The simplest way
Cast iron radiators, widely used in typical apartments, are the best way to heat living quarters. However, such heating devices also have their disadvantages, associated mainly with the absence of a thermostat and an excessively high return of stored energy. You can consider ways to optimize the operation of cast iron radiators, if any in your apartment.
The simplest and most effective material for eliminating excessive heat transfer from a cast-iron battery is an ordinary blanket placed on the surfaces of the radiator. Close the battery with them will be a matter of seconds for you. The possible predictable skepticism of many Internet users is associated, first of all, with a poor knowledge of the physical processes described in the school curriculum.
Reduced indoor humidity will be a minor side effect. It can be easily eliminated by purchasing an air humidifier (its average consumption in a typical apartment is up to three liters of water per day) and a psychrometer - a device that controls the level of humidity in the room.
Advice
Do not use the vents as a way to lower the room temperature, they can only be opened to naturally ventilate the room. Otherwise, the presence of very dry air in the apartment can lead to unpleasant consequences for the nasopharynx and skin. At the same time, the heat escaping from the room will not significantly reduce the degree of warming up.
The rationale for this advice lies in the physical processes that occur when cold street air enters the apartment. This air, which has a low level of humidification, heats up, passing through the window into the room, and reduces the absolute value of humidification. Accordingly, an increase in the humidity of the apartment atmosphere will occur with the help of your breath and skin, taking away the water it needs from the body.
What are thermostats?
An automatic thermostat is a system for controlling the level of heating of radiators. Regulators are installed on the pipes of the heating system in front of each battery in order to maintain a certain temperature in the rooms. Thermostats automatically turn on or off the radiators. With heat meters, this system helps to save on heat consumption.
Thermostats can be installed in any apartment, regardless of the heating system: central, house or apartment.
True, with an apartment system, owners can adjust the temperature in the apartment on an individual boiler. Therefore, thermostats are needed only if they want to maintain different temperatures in the rooms, for example, in the living room +19, and in the nursery +21 degrees.
Automatic thermostats should be installed together with batteries. If you do this after installing radiators, you will have to shut off the water in the heating system. It is convenient if the radiators have ball valves that disconnect the batteries from the heating system without disturbing the neighbors. If there are no ball valves, the entire riser will have to be shut off.
Alternative ways
One of the alternative ways to protect against excessive heat in a residential area is to purchase and install a special valve. Such a simple device allows you to regulate the level of heat supplied to the battery and save its value in ruble terms. The principle of saving becomes important for apartment owners, since heat distribution will become possible depending on atmospheric conditions.
The current state of the market for plumbing fixtures and fittings makes it possible to purchase a special protective screen operating on the principle of blinds. One turn of the shutters of such a screen helps to reduce the amount of heat energy distributed throughout the apartment, as well as minimize the risk of burns from an unnecessarily hot battery. Another advantage of the louvred screen placement is the simplicity of its design, which makes it possible not to carry out complex installation work. Installation of this kind of device will not take more than 10 minutes of your time.
The most radical way to limit the supply of heat to your apartment is to contact the office of the management company. Such treatment will reduce the thermal effect of the apartment battery by closing the corresponding common house valve. This method is not a panacea if you only need to limit the heat supply to the apartment. Using this option will also affect your housemates, who may not be hot.
What is the best way to install a heat meter?
The simplest solution would be to install an overhead device, since it does not require hiring an appropriate specialist and cutting pipes. It will be enough to fix the heat meter to the battery. The situation is different with mechanical devices; for the installation of these devices, it is necessary to close the risers, drain the water and dismantle part of the pipe. The situation is the same with ultrasonic devices that cut right into the pipeline.
As mentioned earlier, before delivering this equipment, you must have a permit and a finished project on hand. And in order to avoid problems with the acceptance into operation and payment of the device by the supplier, its installation must be carried out by a licensed company, which will be indicated in the act of work performed. The specialists of this company carry out work in accordance with the following stages:
- make a connection project;
- agree on the necessary documentation with the heat supplier;
- mount a heat meter;
- register the device;
- put the device into operation, transferring it to the jurisdiction of the controlling organization.
If you decide to carry out these works yourself, first carefully study the instructions for the heat meter. There you will find recommendations for the installation of the device and its operation, which must be followed unquestioningly. By the way, ultrasonic and mechanical devices must be provided with a measuring section of a certain size. That is, before and after the device, a straight pipe must be installed without turns and bends.
The measuring section for a mechanical heat meter must be at least 3 pipe diameters before the flow meter and one after. Ultrasonic heat meters are more demanding, where the measuring section must be at least 5 diameters before and 3 after the device (these data depend on the manufacturer).
Now let's talk about whether it is possible to mount an individual heat meter on the return pipe. Most manufacturers make meters that can be installed on any line, the main thing is not to mix up the temperature sensors. Usually they are screwed into a tee or a special valve equipped with a separate branch pipe for this purpose.
In fact, in countries in the post-Soviet space, it is often quite difficult to legally install and commission an individual heat meter. Perhaps the effort and material resources invested in this device will not be worth the result. Therefore, it is recommended that before contacting the organization of individual metering, it is better to consult with the heat energy supplier.
Metering devices are pretty good helpers for those who want to save their money. Anyone who does not want to pay for losses during heat transportation is recommended to think about installing a heat meter.Moreover, this is not such a difficult task. The main thing is to decide which metering device you want to install a general or individual one, it is better to entrust the rest of the work to professionals.
News:
forum for heating specialists
Which heating is more profitable - central or apartment heating? Or can you save money only with your own boiler room? Roman Shidlauskas, Development Director of the Russian representative office of the Italian radiator manufacturer Global Radiatori, talks about how to save on heating at all levels.
Using a heat shield
The heat from the hot battery is transferred in different directions and directions, creating a comfortable atmosphere in the apartment. The use of a special heat shield will allow not only to effectively reduce the excessive temperature of the battery, but also to avoid heat leakage, reaching up to 20 percent. A battery placed in a niche gives off heat not only to the apartment, but also to the outer wall, actually heating the street.
The device of the heat shield can be carried out using a special heat-insulating material placed between the wall and the heating radiator.
Such a "life hack" will give the heating system several extremely positive qualities:
- providing thermal insulation of walls;
- prevention of excessive heat transfer arising from differences in outdoor and room temperatures;
- providing an effect in which the heat from the heating device is reflected into the depth of the room;
- achieving uniform distribution of heat transfer, protection against overheating of the battery.
Various thermal insulation materials used to create screens have a foil backing. A special combination of materials such as polystyrene or foamed polyethylene with foil can screen thermal energy due to its good thermal insulation properties. The foil present in this device reflects about 90 percent of the heat, eliminates its loss and helps it evenly distribute throughout the room.
How to choose a heating system?
It is better to think about saving on heating immediately at the stage of choosing an apartment: pay attention to the system that is installed in the house.
The best option is individual or apartment heating system... Residents pay only for the consumption of cold water and gas, which heats the water to the desired temperature. Each tenant sets the level of heating the apartment individually. If you do not like the heat, then it is quite possible to save on this - the lower the set temperature, the less gas is consumed for heating. Thus, heat bills will depend only on you, and not on heat-loving neighbors.
True, individual heating in apartment buildings in Russia is still rather a rarity than a rule: there are only a few pilot projects in the regions.
How to choose heating radiators?
5 iron rules for repairing an apartment building
In our country, it is most often used central heating... In this case, all houses in the district are heated from the common boiler room. The cost of heating is calculated based on the amount of heat consumed, but the water in the batteries is supplied at the same temperature in all apartments. Therefore, it will not be possible to save money here, and you will have to regulate the temperature in the rooms with ventilation or valves on the batteries.
The third type of heating systems - browniewhen the apartment building has its own boiler room. The principle of operation is similar to the central system, but it is easier for residents of the same house to agree among themselves in order to lower the heating temperature, if necessary.
The only option that allows you to save money on central or house heating is to choose a house with apartment wiring from the storey collector (in this case, you can install individual heat meters).It is easy to identify such a system: in this case, the rooms do not have the usual risers, and the radiators are connected to outlets from the floor or walls.
Andrey Popov / Fotolia
Heat shield materials
Foil-clad foam is typically found in retail stores as short rolls. The thickness of the material layer in this case is up to 3 millimeters, and for foamed polyethylene - up to 4 millimeters. The thermal insulation properties of these materials are comparable to the properties of a 100 mm layer of mineral wool insulation.
When placing a screen that reflects heat, it is possible and necessary to take into account such an important factor as the minimum distance between the edge of the radiator section of the battery and the inner wall, which is 4 mm. If you change this distance to a smaller side, it will impede or disrupt the circulation of warm air and, as a result, the convection of heat transfer and the efficiency of the radiator.
Particular cases of placing the heating battery on the wall do not allow the installation of a full-fledged screen that reflects heat. A way out of this situation would be to mount aluminum foil on the wall, with its shiny surface perfectly coping with heat reflection. One sheet of such material, placed on a standard brick wall (if its thickness is 51 centimeters), will reduce the heat transfer loss of the battery by up to 35 percent.
The various ways to eliminate excess thermal energy from the battery discussed above can be noted as effective methods that have been proven in practice. If it gets too hot in the apartment, use the voiced one to make your home as comfortable as possible.
