Diagram of heating two-story house

The heating system is the most important engineering system of life support for any home. Its purpose is to compensate for heat loss and create a certain temperature regime, which is needed above all for people living in the house, but do not underestimate the fact that an efficient heating system is designed to ensure, among other things, the durability and durability of building structures.

Calculation and design is best entrusted to engineers-heat engineers who will estimate the heat loss, will give recommendations on warming the house, and also make a detailed calculation that will avoid unnecessary costs for expensive equipment. But the choice of the heating scheme for a two-story house can be made by the customer himself, based on many years of experience in the operation of various systems.

scheme of two-storey house heating

heating Classification

Types of sources of heat energy - heat generators

Before choosing one or another heating schemeI, it is useful to know already existing species and which one is suitable for a specific task. It is known that the main source of heat are various types of heat generators, which can be:

• Furnaces and fireplaces. This kind of heating was once the main one, but now it is used less and less because of the high cost of fuel( firewood and coal) and the inability to effectively manage the temperature in the house. In some regions where there is no gas supply, this kind of heating is an uncontested option.

Furnaces and fireplaces are still used in country houses

• Various types of heating boilers, which can be: gas, solid fuel, liquid fuel, electric, - depending on the availability of various energy sources and their cost.
• Alternative energy sources. This category includes: geothermal energy received by heat pumps, as well as solar, which is converted into thermal solar collectors. This kind of heating is in a stage of rapid development and is still used in our country quite rarely because of high prices for equipment.

Future perspective - non-volatile houses

• Infra-red heating. The sources of heat are special infrared emitters, which use electrical energy in most cases. Thermal energy with such heating is delivered directly to the "addressee" by radiation. For heating large rooms or premises with a low periodicity of the appearance of people in them, infrared heating will be an excellent choice.

In some situations it will be reasonable to combine different types of heat generators for heating. For example, if there is a holiday home, where the family comes only for the weekend. In this case, it would be prudent to have a gas boiler for basic heating and electric - to prevent the water from freezing in the winter in the system and to maintain the minimum allowable temperature in the house.

Types of coolants

Any heating system must transfer the heat concentrated in the heat generator to that heat device that heats a particular room. This is done with a coolant, which can be:

• Air, which is used for heating furnaces, fireplaces, as well as various electric heaters. In view of the fact that air has a low density, heat capacity and heat transfer coefficient, it is much inferior to liquid coolants.
• Water is practically an ideal heat carrier because it has a high heat capacity, density, heat transfer coefficient, and chemical inertness. The water heated by the heating boiler is transported to the heat devices by means of a piping system.

In most modern heating systems, water or various antifreezes, being aqueous solutions of ethylene glycol, propylene glycol or combinations thereof, are used as a coolant. Such a property as resistance to freezing at low temperatures can be useful in heating systems of such houses where people are not permanently planned to stay in the winter. In those houses where heating will work all winter, the use of antifreezes is economically inexpedient.

Different antifreezes badly "get along" with aluminum radiators, some seals and pipes. In addition, coolants containing ethylene glycol are poisonous. Therefore, use of these compounds is necessary only in cases when they can not be dispensed with.

Types of

heaters Heating devices can be divided into two main classes:

• Radiators - translated from Latin they are translated as "emitter", that is, such a device, which transfers heat in the form of infrared heat radiation. However, modern radiators are not purely radiators, but still transmit some of the heat in the form of convection, but they retain their name.
• Convectors - the transfer of heat energy to the room is due to heating the air, and he already gives it to all surrounding objects. Such heaters have copper( less often steel) tubes surrounded by finned heat exchangers. Air, getting into the heat exchanger, is heated by its plates and rises, giving way to a colder one. In order for the air exchange to be effective, the whole convector construction is placed in a special casing.

In modern systems, a heating method such as "warm floor" or "warm walls" is widely used, which in their essence is a large radiator that transmits the "lion's share" of heat in the form of radiation, which increases comfort and allows to lower the air temperature inroom by about 2 degrees, which leads to a fuel economy of about 12%.

Types of heating radiators

In the heating system of a two-story house, completely different types of radiators can be used, depending on the tasks to be performed, the area of ​​the room, design data, preferences. Radiators can be divided into several types:

• Cast-iron sectional radiators are those that we used to see in apartments and houses of old construction. They have a large mass and high thermal inertia, but they are undemanding to the quality of the coolant, are not subject to corrosion, have high heat transfer. Such radiators perfectly fit into any interior, especially classic.

Cast iron sectional radiators - timeless classics

• Aluminum sectional radiators are an excellent choice for autonomous heating systems, but they are more sensitive to the quality of the coolant, do not tolerate direct contact with copper pipes. Such radiators perfectly fit into any interiors.

Aluminum radiators: modern design

• Bimetallic sectional radiators are a combination of steel or copper pipes, through which the coolant circulates and an aluminum surface that transfers heat to the room. Such radiators are undemanding to heat carrier, withstand high working pressure, outwardly practically indistinguishable from aluminum ones.
• Steel panel radiators are an integral structure of stamped and welded sheet steel. Such radiators have only two threaded connections to the heating system, which increases their reliability. High heat dissipation, low weight, low inertia, aesthetic appearance - all this made them the most popular in self-contained closed house heating systems.

Panel radiators: an excellent choice for modern heating systems

In addition to these models, manufacturers still produce various design models, which include solid cast iron, steel tubular and even ceramic. The high price for these devices is due to the fact that the design ambitions in them predominate over engineering rationality.

Heating schemes for a two-story house

The number of realizations of a two-story house heating system is infinite, as it depends on many factors: the size of the house, the availability of uninterrupted power supply, the permanence of living in people's homes, etc. Therefore, it is reasonable to consider several typical schemes that have proven effective.

Scheme of heating a house with natural circulation

The name of such a system speaks for itself - the circulation of the coolant in the heating system is due to natural processes. The work of such a system can be considered in the figure.

System with natural circulation

Water heated in the boiler's heat exchanger is reduced in density and displaced by colder and denser water of their return line. It is this difference in the balance of hot and chilled water that provides circulation in the heating system. At the uppermost point of the hot water stand, an expansion tank is installed that allows the water to expand when heated, allows you to monitor the water level in the system and, if necessary, make water. In addition, all the air that will inevitably be present in the system will go into the expansion tank.

Diluting pipelines and return lines, called loungers, are always made under the slopes to facilitate water circulation: the upper deck-bed to the radiators, and the lower one to the boiler. In such a system, the boiler must be at the lowest point. The flow of coolant to the radiators is done through the hot water risers, and the drain is cooled through the return risers.

One of the options for implementing a two-pipe heating system of a two-story house with natural circulation is presented in the following scheme.

One of the options for implementing the gravitational heating system in the two-story house

It should be noted in this scheme for a large number of pipelines and their high nominal pass - dу .This is due to the fact that in the gravity systems, to ensure circulation of the heat carrier, it is necessary to minimize the resistance, and this is only possible in pipes of large diameters.

Systems with natural circulation, of course, have the following advantages:

• Independence from power supply - the heating system will work both in the total absence of electricity, and during interruptions in its supply.
• Proven reliability and simplicity, proven by long years of operation.
• The absence of pumps and the low circulation rate of the coolant make such a system noiseless.

Despite all the advantages, such systems are gradually disappearing into the past, as they no longer meet modern requirements for heating systems.

• Gravity systems are extremely material-intensive - they use large-diameter steel pipes.
• Installation of heating systems with steel pipes is technologically complicated and takes a long time.
• Systems with natural circulation have restrictions on the area of ​​heated rooms. According to the experts, the total length of the horizontal sections( sunbeds) should not exceed 40 meters, and the total area of ​​150 m2.
• High inertia - from the moment of starting the system to heating up all the radiators to the design temperature, it can take several hours.
• A large difference in flow and return temperature can have a negative effect on the boiler's heat exchanger.
• In the coolant of gravitational systems, a large amount of dissolved oxygen, which affects the corrosion of pipes and radiators, therefore in such systems only cast iron or bimetallic radiators can be used.

Heating systems with forced circulation

Practically all modern heating systems use only forced( artificial) circulation of the coolant, which gives significant advantages:

• The use of circulating pumps helps to heat any area at any number of storeys.
• The diameter of the pipes can be much smaller, since the pump allows the coolant to be pumped at a higher speed.
• Application of circulating pumps allows to lower the temperature in heating systems with the same heat transfer parameters of radiators, and this, in turn, allows the use of cheaper polymer and metal-plastic pipes.
• The possibility of both general and zone adjustment in heating systems.

The drawbacks of systems with forced circulation are:

• The dependence on electricity, which is easily solved by the availability of uninterruptible power supplies or generators.
• Higher noise of the heating system, but with the correct calculation, it does not hear the human ear in the heated rooms.

The circulating pump is usually cut into the heating system on the return line in front of the boiler, since this is the lowest temperature of the heat carrier.

Circulation pump: the heart of the modern heating system

For forced circulation to work correctly, the selected pump model must meet the system parameters. There is a special methodology for calculating key characteristics - productivity and created pressure. In order not to bother the reader with formulas, we suggest using the built-in calculators.

Calculator of calculation of pump capacity

Calculation of the created headcoolant

Single-pipe heating system for a two-story house

In single-pipe autonomous heating systems, both the natural circulation of the coolant and the forced circulation can be used. The heat carrier from the boiler goes to the feeder riser, and then it is divided into two floors in the beds, to which radiators are connected in series.

Single-pipe heating system - reliable but obsolete

It is obvious that after each of the radiators the temperature in the pipeline will decrease, and this is necessarily taken into account in the calculations. Advantages of such a system are:

• The pipe consumption for installation of such a system is minimal.
• Possibility to implement a system with natural circulation. For example, if the power is cut off, the pump can be closed with a bypass jumper, and the system will continue to function, albeit with less efficiency.
• Time and cost of installation is lower than other systems.

The disadvantages of single-pipe wiring are:

• The complexity of adjusting and adjusting the system.
• To remove one separate radiator, you need to stop the entire system.

Video: Single-pipe heating system, its advantages and disadvantages

Two-pipe autonomous heating system

The requirements for modern heating systems assume a fine adjustment both of the whole system and of each part separately, which allows to control the microclimate in the premises and also to save energy resources. And this possibility is provided by a two-pipe heating system.

Two-pipe heating system for two-storey house

In such systems there are two separate pipelines: supply and return, and radiators are connected to them in parallel. Consider the operation of such a system by example. The heat medium heated in the boiler is deaerated by an automatic valve( 2) and enters a vertical riser that is divided into horizontal sections of the first and second floors. The return line is connected to the corresponding input of the boiler and is divided into two floors similarly to the feeder.

On the return line in front of the boiler are:

• Safety valve( 11), which relieves the excess pressure in the system. The working pressure in closed heating systems is 1-3 bar.
• Circulation pump( 9), supporting the flow of the heat carrier at a specified speed, with the armature of its strapping( 7, 8).
• Diaphragm expansion tank, which compensates for the expansion of the coolant and maintains a constant pressure in the system.

Radiators( 4) are connected in parallel to the supply and return pipes, and it is best to do the connection exactly as shown in the picture: the feed is done at the upper point, and the return is in the lower diagonal, - with this scheme, the heating is evenly uniform and, accordingly, the heat transfer is better.

The possibility of independent adjustment of each radiator separately gives a special thermostatic valve( 3), which, depending on the room air temperature, can limit or completely block the coolant flow through the radiator. However, this will not affect the operation of the system as a whole. In order to ensure that the radiators do not interfere with each other's work, they provide approximately equal resistance to the flow of coolant through them, balancing valves( 5) are installed at their output to adjust the entire heating system.

Two-pipe autonomous heating system has a number of undeniable advantages:

• The heat carrier in each radiator comes with the same temperature.
• Lower pressure losses in the system allow the use of less powerful circulation pumps.
• To the supply and return piping of the two-pipe system, completely different heat devices can be connected: radiators, convectors, fan coil units, "warm floor" system with its collector and pump group.
• Repair or adjustment of each individual node does not affect the overall operation.

The drawbacks of the two-pipe system are a large material consumption, which affects the cost and complexity, and this can affect reliability in case of illiterate calculation and installation.

Variants of two-pipe systems

Two-pipe heating systems have many implementation options. The axonometric diagram shows the three most commonly used cases of wiring of two-pipe heating systems.

• Two-pipe dead-end piping, presented on the conditional first floor of the circuit. In such a system, the forward and return pipelines are mounted side by side, parallel to each other up to the last radiator of the branch. The diameters of the supply and return pipes decrease as you approach the dead-end radiator. With this method of connection, it is necessary to adjust the system using balancing valves, so that the radiators located closer to the boiler do not close the flow of the coolant through itself.
• Two-pipe counter piping is presented on the conditional second floor of the circuit. In this method of connection, a straight pipeline is suitable from one side to the radiator, and the other from the other. This allows stabilizing the flow of the coolant and avoiding the balancing of the radiators. This method is also called the "loop of Tichelman".The feed and return pipelines must have the same cross sections.
• The collector wiring is shown on the third floor of the circuit. The main straight and return pipeline is connected to the collector, from which the pipes of the same diameter are already wired to all radiators. Such a system requires a higher flow rate of pipes, but its balancing is very simple. In order for the system to work better, the collector should be located close to the geometric center of the floor, while the length of the pipelines will be approximately equal.

Results of

• It is better to design the scheme of the heating system of a two-story house to the engineers-heat engineers.
• The most promising and modern are two-pipe heating systems.
• Competent combination of radiator heating with a warm water floor gives the best results.

Video: Variants of radiator heating systems