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Criteria for selection of heating equipment

With this article, we will continue a cycle of materials, which will consider the features of heating equipment, fuel and energy conservation.

This article is dedicated to the principle of choice of heating equipment, based on an analysis of existing energy rates, the specific use of different fuels, and taking into account heat losses of the house.

Let us discuss criteria for the selection of heating equipment.

How this should be done in theory - consider the case with new construction, namely the construction of private homes, for businesses introductory others about them later. First, decide on a type of fuel.

GasFirst question - is there a natural gas on area - if there is the choice is almost done, for the benefit of natural gas. If the pipeline is not on the site, but there are nearby - then consider the technical and economic aspect of the problem. In other words, there is technically possible to hold the gas to the site (permit neighbors, pipeline capacity, etc.) and how much it will cost. The process of agreeing a fairly lengthy and costly and, in this case, we need to understand whether or not to spend money on gas or not. If the area is not supplied with gas, it's simple - the gas eliminates as an energy source.

So, natural gas in Ukraine is a common fuel. For today the level of housing in Ukraine gasification of with natural gas is 78% urban and 38% in rural areas. 428 cities, 600 towns and 12,400 villages. Is gasified by natural gas Gas supplies performed to147 thousand industrial and municipal customers, and about 13.43 million flats and houses.

Ease of use of gas boilers in the residential sector (houses and small enterprises consists in the wide choice of equipment (expensive / cheap), ease of use, speed control, efficiency, compactness, autonomy, the boiler does not require the constant presence, therefore, you can safely go on vacation , leaving the boiler unattended. And, of course, the price of operation (the consumption in a year is not more than 6000 m ³), by far the most optimal for the consumer.

If no gas, you should think well what will serve you as a fuel. Please note regionally specific, locationand a tendency to hand labor (wood need to chop), perspectives of district gasification financial resources and the main whether - always there will be people in the house. The question that I would call second important, the first question should be about the financial possibilities and the amount of money that we are willing to invest in home heating.

GasElectricityPelletsSo, the choice is (mostly) between solid fuel boiler (steel or cast iron), electric boilers и pellet boiler (steel or cast iron).

Possibly fired by liquid fuel, but the option is quite exotic (both equipment cost and the cost of energy).

The graph cost of fuel for the KW of the housing stock I brought in the previous article.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each type of fuel.

Storage:

  • Coal - You must purchase a truck once (for small parties or packed coal price increases), so for the storage of coal, we need a special room in addition coal loading operations followed by coal dust, which is not decorate private plot. In the case of storage in the open air in the winter, coal gets frozen and then, for what would have to collect a bucket of coal need to work with a crowbar.
  • Wood - as advantageous to acquire a large amount at once, but it is possible to visit the nearby woods and drag from there a small log (and it's useful for health). Firewood may be stored in the open air but it's better to keep them under the roof.
  • Pellets - in the case of delivery in big bag need specialized space, in addition, you must have lifting equipment to unload the car. If you purchased packaged in bags of pellets, you can store them in the street. In addition, a week's worth of pellets (for a small house) will fit in the trunk of a car (in the Getz or the Micra will not fit) and they can bring in their own.
  • Electricity - perfect in terms of logistics and storage (we will not analyse in details).

Ash content of fuel:

This is the amount of ash remaining after complete combustion of fuel is determined as a percentage of its weight before combustion. There are internal and external ash content of fuel.

external — result of fuel contamination by foreign impurities (pieces of rock, sand, dust) in the extraction, transportation and storage.

internal — contained in the material of fuel and fetched only after the complete combustion of fuel.

The ash content of fuels varies widely: wood containing 0.5-5%, pellets 0.3 - 3%, peat, 3 - 30%, brown coal - up to 50% stone - 0.2 to 40%, anthracite to 5%.

In electricity ash content (as well as logistics), all in order, ie it is not like at all. But do not directly on your site, and the ash is present in the production of electricity generated at thermal power stations in a decent amount of.

What we are threatened with ash, in the first place - the ash after combustion of the boiler must be removed and utilize / stored. And as a cycle of burning solid fuel boilers up to 6 hours, respectively, every 6 hours, we need to remove ash from the boiler (and can be less, depending on ash content of our fuel). In pellet boilers you can delete the ash every 2-3 days, that certainly is an advantage. Wood ash is a fertilizer for the soil.

Wood ash is a fertilizer for the soil

The ash obtained from burning coal, to fertilize the soil is not suitable and is used as feedstock in the production of porous concrete, so-called fly ash.

Smoke during combustion of fuel also varies. The left picture illustrates the pellet boiler, right - solid wood-fired boiler. The difference is obvious. And if it is not fundamentally for industrial enterprise, for a residential building is substantially (fumed area, neighbors complaints).

The work of pellet boilerThe work of solid wood boilers

Why is it necessary to be defined with type of fuel in the beginning? Very simple, in that case if we choose the natural gas, our gas boiler may be wall mounted combined heat generator and hang in the kitchen, in the case of solid fuel boilers, we need to allocate a separate room under the furnace and in this space to provide space for placement of fuel. And, of course, will provide the correct furnace at the design stage, not fit for a room in the house already built.

КIn addition, it should be remembered that the more we have a house, the more money we need to spend to keep it a comfortable temperature. Since natural gas tariffs for the population depend on the number of gas consumed, the cost of heating homes in 400 m ² unpleasant surprise for you, the cost of a house of 800 m ² are already upset. For the experiment you can multiply 12 001 m³/year multiplied by 2.68 USD. and divide by 6 months (the duration of the heating season), the resulting figure - monthly payment of gas supply.

Volume of gas consumption

hrn./m³

no more than 2 500 m³ / h

0,72

no more than 6000 m³/h

1,09

not more 12 000 m³/h

2,25

more than 12 000 m³/h

2,68

How to deal with it? The answer is trivial and on a surface - to build a small house of 50 -150 m ². If you want to still live in a big house, in the design phase is necessary to provide energy conservation measures the room - the walls should be insulated, foam or aerated concrete, mineral wool, foam, polystyrene foam, etc. In general, there are a lot of heat insulating materials for each advantages and disadvantages. Windows - energy-efficient dual-chamber windows, and do not forget to insulate the roof and floor.

scheme of heat losses

Our goal - to minimize heat loss to m ² of our house. In addition, there is a kind of heat losses that is often ignored in the calculations. This heat loss by ventilation, as ventilation for the cold air coming from the street and goes into the hot exhaust ventilation air. To reduce these heat losses recuperators are installed, in which a plate heat exchanger by the outgoing warm air heats the cold air pritochki, thereby reducing the cost of heating.

heat recovery scheme

Surfaces of the house, in other words, optimized in terms of heat loss - the cube (sphere even better, but to live in a round house is not all pleasant). A variety of cornices, pilasters, belts, sandriks, rusty, buttresses, columns, bay windows, and so lead to an increase in surface area of walling and increase heat loss. On the thermogram is clearly visible.

thermogram of heat losses

I am certainly not calling to build architecturally faceless houses, but remember that you must pay for everything, in this case the architectural appeal of the building paid for additional expenses for heat, or additional costs for insulation.

So, we have decided on the fuel, have decided on a project at home, have decided on the measures for energy conservation. As a result of heat engineering of the project, we get necessary for us power in kW, which will compensate heat loss from our buildings.