1. INTRODUCTION<br>

# 1. Introduction

## 1.1. Purpose and features

Instal-therm is intended for designers, installers, maintenance engineers and operators of hydronic central heating systems with convectors (double- and single-pipe systems) and radiant heating systems (floor and wall heating systems). It also supports the design and adjustment of double-pipe cooling medium circuits in air-conditioning systems. The circulating medium may comprise water or any of the non-freezing mixtures defined in the program.

System calculations include:

- sizing of pipes and fittings, including calculations of systems with user-specified diameters for part of the system or for the entire system,

- automatic sizing of all couplings and pipe fittings necessary to complete the structure of connections and geometry of the system defined by diagrams and to make connections with fittings and terminal units,

- determination of settings of control components in the system, such as preset radiator and riser valves, pressure differential and flow regulating valves, throttling orifices,

- sizing of required head of pumps on pipe-runs or in mixing systems,

- sizing of pipework insulation,

- heat and flow calculations of heating surfaces with automatic determination of optimum supply temperature,

- sizing of radiators with allowance made for temperature drop in pipelines, heat gains from pipe-runs and additional sources,

- convector output adjusting calculations by altering water temperature drop and heating medium flow,

- bill of materials: pipes, pipe fittings and couplings, insulation, radiators, radiant heating components, valves and other fittings.

The range of calculations presented above applies to the complete version of software, which is identified by the letters HCR which follow the name of the software. The software may also be supplied in versions that feature the calculations of:

- radiator heating systems (Instal-therm H),

- radiator heating systems and cooling circuits (Instal-therm HC),

- radiator and radiant surface heating systems (Instal-therm HR).

Irrespective of the version, the principal graphical environment and the user interface of the software is the same. Only some of the calculation functions and associated options, as well as some components and catalogue types will not be available in individual versions of the software.

The following catalogues are required to enable working with the program:

- catalogues of pipes, pipe fittings and couplings, including associated fittings (valves, radiator connections) from the manufacturer,

- catalogues of convectors,

- catalogues of radiant surface (floor or wall) heating systems with specifications of all system components and all data required for calculations, including geometrical, heat and flow restrictions defined by the system manufacturer,

- thermostatic and control valves,

- catalogues of pipe insulation.

Catalogues are binary files prepared by InstalSoft and the user cannot modify them. Some catalogues, e.g. of commonly used cut-off fittings, are not associated with any specific manufacturer. There is no limitation on the number of catalogues used simultaneously, except for the restrictions defined by the software use licence (full version or firmware – usually limited to a defined set of catalogues).

Bills of materials include all determined and specified sizes of components that make up the system and sized components of radiant surface heating system, as well as pipe fittings and couplings that enable making connections between components.

Calculation results are presented both in the form of tables as well as on plans and developed view drawings, which form the input data.

The software is the continuation and integration of two applications present on the market: Instal-c.h. i Instal-f.h. – version 2. It retains their features – calculation of a central heating system based only on a 2-D or isometric drawing of the system and calculation of a floor heating system (including manifold) based on plans only. *.cow and *.opw files are read by the program. It may, however, not be possible to make calculations immediately after loading these files, or the interpretation of these files may differ from that by version 2. Users who would like to recalculate files created with version 2 software will find information on the major differences in data interpretation in a table at the end of this manual.