What is better to cover the battery if the house is too hot?

The question of how to shelter a battery in an apartment from excessive heat is often found on the Internet. Various thematic and everyday forums are full of messages of this kind, giving homeowners valuable practical advice. You can refer to some of them.

Simplest way

Cast iron radiators, widely used in standard apartments, contribute to the heating of residential premises in the best way. However, such thermal appliances have their drawbacks, mainly due to the lack of a temperature regulator and the excessively high return of stored energy. You can consider ways to optimize the performance of cast-iron radiators, if any, are present in your apartment.

The simplest and most effective material for eliminating the excessive heat transfer of a cast-iron battery is a regular blanket placed on the radiator planes. Covering them with a battery will be a matter of seconds. The possible predicted skepticism of many Internet users is associated, first of all, with a poor knowledge of the physical processes described in the school curriculum.

Reduced room humidity will be a minor side effect. It can be easily eliminated by purchasing an air humidifier (its average consumption in a typical apartment is up to three liters of water per day) and a psychrometer - an instrument that controls the humidity level in the room.

Tip

Do not use the vents as a way to lower the room temperature, they can only be opened for the purpose of natural ventilation of the room. Otherwise, the presence of very dry air in the apartment can lead to unpleasant consequences for the nasopharynx and skin. At the same time, the heat leaving the room will not significantly reduce the degree of heating.

The rationale for such advice lies in the physical processes that occur when cold air enters the apartment. This air, having a low level of humidity, is heated by passing through the window into the room, and reduces the absolute value of humidity. Accordingly, an increase in the humidity of the apartment’s atmosphere will occur with the help of your breath and skin, taking the body’s water it needs.

Alternative methods

One of the alternative ways to protect against excessive heat in a living room is to purchase and install a special valve. Such a simple device allows you to adjust the level of thermal energy supplied to the battery and save its value in ruble terms. The principle of economy becomes important for apartment owners, since heat distribution will become possible depending on atmospheric conditions.

The current state of the market for plumbing fixtures and appliances allows you to purchase a special protective screen that operates on the principle of blinds. One turn of the flaps of such a screen helps to reduce the amount of thermal energy distributed throughout the apartment, as well as minimize the risk of burns on an excessively hot battery. Another advantage of the placement of the louvre screen is the simplicity of its device, which allows not to perform complex installation work. Installing this kind of device does not take more than 10 minutes of your time.

The most radical way to limit the heat supply to your apartment will be to contact the office of the management company. Such treatment will reduce the thermal effect of the apartment battery by covering the corresponding common house valve.This method is not a panacea if the restriction of heat supply to the apartment is exclusively necessary for you. Using this option will affect your housemates, who may not be hot.

Using a heat shield

The heat from the hot battery is transferred in different directions and directions, creating a comfortable atmosphere in the apartment. The use of a special heat shield will not only effectively reduce excessive battery temperature, but also avoid heat leakage, reaching up to 20 percent. A battery located in a niche gives off heat not only to the apartment, but also to the external wall, actually heating the street.

The heat shield can be implemented using a special heat-insulating material placed between the wall and the heating radiator.

Such a “life hack” will give the heating system several extremely positive qualities:

• providing thermal insulation of walls;
• prevention of excessive heat transfer resulting from differences in street and room temperatures;
• providing an effect in which heat from the heater is reflected in the depth of the room;
• achieving uniform distribution of heat transfer, protection against battery overheating.

Various thermal insulation materials used to create screens have a foil base. A special combination of materials such as polystyrene foam or foamed polyethylene with foil can shield thermal energy through good thermal insulation qualities. The foil present in this device reflects about 90 percent of the heat, eliminates its loss and helps it evenly distributed throughout the room.

Heat Shield Materials

Foamed polystyrene is usually found in retail sales as rolls of short length. The thickness of the material layer in this case is up to 3 millimeters, and for foamed polyethylene up to 4 millimeters. The thermal insulation properties of these materials are commensurate with the properties of a 100 mm layer of mineral wool insulation.

When placing a screen that reflects heat, it is possible and necessary to take into account such an important factor as the minimum distance between the edge of the radiator section of the battery and the inner wall, which is 4 mm. If you change this distance to a smaller side, it will hinder or disrupt the circulation of warm air and, as a result, the convectivity of heat transfer and the efficiency of the radiator.

Special cases of placing the heating battery on the wall do not allow the installation of a full screen that reflects heat. The way out of this situation is to mount aluminum foil on the wall, which with its shiny surface copes well with heat reflection. One sheet of such material, placed on a standard brick wall (if its thickness is 51 centimeters), will reduce battery heat loss by up to 35 percent.

The various methods discussed above for eliminating excessive thermal energy of a battery can be noted as effective methods proven in practice. If it gets too hot in the apartment - use voiced to make your home as comfortable as possible.