GB2285654A - A method of treating a building - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of treating a pre-existing building involves the steps of drilling at least one bore (2) in a wall of the building, and inserting in that bore an elongated electrically powered heater element (9). Electricity is supplied to the heater element to cause the heater element to heat the wall adjacent the bore. If an array of bores is provided in the wall, the entire wall is heated, acting as a storage heater. The heater elements (9) are located by hollow ceramic plugs (7). A separate thermostat (9) is provided. <IMAGE>

Description

DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION "IMPROVEMENTS IN CR RELATING TO A METHOD OF TREATING A BUILDING" THE PRESENT INVENTION relates to a method of treating a building.

Many buildings exist which were designed to be heated by open fires. Buildings of this type fall into many categories ranging, for example, from large houses or "stately homes" to rows of terraced houses built in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Such buildings incorporate one or more open fireplaces each associates with a hearth and a chimney. The chimney is, typically, a structure which has a significant mass and thus a significant thermal capacity.

When a fire is provided within such a fireplace the room in which the fire is located is heated by radiant heat from the fire, and the entire chimney structure is heated to an elevated temperature, by the hot gases from the fire which pass through the chimney, and by radiant heat from the fire. Heat emerges from the exterior of the whole chimney structure, thus heating all parts of the house that are adjacent the chimney structure. The chimney structure will retain heat for a relatively lengthy period of time after the fire itself has gone out, and thus heat will continue to emerge from the chimney. Thus the chimney structure may act in the manner of a modern day storage heater.

It needs to be understood that houses provided with fireplaces as described above were generally designed to be heated by open fires and, in many cases, unsatisfactory results are obtained if the house is heated by using central heating or some other form of localised heating.

Such alternative heating systems generally heat air which is then circulated within the building. If the structure of the building is not heated in any way there is a risk that the warm air, which has a greater capacity to contain water vapour than cold air, may attain such a relative humidity that when the warm air comes into contact with a cold wall forming part of the building, the air cools below its dew point and condensation forms on the walls of the building.

The present invention seeks to provide a method of treating a building that may overcome the problems outlined above.

From time to time the walls of an existing building may become damp or may even be totally saturated with water. For example, should a building not be maintained well, leaks may develop in the roof of the building, and the walls of the building may become damp. If a building is left unoccupied and unheated, especially during the winter months, the building may become damp. Alternatively if part of a building suffers damage from fire, water pumped into the building to put out the fire may penetrate walls of the building, causing those walls to be substantially saturated with water. Walls may also become saturated with water if a building is subject to flooding.

If a wall, especially a wall which is of any significant thickness, becomes damp or becomes penetrated with water, the process of "drying out" the wall can take a long period of time. Even if warm air or radiant heat is directed cnto the outer surface of the wall, this may serve only to dry-out the outer regions of the wall, and indeed the presence of such a drying effect in the outer regions of the wall may only serve to prevent moisture that is deep within the wall from drying out. It is believed that moisture within a wall may resist traversing a dry exterior region of a wall, and simply remain locked in position within the wall.

It has been observed that when a wall is damp the water that is within the wall causing the dampness seems to serve to attract more water to the wall. It is believed that the presence of the moisture in the wall may improve the thermal conductivity of the wall, thus preventing the outer surface of the wall from assuming a temperature that is closely related to the temperature present within the room bounded by the wall, which would serve to minimise the risk of condensation forming on the wall. Instead, the outer surface of the wall maintains a temperature which is closely related to the temperature of the inner parts of the wall. Consequently a temperature differential may exist between the temperature at the surface of the wall and the temperature of air within the room bounded by the wall, thus giving rise to condensation forming on the outer surface of the wall.If such condensation is absorbed by the wall the moisture content of the wall will rise.

Water, although apparently having a simple chemical formula H2O, is really a very complex chemical substance and adjacent water molecules tend to form "hydrogen bonds" between the hydrogen atoms of one molecule, and the electrons of the oxygen atom which do not form part of the covalent bonds with the hydrogen atoms of an adjacent water molecule. The hydrogen bonds may also attract to other material adjacent the molecules in question, thus serving to "bond" water intimately to a structure such as a wall.

It is therefore to be appreciated that once a wall is damp or is saturated with water it can be a difficult and time consuming task to "dry-out" the wall. The present invention seeks to provide a method of treating a building which may serve to dry out a damp or saturated wall in a manner which is relatively easy as compared with present day techniques.

According to this invention there is provided a method of treating a pre-existing building, the method comprising the steps of drilling at least one bor in a wall of the building, inserting in that bore an elongate electrically powered heater element and supplying electricity to that heater element to cause the heater element to heat the wall adjacent the bore.

Preferably the method comprises the step of drilling an array of bores in the wall and introducing a respective heater into each bore.

Conveniently the or each heater comprises an elongate cylindrical member provided with an internal elongate axially extending heater wire.

Advantageously the or each heater element is associated with a plurality of hollow ceramic plugs which are slidingly mounted on the heater element, having good thermal contact therewith, the plugs being inserted into the bore in the wall together with the heater element.

Conveniently the plugs are grouted or otherwise bonded to the wall.

Advantageously a thermostat is provided adapted to control the or each heater element.

In one embodiment a thermostat is associated with at least one said heater element.

Alternatively - the thermostat is a separate thermostat element inserted in its own respective bore formed in the wall.

Conveniently the bore to receive the thermostat is located at a point eaui-spaced from two or more of the bores provided for receiving heater elements.

The invention also relates to a building whenever treated by a method as described above.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, and so that further features thereof may be appreciated, the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawing which is a diagrammatic perspective representation of part of a wall, showing part of an array of holes formed in the form and showing one heating element and one sensor element to be inserted in selected holes formed in the wall.

Referring initially to the Figure a wall 1 is illustrated which may be, for example, a wall that is damp or that has been saturated with water or which may alternatively be a wall within a building designed to be heated by a fire in a open fireplace. In such a case the wall may form part of the chimney or may form part of an internal or external wall of the building.

As will be explained in greater detail below, in carrying out the method of the building initially bores are drilled in the wall, and then electric heating elements are inserted in the bores and are operated to heat the wall.

As will also be described below this does lead to various advantages.

In carrying out the method, as an initial step a plurality of bores 2 are drilled in the wall, using a conventional drill, the bores 2 forming a regular array of holes. The bores may, for example, be in a square array on a one metre pitch. However, alternative arrays of bores may be found to be suitable.

As shown in the drawing further bores 3 of a smaller diameter may be provided located at suitable positions within the regular array. Preferably each small bore 3 is located at a position which is equi-spaced relative to the adjacent larger bores 2.

A heater element, such as the heater element 4 is provided to be inserted in each of the larger diameter bores 2. The heater element 4 is a conventional industrial furnace heater element. Such a heater element comprises an elongate outer sheath formed of metal having an electric heater wire as a central core. In the illustrated embodiment the heater element is provided with a radially outwardly directing flange 5 adjacent one end thereof, an electric cable 6 supplying power to the heating element emerging from the heating element at that end thereof.

A plurality of hollow cylindrical ceramic plugs 7 are provided dimensioned to be slid onto the cylindrical heating element 4. The inner bore 8 provided in each of the plugs is adapted to be a relatively tight fit on the cylindrical heater 4 to provide a good thermal contact.

It is intended that the combination of the heater and the plugs mounted on the heater is to be inserted into the appropriate bore 2. Consequently the bore 2 has a diameter which is slightly greater than the outer diameter of the plugs 7. The plugs 7 may be bonded or grouted to the wall of the bore 2 formed in the wall to ensure good thermal contact between each plug 7 and the wall. This may be accomplished in many ways, for example by inserting an appropriate quantity of grout within the bore 2 before inserting the combination of the cylindrical heater and the plugs 7 into the bore.

A respective heater element is inserted in each of the relatively large diameter bores 2 and the electric leads 6 associated with the heaters are connected to an appropriate power supply. Thus electricity is supplied to the heater elements to cause each heater element to heat the walls adjacent the respective bore.

A thermostat may be incorporated with each heater, but, as illustrated, a separate thermostat 9 is provided of cylindrical form, the separate thermostat being adapted to be inserted into the smaller diameter bore 3. The thermostat may be grouted or bonded in position to ensure good thermal contact between the wall and the thermostat.

The thermostat 9 is of cylindrical form and has an electric lead 10 emerging from one end thereof. The lead will be connected to a control arrangement to control the operation of the heater elements. A radially outwardly directed flange 11 is provided adjacent that end of the thermostat.

The radially outwardly directed flanges 5 and 11 are provided to prevent the heater and the thermostat from being inserted too far into the bore 2 or bore 3 respectively. Each flange will abut the outer surface of the wall when the heater and the thermostat are in the correct position.

Preferably each bore extends at least half way through the wall, and the heater and thermostat elements are of such a length that they extend to the centre of the wall. It is envisaged that in some embodiments only the terminal end portion of each heater element will provide a heating effect. Thus the centre part of the wall will be heated to a greater temperature than the exterior of the wall, thus driving moisture out of the wall.

The heater elements may be controlled in any appropriate manner, but it is envisaged that the heater elements will be actuated in such a way that the temperature of the surface of the wall in which the heater elements are effectively embedded will be raised to a temperature which is greater than the temperature present in the room bounded by the wall. If this is accomplished, no moisture from air within the room will condense on the wall. Equally, if the wall contains moisture or is saturated with water, the moisture or water within the wall tends to be driven out of the wall. The act of heating the wall will serve to assist in driving water or moisture out of the wall.

If the wall forms part of the chimney stack, the chimney stack will act in the manner in which it was intended to act when the building was designed, in that the temperature of the chimney stack will rise, thus generally heating those parts of the building adjacent the chimney and providing a "storage heater" effect, the elevated temperature of the chimney stack may also create an updraught through the chimney of the house. The presence of an up draught through an existing chimney may be very beneficial in that the up draught will cause the building to be ventilated by air drawn into the building from the outside. A steady flow of air through a building in this way will tend to remove from the building any sense of "mustiness" or dampness.

It is envisaged that the method described above may be used with benefit in large buildings designed to be heated by fires to prevent condensation and to improve ventilation, and also to improve the general heating of the building. The amount of heat supplied by the heating elements may need to be adjusted not only in view of the temperature attained by the wall, but also with regard to seasonal variations. A building having a high thermal capacity tends, in any event, to absorb heat in the summer, from the relatively warm air that circulates at that time of year, and from sunshine falling on the building, and the building tends to give that heat up in the winter, when the air is cold and when there is only little sunshine falling on the building. It may, therefore, be appropriate to supply more heat to a wall in a building when, after the initial winter weeks, the building has lost the heat that it absorbed during the summer months. Equally it may be appropriate to continue to heat the wall during the beginning of the summer period, even though the weather is relatively warm, in order to remove the "chilling" effect that can be experienced within a room which is surrounded by very cold walls.

The method of the invention may be used to treat houses such as, for example, a row of terraced houses each provided with a chimney stack, in order to improve the ventilation of the buildings and in order to provide a more even temperature within the buildings.

The method of the invention may be used to dry out, in a straightforward manner, a wall that is damp or that is saturated with water.

Claims (12)

CLAIMS:

1. A method of treating a pre-existing building, the method comprising the.steps of drilling at least one bore in a wall of the building, inserting in that bore an elongate electrically powered heater element and supplying electricity to that heater element to cause the heater element to heat the wall adjacent the bore.

2. A method according to Claim 1 wherein the method comprises the step of drilling an array of bores in the wall and introducing a respective heater into each bore.

3. A method according to Claim 1 or 2 wherein the or each heater comprises an elongate cylindrical member provided with an internal elongate axially extending heater wire.

4. A method according to any one of the preceding Claims wherein the or each heater element is associated with a plurality of hollow ceramic plugs which are slidingly mounted on the heater element, having good thermal contact therewith, the plugs being inserted into the bore in the wall together with the heater element.

5. A method according to Claim 4 wherein the plugs are grouted or otherwise bonded to the wall.

6. A method according to any one of the preceding Claims wherein a thermostat is provided adapted to control the or each heater element.

7. A method according to Claim 6 wherein a thermostat is associated with at least one said heater element.

8. A method according to Claim 6 wherein the thermostat is a separate thermostat element inserted in its own respective bore formed in the wall.

9. A method according to Claim 8 wherein the bore to receive the thermostat is located at a point equi-spaced from two or more of the bores provided for receiving heater elements.

10. A method of treating a building substantially as herein described with reference to and a shown in the accompanying drawing.

11. A building whenever treated by a method according to any one of the preceding Claims.

12. Any novel feature or combination of features disclosed herein.