Heat Interface Units (HIUs) sometimes known as ‘heat boxes’ provide central heating and sometimes domestic hot water to individual dwellings within a multi-development site such as apartments, flats and large social housing schemes.

The HIU acts as a bridge between the central boiler system of the development and the individual systems of each dwelling. The HIU facilitate the heating across the separate central and individual systems by using a plate heat exchanger to transfer energy from a fluid within the central system to the fluid within the individual systems, this is referred to and indirect heating.

Historically in sites of multiple dwellings such as social housing, individual heating systems such as combi boilers or electric heaters where installed in each property, however, these could leave individuals with various temperature control issues, providing poor quality of care and increased maintenance, as well as issues regarding metering and billing.

But the use of a centralised plant using Heat Interface Units significantly reduces all of these issues, allowing for the amount consumed by an individual property to be recorded and billed accordingly. It also allows developers to meet the increasingly demanding targets being set on new build developments, by the government.

If you’d like to learn more about how Heat Interface Units work then check out our blog here!