How to save on electric heating of a private home. How to cheaply heat a house without gas? Alternative fuel for heating a house without gas. Heating private houses with electricity: undeniable advantages

Many people would like to buy housing outside the city. However, when building a private house, various problems arise. One of them is how to heat a country house. Most often, there is no possibility of connecting to central heating on a plot of land. This means that you will have to think about what type of autonomous heating to use.

Ten years ago, every home owner tried to connect to the gas supply in order to heat the room with gas. Now the situation has changed. Alternative ways to heat a building have emerged. Prices for conventional coolants are constantly rising. Space heating costs have not just increased, they have increased significantly.

Modern owners are armed with both old “grandfather’s” and the most advanced heating technologies.

After the end of the heating season, owners of private houses calculate the cost of heating their home. Many people think about how to change the heating system, because there is an alternative. We will describe several options for heating private buildings.

Wood stove heating

If the house is built far from gas mains or you don’t want to pay for expensive coolant, you can install a wood heating system. This option is ideal from an environmental point of view and does not harm the health of residents. How does a wood heating stove work?

The operating principle of this design is simple and clear. You buy a stove, put wood in it, and light it. The wood burns and heats the stove equipment. The stove gives off heat and the air in the room warms up.

Despite the seemingly primitive design, this heating option has a number of advantages:

• the oven heats up quickly;
• there is no need to buy and install pipes, radiators, pumps;
• the design is reliable, designed for long-term use, and is difficult to damage;
• Firewood can be purchased inexpensively.

Modern heating stoves bear little resemblance to the well-known potbelly stoves. The design of the furnace is designed so that the installation gives off a lot of heat and can operate for a long time on one load.

The structure of a boiler for wood.

A boiler can be integrated into a wood heating system. When choosing a boiler, it is better to choose a pyrolysis type design. Heat will be generated as a result of combustion of pyrolysis gases. This type of boiler equipment can function without electricity.

How does a solid fuel boiler work? At high temperatures and in the absence of oxygen, the burning fuel decomposes into generator gas and solid waste. In this case, it is possible to achieve maximum heat transfer from fuel combustion.

Now about the disadvantages of this type of heating of buildings:

• the furnace installation is quite large, you will have to think about where to install it; the equipment weighs a lot, so you won’t be able to install the stove yourself;
• near the house you will have to provide a covered room for firewood; it is important that the supply of wood is sufficient for the heating period;
• combustion products if the stove device is used incorrectly can be hazardous to health;
• when heating with wood, you will have to provide a chimney;
• the stove will heat the room unevenly.

Using coal

Many private houses are located far from the gas pipe. Buying firewood in some regions is more difficult than buying coal. You can purchase equipment that runs on solid fuel. Boilers designed to burn coal have sensors to regulate the heating temperature. The use of coal will reduce the amount of harmful substances resulting from combustion.

When choosing firewood or coal, you should decide in advance where and at what prices you will purchase fuel.

Solid fuel boilers consist of a furnace, in which the coal combustion process takes place, a heat exchanger, where the coal is heated, and a grate. The heat exchanger can be made of cast iron or steel. Depending on this, you can find cast iron or steel boilers on the market. Which material is preferable? Steel boilers are slightly cheaper. Why? A cast iron boiler will last longer. As for reliability, these structures are difficult to damage.

The advantages of coal stoves include durability and high heat transfer. The heating system does not require electricity. It is clear that coal will have to be purchased in advance and a room for its storage will have to be provided.

Using electricity

We have already explained how best to heat a country house when there is no gas or electricity. If the building is connected to electricity, electricity can be used for heating. The building will be heated not by electricity, but by hot water. Electricity will heat the water.

How to arrange such a heating system? First of all, you should buy a boiler in which the water will be heated. Electric boilers can be designed for different powers and have one or more circuits. If the system has one circuit, then the water is heated only to heat the house. When there is a second circuit, water can be heated for the bathroom or kitchen. Sometimes two boilers are installed in parallel. In summer one of them can be turned off. The second will heat water for domestic needs.

Types of boilers

For residential buildings, you can purchase wall-mounted and floor-mounted electric boilers. The latter have greater weight and size. Therefore, they are installed only on a horizontal surface.

Water (sometimes antifreeze) enters the boiler. Here electrical energy is converted into thermal energy. The liquid heats up and expands. The water pressure increases, the liquid moves independently through the pipes to the heating radiators. The radiators heat up and heat the building. The water cools and returns to the boiler to be heated. The system has a closed loop.

In some cases, it is possible to install a boiler with a forced circulation system. To do this, you will need an additional pump and expansion tank.

If a water heating system is not installed, but the building has electricity, other heating options can be considered. Nowadays you can buy various types of heaters that operate using electricity. Oil radiators are most often used. They consume little electricity and are safe to use.

Infrared heaters are also used indoors. But they can only warm certain areas of the room. This type of heating will save electricity. This type of heating is often used in dachas.

Infrared emitters aroused mistrust a couple of years ago. Now the situation is exactly the opposite. It turned out that this type of radiation does not pose a health threat. Moreover, these rays help cope with colds.

Precautionary measures

When heating buildings with a heater, you need to take basic precautions:

• Do not dry wet clothes on the heater;
• make sure that the wire does not lie on flammable objects;
• try not to use extension cords that are too long;
• Do not leave the heater on overnight.

If you heat a building with wood (coal), you should also adhere to the following rules:

• There should be no flammable substances near the hot stove;
• near the stove door the floor should be made of an iron plate; if sparks fall on linoleum or wood, this will lead to a fire;
• As a result of combustion, hazardous substances are formed; working ventilation is needed so that combustion products can leave the building.

The cost of supplying main gas and associated approvals pushes many owners of country real estate to organize a private home. Electricity is an excellent alternative to gas, safer and does not require special permits. The only drawback to this heating method is the cost of paying bills for the kilowatts used. In this publication, we will try to figure out whether heating a country house with electricity makes sense.

Possible methods of electric heating of a private house

There are two principles on which all (SO) are built:

1. Direct. Each room is heated by devices powered directly from the mains.
2. Indirect. This principle involves heating radiators installed in heated rooms.

There are a lot of opinions about which electric heating in a private home is better. The main argument of supporters of the indirect method of heating a home is the rather long process of cooling the coolant in the system, which provides advantages when the boiler is stopped. Everyone who uses direct heating claims that they benefit significantly from the purchase and installation of equipment.

How to heat your home with electricity

Let's look at the most popular options

• Water heating with electric boiler.
• Heating using electric convectors.

The first option involves creating a heating circuit that uses pipes to transport coolant, radiators to transfer thermal energy to the room, as well as the devices and mechanisms necessary for the operation of the system (expansion tank, circulation pump, shut-off and control valves, safety and control devices).

In addition, your home needs to be assessed according to the architecture of the building, design features and other factors.

The second option involves installing the required number of electric convectors in each room. The benefits are obvious: there is no need to create heating circuits, design and complex installation of equipment. All work can be done independently, without overpaying to expensive specialists.

Let's consider the design features and operating principle of each heating option, which will make it possible to conclude whether electricity can be used to heat private and country houses.

Electric boilers: design features, advantages and disadvantages

There are three principles of heating the coolant that are used in modern hot water heating boilers:

• heating elements.
• Electrodes.
• Based on magnetic induction.

The first type of boiler is the most common. The coolant from the system enters the internal tank of the boiler unit, where it is heated by tubular heating elements, after which it enters the CO.

This type of equipment is safe, functional, and has built-in automation to control the temperature of the coolant and air in the room.

Electrode boilers use a completely different principle to heat the coolant. The heating element in them consists of a pair of electrodes to which high voltage is applied.

Electric current, passing from one electrode to another, heats the coolant, after which it enters the CO.

Important! In boiler rooms with an installation of this type, there is no electrolysis process (which eliminates the appearance of scale) since alternating voltage is used with a frequency of at least 50 Hz. Depending on the intensity of use, the electrodes become thinner over time and their ability to heat is lost. Replacing electrodes is a standard procedure in electrode boilers.

Structurally, induction ones look more attractive, although much more complex. In this type of installation there are no (familiar to everyone) heating elements.

The coolant passes through a heat exchanger, which is part of a magnetic circuit in which a powerful magnetic field is generated. It is this that heats the heat exchanger and the coolant that circulates through the CO.

Electric heating of a country house, through indirect heat transfer, has its advantages over gas and air heating in the following: electric water heating boilers are quite reliable, have high efficiency and do not require a chimney.

As a disadvantage of such home heating, it can be noted that the use of electric boilers requires good wiring and stable voltage in the network.

Creating a water CO with an electric boiler requires significant initial costs, especially if you involve a third party to develop the project, install, configure and balance the system. You should be prepared for additional costs, which includes regular flushing of radiators, checking the operation of valves, etc.

Electric convectors: design and principle of operation

The design of the convectors is simple and therefore effective: dry heating elements are placed in the lower part of the metal (steel, aluminum) body, the operation of which is controlled by an adjustable thermostat. The air heats up, rises and exits through the grille at the top of the housing. The “vacated” space in the device body is occupied by colder air masses, which, when heated, exit through the grille into the room. Air circulation occurs, which ensures uniform heating of the heated room.

Today, the Russian market of climate control equipment is represented by the widest range of convectors, which differ in power (from 1 to 5 kW), design and installation method (floor-mounted, wall-mounted, universal).

Requires minimal upfront costs to purchase equipment and have wiring checked by a qualified electrician. The difficulty lies in selecting the required power and number of convectors. This will require calculations carried out by specialized organizations based on data on heat loss for each room. However, you can be guided by approximate data: to heat 10 m 2 of a private house, 1 kW of power is required. For a room of 10 m2 you need one small convector of 1 - 2 kW, which can be purchased in specialized stores for less than 100 USD. For example, in one of the largest federal online stores RUSCLIMATE huge selection of convectors from 2241rub, and when ordering through the website there is also a 3% discount. And in the climate company mircli.ru prices for convectors start from 2260rub .

Heating with electricity: benefits, costs, conclusions

In order to answer the question of whether it is possible to heat a private house with electricity, some calculations should be made.

Initial data: a brick house with basic insulation of the attic and floor, with an area of ​​150 m2. Moscow region. We proceed from the data that heating 10 m2 requires 1 kW of thermal power. To heat such a property, 15 kW of electricity per hour is required. In practice, during the heating season there are approximately half of the days when such power is not required. We take an average value of 7.5 kW/h for heating the original country house.

So: 7.5 kW/h multiplied by 24 hours and 30 days. We get 5400 kW. Since the average duration of the heating season in the central region of the country is 5 months, we multiply the resulting value by 5 and by the cost of 1 kWh in Moscow (5.03); 5400 x 5 x 5.03 = 135810 rub. This figure shows the cost of paying for electricity for using electric CO for one season. Here it is worth adding the cost of the equipment: for convector heating it will be 300-400 USD. For a water system, this amount will increase to 8 - 10 thousand USD for the creation of a CO project, the purchase of equipment and the cost of installation and commissioning work.

For example, gas CO will entail the following costs:

• The purchase of the necessary equipment, design, installation and commissioning works will amount to 10 -13 thousand USD.
• With a boiler installation efficiency of 90%, the average gas consumption for the original country house will be 3.5 - 4 thousand m 3 during the season. In Moscow, the cost of 1 m 3 of gas varies within 6 rubles. In total, 24 thousand rubles will be spent per season.
• The cost of connecting to the gas main is more than half a million rubles.

Even without going into details, the difference in operating costs is visible, on the basis of which we can conclude: gas heating is cheaper, except for the enormous initial investment.

Advice: if there is no opportunity, means or desire to use gas as an energy carrier, then the most economical way to heat a house with electricity is to use electric convectors.

You are the owner of a country house where main gas is not supplied, and the electrical networks are not designed for heavy loads, hence the allocated limit of 5 kW for all needs. Another variation on the theme: you are a rural resident of Ukraine, where the cost of blue fuel has jumped to 7.2 UAH. (0.3 USD) per 1 m³, so you cannot use it due to low income. There are other, more complex situations.

In this situation, you are faced with the task of providing heating for a private house without gas and electricity, preferably economically. Let's identify alternative heating methods and look at all the nuances associated with their implementation.

Heating options without the use of electricity and gas

To list all the ways you can heat a country house or cottage, we will assume that electricity is still supplied there. The supplier company has set a small limit on power consumption (3-5 kW), which does not allow electricity to be used as a heat source, but makes it possible to connect heating equipment. When studying each option in detail, we will highlight those that do not require the use of an electrical network.

Houses located on the outskirts are often not gasified

So, if there is no gas and electricity (sufficient power), then heating for the house can be organized in the following ways:

1. Install a stove or solid fuel boiler connected to a water heating system. Use firewood, coal, fuel briquettes or pellets as an energy source.
2. Arrange autonomous heating with liquefied propane from a ramp with cylinders or a gas holder. The heat source will be a conventional gas boiler or convectors that heat the rooms with warm air.
3. Use diesel fuel and waste oil to generate heat by installing the appropriate equipment.
4. Draw energy from renewable natural sources, using solar collectors and a heat pump for alternative heating of a country house.

Note. Unfortunately, almost all of these methods become useless when you need to decide how to heat your apartment. We will have to do without liquefied gas and firewood, and liquid fuel is out of the question. There is only one way out - economical heating with electricity using infrared heaters or an air-to-air heat pump (in the southern regions an inverter air conditioner will do).

Heating equipment options for an apartment

Let's highlight heat sources that do not require a connection to the house electrical network to operate:

• wood-burning stoves, metal and brick, fireplaces;
• solid fuel boilers, equipped with a mechanical draft regulator and working in conjunction with a gravity (gravity) heating system;
• non-volatile floor-standing boilers capable of operating on liquefied gas and connected to a water gravity system with radiators.

To implement other methods, electricity is required, albeit in small quantities. If you do not take into account various home-made devices, then to burn diesel fuel you need a burner with a pump and a fan powered from the mains. The same is the case with all heat pumps and TT boilers with forced air supply, including pellet ones. Now let’s take a closer look at ways to heat a country house or cottage if there is no gas and the electricity supply is limited.

Solid fuel combustion

One of the most common methods for heating a house without gas is the use of coal, firewood and briquettes compressed from various biomass waste (sawdust, straw, sunflower husks, pine needles, and so on). To burn them and obtain the required amount of heat, a variety of furnaces and boilers are used. The former are designed for direct heating of indoor air, the latter work with water systems - radiators or heated floors.

The easiest option is to install a nice metal stove

Amendment. In a room where a wood or coal stove is located, heat spreads not only by convection from heating the air, but also by infrared radiation emitted by its heated walls.

Heating stoves come in three types: steel, cast iron and brick. The positive aspects of their operation are as follows:

1. Heating your home with a steel or cast iron stove is the cheapest and easiest way. To install and launch it, it is not necessary to invite specialists; everything can be done with your own hands.
2. A stationary brick stove is capable of heating several rooms, accumulating a large amount of heat in the thickness of the walls.
3. Any of these heat sources can be adapted for cooking, drying clothes and shoes.
4. The design of many stoves includes a water circuit built into the firebox in the form of a tank or coil connected to several radiators located in adjacent rooms. There is a point here: to move the coolant, you need to lay pipes of increased diameter in compliance with the slope (gravity system) or install a circulation pump.
5. Firewood and coal are the cheapest fuels among all energy sources, so heating costs are acceptable for most homeowners.
6. Ovens do not require electricity at all.

A brick stove provides pleasant, healthy warmth, but it is not easy to build

Note. A heat source such as a wood fireplace cannot be ruled out. True, it is enough to heat only one room in which it is located.

There were also some negative aspects:

• stove heating of a private house without gas means chopping and carrying firewood, loading it and daily cleaning of ash;
• for the heater to operate, a chimney with good natural draft is required;
• metal stoves are unable to warm up large country cottages; their power is only enough for a country house or 1-2 rooms;
• erecting a brick oven is not a cheap pleasure, and a place for it must be provided at the stage of design and construction of the building.

It must be taken into account that the brick oven is built on a foundation

Heating a stone or wooden house using a water system with a solid fuel boiler is more economical, since the efficiency of these units is higher (75% versus a maximum of 60% for stoves). Due to this, the combustion duration from one fuel load increases, plus the issue of complete heating of the building by heating devices distributed across the rooms has been resolved. This creates the possibility of heating large areas of the house in the absence of gas and regulating the intensity of heating of the premises.

TT boiler with mechanical draft regulator in operation

Otherwise, TT boilers inherit the operating features of furnaces. They also need a chimney, periodic cleaning and loading of new portions of firewood and coal. If we compare the cost, then installing a solid fuel boiler together with the system occupies a middle position between buying a metal stove and building a brick one.

Important point. A water heating unit that runs on wood or briquettes can be installed in any habitable home. If there is not enough space, an extension is made to the building where heating equipment is installed.

Separately, it is worth mentioning automatic pellet boilers, which greatly simplify the life of the homeowner, since they need to be cleaned and fuel added once a week. Another thing is the price of equipment and fuel, and also the increased consumption of electricity. In addition to automation, such heat generators use the following electrical installations:

• feed auger motor;
• blower fan electric motor or ;
• heating element used for automatic ignition of pellets.

An automatic pellet or coal boiler is an excellent choice, but it also needs electricity

The listed elements are installed in a pellet burner and in total consume about 500 W from the mains, which is significant for a private home without gas and with a limited limit on the use of electricity. On the other hand, pellet boilers are more efficient and economical than conventional ones (efficiency - 80% versus 75%), and their operation is more comfortable and safe (automation will prevent the unit from boiling). The question is the financial capabilities of the homeowner and the amount of the allocated electrical power limit.

Heating with liquefied gas

Let us immediately make a reservation that in the absence of main gas and electricity, it is not profitable to use this fuel in all countries of the former USSR. While Russian prices for liquefied propane still allow it to heat houses, in Ukraine this method is practically not used anywhere, because the fuel is too expensive. You can see the exact breakdown of the cost of heating with different energy sources in.

Any gas heat generator is suitable for working on propane, only a wall-mounted one will have to be connected to the mains

To burn a propane-butane mixture, you will need a regular gas boiler, preferably a non-volatile floor-mounted one, so as not to connect electricity to it. Accordingly, the heating system is water gravity with an open type expansion tank. Gas is supplied to the boiler in two ways - from a ramp with cylinders or from a large underground tank - a gas tank.

When installing and operating the equipment, you will encounter the following points:

1. Installing a gas train with cylinders (at least 4 pieces are required) will be inexpensive, but the cash costs will have to be offset by labor costs. If you live permanently, you will have to worry about transporting and refilling cylinders much more than if you heat your house with wood.
2. Installing a gas tank is a costly undertaking. But as a result, you will get autonomous heating without connecting to the gas main.
3. Liquefied propane is no less efficient and comfortable energy carrier than natural gas, and provides the same advantages during equipment operation.

Methods for supplying liquefied fuel to the heat generator

Advice. It is better to organize heating with cylinders in a small country house, where you visit and live for 2-3 days. Our experienced expert will tell you more about all the nuances of using liquefied gas in his video:

Diesel fuel – more disadvantages than advantages

As a rule, burning diesel fuel and used engine oil is carried out in situations where there is nothing else to heat a private house. Sometimes this option is used as a temporary option while the built house is not yet connected to the natural gas main. In this case, you buy a universal gas boiler, temporarily equipped with a diesel burner.

The unpopularity of liquid fuel as an energy carrier for heating private homes is explained by the following reasons:

• economical heating of a house with diesel fuel is an unrealistic concept, since the price of fuel is quite high;
• diesel burners cost a lot of money and do not function without electricity (we do not take into account any homemade products made by home craftsmen);
• liquid fuel means dirt and smell in the boiler room, no matter how hard you try to keep it clean;
• Due to the low quality of fuel, the equipment must be serviced frequently, and with the help of qualified personnel.

Heating a country cottage with a Buderus diesel boiler

For reference. If you have a reliable supplier of used oil at a reasonable price, you can try to make your own Babbington burner, saving on the purchase of equipment. Manufacturing instructions - in.

So, diesel fuel is far from an economical option, but in some situations it can help out. It is better to organize such heating than to leave the house without heating.

Alternative sources of thermal energy

The first thing that comes to mind when there is neither gas nor electricity in a country cottage is to organize electricity generation in some way. For example, install solar panels and a wind power plant that can provide all the needs of a private household and serve as a power source for any boiler. But you are unlikely to complete such a project alone due to the decent cost of the equipment and the work required to install it. Unless you manage to involve a dozen more neighbors in the implementation of the project.

Generating free electricity using wind turbines and solar panels will require significant investment

A more realistic option for alternative heating is to use a heat pump. This product of advanced technologies is widely used in Western Europe and the USA, but in the post-Soviet space it is not available to everyone. The reason is again the high price. The principle of operation of the pump is similar to an air conditioner: thermal energy is extracted in one place (from natural sources) and moved to another (inside a private home).

There are 4 types of heat pumps, which we will indicate along with the cost of the equipment:

1. "Air - air." It acts exactly like a household split system for heating. The asking price is from 1800 USD. e., plus installation at least 150 USD. e.
2. "Air - water." It differs from the previous version in that the thermal energy taken from the outside air is transferred to water into the heating system. The cost of installation of average quality is from 2000 USD. e., installations - about 1700 USD. e.
3. "Water is water." These units heat the coolant in the house using energy taken from groundwater or a nearby body of water. More or less reliable equipment will cost you 3000-3300 USD. That is, and the cost of installation depends on the number of wells, the remoteness of the reservoir and other factors.
4. Geothermal installation "earth - water". Here, an external circuit of pipes delivers heat from deep into the earth into the house, heating the coolant for heating. The most reliable and expensive system, the price starts from 8000 USD. That is, installation – at least 2000 USD. e.

Pipe circuits (on the left) take away the thermal energy of the earth and water, and the installation (on the right) directs it to heat the house

The trick is that these units still need electricity to move thermal energy. To obtain 3-4 kW of heat and use it for heating, you need to spend 1 kW of electricity.

When the limit on electrical power entering the house is limited to 5 kilowatts, then 3 of them can be spent on heating. The geothermal pump will produce 12 kW of thermal energy, which is enough to heat a living area of ​​120-160 m², no more.

For reference. When purchasing and operating heat pumps at current prices, we are not talking about any payback for the equipment; subsequent energy savings are taken into account. Our expert will give you more information in his video:

Finally, let’s say a few words about how to heat a private house with solar collectors. These are groups of glass tubes with coolant flowing inside, which are heated by infrared radiation from the sun. Unfortunately, such installations cannot operate independently and here’s why:

• at night there is no sun, and there is no heating of the coolant;
• in winter, especially in the northern regions, too little solar energy is supplied;
• To move the coolant, you will need a circulation pump powered by electricity.

Connection diagram of solar collectors to the heating system

For these reasons, solar collectors are usually connected by pipes to special fittings in a buffer tank, where they transfer the resulting heat. But the reservoir is also heated from other sources (boilers, furnaces), so the outlet temperature is enough to heat the house.

conclusions

In current conditions, the best way to fully heat a country house without gas or electricity is to burn solid fuel in boilers or stoves. The main role here is played by the combination of the cost of heating installations and the price of firewood, coal and other briquettes with pellets. Other options will cost more.

An economically advantageous energy source in our conditions is firewood.

Please note that when choosing thermal power equipment, a simple rule applies: the smaller the initial cash investment, the more troublesome its operation.

Any homeowner who wants to organize super-economical heating at a low price must invest more work and time. Conversely, when purchasing and installing expensive heat pumps, the owner of the house is left with one concern - sometimes monitoring the temperature and monitoring the operation of the units.

Efficient home heating system.

The costs of maintaining a home for private homeowners are already quite high. That is why the question of what is cheaper to heat a house is so popular, the answer to which will save your budget.

Why is it profitable to heat your home yourself?

• In terms of heating, owners of country houses are luckier than city residents. After all, cottage owners can turn on the heating in their home at any time of the year, since they do not depend on a centralized heating system. Other advantages and benefits include:
• the ability to turn on the heating in the house at those moments when it is necessary.
• the ability to adjust the temperature to the desired level.

the ability to independently select heating options (solid fuel, electricity, gas).

However, here the main question arises - how to heat a house economically and what heating method is considered the most profitable? This is what we have to figure out.

What is the best way to heat a house - how to decide?

• To understand how to heat a house inexpensively, you need to answer several important questions:
• Will you live in the house full time or only for a few seasons a year?
• Is the quality of heating or the financial side of the issue more important to you?

Important: no one will give a universal answer to the question of how to heat a house economically. It all depends on various factors: prices for energy resources and fuel, costs of purchasing and installing equipment and a number of other factors. However, once you familiarize yourself with the heating options, making a choice will be much easier.

Stove heating and its features

The stove is considered the most profitable heating method.

When considering options for how to profitably heat a private home, one cannot fail to mention stove heating, which has not lost its relevance over many years. Installing a stove in a house is a difficult job, so it should only be trusted to professional specialists. However, proper installation of the stove guarantees its long-term operation.

The stove is heated with wood or coal, and therefore you should stock up on “fuel” in advance so that it lasts for a long time. Dry logs of hard woods, such as beech and oak, provide a lot of heat. Damp pine also burns normally, but it will provide little heat in the house.

The main thing to remember is that the stove requires maintenance. So, you cannot do without cleaning the chimney and constantly removing ash.

To keep the rooms always warm, you need to constantly add firewood, while observing all the necessary safety measures. Otherwise, a fire cannot be avoided.

To reduce the risk of fire hazards, it is better to line the floor near the stove with iron, but it is not recommended to line it with parquet boards or linoleum. If a spark hits such flooring, a fire may occur.

Heating with a fireplace: is it profitable?

Fireplace heating is similar to stove heating, but has some differences: it will not be possible to heat a house effectively in this way. A fireplace is most often installed only for beauty, since its heat is enough to warm up the room where it is installed.

We can’t talk about savings here either. If you are wondering what is more profitable to heat your house, you can safely say that it is not with the help of a fireplace. Despite the fact that the fireplace runs on wood or coal, it consumes a lot of “fuel” but produces almost no heat. Thus, it should be installed only in conjunction with some other type of heating equipment - so to speak, for the soul.

Water heating system

A water heating system will allow you to heat your house profitably.

Today they are increasingly saying that a fairly popular method is to heat a house efficiently using a water heating system. However, here we should immediately make a reservation - the heating bill itself may be small, but you will have to spend money on installing equipment, laying pipes, installing batteries, a tank and a pump. In addition, the cost of heating directly depends on the equipment.

To do this, you need to understand how the system works. So, there must be a boiler with the function of heating water, which then goes through pipes and enters. After some time, the water cools down and goes back to the boiler, where it is heated again. This system works in a vicious circle. In some cases, you cannot do without a special pump when supplying liquid on a forced basis.

Many people are interested in how it is more economical to heat a house with a water heating system, because it is known that it can work on various energy sources. That is why equipment is usually divided into:

• electric boilers;
• gas equipment;
• solid fuel boilers.

When answering the question of how to economically heat a house, it is worth focusing on gas and solid fuel boilers, since the cost of “fuel” in this case is quite acceptable. Electric boilers can be quite expensive due to the cost of electricity.

Using heaters for heating

Modern heaters are a very effective and safe method of heating rooms. Especially if people live in the house not all the time, but several seasons a year. The most advantageous option is the use of oil radiators, which store heat for a long time and consume a small amount of energy.

Thus, to determine which type of heating is best for you, you must first study all the available options, weighing their advantages and disadvantages, the economic costs of installation and operation. Don’t forget to choose a heating option based on the time you spend in the country house. After all, if you live at the dacha only in the summer, a fireplace and stove will be enough, but if you live there in the winter, you cannot do without a high-quality heating system.

Gasification of “rural” areas, unfortunately, lags behind the pace of suburban construction. And even for residents of the suburbs of administrative centers, the question of what kind of heating in a private house is the most economical if there is no gas sounds relevant. Taking into account energy prices on the domestic market, the cost of a kilowatt of thermal energy looks like this: second place - solid fuel (however, here you need to additionally ensure that you are not misled by “magic” long-burning boilers), third - liquefied gas, fourth - liquid fuel, the latter - electricity. But even in this hierarchy, not everything is so simple. How do you heat a house if there is no gas?

Heating a house without gas should ideally be combined - using traditional and alternative energy sources Source karno.ua

There are different options for heating a country house without gas, each of them is worth special attention.

Solid fuel

Not so long ago, solid fuel had no competitors. At first, firewood, and then coal, were the main types. Of course, they also burned peat, straw and even dung, but, as now, it was “local” fuel that was not widely used.

The primitive hearth in the cave is very reminiscent of a classic fireplace Source cottage.ru

With the beginning of the “gas era,” heating, firewood and coal faded into the background, but still remain in demand. Moreover, their prospects are “rosy”, since there are much more proven reserves of coal than gas, and firewood and “wood” fuel are renewable energy sources. The only modern difference is that previously only stoves or fireplaces were used to heat a house, but now a boiler is considered the main source of heat. Although there are exceptions.

Furnaces

They are still found today, especially when it comes to a small country house or dacha. The main advantage is absolute energy independence. Therefore, they are used when it is necessary to provide heating for a private home without gas or electricity.

Depending on their purpose, stoves can be either heating or heating-cooking. The first option includes a Russian stove and a Swedish stove, the second - a Dutch stove and a classic fireplace.

Source bioenerga.gr

Their effectiveness largely depends on the design of the chimney system, of which there are three types:

Straight-through. The chimney has a minimum number of bends in the direction from the firebox to the pipe. This category includes classic open-hearth fireplaces and Russian stoves. The radiator of heat is the body and part of the chimney that runs indoors or inside the wall. By the way, thanks to its special design and massiveness, the Russian stove is considered one of the most efficient. And a traditional fireplace has the lowest efficiency. And in modern realities it is more of a decoration or a means of relaxation while contemplating an open flame than a full-fledged heater.

Duct. Combustion products are removed using a system of channels passing inside the furnace body, which not only emits, but also accumulates heat. The “Dutch” belongs to this type. It, like a Russian stove, takes a long time to warm up, but also takes a long time to cool down.

Bell bells. Hot gases first rise into the “hood”, where they give up some of the heat, cool, fall along the walls of the hood and are drawn out into the chimney through the “hood”.

In addition to non-volatility, the advantage of classic stoves is their “omnivorousness” in relation to solid fuel. Firewood, coal, peat, briquettes - everything that can be put in the firebox with your hands and set on fire. Moreover, unpretentiousness extends to the ash content of coal and the moisture content of firewood.

The Russian stove is still relevant and can heat several rooms on two levels Source yandex.uz

The disadvantages are no less significant than the advantages:

radiation type of transfer of thermal energy - one stove heats a house where the entire living area is contained in one or two adjacent rooms;

labor-intensive maintenance - frequent refilling of fuel and cleaning;

low efficiency (efficiency on average about 20%) - the fuel does not burn out completely and most of the heat “flies down the chimney” along with the smoke;

a complex hand-made design that can only be performed by an experienced craftsman.

Modern solid fuel boilers and factory fireplace inserts do not have these disadvantages.

Solid fuel boilers

Another not the worst option than heating the house. Modern solid fuel boilers have an efficiency of 80-95%. That is, the best examples of operating efficiency are at the level of gas boilers, and only three economic factors “throw them back” into second place:

higher cost of coolant per kilowatt of thermal energy;

higher price of equipment;

“there are” maintenance costs (costs of transport, fuel storage and disposal of solid residues).

If we talk about cost, then in the Moscow region, heating with wood is approximately one and a half times more expensive than gas - about 90 kopecks. per kilowatt versus 53 kopecks. (at tariffs for natural gas for the second half of 2017, subject to the availability of metering devices).

Pyrolysis boilers have the highest efficiency - the wood in them burns almost completely, with a minimal “solid” residue Source pogreb-podval.ru

The use of fuel pellets increases the cost per kilowatt to 1.3-1.4 rubles. and is almost comparable in price when using coal, but still 15-20% cheaper than heating with anthracite. But there are nuances here.

If the task is how to heat a house cheaply without gas, then long-burning wood boilers or pyrolysis (gas generator) models best meet this condition. The only drawback is that laying firewood is done manually and it is impossible to automate this process. Although this should be done infrequently - 1-2 times a day. Also keep in mind that you need to carefully check the information about the so-called “magic” long-burning wood boilers.

Pellet or coal boilers are available with automatic loading of fuel from the bunker. And although the bunker also needs to be loaded manually, it is much larger than the volume of the firebox. A regular boiler model with a standard hopper with a capacity of 1 m3 can operate continuously from three days to a week, and with an enlarged hopper - up to 12 days (taking into account high-quality insulation of the house and low heat loss). And when it is not possible to frequently load fuel, then these boilers are the best option (if you do not take into account higher prices for equipment).

Long-burning solid fuel boilers with a large-capacity hopper do not require daily maintenance from the owners Source kaminyn.ru

Note. There are even automatic modular coal boilers with a bunker volume of up to 14 m3, their own crusher, auger fuel supply to the firebox and automatic soot removal into their own bunker - practically a mini-boiler room for a private home. Moreover, this is a domestic development and the cost of the equipment is also “domestic”.

Fireplace inserts

Modern fireplace inserts, fireplace stoves and stoves do not differ in operating principle from solid fuel boilers. They also have the function of long burning and secondary combustion. Their efficiency differs from gas generator boilers by only 5-10%, which is at least four times higher than that of classic fireplaces with an open firebox.

Demonstration model of a closed fireplace insert with a water circuit Source bestpechi.ru

The intraspecific differences between such devices are that fireplace inserts require additional installation of a decorative portal and are used only for heating, fireplace stoves have a complete design and some models belong to the heating-cooking class (there are even models with a built-in grill), and all stoves have two functions - cooking and heating.

Fireplace stoves and stoves have a limited power range - a maximum of 25 kW. This, of course, is less than that of boilers, but they can heat a house up to 250 m2.

Heating and cooking stove-fireplace - the best option for a small country house Source homerenovates.com

The power of the fireplace insert can reach 40 kW, which allows you to heat a house with an area of ​​up to 400 m2.

Stoves and fireplace inserts can heat a home in three ways:

heat radiation in the common space with a free layout of the entire level (like a studio);

in a water heating system, if the firebox has an appropriate heat exchanger with pipework;

in an air heating system.

Note. Air heating is the first system known in history, which appeared several thousand years earlier than water heating. And now it is successfully used, but only in a modern version - the use of forced supply of warm air to adjacent rooms or to the second floor through air ducts.

Video description

To see how to heat a house without gas using air heating, watch the video:

Liquefied gas

In terms of cost per kilowatt of energy, liquefied gas ranks third.

There are different ways to deliver and store it, but the smaller the volume, the more expensive the final price. Therefore, a gas holder is needed for a permanent home, and for a small dacha, which is rarely visited in cold weather, you can get by with several 50-liter cylinders. When using a gas holder, the price of a kilowatt of heat from burning liquefied gas is 2.3-2.5 rubles, the use of cylinders raises the bar by 50 kopecks.

You can also heat yourself in different ways.

The simplest system is direct combustion of gas to produce heat without heating the intermediate coolant, pipework and radiators. For this purpose, gas convectors and infrared heaters are used. Their operating principle and design are different, but they have one thing in common - availability of equipment, compactness and operation from bottled gas. The disadvantage is the power limitation and heating of only one room. For example, infrared and catalytic gas heaters from AYGAZ have a maximum power of 6.2 kW.

This compact infrared heater can heat up to 40 m2 Source vps-region.ru

The gas tank allows you to build a full-fledged autonomous water heating system, and the frequency of refilling depends on the volume of the container, heating area and operating mode. In terms of ease of operation and maintenance, the system ranks second after electric heating. But it requires significant initial investment for the purchase of a gas tank, its installation (usually underground) and the laying of communications (pipes for connection to the boiler and electrical cable for the tank heating system).

Another difficulty for a gas tank is choosing a location. It should be located close enough to the house and be accessible for gas refilling Source zaprosotvet.ru

Liquid fuel

This is probably the last option that should be considered when solving the problem of how to heat a house if there is no gas. It's not even about the price of energy resources - they can be different. The most expensive diesel fuel allows you to obtain thermal energy at the same cost as using liquefied gas from cylinders. The price of heat when burning fuel oil is the same as that of coal-fired boilers, and “working off” practically compares heating costs to the level of natural gas. But…

In terms of equipment cost, this is one of the most expensive fuel-using systems. In addition, these boilers are “capricious”, requiring regular maintenance and the same complexity of maintenance as the fuel supply and injection systems of a diesel car. There are also disadvantages such as air pollution from liquid fuel combustion products, as well as high noise levels from the operation of the fuel pump and burner.

Maintenance of an oil-fuel boiler is much more difficult than any other Source enemcon.com

Electric boilers

Electric boilers have the highest efficiency - up to 98%. Moreover, it does not depend on the type of boiler. Heating element, electrode and induction boilers differ only in the method of heating the coolant, and they have no losses from incomplete combustion of fuel - electricity is almost completely converted into heat. In principle, it would be correct to talk not about the heating system (there is no fuel and combustion chamber), but about the heating method.

In terms of equipment cost, simplicity of design, complete automation and ease of maintenance, electric boilers have no competitors. But their cost per kilowatt of thermal energy is the highest. Although there are loopholes here.

Video description

In addition, you can use modern geothermal pumps, which are clearly explained in the video:

Since July of this year, in the Moscow region for populated areas and rural areas with electric stoves and heating appliances, the single-rate tariff is 3.53 rubles. per kWh Taking into account the efficiency, a kilowatt of thermal energy will cost 3.6-3.7 rubles. But there are two- and three-part tariffs that allow you to save money. To do this, you need to install a heat accumulator, which allows you to accumulate warm water for the heating system at night, when the tariff is 1.46 rubles. per kWh If the house is small and the capacity of the heat accumulator is sufficient, then the night supply (from 23-00 to 7-00) may be enough for the rest of the time or for most of it. This compares the cost of heating with electricity to solid fuel coal boilers. And significantly cheaper than burning liquefied gas. And the battery capacity is no more expensive than a gas holder or a coal bunker with a screw feed system.

The heat accumulator is capable of optimizing the operation of any heating system +++

But the main disadvantage of heating with electricity is the poor quality of networks and power limits.

Conclusion

There are several other ways to heat a house if there is no gas. For example, alternative methods of heating a house without gas are solar panels and heat pumps. But the widespread use of the first option is limited by the insufficient level of insolation of our latitudes in winter. And for the only stable and efficient type of ground-water heat pump, the cost of equipment and installation is such that without government support (as in some European countries) it makes it unprofitable compared to traditional heating systems.