The popularity of autonomous communications is growing from year to year. The reason is the uninterrupted renewable use of resources - water, heat, electricity - at a low cost. However, there are a number of difficulties and before deciding to install any system, you should familiarize yourself with the requirements for it. Today we are talking about geothermal heating of the house and turnkey costs.
Types of Geothermal Heating Systems
The principle of obtaining thermal energy is to collect it from the bowels of the earth or reservoir. In winter, natural resources are able to accumulate heat in the soil or in non-freezing water. It is brought to the surface through the system components and spent on household needs. The work is based on the movement of a special coolant - freon - through the collectors and pipes and is similar to the processes occurring in the refrigerator. Heat is taken from the depths of the soil or reservoir, released to the pipework, a repeating cycle.
The system consists of the following:
- Heat pump. Its task is to generate heat pumping from the ground or reservoir to the home heating system.
- Highways. The wiring goes into the depth of the soil vertically or is located horizontally in the thickness of the earth.
- Freon - coolant. Boiling at low temperatures, it rises through the main pipeline to, in turn, give off heat to the water circulating through the radiators.
The apparent simplicity of the system is nevertheless difficult to install - only professionals can do it.
Geothermal heating options
The system is laid in several ways, requiring certain territorial conditions. For example:
- Horizontally, below the ground freezing level. This option requires an impressive local area, excluding plantings, buildings and the house itself. Otherwise, the amount of heat produced by the heat pump will not be enough for a comfortable optimal temperature.
- Horizontally along the bottom of the reservoir. It is considered the most cost-effective, since the water temperature in winter is higher than that of the ground, therefore, energy efficiency is better. There is no need to remove the soil layer near the house, which is conducive to landscaping. But the method is beneficial to land owners whose property is located in close proximity to a water source - a lake, pond.
- Vertical probe. It does not require clean soil and its vastness, as well as a reservoir, however, it is expensive due to a specially drilled well of at least 30 m.
Only a specialist who has visited the site will give a professional assessment. In addition to the territory, it is important to evaluate the composition of the soil - on sandstones, geothermal heating is practically useless; moist loamy soils are required.
Geothermal system estimate
Owners of private houses, fired up by the idea of receiving free heat, must consider the situation with a sober head - in order to get an economically profitable system that pays for itself, you need to invest in it quite seriously, since you cannot arrange geothermal heating on your own. Installations are incredibly expensive. Judge for yourself:
- Heat pump cost. Productivity depends on the power of the unit, which is calculated in advance based on consumption needs. The approximate calculation formula is 1 kW per 10 sq. meters of area - does not give the correct result, since it does not take into account the material of the walls, floors and the need for hot water supply (hot water supply).
- Excavation. Manually digging a pit below the freezing level of the ground and equipping it according to all the rules is unrealistic. The same as drilling a well. You will have to hire construction equipment and accompanying crews.
Advice - one company should be involved in the arrangement of geothermal heating - separate types of work will cost more in the future, especially if problems occur due to the fault of any team - there is no guarantee.
- Pipe set price. A geothermal installation requires the presence of three circuits: an external circuit, outside the residential building, a middle circuit, located inside the pump housing, and an internal circuit - the piping of the home system.
- Installation cost. In addition to installing the pump and probes, commissioning, installation of heated floors and other related work are taken into account.
In addition to the listed expenses, it is necessary to mention bureaucratic delays. Those organizations whose communications pass through the site - gas supply, electricity, water - must give the go-ahead for excavation work. Accordingly, an examination is being carried out to determine the feasibility of the device, which, naturally, will also require investment. It is important to prepare for the waste of nerve cells - this is not a joke!
Efficiency Factors
It is important to remember that the autonomous installation itself for producing cheap heat (electricity costs are taken into account) is rational only after the following conditions are met:
- High-quality home insulation. Including facades, floors, ceilings. The construction material is taken into account - stone and brick will significantly increase the power consumption of the heat pump. Which will entail an increase in the cost of the project and payment of bills.
- Correct calculation of heat loss. They are directly influenced by the architecture and layout of the house. An object with a large number of windows and doors, as well as the volume of technological openings, are the main factors of heat leakage.
- Heat exchangers with high heat transfer materials. The coefficient is known in advance.
- Climatic conditions. The sub-zero temperatures in Siberia or the Urals are not at all the same as in the east and west of Russia. Cold regions require more unit power.
- Required hot water supply. A residential building with year-round living, several bathrooms, a bathhouse and bathrooms has a higher water consumption for household needs than, say, a cottage with a kitchen. That is, this will also increase the consumption of resources.
- The influence of cold underground currents. This is clarified at the project development stage. Otherwise, laying and putting into operation geothermal pipes with unaccounted sources will negatively affect the productivity of the entire system.
It is impossible to take into account all the nuances of installing an alternative heat source on your own. No required knowledge. To do this, choose a company according to its profile and simply enjoy the result. The payback of projects occurs after 5–10 years of operation.
Turnkey cost of geothermal heating
The advantage of turnkey installation is obvious. Apart from investments, you won’t have to do anything on your own - many companies take on obligations related to paperwork. Also, any type of work has a guarantee; in case of an unsatisfactory result, compensation is provided - this is a separate clause in the contract.
The cost is as follows:
- For a residential building with an area of up to 80 sq. m – from 350 thousand rubles. The low cost is due to the presence of a low-power pump.
- Cottage from 100 sq.m. m – from 440 thousand rubles.
- Area from 130 sq. m – from 520 thousand rubles.
- Up to 220 sq. m – from 750 thousand rubles.
Prices are approximate and depend on the cost of the selected equipment. When contacting the company, specialists will tell you how to reduce the cost of the project. However, you cannot choose low power in favor of cost - this will affect the productivity of the system.
Video on turnkey installation of geothermal heating
The capabilities of devices for remote heating control are becoming more and more advanced every year (and what about the year - almost every month!). Developers of smartphone applications try to make them easy to use and easy to understand, even for untrained people. Let us briefly list only the main capabilities of such systems that support:
- normal operating mode, when the set temperature is maintained throughout the house;
- zonal mode, when different rooms can have individual temperatures;
- preventing defrosting of the heating system (freezing of pipes) during the cold season, when you are away from your country house or dacha;
- the ability to turn on the boiler in advance, for example, you need to warm up a country house when you plan to visit it on weekends or holidays;
- always be aware of the operation of your autonomous heating and, if necessary, carry out diagnostics;
- temporary mode, in which at different times during the day the house can maintain its own thermal regime with a significant reduction in material costs for fuel, for example, you can set the boiler to low power (and, accordingly, low fuel consumption) when going to work or on business, and turn on normal mode before returning.
Remote heating control means that any of these modes, as well as specific room temperature values, are changed using mobile communications, or heating is controlled via the Internet.
This approach is part of the ideology of creating a “smart home”, which entails the further development of all engineering systems of the house in order to ensure ease of use and create the most comfortable living conditions.
Which heating system can be controlled remotely?
In country houses and cottages, two-pipe systems with forced circulation of coolant are currently most often used: a circulation pump pumps coolant throughout the heating system, which, thanks to a distributor comb, can be supplied to each heating device.
In such systems, as a rule, a safety block of the heating system is used to protect it from destruction in unforeseen situations, for example, in the event of an increase in pressure above the permissible level.
It is also necessary to have additional equipment to control the operation of the heating system: sensors, special valves and devices for adjusting coolant flow, and it is also necessary to combine various devices into an information network
Weather-compensated heating control
Today it is considered the most promising. In such systems, in addition to the room temperature sensor, an external air temperature meter is also used. In principle, a weather-dependent heating controller will work with one external sensor, but using two allows you to achieve more accurate mode maintenance and even implement self-adaptation of the system to specific temperature changes: if it gets colder outside, then the temperature of the coolant in the system increases in advance, if it gets warmer - then it decreases in advance. In addition to saving fuel, this reduces the inertia of the system, which increases its efficiency and also provides additional cost reduction. One of the basic points of weather-sensitive heating control can be used at a temperature of plus twenty degrees - at which the coolant temperature is taken equal to the ambient temperature, and the heating is actually turned off. It is also necessary to take into account zonal temperature control, i.e. if, for example, a large number of people have gathered in one of the rooms, due to which it has become hotter, then the system detects a local increase in temperature relative to the one set by the weather heating regulator and makes corrections in this zone.
In general, serious battles broke out on the Internet about - Is it worth using weather-sensitive automation at all or is it money thrown away? In short, the opinion of our specialists, confirmed, by the way, by reviews from numerous clients, is unequivocal - yes, it’s worth it, but not in all cases. And in which ones? Answer
Types of remote heating control systems
There are currently two systems in use for remote heating control:
- using a set of equipment with an Internet gateway. In this case, a Wi-Fi router and an Internet network are required.
- using a GSM heating control module. A special GSM module with a cellular operator SIM card is required.
Remote control of the boiler room using mobile GSM
What to do if there is no wired Internet in a country house? How can you control the heating in this case?
Yes, it’s very simple - using a special GSM module and, of course, a mobile phone. In fact, the GSM module plays the role of your personal assistant - you called it, gave a command, for example, to heat it hotter by a certain time in advance - and the whole family will arrive in a warm and cozy home. Or, on the contrary, you forgot in the morning, leaving for work, to turn down the boiler power - no question, you can do it right from work, via the Internet or directly from your smartphone while you are still getting to work.
A GSM module is a compact device with its own SIM card from any operator (it is important that it provides reliable signal reception in a given area), allowing you to control the indoor climate from any phone (satellite, mobile or fixed line), tablet or PC.
The undisputed leader in the GSM thermostat market is currently the Russian company MicroLine. The company produces a wide range of GSM modules for remote control of heating boilers, including multifunctional controllers that provide control of the most complex heating systems.
You can buy it in the appropriate section on our website. GSM heating control
Depending on the settings made, your phone will receive either short SMS notifications with various information and instructions for changing the settings of the heating boiler, or telephone calls with various information about the operation of the heating system. A special mobile application is installed on the phone (there are versions for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone), which allows direct remote control of almost all parameters of the heating boiler.
A GSM heating control module is essentially a computer connected to external sensors and has the ability to change the operating modes of the heating system. Naturally, the module must be located in the area of reliable reception of mobile operators.
The GSM heating control module can operate in several modes:
- automatic, when, based on signals from installed sensors, the controller supports specified modes according to a given program;
- SMS heating control, when the heating system is controlled by sending SMS. In this case, when new data arrives, for example about room temperature, the controller accepts it for execution and begins to support it automatically;
- warning, by sending alarm messages about the current condition of the house (gas leak, break in the water supply system, etc.);
- remote control of other devices connected to the GSM module (watering, lighting, alarm, etc.).
GSM – heating control allows you to remotely:
- receive room temperature reports;
- receive notifications about the current state of heating equipment;
- change the operating mode of the system, increasing or decreasing the temperature, including separately in each room.
Heating control is not limited to these functions. In principle, any heating system can be converted into a remote one. To do this, it must have an automatic operating mode, and a special GSM controller must be connected to it to control the heating and communicate with the subscriber.
Is this not enough for you? Then look at the capabilities of multifunctional GSM controllers, for example: ZONT H-1000 or ZONT H-2000 The devices are complex and require professional knowledge during installation and configuration, so installation requires only highly qualified specialists - contact our company, we have them!
Remote control of the boiler using a set of equipment with an Internet gateway
Now let’s consider the option of remote heating control, if your country house or dacha has the Internet and, naturally, a Wi-Fi router (aka router).
Everything is much simpler here - you can look at the capabilities of the devices proposed below and forever forget about worries about the state of the heating system of your home.
Salus IT500 provides control and adjustment of operating parameters in a maximum of two heating zones, for example, in the 1st room on the first floor of the cottage and the shower room on the second floor.
The kit includes an actuator (boiler receiver), a room 2-channel thermostat (weekly boiler programmer, boiler control panel) and an Internet gateway connected to the Internet router (router).
Possibilities for controlling the heating system using a set of equipment with the Salus iT500 Internet gateway:
- control of heating modes only (boiler and, if necessary, pump);
- control of multiple heating zones;
- control of heating and hot water supply of a country house.
- maintaining different temperatures in different rooms, scheduling temperature conditions by day, hour and minute
- 6 preset heating modes on delivery
- hot water heating control, automatic control modes, including energy-saving and holiday mode.
- a unique system for connecting devices via the Internet, providing reliable connection and control of the heating system: smartphone (or personal computer) -> Internet server -> router (router) -> thermostat -> receiver -> boiler
All equipment is wireless and communicates with each other via a radio channel, i.e. There is no need for electrical wiring. The room thermostat for the heating boiler is programmed for daily, weekly or 5+2 operating modes. The thermostat screen and applications for remote heating control display the current state of the boiler, the current temperature and the set one. Setting the operating schedule can be done from the thermostat panel, through an Internet browser or using a mobile application.
The thermostat has a modern design and is highly reliable and safe to use.
Using additional Salus Controls equipment, it is possible to control, including remotely, heated floors, gas and electric boilers, oil heating systems, as well as almost any other heating systems and devices.
Remote control does not require a dedicated external IP address, the entire system works perfectly on any mobile Internet (Yota, Megafon, Beeline, etc.), control is also possible from computers and mobile devices on Android and iOS operating systems.
What to do if there is no wired Internet in the house, but you have already purchased a Wi-Fi Internet thermostat?
Most likely, the dacha has coverage from mobile operators, isn’t it? So you also have the Internet! Just buy a Wi-Fi router with a USB port and, in addition to it, a 3G or 4G modem. Install a SIM card from any mobile operator into the modem, providing a reliable signal in the area where your home is located. You insert the modem itself into the USB connector of the router and that’s it - now you have the opportunity to control the heating of your dacha remotely!
If the iT500 seems a little expensive for some, the company offers a more budget-friendly solution - an Internet thermostat Salus RT310i
The thermostat has somewhat reduced capabilities compared to its “big brother”, but may turn out to be a worthy replacement due to the lower price of the kit. Externally, the RT310i looks more modest compared to the first-class high-tech design of the iT500; it lacks touch controls, but the functionality of the models is almost identical. Except that while the iT 500 is capable of controlling 2 zones of heating or cooling, the RT310i can only control one zone.
Missing the iT500's features? No problem - Salus iT600 can do everything and more!
If you do not have enough iT500 functionality to control only two heating zones, then a more functional one is presented on our website multi-zone(there are wired and wireless versions) system Salus iT 600 Smart Home. Indeed, its capabilities for remote heating control (and more!) are enough for even the most demanding consumer!
iT 600 Smart Home combines the ability to control warm water floors, remote control of heating using thermostats, unified switching at the “smart home system” level, changing the temperature in each room using a smartphone with Internet access, control and management of any electrical appliances in home, connecting window and door opening sensors and many other functionalities. The system was far ahead not only of its competitors in the field of remote heating control, but also set the trend in the field of automation and dispatch of engineering systems for many years to come!
More details about the capabilities of the system can be found in the article:
Smart House. Heating control system SALUS iT600
Attention! The new line of Salus iT600 Smart Home products is already on sale!
Now you can not only control heating remotely, but also protect your home and control electrical appliances!
Now you have the opportunity buy Salus iT600 Smart Home- a new line of automation for the Smart Home!
This is the same full-fledged system for remote heating control via the Internet iT600 plus additional features:
- use of a universal Internet gateway Smart Home UGE600, which now supports up to 100 wireless devices on the ZigBee network and is used to replace last year's version of the Salus G30 gateway.
- monitoring and control of various electrical appliances connected to Salus SPE600 smart sockets with the ability to meter consumed electricity
- connection and control of security alarms using wireless door or window sensors Salus OS600 Door Sensor
- managing your system has become even more convenient, thanks to the new Salus Smart Home application for smartphones on iOS and Android, the interface of which and device registration have become much simpler and clearer!
All components of the system are wireless devices operating in the modern ZigBee home network standard; now you can create separate groups of devices that work together and to which individual tasks can be assigned.
In the future, the company's engineers intend to expand the capabilities of the smart home control system, but now you can buy Salus iT600 Smart Home, starting with the essentials, and build your own Smart Home at a very attractive price!
What should owners of outdated heating systems do?
Tech WiFi 8S can control the temperature in 8 rooms, each of which can have up to 6 thermal drives!
In addition to controlling thermoelectric actuators, the controller can also control the boiler: when all rooms reach the set temperature, it will turn off the boiler using a “dry contact”.
Buy heating control system TECH WiFi-8S
Remote control of complex heating systems
The Polish company Tech Controllers, which produces a wide range of controllers with remote control capabilities, is gaining an increasingly large share in this market segment.
The Tech controllers themselves are multifunctional devices that are the main, basic part of the system, which can remotely control almost any complex heating systems using additional modules. There are a lot of possibilities, so using an example we will only consider the possibilities for remote control.
Example of installation of Tech Controllers equipment 
In the photo used for installation:
1. Controller Tech ST-409n- a multifunctional device designed to control a central heating system, providing:
interaction with three wired room regulators
interaction with a wireless room thermostat
smooth control of three mixing valves
DHW pump control
return temperature protection
weather-compensated control and weekly programming
possibility of connecting the ST-65 GSM module for remote heating control from a GSM smartphone
possibility of connecting the ST-505 module, which allows remote control of the boiler via the Internet.
ability to control two additional valves using additional modules ST-61v4 or ST-431 N
Ability to control additional equipment, such as garage doors, lighting or sprinklers, etc.
Various Tech modules can be used for remote control, it all depends on the specific needs of the owner. For example:
What to do if the heating system is so individual that none of the above solutions can fully meet the owner’s control needs?
There are no hopeless situations! Most often, the customer himself simply does not understand (and should not!) all the capabilities of modern remote heating control systems. It is really difficult for an untrained person to understand all this abundance of devices offered on the market, which are completely different from each other in functionality, price, and, of course, quality. And installers, often, simply have no idea about the capabilities of controlling heating systems - their task is to install the system, but they don’t care how often you run around the house (or to the boiler room) and turn various valves to ensure constant thermal comfort . Our specialists have more than once had to almost completely remake the “creations” of such craftsmen, and this, believe me, costs a lot of money. The stingy pays twice... Contact us, we will consult for free, and if necessary, we will install a remote heating control system, and we will help with the selection of high-quality equipment at an affordable price.
Specialists of the company "Thermogorod" Moscow will help you choose, buy, and install a remote heating control system, will find an acceptable solution at a price. Ask any questions you are interested in, a telephone consultation is absolutely free!
You will be satisfied by cooperating with us!
This fall, there is an aggravation in the network regarding heat pumps and their use for heating country houses and cottages. In the country house that I built with my own hands, such a heat pump has been installed since 2013. This is a semi-industrial air conditioner that can effectively operate for heating at outdoor temperatures down to -25 degrees Celsius. It is the main and only heating device in a one-story country house with a total area of 72 square meters.
2. Let me briefly remind you of the background. Four years ago, I bought a 6-acre plot of land from a gardening partnership, on which I, with my own hands, without hiring hired labor, built a modern, energy-efficient country house. The purpose of the house is a second apartment located in nature. Year-round, but not constant operation. Maximum autonomy was required in conjunction with simple engineering. There is no main gas in the area where SNT is located and you should not count on it. Imported solid or liquid fuel remains, but all these systems require complex infrastructure, the cost of construction and maintenance of which is comparable to direct heating with electricity. Thus, the choice was already partially predetermined - electric heating. But here a second, no less important point arises: the limitation of electrical capacity in the gardening partnership, as well as fairly high electricity tariffs (at that time - not a “rural” tariff). In fact, 5 kW of electrical power has been allocated to the site. The only way out in this situation is to use a heat pump, which will save about 2.5-3 times on heating compared to direct conversion of electrical energy into heat.
So, let's move on to heat pumps. They differ in where they take heat from and where they release it. An important point, known from the laws of thermodynamics (8th grade of high school) - a heat pump does not produce heat, it transfers it. That is why its ECO (energy conversion coefficient) is always greater than 1 (that is, the heat pump always gives out more heat than it consumes from the network).
The classification of heat pumps is as follows: “water - water”, “water - air”, “air - air”, “air - water”. “Water” indicated in the formula on the left means the extraction of heat from a liquid circulating coolant passing through pipes located in the ground or reservoir. The effectiveness of such systems is practically independent of the time of year and ambient temperature, but they require expensive and labor-intensive excavation work, as well as the availability of sufficient free space for laying a ground heat exchanger (on which, subsequently, it will be difficult for anything to grow in the summer, due to freezing of the soil) . The “water” indicated in the formula on the right refers to the heating circuit located inside the building. This can be either a radiator system or liquid heated floors. Such a system will also require complex engineering work inside the building, but it also has its advantages - with the help of such a heat pump you can also get hot water in the house.
But the most interesting category is the air-to-air heat pump category. In fact, these are the most ordinary air conditioners. While working for heating, they take heat from the street air and transfer it to an air heat exchanger located inside the house. Despite some disadvantages (production models cannot operate at ambient temperatures below -30 degrees Celsius), they have a huge advantage: such a heat pump is very easy to install and its cost is comparable to conventional electric heating using convectors or an electric boiler.
3. Based on these considerations, a Mitsubishi Heavy ducted semi-industrial air conditioner, model FDUM71VNX, was selected. As of autumn 2013, a set consisting of two blocks (external and internal) cost 120 thousand rubles.
4. The external unit is installed on the facade on the north side of the house, where there is the least wind (this is important).
5. The indoor unit is installed in the hall under the ceiling; from it, with the help of flexible, sound-insulated air ducts, hot air is supplied to all living spaces inside the house.
6. Because The air supply is located under the ceiling (it is absolutely impossible to organize a hot air supply near the floor in a stone house), then it is obvious that the air needs to be taken in on the floor. To do this, using a special duct, the air intake was lowered to the floor in the corridor (all interior doors also have flow grilles installed in the lower part). The operating mode is 900 cubic meters of air per hour, due to constant and stable circulation there is absolutely no difference in air temperature between the floor and ceiling in any part of the house. To be precise, the difference is 1 degree Celsius, which is even less than when using wall-mounted convectors under windows (with them the temperature difference between the floor and ceiling can reach 5 degrees).
7. In addition to the fact that the internal unit of the air conditioner, due to its powerful impeller, is capable of circulating large volumes of air throughout the house in recirculation mode, we must not forget that people need fresh air in the house. Therefore, the heating system also serves as a ventilation system. Through a separate air channel, fresh air is supplied to the house from the street, which, if necessary, is heated (in the cold season) using automation and a duct heating element.
8. Hot air is distributed through grilles like this, located in living rooms. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that there is not a single incandescent lamp in the house and only LEDs are used (remember this point, it is important).
9. Exhausted “dirty” air is removed from the house through an exhaust hood in the bathroom and kitchen. Hot water is prepared in a conventional storage water heater. In general, this is a fairly large expense item, because... Well water is very cold (from +4 to +10 degrees Celsius depending on the time of year) and someone may reasonably note that solar collectors can be used to heat water. Yes, you can, but the cost of investing in infrastructure is such that for this money you can heat water directly with electricity for 10 years.
10. And this is “TsUP”. Main and main control panel for air source heat pump. It has various timers and simple automation, but we use only two modes: ventilation (in the warm season) and heating (in the cold season). The built house turned out to be so energy efficient that the air conditioner in it was never used for its intended purpose - to cool the house in the heat. LED lighting (the heat transfer from which tends to zero) and very high-quality insulation played a big role in this (it’s no joke, after installing a lawn on the roof, we even had to use a heat pump to heat the house this summer - on days when the average daily temperature dropped below + 17 degrees Celsius). The temperature in the house is maintained year-round at least +16 degrees Celsius, regardless of the presence of people in it (when there are people in the house, the temperature is set to +22 degrees Celsius) and the supply ventilation is never turned off (because I’m lazy).
11. A technical electricity meter was installed in the fall of 2013. That is exactly 3 years ago. It is easy to calculate that the average annual consumption of electrical energy is 7000 kWh (in fact, now this figure is slightly less, because in the first year the consumption was high due to the use of dehumidifiers during finishing work).
12. In the factory configuration, the air conditioner is capable of heating at an ambient temperature of at least -20 degrees Celsius. To operate at lower temperatures, modification is required (in fact, it is relevant when operating even at a temperature of -10, if there is high humidity outside) - installing a heating cable in the drain pan. This is necessary so that after the defrosting cycle of the external unit, liquid water has time to leave the drain pan. If she doesn’t have time to do this, then ice will freeze in the pan, which will subsequently squeeze out the frame with the fan, which will probably lead to the blades on it breaking off (you can look at photos of broken blades on the Internet, I almost encountered this myself because . did not put the heating cable in immediately).
13. As I mentioned above, exclusively LED lighting is used everywhere in the house. This is important when it comes to air conditioning a room. Let's take a standard room in which there are 2 lamps, 4 lamps in each. If these are 50-watt incandescent bulbs, then they will consume a total of 400 watts, while LED bulbs will consume less than 40 watts. And all energy, as we know from the physics course, ultimately turns into heat anyway. That is, incandescent lighting is such a good medium-power heater.
14. Now let's talk about how a heat pump works. All it does is transfer thermal energy from one place to another. This is exactly the same principle that refrigerators operate on. They transfer heat from the refrigerator compartment to the room.
There is such a good riddle: How will the temperature in the room change if you leave a refrigerator plugged in with the door open? The correct answer is that the temperature in the room will rise. To make it easier to understand, this can be explained this way: the room is a closed circuit, electricity flows into it through wires. As we know, energy ultimately turns into heat. That is why the temperature in the room will rise, because electricity enters the closed circuit from the outside and remains in it.
A little theory. Heat is a form of energy that is transferred between two systems due to temperature differences. In this case, thermal energy moves from a place with a high temperature to a place with a lower temperature. This is a natural process. Heat transfer can be carried out by conduction, thermal radiation or by convection.
There are three classical states of aggregation of matter, the transformation between which is carried out as a result of changes in temperature or pressure: solid, liquid, gaseous.
To change the state of aggregation, the body must either receive or give off thermal energy.
When melting (transition from solid to liquid), thermal energy is absorbed.
During evaporation (transition from liquid to gaseous state), thermal energy is absorbed.
During condensation (transition from a gaseous to a liquid state), thermal energy is released.
During crystallization (transition from a liquid to a solid state), thermal energy is released.
The heat pump uses two transition modes: evaporation and condensation, that is, it operates with a substance that is either in a liquid or gaseous state.
15. R410a refrigerant is used as the working fluid in the heat pump circuit. It is a hydrofluorocarbon that boils (changes from liquid to gas) at a very low temperature. Namely, at a temperature of 48.5 degrees Celsius. That is, if ordinary water at normal atmospheric pressure boils at a temperature of +100 degrees Celsius, then R410a freon boils at a temperature almost 150 degrees lower. Moreover, at very negative temperatures.
It is this property of the refrigerant that is used in the heat pump. By specifically measuring pressure and temperature, it can be given the required properties. Either it will be evaporation at ambient temperature, absorbing heat, or condensation at ambient temperature, releasing heat.
16. This is what the heat pump circuit looks like. Its main components are: compressor, evaporator, expansion valve and condenser. The refrigerant circulates in a closed circuit of the heat pump and alternately changes its state of aggregation from liquid to gaseous and vice versa. It is the refrigerant that transfers and transfers heat. The pressure in the circuit is always excessive compared to atmospheric pressure.
How it works?
The compressor sucks in the cold, low-pressure refrigerant gas coming from the evaporator. The compressor compresses it under high pressure. The temperature rises (heat from the compressor is also added to the refrigerant). At this stage we obtain a high pressure and high temperature refrigerant gas.
In this form, it enters the condenser, blown with colder air. The superheated refrigerant releases its heat to the air and condenses. At this stage, the refrigerant is in a liquid state, under high pressure and at an average temperature.
The refrigerant then enters the expansion valve. There is a sharp decrease in pressure due to the expansion of the volume occupied by the refrigerant. The decrease in pressure causes partial evaporation of the refrigerant, which in turn reduces the temperature of the refrigerant below ambient temperature.
In the evaporator, the refrigerant pressure continues to decrease, it evaporates even more, and the heat necessary for this process is taken from the warmer outside air, which is cooled.
The fully gaseous refrigerant is returned to the compressor and the cycle is completed.
17. I’ll try to explain it more simply. The refrigerant already boils at a temperature of -48.5 degrees Celsius. That is, relatively speaking, at any higher ambient temperature it will have excess pressure and, in the process of evaporation, take heat from the environment (that is, street air). There are refrigerants used in low-temperature refrigerators, their boiling point is even lower, down to -100 degrees Celsius, but it cannot be used to operate a heat pump to cool a room in the heat due to the very high pressure at high ambient temperatures. R410a refrigerant is a balance between the ability of the air conditioner to operate for both heating and cooling.
By the way, here is a good documentary filmed in the USSR and telling about how a heat pump works. I recommend.
18. Can any air conditioner be used for heating? No, not just anyone. Although almost all modern air conditioners run on R410a freon, other characteristics are no less important. Firstly, the air conditioner must have a four-way valve, which allows you to switch to “reverse”, so to speak, namely, swap the condenser and evaporator. Secondly, note that the compressor (located on the bottom right) is located in a thermally insulated casing and has an electrically heated crankcase. This is necessary in order to always maintain a positive oil temperature in the compressor. In fact, at ambient temperatures below +5 degrees Celsius, even when turned off, the air conditioner consumes 70 watts of electrical energy. The second, most important point is that the air conditioner must be inverter. That is, both the compressor and the impeller electric motor must be able to change performance during operation. This is what allows the heat pump to operate efficiently for heating at outside temperatures below -5 degrees Celsius.
19. As we know, on the heat exchanger of the external unit, which is an evaporator during heating operation, intensive evaporation of the refrigerant occurs with the absorption of heat from the environment. But in the street air there are water vapors in a gaseous state, which condense or even crystallize on the evaporator due to a sharp drop in temperature (the street air gives up its heat to the refrigerant). And intense freezing of the heat exchanger will lead to a decrease in the efficiency of heat removal. That is, as the ambient temperature decreases, it is necessary to “slow down” both the compressor and the impeller to ensure the most effective heat removal on the surface of the evaporator.
An ideal heating-only heat pump should have a surface area of the external heat exchanger (evaporator) several times larger than the surface area of the internal heat exchanger (condenser). In practice, we return to the same balance that a heat pump must be able to work for both heating and cooling.
20. On the left you can see the external heat exchanger almost completely covered with frost, except for two sections. In the upper, non-frozen section, freon still has a fairly high pressure, which does not allow it to effectively evaporate while absorbing heat from the environment, while in the lower section it is already overheated and can no longer absorb heat from the outside. And the photo on the right answers the question why the external air conditioner unit was installed on the facade, and not hidden from view on the flat roof. It is precisely because of the water that needs to be drained from the drain pan during the cold season. It would be much more difficult to drain this water from the roof than from the blind area.
As I already wrote, during heating operation at subzero temperatures outside, the evaporator on the external unit freezes over, and water from the street air crystallizes on it. The efficiency of a frozen evaporator is noticeably reduced, but the air conditioner electronics automatically monitor the efficiency of heat removal and periodically switch the heat pump to defrost mode. Essentially, the defrost mode is a direct air conditioning mode. That is, heat is taken from the room and transferred to an external, frozen heat exchanger to melt the ice on it. At this time, the fan of the indoor unit operates at minimum speed, and cool air flows from the air ducts inside the house. The defrost cycle usually lasts 5 minutes and occurs every 45-50 minutes. Due to the high thermal inertia of the house, no discomfort is felt during defrosting.
21. Here is a table of the heating performance of this heat pump model. Let me remind you that the nominal energy consumption is just over 2 kW (current 10A), and heat transfer ranges from 4 kW at -20 degrees outside, to 8 kW at an outside temperature of +7 degrees. That is, the conversion coefficient is from 2 to 4. This is how many times a heat pump allows you to save energy compared to the direct conversion of electrical energy into heat.
By the way, there is another interesting point. The service life of an air conditioner when operating for heating is several times higher than when operating for cooling.
22. Last fall, I installed a Smappee electric energy meter, which allows you to keep statistics of energy consumption on a monthly basis and provides a more or less convenient visualization of the measurements taken.
23. Smappee was installed exactly a year ago, in the last days of September 2015. It also tries to show the cost of electrical energy, but does so based on manually set tariffs. And there is an important point with them - as you know, we increase electricity prices twice a year. That is, during the presented measurement period, tariffs changed 3 times. Therefore, we will not pay attention to the cost, but will calculate the amount of energy consumed.
In fact, Smappee has problems with visualizing consumption graphs. For example, the shortest column on the left is consumption for September 2015 (117 kWh), because Something went wrong with the developers and for some reason the screen for the year shows 11 instead of 12 columns. But the total consumption figures are calculated accurately.
Namely, 1957 kWh for 4 months (including September) at the end of 2015 and 4623 kWh for the whole of 2016 from January to September inclusive. That is, a total of 6580 kWh was spent on ALL life support of a country house, which was heated year-round, regardless of the presence of people in it. Let me remind you that in the summer of this year I had to use a heat pump for heating for the first time, and it never worked for cooling in the summer in all 3 years of operation (except for automatic defrosting cycles, of course). In rubles, according to current tariffs in the Moscow region, this is less than 20 thousand rubles per year or about 1,700 rubles per month. Let me remind you that this amount includes: heating, ventilation, water heating, stove, refrigerator, lighting, electronics and appliances. That is, it is actually 2 times cheaper than the monthly rent for an apartment in Moscow of the same size (of course, without taking into account maintenance fees, as well as fees for major repairs).
24. Now let’s calculate how much money the heat pump saved in my case. We will compare electric heating, using the example of an electric boiler and radiators. I will calculate at pre-crisis prices that were at the time the heat pump was installed in the fall of 2013. Now heat pumps have become more expensive due to the collapse of the ruble exchange rate, and all the equipment is imported (the leaders in the production of heat pumps are the Japanese).
Electric heating:
Electric boiler - 50 thousand rubles
Pipes, radiators, fittings, etc. - another 30 thousand rubles. Total materials for 80 thousand rubles.
Heat pump:
Duct air conditioner MHI FDUM71VNXVF (external and internal units) - 120 thousand rubles.
Air ducts, adapters, thermal insulation, etc. - another 30 thousand rubles. Total materials for 150 thousand rubles.
Do-it-yourself installation, but in both cases the time is approximately the same. Total “overpayment” for a heat pump compared to an electric boiler: 70 thousand rubles.
But that's not all. Air heating using a heat pump is at the same time air conditioning in the warm season (that is, air conditioning still needs to be installed, right? That means we’ll add at least another 40 thousand rubles) and ventilation (mandatory in modern sealed houses, at least another 20 thousand rubles).
What do we have? The “overpayment” in the complex is only 10 thousand rubles. This is still only at the stage of putting the heating system into operation.
And then the operation begins. As I wrote above, in the coldest winter months the conversion factor is 2.5, and in the off-season and summer it can be taken to be 3.5-4. Let’s take the average annual COP equal to 3. Let me remind you that 6500 kWh of electrical energy is consumed in a house per year. This is the total consumption for all electrical appliances. For simplicity of calculations, let’s take the minimum that the heat pump consumes only half of this amount. That is 3000 kWh. At the same time, on average, he supplied 9,000 kWh of thermal energy per year (6,000 kWh was “brought” from the street).
Let's convert the transferred energy into rubles, assuming that 1 kWh of electrical energy costs 4.5 rubles (average day/night tariff in the Moscow region). We get 27,000 rubles in savings compared to electric heating only in the first year of operation. Let us remember that the difference at the stage of putting the system into operation was only 10 thousand rubles. That is, already in the first year of operation, the heat pump SAVED me 17 thousand rubles. That is, it paid for itself in the first year of operation. At the same time, let me remind you that this is not permanent residence, in which case the savings would be even greater!
But don’t forget about the air conditioner, which specifically in my case was not needed due to the fact that the house I built turned out to be over-insulated (although it uses a single-layer aerated concrete wall without additional insulation) and it simply does not heat up in the summer in the sun. That is, we will remove 40 thousand rubles from the estimate. What do we have? In this case, I began to SAVE on a heat pump not from the first year of operation, but from the second. It's not much of a difference.
But if we take a water-to-water or even air-to-water heat pump, then the figures in the estimate will be completely different. This is why the air-to-air heat pump has the best price/efficiency ratio on the market.
25. And finally, a few words about electric heating devices. I was tormented with questions about all sorts of infrared heaters and nano-technologies that do not burn oxygen. I will answer briefly and to the point. Any electric heater has an efficiency of 100%, that is, all electrical energy is converted into heat. In fact, this applies to any electrical appliances; even an electric light bulb produces heat exactly in the amount in which it received it from the outlet. If we talk about infrared heaters, their advantage is that they heat objects, not air. Therefore, the most reasonable use for them is heating on open verandas in cafes and at bus stops. Where there is a need to transfer heat directly to objects/people, bypassing air heating. A similar story about burning oxygen. If you see this phrase somewhere in an advertising brochure, you should know that the manufacturer is taking the buyer for a sucker. Combustion is an oxidation reaction, and oxygen is an oxidizing agent, that is, it cannot burn itself. That is, this is all the nonsense of amateurs who skipped physics classes at school.
26. Another option for saving energy with electric heating (whether by direct conversion or using a heat pump) is to use the thermal capacity of the building envelope (or a special heat accumulator) to store heat while using a cheap nightly electric tariff. This is exactly what I will be experimenting with this winter. According to my preliminary calculations (taking into account the fact that in the next month I will pay the rural tariff for electricity, since the building is already registered as a residential building), even despite the increase in electricity tariffs, next year I will pay for the maintenance of the house less than 20 thousand rubles (for all electrical energy consumed for heating, water heating, ventilation and equipment, taking into account that the temperature in the house is maintained at approximately 18-20 degrees Celsius all year round, regardless of whether there are people in it).
What's the result? A heat pump in the form of a low-temperature air-to-air air conditioner is the simplest and most affordable way to save on heating, which can be doubly important when there is a limit on electrical power. I am completely satisfied with the installed heating system and do not experience any discomfort from its operation. In the conditions of the Moscow region, the use of an air source heat pump is completely justified and allows you to recoup the investment no later than in 2-3 years.
By the way, don’t forget that I also have Instagram, where I publish the progress of work almost in real time -
A modern wood-burning power plant is very efficient and at the same time relatively inexpensive equipment, the main fuel in which is firewood. Now this equipment is quite widely used in the private residential sector, as well as in small production areas and in field conditions.
The principle of the classical scheme
The very concept of “wood-fired”, according to which a wood-fired thermal power plant operates, you need to understand that as fuel, it is possible to use a variety of materials that can burn. At the same time, the most common and frequently used resource is firewood. You can buy wood-burning power plants from a large assortment on the market at a relatively low cost. The main structure of these types of power plants is as follows:
- Bake.
- Special boiler.
- Turbine.
With the help of a furnace, a boiler is heated in which there is water or there may be a gas special for this purpose. The water is then sent through a pipeline to the turbine. It rotates and with this, electricity is converted in a specially mounted generator. It’s quite easy to make wood-burning power plants with your own hands and it won’t take a lot of time or significant financial investments.
Main features of work
When the power plant is operating, the water will not immediately evaporate, but will constantly flow along the circuit. The exhaust steam cools and then becomes water again, and so on in a circle. Some of the disadvantages of this type of operation of a mini power plant using solid fuel is the rather high risk of explosion. If suddenly the water in the circuit overheats greatly, then the boiler may not be able to withstand it and will burst under pressure. To prevent this, modern systems and automatic valves are used. You can always buy a camping wood-burning power station, which has high efficiency and safety indicators at very low cost.
Also, in the standard steam generator circuit there are some requirements for the water used. It is not recommended to pour ordinary tap water into this equipment. Because it contains a large amount of salts, which over time will become the main cause of plaque on the walls of the boiler used and in the pipes of the power plant, which uses wood as the main fuel.
Such deposits have reduced thermal conductivity, which will negatively affect the operation of a solid fuel power plant, which you can buy with any necessary operating parameters at the most reasonable cost. But now, problems and difficulties with the formation of plaque can be solved quite quickly and easily by using specialized products that are designed to combat the appearance of plaque. They provide an excellent opportunity to very quickly and effectively deal with the formation of plaque in such equipment, which greatly simplifies the process of operating power plants that use wood as fuel.
Various options for wood-fired power plants
Nowadays, a solid fuel tourist mini power station is very popular and inexpensive, which can be purchased from a large assortment. Such power plants are highly popular and in demand among a large number of tourists and travelers. This equipment uses special solid fuel, which provides high levels of efficiency, reliability, and safety in operation.
A mini-power plant using firewood as fuel is a fairly successful and long-used piece of equipment that can be used in various fields of human activity. These types of power plants are very popular among summer residents, where there may be frequent problems with power outages, as well as in hard-to-reach regions where there are no power lines. In addition, camping versions of power plants that use wood or any other solid fuel elements are now becoming increasingly popular.
Block-based, energy-efficient and compact engineering solutions that are as simple as possible to implement are the main goal of the TRIA Complex of Engineering Systems company in the implementation of engineering systems. This approach to their creation also does not exclude high speed installation of engineering equipment and its rapid commissioning.
Here we will consider the problem of creating a heating point for a number of buildings on one territory, which can traditionally occupy a separate room. Here we will offer a compact solution for creating an individual heating point (IHP) the size of a suitcase, which can be easily built into the wall, like a manifold cabinet for a heating system.
So, the customer is faced with the task of providing heat and hot water to several small buildings on the territory adjacent to a private country house or cottage. These buildings can be different: a security house, a bathhouse, a sports ground and equipment building, a servant's house, a guest house, and so on. To do this, most likely it will be necessary to organize a heating point in each of these buildings.
About the heating point
Here we will have to clarify and explain some issues related to these technical solutions.
Why is it that so often in everyday life everyone talks about boilers and boiler rooms, but only engineers talk about heating units? How does a boiler room differ from a heating point?
A heating point and a boiler room are essentially the same thing. They differ only in that the boiler room has a heat-generating unit (aka boiler), but the heating point does not. Pipes with coolant only arrive at the heating point, and then this coolant is distributed for the needs of internal engineering systems.
In order to prepare hot water, coolant for heating and heated floors, it is necessary to install heating point equipment, for which a separate room will have to be allocated.
The fact is that the equipment of a heating point includes an impressive functionality of engineering equipment, which includes a whole complex of pipes and heat exchangers, which prepare water at the required temperature for each engineering system.
Here we will tell you in order what happens at the heating point. Using simple words and sentences, we will briefly explain the essence of the processes occurring in it, and this knowledge will help the customer quickly understand the equipment of the heating point, the costs of its creation and other issues.
So, at the entrance to the heating point there are two pipes: a pipe with cold water and a thermal input pipe with hot water (thermal stations can receive water up to 90°C).
Prepares coolant for underfloor heating
Through the heat input pipe, the heating point receives coolant from the heating system from the centralized boiler room (water can have a temperature of 90°C), then for the heated floor system in special heat exchangers it lowers the temperature of the coolant, which cannot be very high, otherwise walking on a hot “warm floor” "will be like walking on burning coals. By the way, the coolant temperature in an underfloor heating system ranges from 30 to 50°C.
Heats hot water
For the needs of hot water supply, cold water is heated at the heating point by receiving energy from the coolant that came through the heat input pipe.
Prepares coolant for the cottage heating system
Well, for the cottage heating system at the heating point, through a heat exchanger, the coolant is heated in the circulation circuit of the heating system, the water in which also constantly circulates so that the radiators are always hot. Heating is produced from a recirculating heat input line.
It is now clear that the functionality of a heating point is very rich, the equipment for its placement requires a certain place.
Now we will reveal possible options for heating supply of cottages and private country houses.
There are two main options for organizing heating mains and heating points in such buildings.
1st heat supply option
For example, houses in a weekend cottage community on the territory of one site are usually heated centrally. It looks like this.
Here there are three pipes leading to the buildings: this is the heat supply and return and cold water.
In this case, to prepare hot water for showers and taps, cold water will be heated on site, so a boiler is needed.
2nd heat supply option
In large cities, another option is used for heating private houses and cottages. A hot and circulating water supply pipe is also being laid here. Schematically, this heat supply option can be represented as follows:
The figure shows five pipes:
- This is the supply and return heat supply,
- cold water,
- hot water
- and recirculation (if there were no recirculation line for hot water, then the hot water in the pipe would cool down, and, having opened the tap, you would have to wait a long time for this very hot water to flow before taking a bath).
In the second case, you can not allocate space for the boiler and save space in the heating unit.
Our main task is to minimize the space for this very heating point, saving space, through the use of effective engineering solutions, as well as the most modern and compact equipment.
Thus, in order to minimize the area of the heating unit, it is necessary to remove the boiler from it. But in this case, we have two more heating pipes for hot water and recirculation, which undoubtedly entails costs for excavation work and material for the pipes.
Maybes for compact heating points
In order not to complicate the engineering solution and remain with the heating main, as in the first option, you can use a solution based on equipment from the German company Meibes. Meibes has long been known for its solutions in the field of rapid installation technology.
The solution is based on the use of individual heating stations. The stations are also applicable for apartment heating and heat metering. The appearance of the station is shown below.
Meibes LogoTherm stations (in particular LogoComfort RUS) allow you to heat rooms using both water heating devices and a “warm floor” system, providing hot water preparation in parallel mode. The station's heating load of 25 kW is enough to heat an apartment or cottage, private house or other building with an area of up to 200 m². The station can also provide parallel preparation of up to 17 liters of hot water per minute when heating it at 45K.
You can connect a “warm floor” to the station in parallel to the heating pipes. To do this, it is enough to place next to a small manifold cabinet with a comb for the underfloor heating system together with a temperature reduction unit.
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