You are the owner of a country house where main gas is not supplied, and electric networks are not designed for heavy loads, hence the allocated limit of 5 kW for all needs. Another variation on the topic: you are a rural resident of Ukraine, where the cost of blue fuel jumped to 7.2 UAH. (0.3 cu) for 1 m³, therefore you cannot use it because of low incomes. There are other, more difficult situations.
In this situation, you are faced with the task of ensuring the heating of a private house without gas and electricity, preferably economical. Let's define alternative heating methods and analyze all the nuances associated with their implementation.
Heating options without electricity and gas
To list all the ways how you can heat a country house or cottage, we assume that electricity is still supplied there. The supplier company has set a small limit on power consumption (3-5 kW), which does not allow electricity to be made a heat source, but makes it possible to connect heating equipment. In a detailed study of each option, we highlight those that do not require the use of a power grid.
So, if there is no gas and electricity (sufficient power), then heating for the house can be arranged in the following ways:
- Put a stove or solid fuel boiler connected to a water heating system. As energy carrier use firewood, coal, fuel briquettes or pellets.
- Arrange independent heating with liquefied propane from a ramp with cylinders or a gas tank. The heat source will be a conventional gas boiler or convectors that heat the premises with warm air.
- To use diesel fuel and waste oil to get heat by installing the appropriate equipment.
- To draw energy from renewable natural sources, using solar collectors and a heat pump for alternative heating of a country house.
Note. Unfortunately, almost all of these methods become useless when you need to solve the problem of how to heat the apartment. It is necessary to do without liquefied gas and firewood, and there can be no question of liquid fuel. There is only one solution - economical heating with electricity using infrared heaters or an air-to-air heat pump (in the southern regions it will be used as an inverter air conditioner).
Let us single out heat sources that do not require a connection to a house electrical network for operation:
- metal and brick wood-burning stoves, fireplaces;
- solid fuel boilers equipped with a mechanical draft regulator and working in conjunction with a gravity (gravity) heating system;
- non-volatile floor boilers that can operate on liquefied gas and connected to a gravity water system with radiators.
To implement the remaining methods, electricity is needed, albeit in small quantities. If you do not take into account various home-made devices, then for burning diesel fuel you need a burner with a pump and a fan that is powered from the network. The situation is the same with all heat pumps and TT boilers with forced air supply, including pellet ones. Now we’ll take a closer look at how to heat a country house or cottage if there is no gas and electricity is limited.
Solid fuel combustion
One of the most common methods to organize heating a house without gas is the use of coal, firewood and briquettes, compressed from various biomass waste (sawdust, straw, sunflower husks, needles and so on).To burn them and get the required amount of heat, a variety of stoves and boilers are used. The former are designed for direct heating of indoor air, the latter operate with water systems - radiators or underfloor heating.
Amendment. In a room where a wood or coal stove is located, heat is distributed not only by convective means from heating the air, but also with the help of infrared radiation emitted by its heated walls.
Heating furnaces come in three types: steel, cast iron and brick. The positive nuances of their operation are as follows:
- Arranging home heating with a steel or cast-iron stove is cheaper and easiest. For its installation and launch, it is not necessary to invite masters, everything can be done with your own hands.
- A stationary brick oven is able to heat several rooms, accumulating a large amount of heat in the thickness of the walls.
- Any of these heat sources can be adapted for cooking, drying clothes and shoes.
- The device of many stoves provides for a water circuit mounted in the furnace in the form of a tank or a coil connected to several radiators located in neighboring rooms. There is a moment: for the movement of the coolant, it is necessary to lay pipes of increased diameter in compliance with the slope (gravity system) or put a circulation pump.
- Firewood and coal are the cheapest fuel among all energy carriers; therefore, heating costs are acceptable for most homeowners.
- Stoves do not need electricity at all.
Note. A heat source such as a wood burning fireplace cannot be ruled out. True, it is enough to heat only one room in which it is located.
Not without negative points:
- stove heating of a private house without gas is chopping and carrying firewood, loading and daily cleaning of ash;
- for the operation of the heater requires a chimney with good natural draft;
- metal stoves are not able to heat large country cottages, their power is enough only for a country house or 1-2 rooms;
- the construction of a brick kiln is not a cheap pleasure, and a place for it must be foreseen at the design and construction stage of the building.
Heating a stone or wooden house through a water system with a solid fuel boiler is more economical, since the efficiency of these units is higher (75% versus a maximum of 60% for stoves). Due to this, the duration of combustion from one fuel tab is increased, plus the issue of the complete heating of the building with heating devices spaced across the rooms is resolved. This gives rise to the possibility of heating large areas of the house in the absence of gas and regulating the intensity of heating the rooms.
The rest of the TT-boilers inherit the features of the furnaces. They also need a chimney, periodic cleaning and loading of new portions of firewood and coal. If we compare the cost, the installation of a solid fuel boiler together with the system occupies a middle position between the purchase of a metal stove and the construction of a brick.
An important point. A wood-burning or briquette-type water-heating unit can be installed in any inhabited house. If there is not enough space for the building, an extension is made where the heating equipment is installed.
Separately, it is worth mentioning the automatic pellet boilers, which greatly simplify the life of the homeowner, since they need to be cleaned and fuel added once a week. Another thing is the price of equipment and fuel, and also - increased electricity consumption. In addition to automation, in such heat generators the following electrical installations are involved:
- auger feed motor;
- electric fan motor - blower or exhaust fan;
- heating element used for automatic ignition of pellets.
The listed elements are installed in a pellet burner and in total they consume about 500 W from the mains, which is essential for a private house without gas and with a limited limit on the use of electricity. On the other hand, pellet boilers are more efficient and more economical than usual (efficiency - 80% versus 75%), and their operation is more comfortable and safe (automation will not allow the unit to boil). The question is the financial possibilities of the homeowner and the size of the allocated limit of electric capacity.
LPG heating
Immediately make a reservation that in the absence of main gas and electricity, it is not beneficial to use this fuel in all countries of the former USSR. If the Russian prices of liquefied propane still allow them to be heated at home, then in Ukraine this method is practically never used, because the fuel is too expensive. You can see the exact layout for the cost of heating with different energy carriers in this article.
Any gas heat generator is suitable for working on propane, only the wall one will have to be connected to the mains
To burn the propane-butane mixture, you will need a conventional gas boiler, preferably non-volatile in the floor, so as not to connect electricity to it. Accordingly, the heating system is gravity water with an open expansion tank. Gas is supplied to the boiler in two ways - from a ramp with cylinders or a large underground tank - a gas tank.
When installing and operating the equipment, you will encounter the following points:
- Installation of a gas ramp with cylinders (a minimum of 4 pieces will be required) will be inexpensive, but cash costs will have to be reimbursed by labor costs. With permanent residence, you are tormented with the transportation and refueling of cylinders much more than if you heat the house with wood.
- Mounting a gas tank is a costly undertaking. But as a result, you get autonomous heating without connecting to a gas main.
- Liquefied propane is no less efficient and comfortable energy carrier than natural gas, and gives the same advantages during the operation of the equipment.
Diesel - more minuses than pluses
As a rule, the combustion of diesel fuel and used engine oil is realized in situations where there is nothing more to heat a private house. Sometimes this option is used as a temporary, while the built house is not yet connected to the natural gas pipeline. In this case, you buy a universal gas boiler, temporarily equipped with a diesel burner.
The unpopularity of liquid fuel as an energy carrier for heating private homes is due to such reasons:
- economical heating of the house with diesel fuel - the concept is unrealistic, since the price of fuel is quite high;
- diesel burners cost decent money and do not function without electricity (we do not take into account all kinds of homemade craftsmen);
- liquid fuel is dirt and smell in the boiler room, no matter how hard you try to keep it clean;
- Due to the low quality of fuel, equipment must be serviced frequently, and with the help of qualified personnel.
For reference. If you have a reliable supplier of used oil at a reasonable price, then you can try to make a Babbington burner yourself, saving on the purchase of equipment. Instructions for manufacturing - in a separate topic.
So, diesel fuel is far from economical, but in some situations it can help out. It is better to organize such heating than to leave the house without heating.
Alternative heat sources
The first thing that comes to mind when there is no gas or electricity in a country cottage is to organize electricity generation in some way. For example, to install solar panels and a wind farm capable of meeting all the needs of a private household and serving as a power source for any boiler. But you are unlikely to master a similar project alone because of the decent cost of equipment and installation work.Unless you manage to connect a dozen more neighbors to the project.
A more realistic alternative heating option is to use a heat pump. This brainchild of advanced technology is widely used in Western Europe and the United States, but in the post-Soviet space it is not accessible to everyone. The reason is again the high price. The principle of operation of the pump is similar to air conditioning: thermal energy is extracted in one place (from natural sources) and transferred to another (inside a private house).
There are 4 types of heat pumps, which we will indicate along with the cost of equipment:
- "Air is air." Acts exactly like a household split-system that works for heating. The price of the issue is from 1800. e., plus a minimum installation of 150 y. e.
- "Air is water." It differs from the previous version in that the thermal energy taken from the outside air is transferred to the water in the heating system. The cost of installing an average quality is from 2000 y. e., installations - about 1700 at. e.
- "Water is water." These units heat the coolant in the house due to energy taken from groundwater or a nearby reservoir. More or less reliable equipment will cost you 3000-33300. e., and the cost of installation depends on the number of wells, the remoteness of the reservoir, and other factors.
- Geothermal installation "land - water." Here, the external circuit from pipes delivers heat to the house from the depths of the earth, heating the coolant for heating. The most reliable and expensive system, the price starts at 8000 y. e., installation - a minimum of 2000 y. e.
The trick is that these units still need electricity to move thermal energy. To get 3-4 kW of heat and direct it to heating, it is necessary to spend 1 kW of electricity.
When the limit of electric power at the entrance to the house is limited to 5 kilowatts, then 3 of them can be spent on heating. A geothermal pump will produce 12 kW of thermal energy, which is enough to heat a living area of 120-160 m², no more.
Finally, we say a few words about how to heat a private house with solar collectors. These are groups of glass tubes with coolant flowing inside, which are heated by infrared radiation from the sun. Unfortunately, such installations cannot operate independently, and here's why:
- there is no sun at night, there is no heating of the coolant;
- in winter, especially in the northern regions, too little solar energy is received;
- to move the coolant will need a circulation pump, powered by electricity.
For these reasons, solar collectors are usually connected by pipes to special fittings of the buffer tank, where they transfer the received heat. But the tank is also heated from other sources (boilers, stoves), so the outlet temperature is enough to warm the house.
Findings
Under current conditions, the best way to fully heat a country house without gas and electricity is to burn solid fuel in boilers or furnaces. The main role here is played by the combination of the cost of heating plants and the price of firewood, coal and other briquettes with pellets. Other options will cost more.
Note that when choosing heat power equipment, a simple rule applies: the smaller the initial investment, the more troublesome its operation. Which of the homeowners wants to organize super - economical heating at a low price should invest more labor and time. And vice versa, when buying and installing expensive heat pumps, the owner of the house has one thing to do - sometimes monitor the temperature and control the operation of the units.