What to do if the central heating system of the apartment cannot cope with the winter cold? Save heat or buy additional heaters

Photo: Depositphotos/alexraths

In winter, apartment heating does not always cope with the cold, and the room thermometer drops to 14-15 °C. This may be due to the distance of the house from the boiler room, weak heating of the coolant, improper routing of heating pipes, or large heat losses through walls, floors and windows. Letters to authorities and administrative methods of settlement are unlikely to lead to a positive result in the same heating season. The maximum that they can offer you is to recalculate the amount of payments downwards.

No one but ourselves cares about how to make an apartment warm. The editors of RBC Real Estate carefully studied the issue and found several solutions that can warm the apartment in winter.

Mobile heat

The easiest and fastest way is to buy a mobile heater: infrared, fan heater, oil radiator or convector. The first two types locally heat the air near the bed or near the balcony, but do not help central heating well. The latter evenly heat the room like conventional radiators. The convector does this faster, but the oil radiator will take time to reach the specified power. Obviously, all these electrical appliances are not saving money. With a relatively low initial price of equipment (from 1000 rubles and above), 1-2 kW will leak every hour. And the power of the indoor electrical network may not be enough for the simultaneous operation of an electric kettle, heater and washing machine.

The most practical are fan heaters with ceramic heating elements and a low-noise tangential fan. Vertical floor models automatically rotate, distributing warm air throughout the room, and are equipped with a control panel. Model Timberk TFH T20 FSN.PQ

The Noirot electric convector creates a powerful flow of warm air due to the height of the hollow body. It can be placed on the wall or on wheels, which can be purchased separately.

Dyson, known for its innovative vacuum cleaners and fans, has released the AM05 model with an air heating function. Its main advantage is the creation of a strong flow and the absence of open heaters, although, in our opinion, dust should still be drawn into the body of the device. The price is 4-5 times higher than traditional models

The most beautiful heater from an interior point of view will be an electric fireplace. In addition to a pleasant glow, it emits 2-4 kW of heat

Small biofuel fireplaces produce a lot of heat and burn air without releasing soot. The output is only water vapor and C02

Heat from the air

Some split systems (air conditioners with indoor and outdoor units) are capable of cooling the air in the summer and heating it in the off-season and winter using the heat pump principle. During the hot season, excess heat is discharged outside; during the cold season, any amount of heat is taken from the atmosphere, that is, the outdoor and indoor units change roles. Thus, reversible air conditioners can supply warm air even at sub-zero temperatures outside. Due to the fact that the device does not have heating elements, it consumes three to four times less energy. Split systems produce 3-4 kW of heat per kilowatt consumed.

Passive heat

According to experts, 25% of heat escapes through windows, so it’s worth paying attention to their condition. Old wooden structures do little to retain heat, and the fittings of plastic frames become loose over time, resulting in a loss of tightness. In any case, it is worth installing modern heat-saving windows with increased heat transfer resistance, at least 0.55 1 sq. m * S / W.

Glazing a balcony, even without insulation, will improve thermal insulation by 15-20%. Particular attention should be paid to the finishing of window slopes. Sometimes it is not enough to simply level and paint them, but serious insulation with expanded polystyrene or mineral wool is required, followed by plastering or finishing with plasterboard. Ready-made panels are also available for sale.

Angular external walls on the north side of the house do not add heat, especially in old panel houses. It’s good if you plan to insulate all the exterior walls of the façade, but not everywhere there will be a major overhaul. If you insulate the walls from the inside, the volume of the room will decrease, but it will become much warmer.

Warm floor

In the process of renovating an apartment, you should not neglect the installation of electric heated floors. Let us remind you that it is prohibited to use water systems in apartments. A special heating cable is laid in the screed or directly in the adhesive when replacing tiles. Film floors are generally installed under parquet boards, laminate or linoleum using dry technology. Such additional heating is the most pleasant for a person. Heat rises gently from the floor across the entire surface. Due to the low temperature (24-25 ° C) there is no excessive overheating and drying out of the air.

Describes the simplest and most effective ways to keep warm during the short but unpleasant spring cold.

Air conditioner

An air conditioner is essentially a heat pump that does not produce heat, but pumps it from the street.

The average efficiency of an air conditioner is 300%, that is, for 1 kW of electrical energy spent, it produces 3 kW of heat.

The air conditioner will quickly warm up the home - the fan at maximum speed is capable of mixing all the air in the apartment, and the built-in thermostat will maintain a certain temperature automatically.

Oil heater

This is one of the most common and inexpensive heaters. It is mobile and lightweight - it can be placed in any corner of the house, taken to the country house or to the office.

In addition to the methods presented, you can heat a room without spending money on purchasing various appliances and without using large amounts of electrical energy.

Oven = fireplace

You can turn on the oven and open the oven to allow the heat to escape and warm the room.

Thus, the kitchen will be filled with warm air and the people in it will not freeze. You should be careful with gas and the “aggressive” heat of the oven, which quickly burns the oxygen in the room.

Plastic windows

If, then they will let less cold air into the apartment, therefore the room will be a little warmer.

To do this, it is necessary, as indicated in the instructions. This technique will help protect the room from sharp gusts of wind and noticeable drafts, but in winter mode the seal on the window frame will quickly wear out, so it is not recommended to constantly keep the window in winter mode.

Every autumn it gets very cold in many Russian apartments. The temperature outside at night is below zero, snow sometimes falls from the sky during the day, and according to the city authorities' plan, residents still do not need central heating. However, the opinion of organizations serving homes almost always does not coincide with what citizens feel when wrapped in blankets. Now we will tell you what to do in this situation and how to stop freezing while waiting for a communal miracle.

First of all, you need to establish how cold it is in the apartment. The service organization is obliged to take measures and provide heating at a temperature below 18 degrees in at least one room (below 20 degrees in a corner room). If your measurements show a violation of these boundaries, you need to contact the emergency dispatch service. Her phone number should be indicated on the stand in the entrance. Also, according to the rules, the heating must be turned on if the average daily temperature outside falls below 8 degrees for five days. However, sanitary standards are one thing, and subjective sensations are another: many will sleep cold even at the formally permissible temperature in the apartment. Recommendations for heating are divided into two groups: cheap or completely free and requiring money.

Free or for mere pennies

Thermal insulation of the apartment

Humans are good heating pads themselves and produce a lot of heat. If you keep it, you may not need any additional heaters at all. Old windows need to be carefully checked and all cracks sealed. You can use the old-fashioned method - cotton wool and masking tape, the main thing to remember is that by summer all the results of your work will look very unpresentable, or even become building material for bird nests. Cold, freezing walls and floors are also covered with time-tested carpets. The main thing is not to forget to remove the improvised tapestry in the spring and check whether the concrete underneath is damp - this can contribute to the development of mold.

Another easy way to insulate windows is to hang thick curtains to the floor, which will block the cold air flowing down from the glass. Two other potential heat leaks are the front door and ventilation. It is possible to partially close the latter with improvised means, but it is impossible to completely block the outflow of air. This is especially dangerous in apartments with gas stoves - you can simply get burned, as well as in the bathroom. The door is insulated in the same way as the windows - seal all the cracks, and it's done. This is especially true if the exit from the apartment is directly to the landing, without a “dressing room”. And one more tip: do not open doors to rooms that you do not use or even move to a smaller room - it is easier to heat it.

The off-season is the most inconvenient and uncomfortable period for us. Just recently, the sun was warming outside, and with great pleasure we hurried to hide in the coolness of our apartments. With the onset of autumn, the situation changes radically. I don't want to rush home anymore. Despite the fact that it is chilly and slushy outside, there is no particular desire to return to a cold, uncomfortable apartment. Until the heating is turned on, we, residents of city apartments, can only dream of comfort. How to heat your own apartment without heating becomes a “fixed” idea, with which we rush around until hot water begins to gurgle in the home radiators.

With the heating season approaching, most of us can endure the current situation while trying to find different ways to stay warm in our own home. It’s another matter when there is a small child in the house and allowing a sharp decline in the off-season is critically impossible. The saddest situation is for those apartment owners who do not have heating in their house for technical reasons, and the imminent onset of winter does not bode well. But there is no need to despair. We live in an age of modern technology and great opportunities. Today, there are many options to heat your cold home in the absence of heating. Anyone can solve this problem if they show ingenuity and determination.

It’s cold in the apartment - looking for a solution to the problem

The natural reaction of a normal person to cold is to find a way to warm up. Even if we live in apartment buildings and sometimes we do not have the technical capabilities to fully express our imagination in this matter, we have plenty of strength and means at our disposal. Don't panic. The accumulated practical experience will tell you ways to solve the problem. In addition, today there is a fairly wide selection of technical means for heating residential premises.

The most acceptable options for heating an apartment are as follows:

• electric household heating appliances;
• autonomous gas heating.

Of the listed options, the first two are the simplest and quickly produce results. It is enough to show a little ingenuity, skill and invest a certain amount of money. The last third option, which involves installing a gas boiler for autonomous heating, is associated with formal difficulties. It is quite difficult to obtain permission to install a gas boiler in an apartment when the house is connected to a centralized heating system. It will take a long time to solve the problem, so with the onset of winter, such an undertaking will have to be postponed until later.

When the situation with rapid cooling of an apartment due to a decrease in ambient air temperature repeats from year to year, prudent owners should think about how to increase the thermal efficiency of their home. To ensure that the apartment does not cool down so quickly and retains the heat accumulated over the summer longer, it is necessary to take care of insulating the apartment.

For reference: It's been calculated for a long time! Basic measures to insulate a city apartment: sealing cracks in window openings, installing seals on windows, vents and doors can immediately increase the thermal efficiency of your apartment by 15-20%.

Having enough funds, you can think about radical insulation of the apartment. Sealing and insulating interpanel seams, creating a fur coat made of foam plastic or mineral wool on the outside of the panels of your apartment will provide a noticeable effect.

Measures to insulate your apartment will provide you with reliable protection during the cold season from hypothermia in your living space. The money invested will pay off, from a moral and psychological point of view, already at the first frost on the street.

There is electricity in the house - this is a real way to salvation. Many of us, if not the majority, resort to the help of electric household heaters precisely in the off-season, when the radiators are still cold and we have to wait a long time for the official onset of the heating season.

Important! When using home heating electrical appliances intensively, it is necessary to have appropriate wiring. The internal electrical network must be designed for increased load, which increases significantly when electric heating devices are turned on. Install a residual current circuit breaker that will monitor the condition of your wiring and prevent short circuits in the network.

We use electricity. What are the possibilities

Along with insulating the apartment, it doesn’t hurt to think about the possibility of equipping the apartment with a constant source of heat in your home. Stationary apartment heating systems using electricity are the most affordable way to avoid dependence on centralized heating. Here it is appropriate to talk about heated floors, thanks to which heating your apartment will no longer be a constant problem for you. Electricity is almost always available, so you should try to use this opportunity. Now in the fall or spring, when the radiators are not yet turned on, a warm floor will solve all your heating problems.

Warm floors are becoming fashionable and common today. With such a heating system, you are not afraid of cold central heating radiators. The required power is calculated based on the area of ​​the room and the specific heat flux for the corresponding type of room.

When using an electric heated floor, it is important to remember the following: the electric cable must cover up to 70% of the floor in the heated room.

For main rooms, the power of the heated floor should be at least 160-180 W per m2. For auxiliary premises, this figure is 120-140 W per 1 m 2. When installing an electric floor, it is necessary to take into account the effective heating area (excluding the area occupied by furniture).

Eg: To heat a kitchen in a city apartment on the 2nd-7th floor, you will need a heated floor power of 2100W. It is calculated as follows:

15x140= 2100W, where

• 15 sq. m. effective heated kitchen area;
• 140 W specific thermal power for heating the kitchen.

Properly done electrical wiring in the house and appropriate calculations when installing heated floors will allow you to create a comfortable temperature inside the living quarters. The economic effect in this case will be quite noticeable when compared with the costs of operating household electric heating appliances.

A similar power calculation scheme is used when using all electric heaters.

Emergency heating methods

If you are planning to heat the living space in an apartment using electricity, you should carefully select heating devices.

We have already dealt with electric heated floors, and this method is more suitable for a complete solution to the problem. On the other hand, it is necessary to use household electric heating devices as a temporary source of heat during the cold period. Each electrical appliance has its own optimal power, designed to effectively heat a certain space. Today, the following types of heaters using electricity are used in the domestic sphere.

• convectors;
• infrared thermal panels;
• oil radiators;
• heat fans.

In each individual case, the scope of use of the device is determined. Each room has its own specific type of electric heating. True, any home can be equipped with convectors. The only condition is to correctly and competently install the devices in the premises.

Important! There is one factor that few people take into account when choosing heaters. We are talking about the height of the ceilings. In standard new apartments, the average ceiling height does not exceed 2300-2400 mm. In old houses there are rooms with a ceiling height of 2.5-3 m. When choosing a heater, it is necessary to take into account the power at the rate of +25% for every 500 mm exceeding the established norm.

Convectors are highly efficient and are also quite economical to operate. Due to the circulation of air flows, the air in the room warms up faster. Most devices are equipped with an automatic system that regulates the mode of switching on and off the devices depending on the set temperature conditions inside the room.

Infrared heaters are available in models with an average of 1.5-2 kW of power. Carbon heaters, as one of the types of infrared heat sources, have two or three times less power, creating a similar thermal effect. It is best to equip such heaters with thermostatic sensors.

Heat fans, which are widely available for sale today, are designed for the fastest possible effect. Small size and affordable cost are the main reasons for their popularity. At the same time, all the advantages are offset by high electricity consumption and fairly high noise levels.

As a successful alternative to stationary sources of electric heating, oil radiators can be used. The simplicity of the design and their durability are attractive in terms of choosing such heat sources for heating residential premises. The only drawback that is typical for such heating devices is long heating time and heavy weight.

By using electrical appliances and equipment to heat a residential apartment due to the lack of centralized heating, you can quickly and effectively solve your problems. In any situation there is always a way out.

Do you know why every September you are forced to freeze in your own apartment, waiting like manna from heaven for the central heating to turn on? The fact is that in Russia there are standards according to which heating can be started only after the average daily temperature for five days in a row does not exceed 8 degrees above zero.

In theory, during this time, apartment buildings should not yet have time to cool down to a critical temperature. By the way, it is 18 degrees above zero. The thermometer may drop lower - but no more than three degrees. Only when the temperature in your apartment drops below 15 degrees can utility workers have problems. For you, they can begin even earlier - many can get sick even at a temperature of 20 degrees, not to mention in a colder room.

Most often, tips for heating a room are relevant for the night, when the temperature in the apartment drops to the minimum values ​​for the day, and we cannot actively spend time in order to warm up in this way. However, freezing in your own apartment at night because the central heating radiators are turned off is completely unnecessary. AiF.ru knows at least five ways to raise the temperature in the apartment so as not to contract the disease while waiting for the start of the heating season.

Air conditioner

To heat the apartment in the first way, we need an air conditioner. For some reason, many people forget that an air conditioner can perform not only its direct function - to cool the room, but also act in the completely opposite direction - to heat the air in the apartment.

In most models, it is enough to simply set the temperature with the control panel above the one you observe in the apartment at that moment. The air conditioner will automatically begin to circulate warm air around the room, warming it up. In some cases, you will have to look at the manual (if you saved it) or search for instructions for the air conditioner on the Internet - you will have to turn on the special heating function that should be in your device.

Electric heater

The most common way to warm up in a cold room with the central heating turned off is to turn on an electric heater.

The two most common types of electric heaters for us are the fan heater and the oil heater. The first one, however, is not suitable for night time: it is too noisy and not designed for long-term use. The second operates on the principle of a regular radiator, only it heats up not water, but special oil. It takes quite a long time to warm up the room, but modern oil heaters are completely safe to leave overnight.

Recently, humanity has invented several more types of electric heaters. The first of them is an electric convector: cold air, passing through a heating coil, heats up and exits from the top of the device. But such heaters also have disadvantages - they are quite bulky, like oil heaters, by the way, and relatively expensive.

The most modern heaters are infrared and carbon. They work on the same principle - a lamp emitting infrared rays heats people and objects without heating the air. But such a heater is also unlikely to be suitable for night vigils - a lamp, even an IR lamp, even a carbon one, emits a fairly strong glow and will interfere with falling asleep.

Bathroom

The third way to raise the temperature in the apartment is very simple. To use it, you just need to open the doors to the bathroom. During the day, we would also advise you to take a hot bath, but at night its warmth will not be enough - the water will quickly cool down, giving up all the heat, and will become useless.

The point of open doors is that the temperature in the bathroom is a priori several degrees higher than throughout the apartment. This happens thanks to a hot water riser, which acts in the same way as a central heating radiator. But no one turns it off for the summer. The heated towel rail also plays an important role in heating the bathroom, as it also remains hot 365 days a year, 24 hours a day.

Of course, you won’t heat the entire apartment this way, but it is still possible to raise the overall temperature by 1-2 degrees using this method.

Electric heating pads

In the second half of September in the evening in your own unheated apartment, another electrical device will help you warm up - a heating pad. Typically, heating pads have a medical function and are used to warm up some part of the body that requires heat therapy. But they can also be used for purposes other than their intended purpose, if the situation forces it.

Most modern electric heating pads, which are available on pharmacy shelves, have a special temperature regulator. By setting it to the minimum value, you can create a completely comfortable atmosphere in your bed, which will allow you not to freeze on a September night.

Do not despair if even the minimum setting in the electric heating pad turns out to be too hot for you. The heating pad can be placed not in its traditional place under the sheet, but on top, on the blanket. In this case, it will give you less heat, which will partially escape into the atmosphere, and you will not experience overheating.

Carpets and crevices

It is worth noting that we ourselves, even at night while sleeping, produce a fairly large amount of heat. In order to heat a room exclusively on your own, it is necessary to minimize heat loss.

Primarily they occur due to the presence of cracks. If you do not have plastic windows, you will have to glue their perimeter with a special insulation, which will not allow cold air to penetrate into the apartment through the cracks, and warm air to seep out. The same applies to the front door - its perimeter should also be sealed with special insulation.

Cool surfaces also have a big impact on the temperature in the room. First of all, this concerns the floor and glass on the windows. To prevent the air in the entire room from being cooled by the window glass, it is better to curtain the windows at night with thick curtains that will cover almost the entire space from the eaves to the floor. This will allow some of the cool air to remain between the window and the curtains, preventing it from leaking into the rest of the room. All this is due to the low degree of thermal conductivity. Thanks to the same property of dense fabric, you can keep the heat in the room by covering the floor with any carpet.