heating devices and equipment

No matter how hard we try to snug the building, the problem of insufficiently high or excessively high temperature in it during the cold time of year is connected basically with the of heating devices.
Basically we deal with radiators of water heating connected to the central system of heating for one house or a group of houses. Radiators can be steel and iron, can be put near the wall or built into it. The principle of work of a radiator is limited to the transfer of thermal energy of the heating body (heat-carrier) through its case to the environment (air, wall), for premises it is water or mineral oil. In industrial premises water pairs can be used as the heat-carrier. It is obvious, that the bigger the area of the surface of the case of the radiator, contacting with the environment is, the more warmth it will transfer. "To compress" the working area of the radiator in a more compact form, it is made in the form of jointed tubular or laminar parts, the heat-carrier circulates inside of them in special channels. The more such parts it has - the thermal efficiency gets bigger and a lot of air is involved in circulating heat exchange around the radiator, as a result, it provides equal heating of all the air of the premise. When according to operating conditions large surface of thermal efficiency is not required, the radiator is made in the form of one smooth fin or a pipe.

Thermal efficiency of a radiator depends not only on the volume of the circulating air around it, but also on the efficiency of natural air circulation around it, which exists because of heat exchange between warm and cold air masses.
Warm air rises from the radiator or from the heated wall, then it is cooled near the ceiling, as it falls down, walls of the room, the objects in it, and at last, the floor make the air cooler; and it is directed again to the radiator, filling the tenuous zone in the bottom part of the radiator. The main work peculiarity of a radiator is that 80% of its work is heat production (that is why it is called like that, its Latin base - Radio - means �radiate�) and 20% of its work is recirculation of air. While putting decorative covers and furnishing the building it is important to remember that any barriers for heat or obstacles for air circulation make the degree of efficiency of the radiator smaller.

The scheme of heating capacity of a radiator

It is clear that no furniture should be put in front of the radiator, if you want it to work with maximum efficiency.
The best way to put the radiator in the room is to place it near the cold (outer wall) wall and under the window, if there is one in this wall. The warm air from the radiator heats the cold wall and the window and impedes the cold air from getting into the room. The zone near the entrance door is another part of the room, which needs a warm barrier (usually in a smaller degree). You should keep it in mind that if for some reason there are not enough radiators of central heating system, you will need extra heaters to have normal temperature in the room.

temperature regime of a heating device

The temperature of the working surface of the heating device (radiator) must not be higher than 70 degrees.
Otherwise dust in the circulating air is burnt, which makes the air drier and causes an unpleasant smell of �heated radiator�. By the way, a lower temperature of the radiator can cause dry air too, so when it is not possible to lower the temperature because there is no an adjuster or because it is not practical, the air in the room must be humidified with the help of special devices and equipment, which will be specified later.

Useful advices on the placement of radiators

Dust the radiator in due time because the dust makes the level of heat capacity lower and creates an unpleasant smell in the room. Wall or open radiators heat the air in the room better than the closed ones, and definitely better than those which are built into the wall. Form the point of view of esthetic people want to hide radiators with the help of decorative covers, curtains or furniture, but then it is necessary to observe the following rules to make the resulting heat losses minimal.

If possible decorative covers should have more vents, which let air to the radiator. It preferable that their lower part does not touch the floor.

Decorative covers made of materials with low heat-conduction coefficient (wood, spill, plastic etc.) must be put in such a way that they do not touch the working surface of the radiator.

Blind, from floor to the ceiling curtains on the window, which cover the radiator, must not touch it and must be made of thin, large-meshed cloth.

Furniture put in front of the radiator because of urgent emergency, must let front air to it and must stand not less than 5 cm from it.

Autonomous heaters

Autonomous heaters - heating stoves, fireplaces, electroradiators, electroheaters, electric blowers, conditioners have bigger degree of efficiency than central heating system because they are connected with the source of energy; but they are much more expensive in exploitation, so it is recommended to use them only if there is no central heating or as n additional source of heat.

The convenient in use are radiators working on electricity - electrical radiators. They can be classified as radiators heating the air (electroheaters and electric blowers), and radiators (electroradiators) which pass energy from the heating device to the coolant (mineral oil) and then through the radiator to the air.

The most fast-acting electroheaters are electric blowers. Their work is based on air circulation around the heating device with the help of a ventilator. That is why their main disadvantages are noise from the working ventilator, and quite a big amount of used electricity which is necessary in this case not only for heat production but also for the ventilator itself.

Electroheaters, unlike electric blowers, almost completely work as heat radiators recirculation of air in electroheaters is not big, that is for greater heating capacity of the device directed or dissipative reflectors of heat emission are used in the form of metal screens of different shapes.

electroheaters exploitation rules

Avoid using electroheaters which have open spiral as a heating unit, because the heated spiral burns out oxygen.

There are functional varieties of electroheaters: electrical fireplaces, which have similar forms to traditional fireplaces and great capacity of heat emission. They create an illusion of open fire, unconsciously we always strain after it, and if placed sensibly can make the room cozy, but they use a lot of energy and space.

Household electric blowers and electroheaters are handy in use because they are compact, but the amount of heated air is not big as the surface of heat emission is small, and their heating capacity is of immediate effect. That is why electroradiators are considered to be more effective as their surface of heat emission is considerably bigger and they are able to store the heat in the energy carrier - oil. Their work is similar to the work of radiators of central heating system, but they have an advantage: they have a device for automatic regulation of the temperature of oil (thermoregulator).

There are two kinds of thermoragulators:

with an indicator showing the temperature of the source of heat or of the energy carrier (oil)

with an indicator showing air temperature around the radiator

Indicators of air temperature are put on a cord in some heaters, and that allows the thermoregulator to react to the changes in air temperature at some distance from the source of heat. The adjustment of work regime of such radiators is not supposed to be �more-less�, but it is performed according to the scale of the needed temperature in the room. It is easier to use such kinds of heaters so it is better to give preference to them. For instance, if you want the temperature in the room to be 20 degrees all the time, you adjust the thermoregulator on the mark 20 degrees; every time when air temperature reaches that mark, the thermoregulator switches off the heater, when temperature gets lower than 20 degrees it will switch it on.

The size of the room and the needed power of the heater are in direct dependence. The bigger the size of the room which must be heated, the more powerful heater will be needed.