Many modern apartments have heating systems that are different from traditional ones. A lot of popularity nowadays is acquired by warm floors, by the way recently we already wrote how to make a warm floor from heating. They can have different designs and are deservedly respected using warm floors with a coolant in the form of water. The warm floor will create a truly cozy atmosphere in your apartment. Its use not only makes an apartment or a private house comfortable, and allows you to save considerably on heating bills, since a warm water floor can only be used in necessary situations and in important areas.
We make a water heated floor in the apartment
When creating a floor water heating, the energy flow goes from the bottom up, along a natural path, evenly heating the entire volume of the room, creating comfortable conditions in the lower part of the room, that is, in the area where the main life activity. Near the floor, the temperature rises by several degrees compared to the ceiling areas, which has a beneficial effect on the human body.
Organization of a warm water floor in your apartment will allow you to abandon the installation of radiators and will make it possible to apply non-standard design solutions, for example to install large panoramic windows.
How is the water floor better than electric?
Electrical floor heating system may initially seem more economical than using a water coolant. However, with prolonged use, warm floors with water used as a coolant look more preferable from an economic point of view. In the long term, the costs of water heating look more preferable than electric heating. An important factor influencing the choice of a liquid warm floor is the fact that electric heating can create adverse electromagnetic fields.
First of all, this approach is prohibited at the legislative level( with the exception of the construction of new buildings, where heated heated floors are included in the project).Also, the supply of heated floors from hot water causes significant cooling of the coolant, that is, water, which is unlikely to please your neighbors.
General device of a warm water floor in the apartment
So, the system of warm floors with coolant-water in the first approximation looks like water pipes laid between the base of the screed and the final floor covering. As a heat carrier, hot water from ordinary heating or a special liquid( ethylene glycols or antifreezes) heated in the system can be used.
The main elements of the system of heated floors with liquid coolant are pipes, thermal insulation, fastening units, control system and reinforcement devices that regulate the heat carrier flow.
Video - water heated floor in the apartment, laying pipes
Calculating the water-heated floor
In order to calculate the materials necessary for the organization of a warm water floor, first of all, it is necessary to answer the question: in what capacity will this system be designed? There are two main options for using warm water floors: as the main type of heating, excluding other types and as an additional type, designed to create a local comfortable environment.
In addition, to calculate the required materials, it is necessary to evaluate the following factors: the area of the heated room, its characteristics( for example, the material of walls and the construction of windows, the temperature maintained), the type of the final floor covering. For example, the organization of floor finishing from a solid board requires a higher degree of heating, because the tree has excellent thermal insulation properties.
The characteristics of the heated room significantly affect the required capacity of the water-heated floor. So, if the room literally "walks through the cracks", and its heat loss exceeds 100 watts per square meter - then it is advisable to first start warming the room, and then organize the construction of warm floors. Even the presence of double-glazed windows does not guarantee the sealing of the room. With poor thermal insulation of walls, your room will lose up to 80 watts per square meter. You literally will heat the street and "throw money into the pipe."
Used pipes
In addition, for calculations in the construction of a system of warm floors with a liquid coolant, the characteristics of the pipes used for the circulation of the coolant should be taken into account. At present, the following types of pipes are used in the water-floor system:
- -Foam. This material is characterized by low cost and the same low conductivity of heat.
- -Metal-plastic. At the moment, they demonstrate an ideal price-quality ratio.
- -Stitched polyethylene or PEX pipes. Not a bad choice.
- -Copper. Ideal heat transfer, but high cost.
- -Stainless steel-corrugation. Fresh trend in the market for warm liquid floors, characterized by excellent heat dissipation.
After selecting the type of pipes for the arrangement of the heated floor, it is necessary to determine the length of the communications. The required length of the harvested pipes depends on the method of installation.
Ways of laying pipes
Before you start laying pipes read the article - water-heated floor without screed.
There are two main ways of installing pipes of heated floor with coolant-water, conventionally called "snake" and "snail-shell".
Pipe laying by snake and snail method
It is interesting that the method of laying pipes of a warm water floor is geographically linked: the "snake" pipes are laid mainly in Western Europe, but the "snail" mainly in Eastern Europe.
"Snake" laying has one notable drawback: when using it, the temperature of the floor in different parts of the room may differ significantly. So in the place where the input part of the pipe system is located, the temperature of the heat carrier( and, consequently, the temperature of the floor covering) will be slightly higher than in the section of the outlet pipeline. In addition to uncomfortable relationships, this approach can also lead to partial destruction of the environment in which the heated floor pipes are located from the temperature difference.
Pipe laying schemes for water-heated floor
To prevent temperature differences in the system, a special restriction on the temperature difference of the heat carrier in different areas of the room is introduced, and the snake-like system itself is best used in rooms with high thermal insulation.
More complex, but also more effective system of stacking of pipes at designing and creation of a warm water floor is stacking by "snail".In this case, the heat brought by the working fluid is evenly distributed throughout the surface of the room. Pipes with a partially hot and relatively cold coolant in such a system are alternately alternated. The disadvantage of this approach is the increased complexity of designing and installing the system.
Scheme for laying pipes of a water-heated floor in a bathroom
When laying a "snail", the "hot" and "cold" pipes run parallel to each other from the coolant inlet to the center of the room, and then return to the output site.
Calculating the length of the
pipes A very important characteristic used in calculating a warm floor with heat transfer by a liquid is the pipe pitch, that is, the distance between the pipes left during their installation. From the intervals between the turns of pipes with the heat carrier depends the required length of pipes and the uniformity of the distribution of the heat supplied. When increasing the size of the spaces between the pipes, it is recommended to increase the temperature of the coolant. In addition, the pitch of the heat pipe can vary and depending on the area of the room - somewhere it is required to make the surface temperature larger, and somewhere less.
Water Warm Floor in an apartment with their own hands
Approximately, it can be estimated that to achieve a heat output of 50 Watt per square meter, the pitch of the tube with the heat carrier can be 30 centimeters. With an increase in heat transfer up to 80 W, the distance between the pipes should be reduced to 20 centimeters, but in areas for which a very uniform temperature distribution is critical, the pitch of the pipes should not exceed 15 centimeters.
It is recommended to reduce the pitch of the pipes near the external walls, but along the inner partitions it can be increased
Let's give an approximate calculation: for a room of 30 square meters, it is required to provide heating of about 25-26 square meters of floor. With a pipe pitch with a coolant of 15 centimeters, the required length of the pipe will be about 160 meters.
However, the easiest way to calculate the required length of pipes for equipping the water-heated floor is by creating a simple drawing on millimeter paper or in a specialized program.
