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Avoiding heat loss in winter is recommended. How to reduce heat loss from your home in winter. How much does heat loss cost?

The house should be warm in winter. This is a simple truth. But sometimes even the most better system heating is not enough if there are “heat leaks”. Is it possible to reduce heat loss using simple and affordable methods?

How does the heat escape?

All heat losses can be divided into two groups:

• Losses through walls, windows, and if the house is private, then the roof and floor. They cannot be completely eliminated; they can be significantly reduced during repairs;
• Heat leaks through cracks, installation flaws, hidden defects, as well as some habits of the apartment’s inhabitants. You can fix them yourself.

Thin walls, gaps between concrete slabs apartment buildings, damp basements and leaky roofs - these problems are familiar to most city residents. If the apartment is in such a building, then in frosty winters it will be cold, even if all the rooms are hung with heating radiators up to the ceiling. No matter how hard you try, you can’t warm the skies in winter!

Saving resources is also a relevant topic; high heating costs make you wonder if everything has been done correctly? IN European countries ordinary people were long ago taught to count heat calories using counters. Specialists with thermal imagers inspect buildings, compile heat maps of residential buildings, and give recommendations for eliminating leaks.

How to reduce heat loss

You can improve the situation in your apartment with the help of good repair: put quality windows and doors, insulate the walls from the outside using polystyrene foam, replace cast-iron radiators with modern ones and, finally, glaze the loggia.

But if the house is good condition, repairs have been made, but the room temperature is low, then you should look for hidden heat losses. Inspecting your home with a thermal camera can show all the places where heat is escaping. But you should also carefully examine and explore all the places where heat most often escapes.

• Windows and sills. Often there are cracks in windows that appear due to: wear of the rubber seals, poor-quality window installation. Often, cracks under window sills left by unscrupulous builders are a source of drafts. If the window sills are constantly cold, condensation appears on the windows - heat escapes through such windows.
• Entrance doors. Doors are often a source of problems. Their seal wears out, cracks appear, through which water constantly enters the room. cold air. Installing a double door will help. Regular interior doors, even the cheapest ones, significantly reduce heat loss. This is especially noticeable in private houses.
• Balconies and loggias. Gaps appear in balcony doors. Before the beginning heating season they definitely need to be checked. Glazing the loggia will make the apartment several degrees warmer.
• Radiators heat the external wall. Typically, radiators are installed under the window, close to external wall. It heats up the wall a lot. As a result, part of the heat it generates goes outside. In fact, the heat is used to warm the street. It is recommended to cover the wall behind the radiator with foil, then it will not be the wall that will heat up, but the apartment where the heat will go.
• Bridges of cold.“Cold bridges” are areas of a building with lower thermal resistance compared to other areas. That is, they transmit more heat. For example, these are corners, concrete lintels above windows, junction points building structures, steel reinforcement in walls and so on. It is difficult to detect them without a thermal imager. If dampness is detected in any corner, condensation appears - this is a dangerous area.
• Ventilation holes. They must be in the kitchen to remove gas combustion products. But ventilation often works the other way around. Instead of removing air from the room to the outside, cold street air is drawn into the room from the street. Installing a hood above the stove with a corrugated pipe for air will help.

Useful tricks for keeping warm

Local heating systems

The most common solution is the use of electric heating devices. These are devices such as oil heaters, electric fireplaces or electric convectors. This solution is the simplest, most accessible and economical.

Special infrared emitters They heat only a certain area; the temperature around it is much lower. If lamps, infrared floor mats, heated mats. Infrared ceiling heaters can be suspended on horizontal cables or have a pendulum suspension. This allows you not only to keep the walls and floor free, but also to significantly expand the heating area due to the effect on horizontal surfaces.

Interestingly, if you lower the temperature infrared heater by a few degrees, the temperature felt by a person will remain the same, since this decrease will be compensated by the “radiation” additive. In this way, energy consumption can be reduced and heating costs can be reduced compared to traditional ways heating

Thermal radiation, like ordinary light, is not absorbed by the air, so all the energy from the infrared heater reaches the heated surfaces and people without loss. In this case, the average temperature in the room may be 2-3 degrees lower than optimal, but due to the direct absorption of energy from the infrared heater, a person in its area of ​​​​action will feel comfortable.

Nowadays, insulating houses is increasingly becoming a necessity. Insufficient thermal insulation causes heat loss, even if you use the most economical electric convector, as a result of which heating costs increase and there is a risk of damage to the walls due to frequent freezing.

However, the topic of insulation is very complex. One of the possible common solutions is to insulate the external walls of the house using external thermal insulation contact systems. External thermal insulation systems currently occupy one of the main places in insulation. Their advantage is their wide functional diversity, which makes it possible to manufacture a system for a specific construction site in accordance with customer requirements and local conditions.

Almost everyone is increasingly asking themselves: How to reduce heating costs at home? Is it possible to save something? Then we offer the solution to you. It is believed that mainly in more buildings (private or multi-apartment) there are significant heat losses due to their insufficient thermal insulation. The lack of thermal insulation (insulation) not only entails large heat losses and ever-increasing heating costs, but also causes a high probability of destruction of walls due to freezing.

Should you insulate your home?

One of the big advantages is a significant reduction in heat loss through the walls. By reducing heat loss you will reduce the costs of your family budget..
External insulation of the house will prevent the walls from freezing, and the influence of temperature fluctuations will be limited. Insulating your home will extend the life of your home. In the cold season, the surfaces of insulated walls will have a higher internal temperature and will cool much more slowly. Conversely, in summer the walls will not heat up much, which will provide you with coolness and comfort in hot weather. Will improve temperature regime premises. By insulating your home, you prevent the walls from overcooling and the appearance of condensation on them.

In a house that is not very insulated, significant heat loss occurs. The walls freeze - the freezing point is located approximately in the middle of the wall thickness.

Internal insulation of the house will limit heat loss, but such insulation will not prevent the walls from freezing. Such a system, without accumulating properties, with such insulation of the room quickly heats up, but also cools down quickly. In addition, condensation can form between the wall and the insulation, which can lead to mold.

With external insulation, the freezing point is in the insulation, so the walls do not freeze. With external insulation, the walls heat up and have the ability to accumulate heat, while heat loss is minimal.

Keywords: How to reduce heat loss, winter time,Insufficient thermal insulation, functional diversity, destruction of walls from freezing, mold, heat accumulation, hypothermia of walls, condensation formation

Question:

Please briefly describe the main ways of heat loss in the house

Answer:

Heat loss in the house occur mainly in three ways.

Direct heat transfer through walls, floors and ceilings. Due to the difference between internal and outside temperature heat exchange occurs. Heat is transferred from the room to the outside. This method of heat loss is very significant in concrete structures. In other buildings other paths predominate heat leaks. The fact is that wood, brick, foam block, etc. have a fairly low thermal conductivity, and it is the thermal conductivity of the material of the walls, floor and ceiling that determines the level of heat loss. To reduce this type of loss, thermal insulation is used - materials with low thermal conductivity are laid in the walls, ceiling and floor. Usually this is mineral or glass wool, polystyrene foam, polyurethane foam, expanded clay. Usually a layer of 5 - 10 cm is sufficient.

Infrared radiation. All objects in the room are heated to room temperature. They radiate infrared radiation, which penetrates outside, taking heat with it. The main way to combat this type of loss is to use thermal circuit home film that reflects thermal radiation, usually based on aluminum. This film not only helps to retain heat in winter, but also reduces the heating of the room in the summer heat.

Air flows. Air from the room, heated to room temperature, leaves the building and is replaced by cold air from the street. If such losses occur intensively, then drafts are observed in the house. Completely exclude air exchange with outside world it is impossible, it is needed to maintain normal levels of humidity and oxygen content and carbon dioxide. But this process must be controlled, dependent on our will, and not on the air temperature outside and the wind. This is achieved by carefully sealing the room and making special blocked ventilation holes.

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Many people know that life is bad isolated house results in huge electricity bills. But our ancestors knew many ways to maintain warmth and comfort in a room without unnecessary expenses. Thanks to modern infrared cameras and advances in physics, we can determine how these methods work and how effective they are.

The house cools down mainly not from air convection, but from heat radiation into environment. Therefore even central heating may turn out to be a weak assistant. The air in the room has time to heat up, but the walls do not. As a result, you continue to shiver from the cold.

Luckily there are five simple ways overcome this problem and minimize your energy costs.

Close the curtains at night

During the day, windows repel more radiant energy than they allow through. Penetrates freely through glass only sunlight. For infrared rays, this material becomes an obstacle. At night, thin single-pane glass units can cause extreme cold. Even if you try to maintain the air temperature in your apartment at about 20 °C every day, with the arrival of darkness and a sharp drop in temperature outside, this value can drop to 7 °C.

Double glazed windows are also not always able to keep the heat in the house. Even a small drop in temperature, up to 14 ° C, will lead to energy losses of approximately 50-100 W per square meter.

The best way to prevent such a sudden loss of stored heat is to close the curtains immediately after sunset. This will provide an additional barrier to radiant energy in the room. In addition, curtains will protect against drafts and partially isolate the room.

Hang the walls of the room

Solid brick or stone walls- better insulators than glass, but they still release a lot of heat from the room. Therefore, it would not hurt to take measures to provide them with additional protection. You can reduce energy losses by simply covering the walls with paintings or mirrors. Even an ordinary poster can raise the air temperature in the room by about 1 °C. Most effective option- hang carpets on the walls. Even if you are not a Russian oligarch, or you simply don’t like this kind of interior design, you shouldn’t immediately abandon this idea. Believe me, she's really worth it.

Another option is to place it along the wall bookshelves. Old books can not only decorate your room, but also act as excellent insulators.

Insulate the front door

Of course, it all depends on the material from which the door to your apartment is made. But it is likely that it is precisely this that is responsible for most of the heat losses. In summer you may not notice this, but winter always brings with it frosts and drafts. Just imagine how much cold can penetrate through the cracks in doorway and the door itself. Attach a curtain at the entrance to eliminate excess air circulation. Try to ensure that the curtain covers the entire doorway and the wall surrounding it.

Use heat shields

Even if you can't limit all heat loss through exterior walls, you can try to keep the cold out. Our ancestors used wooden screens for these purposes. They placed them behind them while sitting by the fire. The screens absorbed some of the heat, thereby warming people's backs. You could try to do the same in your home. It will be in a great way dissipating heat to distribute it evenly throughout the room. Often such screens are placed near radiators or heaters. At least this way you won't have to constantly huddle in the warmest corner of the room.

Arrange the furniture correctly

Despite the fact that the air temperature is the same throughout the room, a person feels it differently when moving around the home. So, the heat is felt most strongly near the walls that are closer to the inside of the house. External walls carry more cold. Try using this information. Arrange the furniture so that it is located near interior wall.

Of course, it would be inappropriate to concentrate all the components of the interior in one part of the room. For example, you will place the bed against the inner wall and the table opposite. Then the second piece of furniture will automatically be in the cold zone. This can be corrected using improvised means. To prevent your feet from freezing, try covering the area of ​​the wall under the table with a sheet of cardboard. And you can hang a shelf right above your head.

It is well known that world reserves natural resources oil, gas, coal are gradually drying up. This leads to higher energy costs.

The direct relationship between the amount of heat and the amount of heating fees makes many people think about reducing heat losses.

The question of how to reduce heat loss is especially relevant during the preparation for winter. Moreover, it worries both owners of private houses and residents of high-rise buildings.

In practice, there are two ways to reduce heat loss in a house or apartment.

Simple methods - minimum costs

1. installation of a heat-reflecting (foil) screen near the radiator. The screen will reflect heat and direct it into the house, rather than heating the outside wall.

2. closing windows and doors. The easiest way to keep heat in your home is to close windows and doors tightly.

3. insulation of windows and doors. Sealing in places where the glass meets wooden frame, installing seals or simply covering cracks in windows will significantly reduce heat loss.

4. eliminating window shading. The window allows up to 95% of sunlight to pass through and allows heat to accumulate inside the house. It’s not for nothing that most greenhouses are made of glass.

5. proper ventilation. Ventilation is necessary to maintain a normal microclimate. But in order to save money, you need to ventilate not once a day for an hour, but several times for 15 minutes.

6. replacing incandescent lamps with energy-saving or LED lamps. Thermal radiation of 85 BTU/hour does not compensate for their high cost of operation.

7. pipe insulation, If heating device is located outside the house. Relevant for private homes.

8. sealing cracks in the wall polyurethane sealants . They are flexible, “play” depending on temperature, frost-resistant, penetrate deep into cracks and do not peel off over time.

Radical or capital-intensive methods

This type combines all the ways to save money that require significant upfront costs.

1. total insulation. Relevant for buildings in use. Since, according to the first law of thermodynamics, heat from a heated house always goes into a colder environment, it is necessary to create an additional barrier to heat loss in the form thermal insulation material. At the same time, walls, roof, foundation and openings need insulation.

As you can see, the largest amount of heat escapes through the walls. This is understandable, because the walls occupy large area, in relation to other surfaces. You also need to insulate walls wisely. Therefore, it is better to give preference to external insulation. This way you will protect the walls from freezing. The second most important area is the insulation of the basement and attic or floor/ceiling.

Insulating all this at once is expensive and difficult, and it may happen that insulation will be unnecessary. To understand what to do first, you need to identify those areas of the house through which heat escapes. A thermal imager is used for diagnostics. This tool will allow you to identify those areas in the house through which heat loss is most significant. This is where you should start working on insulating your home.

IN multi-storey building the wall, in fact, is the only source of losses, if it is not the first or last floors.

2. replacement of double-glazed windows. significantly reduce heat loss. Especially if they are multi-layered, i.e. have several chambers inside the profile and double glazed windows.

3. replacement of radiators or heating system. For example, among others, the greatest heat transfer is from cast iron radiators. Installing more advanced devices will reduce heat loss.