Save Energy with Copper 2 - Wall heating and cooling using copper tubes

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WALL HEATING AND COOLING USING COPPER TUBES

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Series foreword As a durable and sustainable metal with a long service life and full recyclability, copper plays a crucial role in the heating and cooling, plumbing, wiring, lighting and roofing of buildings. When it comes to making buildings more ‘green’ – i.e. with design, construction and operation that minimises negative impacts on the environment, or even offers positive contributions - key components such as energy efficiency and smarter resource usage depend on copper. The greener the building, the more copper is needed.

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Save up to 2-3°C and 18% on heating at the same comfort with copper!

Energy efficiency enhanced by copper tubes Copper: a reliable & sustainable material Go further!

Preformed copper coils attached to plasterboard

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Save up to 2-3°C and 18% on heating at the same comfort with copper!

Wall heating systems operate on the same principle as floor heating systems, with very low water temperatures and short response times. The wall becomes a draught-free lowtemperature radiator, which emits warmth as gentle radiant heat and provides a pleasant living environment. Enhanced temperature uniformity of the wall surfaces and direct heat emission by radiation allow the air temperature in the room to be lowered by 2 to 3 degrees without reducing comfort. It is estimated that each 1°C reduction in temperature results in savings of around 6% in heating costs.

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The lower room temperature also allows higher relative humidity, which is beneficial for the respiratory tract because it reduces dehydration, and the radiant heat emitted from walls doesn’t circulate dust.

In summer, the system is reversible, i.e. it can be used for cooling and enables a reduction in temperature in the order of 2 to 3 degrees.

Energy efficiency enhanced by copper tubes Thanks to the copper’s excellent thermal conductivity (the red metal is almost 1,000 times more conductive than plastic, for example) water temperature can be further decreased compared to plastics and the system exhibits almost no thermal inertia, thereby limiting energy loss. Lower water temperature is beneficial when connecting to renewable energy based heat generators such as heat pumps, solar panels and geo-thermal systems.

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Video: Wall heating

Coated copper pipe wall heating in a loft conversion

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Copper: a reliable & sustainable material It is no coincidence that copper was chosen for this application: as the number one pipe material in Europe for domestic hot water and heating systems, it is recognised by professionals for its reliability and resistance to ageing.

Copper has been widely used for built-in systems for decades due to its superior performance.

Completely impervious to oxygen, copper guarantees the air-tightness of the system. A copper wall heating system requires no routine maintenance: no regular flushing out, no corrosion inhibitor, anti-oxygen barrier or treatment of water. What’s more, the malleability of the copper facilitates handling and installation of the system and tube detection is also easy: if you want to hang a picture all you need is a metal detector.

The life of copper is infinite and has no end phase. It can be recycled over and over with no loss of properties. As such, copper is a sustainable material that is pivotal to building the circular economy.

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Various systems to satisfy all requirements and all projects Wall heating is a concealed and flexible heating option, suited to both new build and renovation. It offers an alternative to underfloor heating for certain projects, for example where underfloor spaces are limited, or in the case of weak load-bearing structures. This new method of heating is available in two different types of system.

The first system consists of different sized, “preformed” coils, which can be adapted to all room shapes and heating outputs required. Attachment brackets welded to the coils enable them to be directly fastened to the wall, and they are then covered with a coating. A variation for “dry” walls is attached directly to the rear of the plasterboard.

Another installation method involves the installer laying the copper pipes on the walls in a snail pattern, which is determined according to a thermal survey. The thin-wall coated copper pipe is affixed to the walls, which are first covered in heat and sound insulating panels. To finish, the walls fitted with the pipes are plastered or, even better, covered in sprayed plaster, which improves the airtightness of the building.

“It’s so simple.”

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Go further!

copperplumbing.org.uk ... your comprehensive source of technical information about copper tube installation in a wide range of applications.

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Contact Copper Initiative 5 Grovelands Business Centre, Boundary Way Hemel Hempstead, Herts HP2 7TE, UK Email: info@copperalliance.org.uk Web: copperplumbing.org.uk 12

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