More recently, recreation at their summer cottage was possible only in the warm season. The lack of economical and convenient ways to heat country houses made it impossible to have an active winter outdoor recreation. Now such an idea can be easily implemented, having the opportunity to go sledding and skiing, breathe in plenty of clean frosty air and take a break from the hustle and bustle of big cities.
To do this, it is important to carefully consider the heating system of a country house, to make it comfortable and economical, simple and short in execution. Castorama experts show you how to heat your holiday home economically so you can enjoy the benefits of a countryside holiday all year round.
Your home needs a plus
There cannot be an unambiguous and universal solution for all dachas, since the choice of a heating system depends on the frequency and conditions of use, the size of the house. You can live in the house permanently or come only for the weekend. But you need to know that each cycle of full heating of a house frozen through will cause serious damage to its structure due to the formation of condensate moisture. In this case, when choosing the main type of heating, you need to consider a system for maintaining a positive temperature in the rooms during a short period of your absence.
How to maintain a positive temperature in winter?
Positive temperature (slightly more than five degrees) is quite enough for the start of warming up on your arrival to be calm and comfortable for everyone, including the entire structure of the house. There are several types of electric heaters that are equipped with thermostatic sensors. When you select the desired mode, the heater will regularly maintain the required temperature until your arrival. And the better your house is insulated, the less costs will be required for such standby heating.
In winter, it may not be worth it to heat the entire house. With the onset of stable cold weather, attic rooms, a veranda and other rooms on the ground floor that you do not use can be left without constant heating. It is important to consider heating in the kitchen and one of the living rooms equipped with a fireplace or stove. This approach will allow you to comfortably relax in the country in the winter and not spend a lot of money on heating it. And so that the heating system used does not damage the rest of the house, you need to take care of the thermal insulation of unheated rooms.
Expert advice
For greater efficiency, you can use programmable weekly switches that, on the eve of your arrival, will turn on additional heaters and bring the temperature in the house to quite comfortable.
How to quickly heat up a room?
So, on the long-awaited winter weekend, you arrived at the dacha in order to spend time comfortably. If you take care of the on-duty heating, then the house will be cool, but without a feeling of dampness - convectors dry the air well. There are several ways to quickly heat up a room. Particularly effective are the so-called high-power heat guns - electric or gas, they are able to warm the air in the room in a matter of minutes. This is the best option for heating the house to a comfortable temperature, but it will not help to maintain the conditions created in the premises for a long time. If you want to stay overnight in a country house, you should light a fireplace or a brick oven. It will warm up for a long time, but it will also be able to maintain a comfortable temperature in the room for a long time.
Choosing the type of heater
The oil heater is convenient and practical to use, has several modes of operation. The heating of a cold room is rather slow, but in the economy mode, the device successfully maintains the temperature from the heated stove and can heat a small room well all night.
An electric convector heats the room by circulating warm air through thin heating elements. The adjustable thermostat automatically maintains the set temperature. Convectors heat up the room faster, but cool down quickly after being turned off.
Fan heaters heat the air even faster in a cold country house. They should not be used for a long time, because they burn oxygen and dry out the air.
Modern infrared heaters are gaining popularity due to ease of use and cost-effectiveness. They heat objects located in the reach of the rays, but it is not recommended to be directly under such a panel for a long time. It is better to install such a device at the door or away from the bed and dining table.
Choosing a stove for heating a country house
It is believed that only a large brick oven can heat a room for a long time. The decisive nuance is the mass of the structure, which allows you to accumulate heat. And indeed it is. With permanent residence, such a stove is heated throughout the winter season, not allowing it to cool. This is the age-old experience of our ancestors, which can be successfully applied in our time. More progressive options are also in demand - solid fuel heating boilers and gas boilers, if it is possible to connect to the main. However, not all holiday villages have gas, and the heating system itself with liquid heat carriers is considered expensive and rather inert in time, because you come for one or two days. For a modest country house, modern designs of economical stoves can become an option for heating.
What are long burning stoves?
Expert advice
The ability to burn firewood for a long time is also endowed with cassette fireplace inserts made of cast iron with movable doors made of heat-resistant glass. Their external design corresponds to closed-type fireplaces. Unlike brick fireplaces, these fireboxes quickly heat the air in the room and keep it warm all night.
We all have a good idea of what a potbelly stove is, which saved many generations from the cold in the difficult years of our history. Its design was not distinguished by convenience and practicality, and the efficiency was extremely low: a lot of fuel was required, and it was necessary to heat continuously. Modern models are fundamentally different from previous designs. They are compact, convenient and able to decorate any room. But their main advantage is their extraordinary energy efficiency, which allows you to heat a country house without significant costs.
This was achieved through precise design calculations and the use of the latest heat-resistant materials. The most successful models of such furnaces are able to maintain economical combustion of fuel for 8-10 and even 12 hours. One bookmark of firewood can smolder in the main firebox all night, and combustible gases from such smoldering do not escape into the chimney, but are burned out in the secondary chamber. There is practically no ash from the firebox. Long burning stoves are easy to use and multifunctional. You can choose a stove with a hob for cooking or a stove with a glass door for your country house, which makes it possible to watch the play of live fire on winter evenings. No foundation is required for such furnaces - they can be installed in any convenient place.
Comfortable sleep in a country house
To create comfortable conditions for recreation and living in the country, you can use various household solutions. If, after returning from a ski trip in the evening to your warm home, you find that the bed has not yet warmed up, and the sheets seem damp, use an electric mattress or electric sheet. They will make the bed warm and comfortable for sleeping in a short time. Such heaters consume only 40-60 watts of electricity.
A very economical and convenient solution for maintaining the optimum temperature in the rooms of a country house in winter is film infrared heaters. Laid directly under carpet or linoleum, they warm large surfaces well with soft and pleasant warmth. In a house where an economical heating system is rationally arranged, one can live in complete comfort even in the most severe cold, enjoying communion with pure nature.
Heating is the largest energy expense in most homes. It accounts for from 35 to 50% annual electricity bills.
The most effective way to reduce these bills is to reduce the use of energy for heating.
The heating system replaces the heat that is lost through the walls, windows, floor and ceiling of your home.
Ways to economically heat a private house
The amount of energy required to replace the lost heat depends on four factors:
- location of the house (in colder regions, consumption is higher);
- the size of the building;
- energy efficiency at home;
- energy efficiency of the heating system.
The first factor is the main but it does not depend on you. The colder the weather outside, the more energy is required to maintain a comfortable temperature inside.
important and house size. A spacious room contains a significant amount of air that needs to be warmed up. Therefore, a large house requires large heating costs.
A great opportunity to save energy and money is to improve the energy efficiency of your home and its heating system. There are several ways to do this:
- choose the optimal type of heating system;
- improve facade insulation;
- repair the heat distribution system (air ducts and pipes);
- eliminate heat leakage through doors, windows and various cracks.
How to perform facade insulation
Thermal insulation of the facade in the form of its insulation is the main protection of the house from heat loss through the building body. Therefore, it is very important to insulate the largest part of the house in terms of area - the walls of the facade. Insulating materials reduce heat loss by providing a barrier between the inside of the house and the significantly different temperatures outside.
Houses use different types of insulation. The most common ones- polyurethane foam, polystyrene foam and fiberglass.
Polyurethane foam
Foam insulation is spray or injection foam.
- spray foam in a liquid state, it is distributed in the open spaces of a new house design. After that, the foam expands, fills the cavity and solidifies.
- injection foam pumped into existing cracks, crevices or other voids in walls. This makes this polyurethane foam indispensable for repairing the insulation of existing homes.
Styrofoam
Styrofoam happens with open or closed cells.
- Expanded polystyrene with open cells very light and flexible. When the polystyrene foam is foamed, the gas inside the cells escapes through holes in the cell wall. This process contributes to the creation of a light and flexible shape that compacts as it cures.
- Closed cell expanded polystyrene has a much denser and heavier structure. It forms a dense surface that is more resistant to weathering and temperature changes.
Fiberglass
Fiberglass is made from soda, limestone, sand and crushed glass and is supplied in slabs or rolls. It is placed in unfinished walls, floors and ceilings between pins, beams and crossbeams. Due to its fibrous structure, this material is excellent keeps air inside and prevents heat loss.
Photo 1. A piece of fiberglass. It is one of the most popular home insulation materials.
Efficient boilers for space heating
In order to efficiently and economically heat a house, it is necessary to choose high-quality heating equipment. Most often, boilers are used in this role.
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Condensing gas
Boiler operation with condensing gas allows you to use all the energy released during the combustion of gas. All boiler systems distribute heat to hot water, which gives off heat by passing through radiators or other devices in rooms throughout the home. The chilled water is then returned to the boiler for reheating.
In a conventional boiler, the heating system circuit is heated during the combustion of natural gas. condensing boiler uses the energy available in the products of gas combustion. These products contain water vapor. As the steam cools, it condenses and releases heat. The water in the heating circuit is heated by this energy. The evacuation of water released during condensation (condensate) is carried out through the sewage network.
Important! Natural gas is the most affordable source of energy. Therefore, the cost of operating a condensing boiler will be the most profitable.
Such a boiler is easy to operate, consumes less fuel than a standard gas boiler, and has efficiency, often exceeding 100%.
Pyrolysis
The pyrolysis boiler runs on solid fuel. In this case, not only the firewood itself is burned, but also the gases that are released in the process.
Therefore, the efficiency of such boilers is up to 90%. Firewood or special pellets made from dried biomass burn in one chamber, releasing pyrolysis gas.
Under the influence of high temperature, the gas enters another chamber through a special nozzle, in which it burns, mixing with oxygen.
The thermal energy released in this process is much higher than in conventional boilers and burn time is much longer. Therefore, pyrolysis boilers are called long burning boilers.
Such gas-generating boilers do not depend on the presence of a main gas pipeline, and can most effectively use purchased fuel.
solid fuel
The simplest boiler is a wood or coal boiler. He completely autonomous, and does not require any connection to the gas pipeline or electrical network, nor the cost of paying for gas and electricity. Just a standard body is enough, consisting of a firebox (or combustion chamber) and a blower, and ordinary firewood.
Firewood is burning in the firebox thanks to the air that is supplied through the blower. In this case, thermal energy is released. It heats a steel or cast iron heat exchanger in the form of a coil, located in the furnace, and increases the temperature of the coolant. Hot water gives off heat as it passes through the home's heating system. The chilled water is then returned to the boiler for reheating.
Electric boiler
Electric boiler operation similar to the operation of other boilers: the water in it is heated, and then circulates in the heating system circuit and radiators.
Water is heated in these boilers using electric current. It provides high performance and excellent heating rate.
In addition, the installation of an electric boiler does not require large expenditures for the installation of expensive equipment, the presence of a chimney and a large room.
Warm floor
Underfloor heating is the most old form of central heating. Even the Romans used an underfloor heating system that warmed buildings and baths. Today's underfloor heating system is gaining more and more popularity in Russia.
Underfloor heating is a system that heats a house through a heated floor covering. Exists two types of such system. In the first type warm water heats the floor, passing through the pipeline laid under the floor ("wet" system). In the second floor becomes warm with electric coils placed under it ("dry" system).
Concrete floor slabs heat up, and heat is radiated from under the floor into the room. "Wet" system can be connected to a gas boiler for heating water. This will help to significantly save on cheap gas fuel.
Attention! For this type of heating massive building work is required. Therefore, its installation is best done during the construction of the house.
Infrared heating is one of the most economical ways
The infrared spectrum is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. This form of radiated heat is the most basic. It's the same 100% natural heat type, which radiates and absorbs the human body daily.
Photo 2. Installation of infrared heaters under the roof of the house, this installation method allows you to completely warm up the room.
The peculiarity of infrared radiation is that it heats objects and people in its path. without heating the surrounding area. This makes infrared heating much more efficient than convection. The convective heat generated by conventional radiators and central heating systems only heats the air.
Warm air is distributed throughout the room, circulating uncontrollably and leaving objects in the room cool. Infrared heating radiates direct heat and heats everything. This type of heating brings long-lasting, comfortable warmth to the house, consuming less energy.
Infrared heaters can provide targeted heat anywhere, no matter the distance. This means that there is no need to spend electricity to heat a room of any, even the largest area, and heat is not lost due to air circulation.
Solar collectors - cheap and economical
Solar collectors use the heat of sunlight to heat water, which then goes inside the building. They consist of a panel of heat-absorbing material into which mixture of water and antifreeze to collect heat. This mixture then heats the water in the hot water system, so solar collectors must be integrated into the existing heat distribution system.
Photo 3. Solar collectors installed on the roof of the house. Devices must be placed at a certain angle.
Such thermal systems can be useful not only in warm climates. Even a small increase in water temperature dramatically reduces the amount of energy needed to heat it. Solar collectors create favorable conditions for the start of any heating systems. It means that less energy is used overall.
Gone are the days when economics was ignored. Today everything is different. Energy carriers are getting more expensive every year and now it's time to look for the most profitable and economical home heating. We will talk about this in our material.
Every developer dreams that the heating system of a private house is economical. You can save on 3 key things:
- Financial. Make an inexpensive heating option
- Savings in terms of heating system
- Savings in terms of modern technologies
Before installing heating, you need to decide:
- What will the house be used for? Will you live in it permanently or come periodically. The payback period of the heating system depends on this. It may be useful to mount an economical heating option.
- What is the key for you: to save on heating now or lay the heating of a private house in the future.
- Decide which fuel will perform a key function
Savings on finances
Let's just remember: saving money, you will never get the most economical and profitable heating of a private house. This is the main mistake of all developers. You invest in the construction of a large house, in finishing the outside and inside, but most often you forget about such fundamental things as heating.
Heating costs money, but reasonable savings can still be made. You can mount the good old and proven . It will be affordable and you will provide your home with warmth in the cold season. But it will not be the most economical heating system.
About the most profitable home heating system
Now it remains to find out which heating system of a private house is the most economical. In this nomination, water heated floors win with a decent margin. And that's why:
- Underfloor heating is at least 30% more economical than radiators (subject to special conditions for temperature control and boiler installation for low-temperature systems);
- Warm floors heat from the bottom up, while radiators heat the ceiling first;
- Underfloor heating works at a low temperature. The high limit is 45 degrees.
- Warm floors can be heated by anything.
That's what they say all over the internet. In fact, all modern systems are about the same in terms of efficiency. It does not matter what you mount, it is important how exactly you will regulate it all. The more precisely the heating system is adjusted, the more economically it functions.
The most important point, due to which savings are achieved on warm floors, is thermal insulation. Manufacturers recommend using a density of 35, a thickness of 10 cm on the first floor and 5 cm on the next.
In practice, 5 cm on the ground floor is quite enough. Unless of course you live in a region with a lot of cold.
What a warm floor looks like, you can see in our video:
The second point due to which you can get the most economical heating at home is temperature control. By installing room thermostats with a manifold, mixing module, you can save up to 50% compared to radiator heating.
You can make the adjustment and simpler, and the underfloor heating system as a whole.
What fuel is more profitable?
Gas is the most economical energy source for heating a private house. Gas heating does not require constant human intervention. What can you say about coal heating.
Gas is not available everywhere. Therefore, one often has to choose either coal or electricity. Plus electric heating - turned on once and forgot. Coal must be constantly thrown into the boiler.
Modern economical technologies
With the help of modern technologies, we can achieve the most economical home heating. But we still classify these technologies as unreasonable, because their payback is quite long. From 10 years and above.
One such technology is a heat pump. With the help of earthly resources, it is able to produce at least 4 times more energy than it consumes itself. If you need a 20 kW boiler for your home, then a heat pump with a power of only 5 kW is suitable for heating. The heat pump is powered by electricity. The pump is also 3-4 times more expensive than a first-class gas boiler with high efficiency.
Solar collectors can be used as heating. It does not require any energy consumption at all. When properly installed, solar collectors are able to heat underfloor heating and provide you with the necessary amount of hot water. But then again, it all comes down to finances.
These technologies are our future. There will come a time when both the heat pump and the solar collector will be available to everyone.
As a result, we get that using underfloor heating + temperature control + heat pump (or collector) we can get the most economical home heating.
If you are looking far ahead and confident that you can afford such expenses, then you definitely will not regret installing all this at home.
More ways to save
Additional savings from heating can be obtained by installing control equipment:
- If you have radiators, thermostatic heads will not be superfluous. They are installed on the radiator supply instead of conventional valves. They perform a simple function - at the desired room temperature, they shut off the flow, when the room cools down, they open it back. The adjustment is relevant only for heating systems with forced circulation
- If you have underfloor heating, then it will not be superfluous to install a collector with servo drives and put a thermostat in each room. The servo drive is interfaced with a thermostat and when the required temperature in the room is reached, it shuts off the supply of coolant to the underfloor heating circuit
These two life hacks allow you to achieve additional savings on heating.
The choice of a heating system is a key issue, the solution of which determines the comfort of living and the safety of the owner's financial resources. Considering various options, you should pay attention to electric heating in a private house, evaluate its pros and cons in order to compare it with other proposals.
Modern systems powered by electricity are very diverse. Not all of them consume excessively large amounts of electricity. Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Electric heating systems are among the most environmentally friendly. They do not emit any emissions into the atmosphere
This is fundamentally wrong, because electrical systems have many significant advantages that distinguish them from other types of heating:
- Safety. The equipment does not work with open flames and explosive substances, like other heating appliances. High-quality laid wiring - reliable protection against possible fire.
- Easy to manage and maintain. Automatic systems regulate the operation of the equipment, which requires minimal human intervention. There are no items that require regular replacement or cleaning.
- Complete environmental safety. During operation, the system does not emit toxic substances, so it can be mounted in any premises.
- No need to store fuel. Therefore, a special room for storing combustible materials is not required.
- Compactness. Most of the equipment is small. The diverse design of the devices makes it easy to choose a model for any interior style.
- low cost. Compared to other types of heating devices, the price of such equipment is much lower.
Of the significant shortcomings of electrical systems, in addition to the rather high cost of electricity, in fairness it should be noted the complete energy dependence of the equipment.
This means that in the event of a power outage, all appliances will stop working, which will be especially noticeable in areas with frequent power outages. In addition, for the smooth operation of the equipment, you will need a powerful electrical network, which is far from being available everywhere.
For the arrangement of water heating with an electric boiler, only a closed system with an expansion tank equipped with a membrane is chosen, with the help of which the pressure in the system is regulated
Water heating with electric boiler
It is a standard system with a liquid heat carrier circulating in the heating circuit. Its main difference lies in the fact that the heat carrier is heated only through the use of an electric boiler.
Because of this, such a system will have some features. First of all, it can only be of a closed type and must be equipped
Otherwise, it will not be possible to avoid uneven heating of the premises, losses in the speed and power of heat exchange, which will lead to excessive consumption of electricity and, accordingly, unjustified costs. For the same reasons, it is not recommended to install a system with natural circulation.
Image gallery
Owners of private houses for various reasons choose heating with electricity. Unfortunately, of all existing methods, it is considered the most expensive. Therefore, the question of how to reduce the cost of heating a house with electricity is more relevant than ever. We will consider the most economical way in more detail by comparing some types of heating systems.
Read in the article:
Advantages and disadvantages of heating with electricity
Often, houses built on private plots are not connected to energy networks: gas, solid fuel. In such cases, the organization of heating with the help of electricity becomes the only way out.
For example, many people install all kinds of heaters, stoves in the house, if the main system is not working yet. Do these methods have clear pros and cons? Let's look into this in more detail.
Heating private houses with electricity: undeniable advantages
- Ease of installation of electrical heat sources.
- The ability to quickly adjust the temperature to the desired level.
- Saving energy consumption.
- Mobility of heating sources (in case of using mobile radiators).
- The ability to choose the type of convector for the interior of the house.
- Environmental friendliness - oxygen is not removed (not burned) from the space of the room, there is no danger of harmful emissions.
Undeniable advantages Cons of heating from the mains
- The high cost of electricity services.
- If you need to create high voltage, you will need to purchase and install an energy distributor.
Related article:
Advantages:
- Such devices are compact.
- Light in weight, affordable, but have a high heating power. They can be grouped, include only one or all at once.
- And one of its main advantages is resistance to voltage drops, which is especially relevant for houses with old wiring.
But at the same time, the electrode system has disadvantages:
- unstable power level;
- extreme dependence on the composition of the conductive substance and its temperature;
- requires strict adherence to the proportions of the solution and its purity;
- incorrect "reaction" to adjustment and automatic control.
Russian electrode boilers for heating a private house, price range:
| Models "Galan Hearth" | power, kWt | Cost, rub. |
|---|---|---|
 2-N | 2 | 3650 |
 3-N | 3 | 3800 |
 5-N | 5 | 3850 |
 6-N | 6 | 3900 |
| Models "Galan" | Cost, rub. |
|---|---|
 Geyser-9 | 7200 |
 Geyser-15 | 7500 |
 Volcano-25 | 7550 |
 Volcano-36 | 10200 |
 Volcano-50 | 12300 |
User reviews of electrode boilers:
Sergey, Perm: Each heating season requires new electrodes, which is considered a very laborious task. The manufacturer claims that if you adhere to all performance characteristics, the device will last a long time.
Natalia, Riga: I purchased the Vulkan-25 model. We often have to dismantle the boiler and clean it. If the plates are not cleaned in a timely manner, the thermal conductivity decreases. The manufacturer recommends first of all to pay attention to the quality of the coolant.
Induction heating boilers
If the question arises of how to heat a house with electricity economically, then this is one of the best options. Today it is the most popular and technically perfect type of electric boiler.
It works like this: a primary winding is installed in the center of the device, capable of passing an electric current, which provokes voltage in the secondary winding section. It, in turn, consists of a circuit of pipes with a coolant. Due to the fact that there are no vulnerable nodes in such a device, the conductors of electricity do not come into contact with the heat-conducting carrier in any way.
The induction boiler can work stably for several decades! This is an economical device - it can be used to reduce energy costs by up to 40%, when compared with a heating element or electrode "brother".
Note! The device has only three conditional drawbacks - noise from small vibration, the massiveness of the design itself and its relatively high price.
Simple electric boilers for heating private houses: average prices
Heating a house with electricity: the most economical way is infrared
Along with the boiler heating system, the infrared method is especially popular today. Special heating plates are installed in the house, in which the emitter draws in electricity and converts it into an infrared wave, and then transmits it. The waves from the heater are in continuous motion until they "collide" with some opaque object.
Plates are usually fixed on the ceiling or walls. However, it should be understood that it rarely acts as the main heating system for a large private house and is more often used as an addition.
Infrared waves quickly fill the room with heat, and then automatically turn off - this is possible thanks to a special independent automatic control system.
Note! This type of home heating with electricity is the most economical way, because it does not use more electricity than necessary.
This option has only 2 drawbacks:
- Expensive equipment (but at the same time it consumes electricity economically!).
- Strict direction of heating from the plates to the nearest parts of the room.
Convector heaters
These heating devices are similar in function to conventional radiators - convectors heat up themselves and transfer heat through the air. However, there is no coolant inside them, therefore pipes are not required for them. Instead of a coolant, heating elements are built into the convectors (the advantages and disadvantages of this element were mentioned above), and cold air is taken in through the bottom of the device.
One of the essential advantages of the equipment can be called quiet operation, which is especially important for those who spend most of their time at home. But convectors also have a drawback - this is low efficiency. Electric convectors absorb a significant amount of electricity.
Warm floor
These electrical systems work on the basis of conductors with a resistor, through which an electric current passes, due to which they are heated.
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