How to choose a cast iron radiator area. Selection of the heating battery for the apartment area

How to choose a radiator? In the article we will find out which types of radiators are preferable for premises of various purposes and what size they should be.

Our task is to choose a heating device according to the material and heat transfer.

Materials

Overview of options

We begin with a brief review of the materials used in the production of modern heating appliances.

Cast iron - the material is the most familiar to anyone who grew up in a Soviet-built house. Most of the cast-iron radiators that are currently being sold are virtually no different from those that decorated the rooms of our childhood.

There are, however, exceptions: in attempts to increase sales, many manufacturers offer very attractive in terms of design solutions.

Characteristic features of cast iron, in addition to the unsightly appearance, are the forcedly large internal section of the section and the slow movement of the coolant in it. This leads to silting of radiators and the need for periodic (once every 2-3 years) washing.

Cast iron is afraid of water hammer. Typical operating pressure declared for a cast iron radiator is 9-10 atmospheres.

Another unpleasant feature of cast iron is a leak between sections: paronitic gaskets between them after a few years as the radiator cools down can begin to let water through. The problem is eliminated by the bulkhead of the radiator and the replacement of gaskets.

Useful: often the heating system with radiators that are current outside the heating season is simply dumped for the summer. For radiators, there is nothing wrong with this: when heated, the sections will squeeze the gaskets and the leaks will stop. But steel risers and liners without water, they quickly become useless due to corrosion.

In the photo - a modern cast iron battery. As you can see, the design of the product is more than good.

Aluminum - material with much better thermal conductivity compared to iron. Last but not least, aluminum lacks the brittleness of cast iron. Due to this, the section has a small internal cross section and due to the rapid movement of water in it almost does not clog with time: the lack of internal volume is compensated by a large area of the fins.

Radiators, as a rule, are very beautiful in appearance and fit perfectly into any design. The disadvantages include limited resistance to water hammer (working pressure in aluminum radiators - from 12 to 16 atmospheres) and the ability of aluminum to form galvanic vapors with other metals.

In particular, the location in the same circuit of the aluminum radiator and copper pipes leads to accelerated destruction of aluminum.

Both aluminum problems are solved in bimetallic radiators: Aluminum sheath with fins supplied with a core of corrosion-resistant steel grades. As a result, the destructive pressure for the best samples of radiators can reach 200 atmospheres (an example is the domestic Monolith line, for which 100 atmospheres of WORKING pressure are declared).

The only downside to radiators is the high price. It can exceed 700 rubles for one section.

Fully steel heaters - It is a plate, tubular radiators and convectors. Tubular steel radiators and convectors are extremely durable and can be used in central heating systems without any reservations.

Lamellar are made as a compact solution: they have a minimum thickness and occupy almost no space in the room. However, when the wall thickness is less than a millimeter and made of non-corrosive steels, it is difficult to recommend them for purchase.

Convector may be copper-aluminum. The tube from copper traditionally serves as transportation of the heat carrier. The material chosen is due to a much higher thermal conductivity even compared to aluminum.

But the fins - aluminum, designed to reduce the cost of the heating device. Copper-aluminum heating devices are relatively expensive, but they provide excellent heat transfer with compact dimensions.

Finally, it is worth mentioning the heating devices, which are most often made by hand. This is the so-called registers - several large diameter steel pipes connected in a closed loop. Pipes are connected by welding; the vent is welded in from above, the diverter in the bottom.

The appearance of the product leaves much to be desired, but the registers are able to provide a huge heat transfer at minimum cost.

How to choose heating radiators for the material depending on the specifics of the heated room?

For central heating with its unpredictable pressure and temperature conditions, bimetallic radiators will be the best choice. The human factor has not been canceled: it is enough for the locksmith to open the house valve in the elevator node FAST when the heating starts up - and in a second the pressure in the heating system can rise to values that are a couple of times higher than the regular ones.

In addition, a torn off valve of a screw valve on a riser or an abruptly closed cork valve may result. The strength of the bimetallic heater in this case will save your property from being flooded with hot and very dirty water.

Attention: installing a durable bimetallic radiator on a plastic or metal-plastic liner deprives the venture of any meaning. Use only strong steel pipes. It is desirable - galvanized.

In a private house with an autonomous heating circuit and your own boiler, you completely control both the heating parameters and the material from which liners and risers are made. Here, aluminum radiators are the best choice: their heat output is equal to or slightly higher than that of bimetallic heating devices, and they are much cheaper.

If the layout of the house and the space under the floor finish allows this, another popular option is the installation of floor-standing copper-aluminum convectors. In this case, only horizontal gratings remain in view, through which heated air is removed from the convectors.

Finally, in garages, greenhouses and other premises for purely utilitarian purposes, the combination of heat transfer and low cost comes first. The appearance of the heating devices is completely indifferent.

Here, the register becomes the best choice: it is brewed to the size you need and, if you make it yourself, it costs the cost of pipes and electrodes.

The selection of any radiator begins with determining the amount of heat that it must generate in an apartment or house. This indicator can be calculated in different ways. Among them are both simple and complex. The simplest involves the use of space and taking into account the height of the room (but this indicator does not take part in the calculations).

Standard selection method

It is used only when the height of the room is less than 3 m. It is implemented as follows:

Determine the area of the room. For example, it is 25 m².
Multiply the resulting figure by 100 watts. According to the SNiP, this figure is the norm. The document says that 100 watts should be created for each square meter. It turns out that the heat source should create 2 500 W or 2.5 kW.
The resulting power is divided into the heat transfer of one section of the battery. This step is performed when you plan to install or battery. As is known, cast iron, aluminum and bimetallic heating devices have such a design. If the battery has a section with heat transfer equal to 150 W, then you need to buy a device with 17 sections (2 500/150 = 16.6, round only up).

With the situation is somewhat different. They are a one-piece design that cannot be increased or decreased. Therefore, take into account their full capacity. However, installing one large 2.5 kW radiator would be a bit of a mistake. This is because a different method of calculation is used for these batteries.
Some features of the standard method
The above applies to those rooms that have one outer wall, and the heat loss in which is small.

However, if the room has increased heat loss, then the total power of the heating devices (in our case, 2.5 kW) must be adjusted.

The adjustment should be:

Increasing the final figure by 20% in the case where the room is angular (that is, the two walls are external).
Increase in total power by 10% in case of making the lower connection of the radiator.
Reducing the total amount of heat by 15-25%, if the room has plastic windows.

In each case, a certain amount of interest is added to or taken to 2.5 kW. If all these facts take place, then the figure of 2.5 kW will turn into 2.625 kW. Then you need to install a radiator with 18 sections.

An even easier way

According to him for heating 2 square. m need to install one edge. In addition to the total number of edges add one more. If the room has an area of 25 square meters. m, then you need to choose a heating device with 25/2 = 12.5 ribs.

Rounding this figure and adding 1 to it, get 14 edges. As you can see, this result is less than the number obtained by the standard method.

Of course, the absence of 3 ribs will not allow to heat the room properly. Therefore, this method is best used as an approximate. At the time of purchase it should not be used as the main one.

To determine it, one area of the room is not enough. It is necessary to know the height, and also to apply the figure 41. According to the SNiP, the heating radiator should generate 41 W per 1 cu. m. As can be seen, for the selection of the panel heating device you need to do the calculation by volume.

The algorithm is simple:

Determination of the area.
Determination of volume (area multiplied by height).
Multiply the volume by 41.
The final result is adjusted to the above percentages.

After, receive. You can install one powerful device. This option is suitable for rooms in which there is one large window. If there are two of them, then it is better to use two panels with a heat emission of 1.25 kW.

Similarly, select heating devices for rooms with a ceiling exceeding 3 m.

The calculation of heating radiators is an extremely important task. Incorrectly chosen batteries with an insufficient number of sections will not be able to properly heat the living space. A larger number of sections than necessary will lead to the inefficiency of the heating system.

The modern market provides a huge selection of radiators, including designer radiators. Water heating batteries differ in material, heat loss and heat transfer capacity. Before you make the final choice, you should clarify the parameters of the home - this will allow not to be mistaken in solving the issue.

Types of radiators

In modern apartments radiators are used from such materials:

steel;
cast iron;
aluminum;
bimetallic.

By constructive properties, they are divided into two groups:

panel;
sectional.

When selecting batteries it is important to know the following:

The power of the heaters must necessarily comply with the heating standard: per square meter of a room that has one outer wall and a window, 100 watts must fall.
30% to the calculated power is added if two walls are external and two windows.
5-10% is added to the power, in the event that the windows are facing the north or radiators are installed in a niche.
If the above factors coincide, the percentages are added up.

Calculate in advance also the number of sections, as well as the type of radiators, focusing on the area of the room. However, the presence of high ceilings will not give the correct results. If the room height standard, the calculations are quite simple. As already mentioned, one “square” requires 100 watts per hour, that is, it is easy to calculate how many sections are needed to warm the room.

For example, the area of the room is 25 m2. Multiply this figure by 100 and get 2500. This means that it is necessary to heat 2.5 kW per hour. This result is divided by the value specified in the documentation for the radiator - the amount of heat released by one section.

So, if we know that it allocates 180 watts, then we produce such actions; 2500 divided by 180 and it turns out 13.88. When rounding the result goes 14 - this is the number of sections of the heating device.

Be sure to take into account the loss of heat. The corner room, or the one in which there is a balcony, naturally heats up more slowly and gives off heat faster. Then the calculation is made with a margin of at least twenty percent.

How to choose the right radiator look in the video:

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Of particular importance in the arrangement of any dwelling, of course, is given to the equipment of high-quality heating system. In order for the house heat supply to work stably and moderately economically, it is required to correctly select the heating devices that will perform the heating of the dwelling. How to choose a heating radiator, as well as the types of this equipment and their technical characteristics, will be discussed further below.

Varieties of heating devices

The selection of heating radiators is a very responsible process, so before deciding on which option to give preference, you should study in detail the types of these devices, which are as follows:

Cast iron batteries. This material is traditional in the equipment of the heating system and has been used for more than a dozen years. At the same time, modern models of batteries manufactured from cast iron, outwardly, are practically no different from the old products that are familiar to everyone. However, if you wish to purchase a device that is unique in its design, you can always find those radiator samples that have a special appearance from the design point of view.

   Anyway, the standard equipment has not only an unimportant design, but also the need to ensure a large internal section of the section, which inevitably slows down the circulation rate of the coolant in it. As a result, such a battery requires flushing at least twice a year.

   Among the drawbacks of such models, it should be noted also the low resistance of cast iron radiators to hydraulic shocks. Standard operating pressure in such devices varies from three to ten atmospheres.

Another negative side of such models is frequent leaks that occur in the space between the sections, since paronite gaskets that are installed in these places begin to pass water over time. This problem can be solved only by going through the battery system and replacing these gaskets.

   Carrying out the selection of radiators, especially for cast iron products, it must be remembered that in order to optimize the operation of the entire heating system and to eliminate possible malfunctions, it is recommended to reset the radiator in the warm season. Such an event will not cause any harm to the equipment, on the contrary, it will relieve the device from any leaks and will not allow the formation of a corrosive coating.
Aluminum Radiators. The thermal conductivity of this material significantly exceeds the thermal conductivity of cast iron, which has a positive effect on the efficiency of aluminum radiators. In addition, these batteries are much stronger, so the internal section of the section is small, and the coolant circulates in it quickly, without clogging up the internal space during operation.

Aluminum batteries usually have a very attractive appearance and can harmoniously fit into any interior. However, these units have some drawbacks: for example, their resistance to hydraulic impacts leaves much to be desired, since their working pressure usually does not exceed a parameter of 16 atmospheres. Aluminum is also prone to the formation of galvanic pairs with other metals. This means that if there are aluminum and copper elements in the heating circuit, the aluminum parts of the structure may collapse over time.
The modern solution in the arrangement of heating is the use of bimetallic radiators. The shell of these devices consists of aluminum, equipped with fins, and the core includes steel resistant to corrosion. The working pressure of these devices can reach 200 atmospheres, as a result of which the efficiency of bimetal heating radiators is very high.

The main disadvantage of such devices is their high cost.
Steel heating radiators. Several types of devices can be attributed to this category - lamellar batteries, tubular radiators and convectors. If we talk about durability, then the most reliable are lamellar models of steel batteries and convectors, their operation in heating systems does not require any special conditions.

Plate-type devices are compact in size, their thickness is very small, so making the selection of heating radiators over the area of the room, in case of lack of space, it is possible to pay attention to such units. But, as it becomes clear, due to the small wall thickness, the steel in such products does not cope well with the effects of corrosion.
Speaking of convectors as heating devicesit is worth mentioning that their version, which is made using copper and aluminum. The flow of coolant in such devices is carried out on a copper tube, since it is this material that has high thermal conductivity.

Finning is represented by aluminum, as a result of which the price of the device is significantly reduced. Despite the fact that the total cost of such models is quite high, they do an excellent job with heating the home, providing excellent heat transfer even with its small size.
Considering how to choose a radiator, you should also mention those products that can be made by hand. Such units are usually referred to as registers and represent a few large-diameter steel pipes connected in a continuous closed loop. The connection of the component parts of these devices is carried out by welding (a vent is mounted on top, and a jumper is welded on the bottom).

Despite some external clumsyness of such aggregates, they are able to heat the living space with high quality without spending a large amount of energy.

How to choose a heating radiator - the main selection criteria

The choice of this or that heating device is greatly influenced by some specific features of the equipped room, but thanks to the wide one, you can always choose the right option ..

So, before you buy this or that equipment, you should familiarize yourself with the following recommendations for choosing heating devices:

central heating will most likely be equipped with bimetallic heating devices capable of enduringly tolerating any temperature conditions and pressure instability in such systems. So, pressure surges in central heating are quite frequent, this can be caused by the quick opening of the valve of the elevator assembly, and the tearing off of the valve of the screw valve or the abrupt shut-off of the cork-type valve. Due to its durability, bimetallic radiators will be able to protect the entire system from sudden breakdowns and will prevent unexpected flooding.

It is important to remember that the installation of a bimetal battery is extremely not worth doing on the liner of plastic or metal-plastic. The only right decision would be to install such batteries together with galvanized steel pipes;
in buildings of a private type, where the heating circuit is controlled automatically, and the boiler acts as the main heating elements, it is best to use aluminum radiators, since in their heat transfer they are approximately equal to bimetallic models, and their cost is much lower.

In the event that the area of the building is large, then another version of the device for the heating device is the installation of a copper and aluminum convector under the floor. In such a construction, only horizontally arranged grids will remain visible, which serve as a place for exhausting hot air;
in the premises of a domestic nature like garages, greenhouses, etc., it would be best to choose which will combine good heat transfer indicators along with a low cost. Such a device can be made by a hand-made register, which is made to fit the size of the room.

How to calculate the number of sections in the battery by area

The principle of calculating the number of sections in household heating devices of plate, tubular type, as well as in convectors is not difficult, because usually the information on the required heat output is indicated directly by the manufacturer (read also: ""). As a rule, the average value for one section is a parameter of 180 watts.

In order to calculate the required number of sections required for a particular design, it is necessary to divide the total heat consumption parameter by the heat transfer rate of one section. For example, if the need for heat for a particular room is 12000 W, then the number of sections can be easily calculated using the following formula: 12000/180 = 67 sections.

Thus, it can be said that there is no particular difficulty in choosing the heating device that is most suitable for a given building, it is only important to take into account the technical features of both the building itself and the heating device. In order to study all variants of heaters in more detail, you can always contact the installers of such equipment or suppliers who are able to provide detailed photos of models and videos on how to properly connect them.

Video on how to choose the right radiator: