suitable method for keeping people warm, so you must choose between convection and projection. If you use convection heating, it would take an enormous amount of heat to warm all the air in an open-plan warehouse. Furthermore, warm air rises and will be lost and wasted in areas with high ceilings. Warehouses are notoriously draughty too, often with big bay doors inconveniently opening and closing all the time, letting in cold air and causing the ambient temperature to fall as fast as you try to heat it. The energy wasted and the bills incurred by using convection heating can be huge. This is true of any large open space, whether it is a factory floor, large lobby area or whatever. However, in many of these areas, you can predict where people are going to be stationed or sat, and you can create effective zones of comfort heating using projection heating.
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