Economical heating of a private home: choosing the most economical heating system

Almost every cottage owner strives to reduce heating costs to a minimum.But when choosing the most economical heating for a private home, many often look only at the price of fuel.

However, here it is necessary to take into account the heat loss of the building, and the capital investment for the arrangement of the heating system, and the cost of servicing the network subsequently. Don’t forget about the labor-intensive operation of this or that option. Only an integrated approach to the issue will help make the operation of the heat supply network as economical as possible, don’t you agree?

In the article, we have collected the most effective ways to increase the efficiency of a heating system, provided practical tips for reducing heat loss, and also assessed the feasibility of using renewable energy sources.

The first and most important thing is to reduce heat loss

Before choosing fuel, a boiler (or other thermal energy generator) and a heat distribution system throughout the cottage, you need to take a closer look at the house itself. If heat loss through walls, windows, ventilation, subfloors and roofs is enormous, then no tricks to increase the efficiency of the internal heating circuit will help.

First, you need to take care of the insulation of all structures and engineering systems of the home.

The most economical heating system can only be found in a residential building that is well insulated with high-quality thermal insulation materials (+)

With a high level of heat loss, any attempts to increase the efficiency of the heating system will be pointless; most of the heat will still go outside. Moreover, a lot of it will be required. The enclosed space of a cottage is one thing, but a street open to the winds and bad weather is quite another.

Insulation technology and materials are selected based on the climatic conditions of the area where the house is located. There are certain building standards with minimum requirements for wall thickness and thermal insulation for each Russian region. But without knowledge in heating engineering, it’s not worth doing the project yourself.

Either the calculations will be made incorrectly and the heat loss will be higher, or you will have to overpay for a layer of insulation that is too thick.

When viewing the finished project and subsequent construction of the house, special attention should be paid to:

• double-glazed windows – up to 25% of all heat loss goes out through the windows;
• roof and attic floor – that’s another 10–15%;
• ventilation system – the share of heat loss through ventilation with natural circulation can reach 40–50%.

Walls and floors are also places where heat escapes from a building. But initially no one neglects their insulation. But about ventilation, ceiling insulation and the attic is often forgotten by many owners of private houses.

Another point is the presence of “cold bridges” in the enclosing structures. Any iron part that penetrates the wall from the street inside serves as a place for enormous heat loss.

Even a small metal pin slowly but inexorably “pulls” heat out of the home.There should be no such bridges in the project, and during construction it is important to ensure that they are not formed from various metal fasteners.

The image from a thermal imager shows that windows cause significant heat loss, so you should not forget about the need to install energy-saving double-glazed windows

In addition, “cold bridges” can become:

• ends of floor slabs;
• window and door slopes;
• basement walls;
• lintels and inserts made of concrete or iron.

All these places must be carefully insulated, otherwise you can’t even dream of saving on heating. No one has ever managed to heat the street.

Depending on the quality of insulation, the thermal conductivity coefficient included in the thermal engineering calculation for one building can differ significantly. The thicker the insulation and the fewer points of heat “leakage,” the smaller volumes of fuel have to be burned to heat the cottage.

The money spent on reducing heat loss will definitely pay off. You shouldn’t skimp on this issue, but you shouldn’t forget about the rationality of investments either.

Choosing the cheapest fuel

The second question in saving on heating is type of fuel used. Moreover, we need to look not so much at the cost of a kilocalorie leaving the boiler, but at the total costs of fuel, heating equipment and its maintenance. It is necessary to consider everything as a whole.

The cheapest in terms of the price of generated thermal energy are wood pellets and main gas, but they are also the most expensive in terms of initial costs (+)

If we compare different water heating units, the cheapest ones will be electric boilers. However, electricity bills are unlikely to make anyone happy later.Plus, for a large cottage, in most cases you will have to lay an additional cable.

For a well-insulated house of 100 square meters, the existing capacity may be sufficient. But heating a two-story home will require much more electric “fuel.” At the same time, standard networks were not initially designed for such loads.

Natural gas in Russia is considered one of the most economical ways to heat private homes. However, there are several nuances here. If there is already a highway in the village, then connection to the gas pipeline happens quite quickly and inexpensively.

But if the distance from the house to it is 200 m or more, then cutting into this pipe will cost a pretty penny. Plus, all approvals and receipt of technical conditions can take up to a year.

Behind gas tank installation and the equipment for it will have to cost from 150 to 250 thousand rubles. Fortunately, most companies dealing with similar equipment complete all the work in a couple of days.

The price of liquefied gas for it in almost all Russian regions is ultimately equal to what comes from the main pipe. But the initial costs are frankly stinging.

Another fairly cheap boiler is one that runs on exhaust or diesel. Moreover, if fuel can be obtained at a reasonable price, then something like this liquid fuel boiler equipment may well become the most economical way to heat private housing.

Averaged across Russia, heating options for a country house based on the totality of all costs are arranged in the following order:

1. Wood or coal stove.
2. Gas boiler using mains gas.
3. Wood-burning pellet boiler.
4. Liquid fuel boiler equipment.
5. Electric boiler.

The most economical option is a conventional wood or coal stove, provided it is true that there are no problems with fuel in the area where you live. This is due to both the low cost of fuel and the low cost of equipment.

However, such a stove requires constant supervision. And this takes a lot of time and effort. Plus, it is unlikely that it will be possible to particularly improve the efficiency of the heating system connected to it. It is difficult to adjust anything or somehow control the economical consumption of logs (coal).

Much in the matter of the cheapness of fuel depends on its availability in the area where the house is located - in some regions coal or firewood are the cheapest, while in others gas will give them a considerable head start

An electric boiler is the most convenient and safe to use. It doesn’t need a chimney, plus the automation itself monitors everything and heats up the coolant in the system as needed.

With proper installation of electrical wiring, the likelihood of a fire with this heating method is reduced to almost zero. He certainly shouldn’t present any other problems.

However, energy costs are frankly high. It’s also good if you can connect a two-tariff meter with a reduced nightly rate. Otherwise, you should opt for an electric boiler only as a last resort. It is difficult to call it the most “economical” due to the high costs of “burned” kilowatts of electricity.

Increasing the efficiency of your heating system

To increase the efficiency of heating a home, it is also possible and necessary to introduce various technologies that reduce fuel consumption into the heating system. There are a huge number of ways to route pipelines from the boiler to the radiators.

Some of them are cheaper to implement, while others are the most economical in terms of reducing losses during transportation of coolant to the batteries.

The efficiency of a home heating system depends on the correctly selected boiler power, pipe layout and even the pipeline material

There are heating equipment of different designs and various additional equipment that can increase the efficiency of the entire system by 10–15% or more. But here you should carefully weigh the pros and cons. In some cases, the costs at the initial stage may not be recouped later.

There is no need to chase the “most economical” and “most effective” options. Often these are just advertising slogans and nothing more.

Method #1: pipe routing and “warm floor”

The most economical pipeline laying scheme is radiant heating distribution with a central collector. When using it, each radiator receives the same volume of coolant.

Moreover, it is possible for each battery to adjust the amount of heat supplied individually. Extra waste of thermal energy when transporting heated water through heating pipes with such wiring is practically eliminated.

The boiler manifold circuit is most effective in terms of balancing the hydraulic resistance of individual circuits and controllability of heat flows (+)

Almost always, with collector wiring, the heating system has to be supplemented circulation pump. Thanks to it, the difference in water temperatures at the inlet and outlet of the network is significantly reduced.

As a result, the controllability of coolant heating and the efficiency of the entire system are increased.Less fuel has to be burned in the boiler, which results in direct savings on fuel.

The beam (collector) option is the most economical to operate. However, due to the long length of pipelines, it is also the most expensive to implement.

To maximize the efficiency of your heating system, you can simply abandon radiators and replace them with “warm floor” pipes

The heat from conventional radiators first rises to the ceiling, and only then, due to convection, spreads throughout the room. As a result, the hottest air ends up near the ceiling. And to prevent your feet from freezing on the floor in the cold outside the window, you have to open the radiators all the way. And this again means additional costs for heat generation.

System water heated floor - the most economical way to heat residential premises. In this case, the warmest air is concentrated below at the level of a person’s feet. At the same time, heat consumption is reduced, and the most comfortable conditions for people are created in the room.

Method #2: the most efficient boilers

The highest efficiency is found in pyrolysis and condensation boilers. It is difficult to find more economical heating equipment in heating equipment stores. The first option uses wood as fuel, and the second uses gas. In terms of efficiency, they outperform all other analogues using any flammable coolant.

A pyrolysis boiler differs from a conventional wood-burning boiler in the presence of a second firebox and in the fact that in fact it is not wood as such that burns there, but the gas obtained as a result of pyrolysis.

First, the logs smolder in it at high temperatures and limited air supply. And only then the resulting gases burn in the main chamber, releasing heat.

Compared to a standard wood-burning counterpart pyrolysis boiler has higher efficiency (30–40%) and requires less attention to itself. The interval between loading firewood, depending on the capacity of the firebox, reaches 10–16 hours.

Savings here are achieved due to absolutely complete combustion of fuel and a minimum of heat release with combustion products into the chimney.

A gas condensing boiler is even more economical - it takes thermal energy not only from the burned methane, but also from the products of its combustion

Taking into account the collection of additional heat, the final efficiency of such a boiler reaches 105–110%. Here, the energy of both the burned gas and that obtained as a result of the condensation of water vapor occurring in the second chamber is taken into account.

Method #3: choosing a heat accumulator

Another fairly effective way to save on heating is to connect a heat accumulator to a solid fuel boiler. The latter first accumulates heat in itself, and then gradually releases it to the batteries.

In this case, it is not necessary to forcibly limit the power of the coolant heating equipment, simply throwing out the heat into the chimney pipe.

The heat accumulator allows you to reduce bills for solid fuel used by 10–30%; all the heat generated in the boiler goes to the home heating system (+)

If electricity is supplied to the cottage at different rates day and night, then the heat accumulator can also be included in a system with an electric boiler. In this case, it will accumulate heat at night, when electricity is cheaper.

Renewable heat sources

When calculating the costs in detail with heat pumps, wind turbines, solar collectors and batteries, the situation looks like this.They generate heat and electricity for a private home, but at first glance it is free. Of course, the sun and wind do not bill for heating, but such generation equipment is very expensive.

In Europe, renewable energy is sometimes subsidized from the state budget. Plus, the price tag for fossil fuels is frankly stinging. Therefore, “green technologies” there are economically justified and relatively effective.

In Russia the situation is radically different. Our state subsidizes alternative energy not going yet. And prices for domestic firewood, coal and gas, compared to their neighbors in the west, are not so high.

As a result, based on the totality of all costs, it is difficult to call heat pumps, solar panels and wind turbines particularly economical. They generally show their effectiveness only in remote areas where it is difficult and expensive to deliver burned fuel.

Conclusions and useful video on the topic

When choosing the most economical heating option for your cottage, you should take into account many factors and parameters, and the following selection of videos will definitely help you with this.

Which heating is better:

What is the cheapest fuel to heat a country house:

How much does gas and electric heating cost:

There is no universal option for the cheapest and most economical heating. For each specific house, it is necessary to calculate all the costs of fuel, equipment for heating the coolant and the arrangement of the heating system as a whole.

Often you have to start from the availability of a particular fuel, and only then select a boiler for it.Plus, you should absolutely not forget about high-quality insulation of the cottage and pipes to radiators.

Share with readers your experience of increasing the efficiency of your heating system. Please leave comments on the article and ask questions that interest you. The feedback form is located below.