A smart hub would let you control the heating, lighting, ventilation, security and entertainment systems from anywhere — even when you are on holiday.

The hardware can also analyse the behavioural patterns of a family and control heating, water and lighting automatically, as well as switch off unused appliances.

Large houses may have different channels to control the heating on different floors, as well as a further channel for the hotwater cylinder.

It learns how you like to have your home heated and, more important, lets you control the heating and hot water remotely from your smartphone.

State-of-the-art glass houses have supplementary lighting for dark, short days, computers to control heating and ventilation and pests are controlled biologically.

Compensation may include 'special' damages for ruined possessions, extra heating costs and rental of alternative accommodation.

Extensions — and conservatories in particular — carry their own problems in terms of heating costs.

The new owners will have heating costs of less than 10 per cent of an average home, at about 100 a year.

Heating costs for the biomass boiler come in at about 2,000 a year, a sum that would be much higher without the property's extensive insulation.

It could help make up for all the cuts, also help with heating costs and provide meals on wheels.

Lag central heating pipes under ground-floor voids — these can lose 70% of their heat before they even reach your radiators.

Given our computer-driven environmental and watering systems, and our rail tracks where heating pipes double up as transport systems, we will be the first to benefit from robotic harvesters.

Heating pipes are corroded and broken.

I kick the heating pipes.

Special variants were sometimes used that, for example, were fitted with suitable braking equipment or heating pipes.

His experiments with heating stoves in the 1860s led to the reshaping of his foundry business from the roller grain drill to the heating stove.

It contained two rows of double seats, a central aisle leading to the teacher's desk, and a heating stove at the north end.

The company restored the building, leaving antique heating stoves, carefully retouched decorative friezes and warm parquet floors in many offices.

The wooden cars were set alight by their heating stoves, but no attempt was made to extinguish the fire.

Cast iron heating stoves with detached pipes are located near the south end.

The heating unit was now inside the dashboard, and the fuel tank was now underneath the rear seat.

A new heating unit was installed that same year.

The basement has a fieldstone wall, but its dirt floor had to be covered with concrete to accommodate a heating unit.

For a heating unit, there was an old-fashioned wood stove.

The cards are then passed through a heating unit, which melts the plastic onto the card.

But fringing flaps about, it gets ruffled by the wind, it's a nightmare near an air-conditioning or heating vent, and it's unpredictable.

Emma finds no signs of a break-in, but hears rattling coming from the heating vent.

Older or cheaper systems may simply have the heating vent in the ceiling of the basement.

All traces of limp synth-pop will be wiped from the heating vents and the last lingering panpipe will be sponged from the walls.

In the upstairs rooms, the heating vents were just below the ceiling.

This acts as a giant sun room, creating passive heating and natural ventilation.

The large expanses of glass also let in lots of daylight, even in winter, and allow passive heating; horizontal timber louvre shading and perforated sliding screens prevent overheating in summer.

Passive heating methods exist which seek heat using low energy input.

There will be 71 properties in total, with underfloor heating, air conditioning, solar water heating and parking.

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom villa has thermal insulation, solar water heating and energy-efficient appliances.

A solar water heating system, for example, costs from 2,000, but you can get a grant of up to 400 to help with the cost.

Solar water heating systems use heat from the sun to work alongside your conventional water heater.

This allows hot air be re-used to optimise energy consumption and provide passive solar water heating.