Central heating of an apartment building to make underfloor heating. On the advantages and disadvantages of water floors. Possible problems when connecting the "water heated floor" system and their main causes

Underfloor heating from central heating

Do you want a warm water floor in the apartment? It's possible! We will consider all the nuances regarding the water in the apartment.

In this article, you will learn how to make a water heated floor in an apartment. Let's look at the diagrams.

In what cases is it allowed to install underfloor heating in an apartment?

K2 and K3 - Three-way valves. They are just connected differently.

The consumption should be as low as possible so as not to increase the usual consumption that you had. If you increase the expense, the utilities will know about it. It is better not to increase the flow so as not to spoil the rationed flow to your neighbors. To avoid problems. In order not to attract the attention of utilities, otherwise they will come up with some kind of sanctions.

Connection via heat exchanger

The great advantage of this scheme is that it creates its own closed circuit. That is, the coolant that circulates in the central heating does not get into your underfloor heating.

The second advantage is that the central heating pressure does not affect. That is, if your pipes can withstand up to 10 Bar, and the central one can give more for technical reasons, then your warm floors will not suffer from the destruction of high pressure.

Central heating in apartment buildings often leaves much to be desired. In houses of modern development, it may not exist at all; they are initially designed with the expectation of individual heating.

One solution to this problem is in the apartment. If there is a possibility for installation, it is the best way: heating with electricity is expensive ().

Installation of a water circuit is not possible everywhere and not always. It is almost impossible to obtain permission for a tie-in into a common house heating riser with vertical wiring, because. this will disrupt the operation of the entire heating system of the house.

With horizontal wiring, resolution is also difficult to obtain, but real. You just have to connect a heat meter.

If heating is not initially provided, the circuit can be made from the boiler (). In the presence of a central hot water supply - from a hot riser. Another option is to install a boiler and run the circuit with antifreeze instead of water. How to make warm water floors in the apartment?

Before planning the laying of the floor, you need to take measures to maximize the thermal insulation of the room: insulate the walls, glaze the balcony, replace old windows with new ones, etc.

The floor pie also necessarily includes a heater ().

The layered structure of the pie looks like this:

• waterproofing;
• insulation - sheet or special mats (). The thickness of the sheet depends on the location of the apartment: if there is an unheated basement below, the layer is thicker, on the second floor and above - thinner;
• reflective foil or plates. Otherwise, part of the heat will go down to the neighbors (or to the basement);
• pipes(). Most often, metal-plastic with a cross section of 1.6 centimeters is used;
• if sheet materials are used for thermal insulation, a screed is laid on top of the pipes (provided that the ceiling can withstand its weight);
• if profile mats are used, the flooring can be laid directly on top of them. Tiles () and roll materials are laid on a sheet of waterproof plywood, laminate () - immediately on mats.

For laying underfloor heating, there are two main schemes - a snake and a spiral (), as well as various combinations of them. A suitable scheme for water-heated floors in an apartment is a spiral, because. the coolant is distributed over the entire length of the circuit more or less evenly.

Since one wall borders the street in the apartment (two in the corner), you need to lay the pipe so that the hottest part runs along the outer wall. In this section, the step between the turns is recommended to be made smaller.

The maximum allowable length of the water circuit is 100 meters. Each room (bedroom, kitchen, bathroom) should have its own outline. The step between the turns can be from 15 to 30 centimeters, the smaller it is, the higher the thermal efficiency of the floor in this area. Approximate heat transfer, depending on the pitch of the pipes: 30 centimeters - 50 watts per square meter, 20 - 80 watts.

Warm floors are not laid under furniture and permanently located household appliances. This is a waste of energy. The optimum temperature for underfloor heating is 30 degrees (no more than 40).

How to connect the floor to a hot riser

With central heating with vertical wiring, the only way to power the underfloor heating in apartments is with hot water.

This option has several disadvantages:

• during the seasonal shutdown of hot water supply, the floor will not work;
• in the bathroom, the riser is nearby, and the pipes are pulled far into the living rooms;
• temperature control will be difficult.

At the first stage, it is recommended to replace the old metal pipe riser to a new one made of polypropylene. Next, you need to solder ball valves into it. After laying the circuit, both ends are connected to the taps with fittings. Similarly, the connection to the central heating system is carried out with horizontal wiring.

If you are planning more than one circuit, you need to install a collector assembly in the technical cabinet - two combs, one of which will be connected to pipes for supplying hot water, to the second - a chilled return.

Video about the warm water field in the apartment.

The city heating system is designed in such a way that from the central boiler house, hot water is supplied under high pressure through pipes to all areas of the city. Water pressure passes through pipes of larger diameter, often 300-400 millimeters. The main boiler can run on both coal and gas, which is consumed in fairly large quantities. Today, there are more modern models that can work very economically and consume different kinds fuel.

This system supplies hot water to the house, then it circulates throughout the circular system and returns back to the boiler room. It is very balanced, and connecting third-party add-ons can lead to malfunction and loss of precious thermal energy. Because of this, it is impossible to connect a warm floor from central heating without special permission, but many are obscene about this and do all the work without documents at their own peril and risk.

Preparing the room for installation

Preparing a balcony to install a warm floor from heating begins, of course, with preparatory work. The first step is to remove the old flooring in the apartment. Carry out dismantling concrete screed. As a result, you should get a completely bare base of concrete slabs.

A more budget option is to knock out the strobe under the pipes in the old screed. Thus, you will save on dismantling and material for pouring the floor. This method is suitable when the old screed is of very good quality and perfectly even.

In order not to unnecessarily damage the surface of the screed, you should accurately draw the location of future heating pipes. Do this process very carefully, as it will not work to lay the pipe in uneven strobes.

Screed scheme

Having drawn, it is necessary to cut out the edges of our markup with a grinder, so when removing the concrete layer, the extra parts will not chip off. Cutting field, it is best to use a perforator with a feather or spade-shaped impact chisel. With his help, the work will be done neatly and quickly.

Take care of your safety, wear safety goggles and a respirator. They will protect you from dust, which will be very much, and will not allow splinters to get into your eyes.

After making a strobe or completely dismantling the old screed, it is necessary to clean the surface of dust and dirt as efficiently and thoroughly as possible. If there are too large holes or gaps between the slabs, they should be sealed with a concrete mixture.

Then, it is necessary to seal all joints with bituminous mastic in order to provide the necessary level of waterproofing in the event of a system breakthrough. Then you will not flood the neighbors, which is quite unpleasant. To improve the effectiveness of waterproofing, you can lay a dense plastic film, with an overlap on the walls of ten to fifteen centimeters.

Installation of a warm water floor system

This system is quite complex, in comparison with any of the electric types of floor heating. It has many different components, such as pipes, a collector and a box for it, a pump and a temperature control device.

The installation process can be divided into the following steps:

• A heat reflector is laid on top of our waterproofing. Thanks to him, the heat will not go down, but will be reflected towards the room.
• Then it is necessary to lay our pipes according to a pre-thought-out method of location. It is worth noting that the distance between parallel sections of heating should be about ten centimeters. For small rooms such as a balcony, pipes can be laid every fifteen centimeters. This saves on material and the amount of energy consumed to heat up the system.
• The next step is to install the collector box and the collector itself. For it, you need to hang your own outlet or connect to the network through a switch. This is necessary to be able to turn off the pump, to turn off the floor heating is not necessary.
• Then the thermostat is connected to the system and a test run is performed. If no leaks are found and the system is working properly, it is necessary to run it several times.
• The run is carried out in two or three stages, the pressure in the pipes must be accelerated from zero to five bar, and the system should be allowed to work at such a load for about a day.
• After running, the pressure can be reduced to two bar and the screed can be poured. A reinforcing mesh is fixed on top of the pipes and a solution is poured.

When pouring the screed, the system must operate at a pressure of two bar and at a constant temperature of twenty-eight degrees Celsius. This is necessary so that when drying, the channels necessary for the pipes are formed in the thickness of the concrete.

The system must operate continuously for the entire drying period of the concrete screed, approximately thirty to thirty-five days. Then you can turn off the heating, if necessary. The thickness of the screed above the pipes must be at least three centimeters so that it has the proper strength and does not crack during operation.

Installed thermostats can work in two ways. At the first time, it will set the temperature of the water in the system, so the overall temperature of the pipes and the room will be slightly less. The second way is to set the room temperature.

Such thermostats are equipped with a heat sensor, and when the heat level drops by a few degrees, the system turns on and starts to catch up. desired temperature. It is best to install such a sensor in the center of an apartment or a heated room.

First start

If you decide to make a warm floor from heating, legally or not, you should wait until the end of the heating season. Since no one wants to stop the heating in your house, especially with an illegal connection.

In order not to disturb the pressure and not unbalance the system, it is imperative to add a manifold and a pump. But even here one should not overdo it with the power of the pump, it should be strictly limited for the required floor length.

To connect, simply loop the inlet pipe and the battery return, and the system will work. At the same time, the collector and the pump must have time to pass water and not increase the pressure of the ceiling. The additional piping pattern must be clearly adjusted and balanced.

We advise you to install two additional taps so that it is possible to shut off the water supply in the pipes and thereby turn off the system. This is necessary to prevent emergencies and simply turn off the heating when not needed. It is enough to use an ordinary water pipe faucet, but good enough quality. Better not save money and buy a quality product so that it can withstand temperature fluctuations and high pressure.

Use pipes of the same diameter as the standard pipes in the apartment, so it will be much easier to balance the system. If you use them with a smaller diameter, then the circulation of water will decrease, and you risk reducing the heat transfer from heating from your neighbors, which is why complaints are possible.

The first start is best done on initial stage heating season. Then the pressure increases gradually, and the temperature rises smoothly. Thus, the new system will be able to adapt to changing conditions and smoothly enter the working state. It is to prevent unforeseen situations at the first start that it is necessary to install shut-off valves.

Summarize

It is possible to make a warm floor from central heating in an apartment both legally and illegally. If you decide to connect such floor heating, you should know the technologists how to do it right. Then you should not have problems with installation and subsequent use.

As practice has shown, the floor heating system with the help of a coolant is by far the least expensive and in the best possible way uniform distribution of heat around the entire perimeter of a residential or office space.

If used in creating such a system latest materials, observe the installation technology and apply the most advanced schemes, you can achieve uninterrupted heating with optimal temperature conditions. However, this is only possible for systems with individual heating.

But what about the owners of apartments in multi-storey buildings with a central heating system, who also want to install warm water floors in their homes? Can they install a floor water system by connecting it to the heating pipes?

As a result, during the operation of such systems, huge problems often arise not only in one single apartment, but also in neighboring dwellings and even in the whole house.

Possible problems when connecting the "water heated floor" system and their main causes

1. The first thing you have to deal with when creating warm water floors for an apartment is a significant difference in water temperatures in the systems.

2. The water temperature in the central heating main fluctuates, as a rule, in the range from 70 to 90 degrees Celsius, while the pipes of the warm water floor are designed only for 35, maximum, 50 degrees. Of course, if you connect the floor directly, the whole system will immediately fail.

3. If the inspection bodies of the housing office detect an unauthorized connection to the central heating, not only penalties will inevitably follow, but they will also be forced to dismantle all the equipment of warm water floors.

However, today there are theoretical schemes for connecting underfloor heating to central heating, some of which do not lead to destabilization of the central heating main.

Theoretical schemes for connecting the "warm floor water" system to central heating

To connect underfloor heating to central heating, it is required to create an individual heat point, the main element of which is a circulation pump. Such an item will ensure the optimal temperature of the water in the floors without disturbing the heating of the house.

If the dwelling has only one input and output of the heating system, then the warm floor can be connected according to the principle of connecting the same batteries. If there are several risers, you will need a competent calculation.

For arranging the floor, you can use PVC plastic pipes. However, to arrange them with a snake on the floor, you will need corner joints, and their use will affect the reliability of the system.

Given that in the future the system will be flooded cement screed, in the event of a leak, it will be extremely difficult to carry out prompt repair work.

There is another scheme - connecting the "warm floor" system from the return pipe of the battery. Here you will need to install shut-off valves, moreover, both at the entrance and at the exit. Another option is to install a warm water floor using a closed system.

This is the safest way, but also the most time consuming. In this case, the heat carrier is heated through a heat exchanger, which is mounted on the pipe of the central heating main.

However, such a system will have low efficiency due to rather large heat losses.

Main disadvantages:

• installation of the system is illegal;

• high probability of system failure;

• there is no way to regulate the temperature of the floor heating;

• the appearance in the general heating system of the house of areas with an uneven distribution of the coolant;

• laborious installation.

A good alternative to this system is electric underfloor heating.

More recently, buyers had almost no alternatives if they had to choose a heating system. The heating in the apartment was radiator, most often stoves were installed in the houses. Now there are many affordable offers for home heating. Underfloor heating is one of the options. This is the name of the heating system, when using which the heating elements are located under the floor covering. The floor surface itself radiates and accumulates the received heat.

Main structural elements in a warm water floor are:

For such a floor, most often choose linoleum, parquet, laminate, porcelain stoneware, ceramic tiles up to 30 mm thick. If we are talking about a laminate, then you will need to use an additional substrate. Otherwise, the coating will not be protected from drying out. Linoleum must be of good quality, otherwise there is a high probability that PVC materials will be released into the air harmful substances when heated.

Depending on the type of installation used Water heated floors can be of three varieties:

• polystyrene
• wooden
• concrete

In the latter case, the usual concrete screed. First, thermal insulation is laid, after which they move on to the reinforcing mesh. Pipes are attached to it, which are laid along the contours. After that, everything is poured with a concrete mixture made specifically for such floors. A screed is called pouring and leveling the floor; special technologies are used for its implementation.

If the floor is wooden pipes are placed on logs or rails made of wood. Or special modules from chipboard are used, where there are already ready-made channels for pipes. The heat-insulating layer is laid between the pipes. Usually it is polystyrene or mineral wool. Aluminum plates are located on top. After that, foamed polyethylene or special cardboard is laid.

Fits first thermal insulation layer when using a polystyrene water floor system. Then there are polystyrene plates, where there are grooves for pipes and heat-distributing plates. Next comes a layer of material that is responsible for absorbing moisture. The finishing coat is usually laid at the final stage of installation.

Underfloor heating from central heating

Currently, in city apartments with central heating, it is forbidden to arrange warm water floors. Because of them, it appears in the heating system, which was not taken into account at the time when the houses were just being designed. Forced circulation is necessary to implement such a system at home. This means that you need to use pump and mixing unit. All this is quite difficult to mount on the basis of a central heating system with natural circulation.

You can not connect to hot water. Otherwise, the water from the riser will cool down, passing through the pipes under the floor. So the neighbors may no longer get hot water. Only in some houses builders from the very beginning offer arrangement of special risers, to which in the future you can connect underfloor heating.

So in most cases, warm water floors remain the most suitable option for a private house.

On the advantages and disadvantages of water floors

Water floors may have the following shortcomings:

1. If the material is of poor quality, break through pipes
2. High price installation and its complexity
3. The possibility of building such floors is provided only at the stage of construction of a cottage or house. Installation will be very expensive if all engineering systems are already installed.

But there is in this system dignity:

1. Compared to other underfloor heating, operating costs in this case much lower. Compared to an electric floor, after the first five years of operation, the maintenance of a water floor and the level of installation costs twice smaller.
2. From a sanitary, hygienic and environmental point of view, this system is absolutely safe.

You can compare these characteristics with the parameters of electric underfloor heating:

1. They are generate electromagnetic radiation which may not be very beneficial to health.
2. Need power calculations as accurate as possible. If this requirement is not observed, there will be poor heat transfer of the cable, or energy waste. There is a risk of fire and overheating.

But, also consider the following:

1. The device of such a floor will cost cheap enough
2. Easier to manage work electric floor. The thermostat performs all the functions of maintaining the set temperature in the room.
3. A complex system of convectors for connecting pipes is not required.
4. Installation is quite simple, you can solve this issue during the usual renovation of the apartment.

How to install water floors in your apartment

Installation of a water-heated floor can be performed even by a person who has never encountered construction work before. It is enough to strictly follow the instructions and recommendations for working with these materials.

First of all, you need remove the subfloor and the old coating up to the concrete screed. Compared to the previous coating, the new floor will be 5-7 centimeters higher, this must be taken into account.

If the floor is mounted in the bathroom, then the old screed must be disposed of. Waterproofing and expanded clay are most often found under this material. You do not need to remove them if they are in working condition. You can immediately arrange a new screed.

Propylene pipes should be replaced metal if earlier they were installed in the apartment. Then at the junctions of the cranes rust will not appear. But it is not necessary to change the pipes if the underfloor heating system is installed in the central heating system.

Especially carefully it is necessary to choose the place of soldering of the heating system. If it becomes necessary to remove it, a heating radiator must be installed at the place of disconnection.

Necessary connect a tee to a faucet at the hot water supply. Then it will be possible to connect the underfloor heating pipe to one branch pipe, and to the second branch pipe - a hose that will connect the hot water supply system and the mixer.

Waterproofing and screed

You can protect the floor from leakage by installing high-quality waterproofing. As a basis, it is necessary to use a special film. Usually it is rigid PS on boards or rolled PE.

The main thing is to ensure that all debris is removed from the surface. And only after that you can move on to the film itself.

coupler called the foundation on which the floor will lie in the future. In principle, a screed is not necessary if the old flooring lay directly on the base slabs. It should be borne in mind that any screed raises the level of the floor.

First screed level marked with construction tools. For example, a laser level. Depending on the resulting parameters, the stock of pipes is calculated, which will be needed in the future. It will be necessary to mount beacons so that it can be seen. If the room is quite small, then this is not necessary. Next are building materials. In the future, the cement mortar is leveled along the beacons.

When the screed is dry, it will be necessary markup according to where the pipes will be. To purchase a sufficient amount of material, the pipe laying scheme must be calculated in advance. The main thing is to comply with several requirements.

1. Pipes must not be laid where it stands or there will be furniture.
2. The distance between pipes should be at least 35-40 centimeters, the distance from the walls is 20-25 centimeters.
3. Under the windows, a pipe extending from the riser should be laid.

Heat must be removed away from the surface of the pipes into the room. For this, a special screen is arranged in the design. It is enough to lay a heater that has foil surface. At the joints, it is fastened with metal tape.

Best for underfloor heating seamless plastic pipes with a diameter of 25, 20 or 25 millimeters. As the diameter increases, the level of the floor also increases. Polypropylene pipes are best avoided, as they give off heat poorly and have low thermal conductivity.

For installation, a previously prepared scheme is used. If you need to make a bend - it is advisable to use spring with suitable diameter. This will protect the pipe from damage. As a result, the system must be fixed on the surface of the screed. For this, a special plastic fastener is most suitable. After fixing, you can connect everything to the riser.

Video installation of water floor heating