Announcing the winners of the HVP Innovation Showcase
The time has finally come to crown the HVP Innovation Showcase winners’ list. These five winning products have been crowned by our judges as being the best of the best. We launched the HVP Innovation Showcase at the start of the year because we wanted to highlight product innovation in the plumbing and heating sector.
As a result of their herculean input, I am happy to say that the HVP Innovation Showcase has crowned five worthy winners.
Each of our winners will be on display at a special HVP Innovation Showcase zone at the exhibition, and visitors will have the opportunity to speak to the manufacturers directly to learn more about the products.
We sincerely hope you enjoy reading the HVP Innovation Showcase winners’ list.
HVP Editor Joe Dart
Auto Balancing Actuator (Salus)
To ensure constant temperatures and optimum performance of an underfloor heating system (UFH), it’s imperative that the flow of heated water through the circuit is correctly balanced and the temperature differential between the flow and return pipes is an average 7°c.
Achieving the perfect flow is the role of the flow meter. Too much flow will lower the return temperature differential below 7°c and the circuit will heat up too fast, whereas too little flow will raise the temperature deferential above 7°c and the circuit will heat up too slowly, both scenarios being inefficient. It’s the actuator that controls the water flow to each zone in an UFH system by opening and closing the valve on the manifold, according to the signal from the room thermostat.
Unlike conventional actuators, the Auto Balancing Actuator performs the function of both thermal actuator and flow regulator, resulting in two functions in one unit. Complete with two remote sensors placed on the flow and return pipes from the manifold, they constantly monitor the temperatures and adjust the flow rate to maintain an optimum delta of 7°c for the UFH circuit.
With a low power consumption of just 0.5w, this product uses much less energy than conventional actuators that typically use 2-3w or more. It also has a speedy opening and closing action of typically 30 seconds – normally this would take three minutes or longer. The Auto Balancing Actuator is designed to make life easy.
Hattie Hasan said: “It’s always a problem when you come to an UFH system that’s been put in by someone else a long time ago. This is a brilliant innovation, because if someone else has lost all the settings and manuals, you often look like you don’t what you’re doing, because you don’t! This solves that problem, and that’s a great idea.”
