The principle of operation of heating
To begin with, you should consider how exactly the heating system works. It begins with a boiler room, where a boiler is constructed that runs on a specific fuel. He will be responsible for heating the water and its circulation.
Pipes are laid from the boiler to the rooms that need to be heated. In urban areas, pipes can be several kilometers long, and they are laid underground so as not to disturb residents. In the rooms, pipes are connected to radiators (batteries), which heat the environment. Previously, radiators were made of cast iron, but now the emphasis is on aluminum and brass due to higher reliability: cast iron batteries quickly rusted and became unusable.
Scheme of the central heating system
After connecting the structure, it is filled with special water, which is called the “coolant”. Its distinctive feature is that it contains a special alkali that prevents corrosion. This protects the inside of the battery from rust and prolongs its life.
An interesting fact: if you fill the battery with ordinary water, it will become unusable in a couple of months.
When the pipes and radiators are completely filled with liquid, the boiler begins to heat it up and also circulate in a circle so that stagnation does not form. An increase in the temperature of the coolant causes the battery to heat up and radiate heat, the room is heated.
Depending on the weather outside, the temperature of the boiler is regulated in the boiler room, and consequently, the temperature of the batteries. This is done by supplying fuel and setting operating modes. Previously, coal was most often used as fuel, now gas, fuel oil and electricity sources are preferred.
Scheduled repairs
Do you want to clean your radiator? Change to a newer model or vice versa (because, in your opinion, they are better)?
If you live in a private house, no problem. Just do not forget that it is better to fill the system immediately and make sure that nothing is leaking anywhere.
If you live in an apartment and you have the opportunity to disconnect from the riser and change the battery yourself, do it. If not, it is better for you to contact the organization that maintains the heating network of your house so that its employees shut off the heating system and release water from it centrally.
Material in the topic - (detailed step-by-step instructions are given).
1 Drain the coolant in the apartment correctly
It is necessary to intervene in the operation of the heating system only if such actions are necessary for the normal operation of communications, the prevention or elimination of breakdowns. For example, it is impossible to replace a radiator in a room without first draining the liquids. In addition, it is necessary to remove liquid from the pipes in case of leaks, contamination of the system and, if necessary, replace the coolant with a new one.
It is important to understand why you are draining the liquid
In an autonomous home heating system, it is easiest to drain the coolant. To perform such work, special permits and approvals are not required, since even the occurrence of unforeseen situations in this case cannot cause significant harm to people. To replace the coolant, we perform the following work:
- 1. turn off the heating boiler;
- 2. we wait for the complete cooling of the water in the system;
- 3. close the valve for feeding the system with cold water;
- 4. open special air valves, which are necessarily present in closed communications.
Modern heating networks have drain valves that are located at the lowest point of the system - usually on the return pipe in close proximity to the boiler.After performing the operations described above, connect a hose to this tap, through which water can be drained from the circuit. When there is no coolant left in the heat supply network, you can start repairing the communication, replacing its damaged elements, or any other work for which the drain was performed.
One of the main reasons for draining the coolant is the need to repair or replace batteries.
It is more difficult to properly drain water from pipes and batteries of an autonomous system if a “warm floor” is installed in the house. In this case, to remove the coolant, you will have to connect a compressor to the inlet pipe of the network, which will help to displace water from the pipes using air pressure. Although it is not always necessary to completely drain the water from the system. For example, if you need to replace only one heating battery in the house, you can drain the coolant only from it, of course, if the design of the system and the features of its installation allow it.
It is highly desirable to provide for the possibility of draining water from a particular radiator by installing valves and taps.
So that when the described recommendations are followed, the replacement of the coolant does not cause big problems, it is necessary to prepare a container of a suitable size in advance. All the liquid from the independent heat supply must fit into it without residue. In some cases, you can simply use a long hose that is pulled from the heating drain valve to the street. However, the longer the hose and the older it is, the higher the likelihood of leaks during the repair of the heating network.
Draining the coolant from the heating system located in an apartment building is much more difficult. If you need to remove water from the communication in order to upgrade it, you will have to free the entire riser from the coolant, passing through all the apartments located in the same vertical. Such repairs require prior approval from the company serving the heat supply of the apartment building.
The service of draining water from the riser is paid, it is performed by employees of the responsible company, its cost depends on the time of the repair. The most expensive drains are in winter during the heating season, and the cheapest in summer. Therefore, you should plan ahead for the modernization and maintenance of heating elements.
Materials, equipment and procedure for draining water
To perform the necessary work, you will need a compressor, and of good performance, with a receiver for accumulating compressed air.
As you already understood, a car is not suitable for these purposes.
If you plan to drain the spent antifreeze, then you yourself understand that it is not worth it to drain it where it is not necessary.
Clamps of the right size for a secure hose connection will also be needed.
Connect the hose from the compressor to the underfloor heating supply manifold.
The supply manifold may or may not have a special fitting for filling the system under the hose. Therefore, an automatic air vent is unscrewed on the supply comb and a hose is connected through a suitable adapter and tightened with a clamp.
Arrangement of elements on the drain manifold
- In the same way, connect the hose to the return manifold and lead it to the drain point.
- Close the supply and return valves coming from the boiler in the collector area.
- Using flow meters or valves (depending on your collector), close all the underfloor heating circuits, except for one, which, on the contrary, must be opened to the maximum.
- Turn on the compressor, open the taps or tap (depending on the type of comb) that are designed to fill and drain the system (those on which hoses are worn). At this point, the coolant will begin to flow out of the drain hose under pressure. Wait until the water runs out and the air comes out. At this point, look at the pressure gauge on the compressor.If the pressure in the receiver at this moment is not large (1-3 atm.), Then close one of the taps on which the hose is attached (it is desirable that it be a tap on the supply manifold, or if the pump is equipped with its own shut-off device, use it better) . Wait for the pressure to rise to 5 atm. (no more) and blow the floor loop under this pressure.
- Close the purged circuit and open the next one. Repeat the same procedure with him.
- Thus, drain the water from all the contours of the warm floor.
- For best efficiency, repeat the procedure after half an hour, as the remaining water droplets in the pipe can connect with each other and eventually block the pipe section in a certain place.
Adhering to this method, you will decide how to drain the water from the warm floor. The only problem is getting a compressor that can do the job.
Self-testing underfloor heating system
The first launch of a warm water floor
Rules for installing a warm water floor based on a concrete screed
How to flush the heating system underfloor heating and how to flush the heating system in a private house with your own hands completely
Installation of a water-heated floor without a concrete screed
Underfloor heating technology
How to protect the system from freezing
In addition to the ability to drain water, the system must be protected - at least partially - from frost. Not only a simple draining of water can save an individual water supply system from freezing - modern materials and technologies are at your service. To protect water shut-off fittings from freezing of water residues, use mixers with ceramic parts and taps with rubber seals. The pipes most resistant to freezing water, as we said above, are not made of steel, but of low-pressure polyethylene (HDPE). Flexible plastic is able to withstand some increase in the volume of internal ice and not collapse at the same time, but it is still more reliable not to check the plumbing for strength and remove all water from the water supply system before the onset of cold weather.
Lay water supply pipes from the well to the residential building along the bottom of the trench dug to the depth of non-freezing. This guarantees complete protection of the external water supply system from any frost. Pipes must be sloped towards the water source so that the return flow is unhindered. Pipes exposed to the surface - for example, a short section of pipe from a trench into a house - protect with a heating cable.
Draining water from the water supply system for the winter will not be difficult if this function is initially incorporated into the design of the external and internal water supply. A technically competent solution to this problem is possible only if the design and layout of pipes for individual water supply are entrusted to professionals.
TO
Category:
Water supply and heating
emergency situation
By an emergency, we mean the case when the battery has leaked. Again, if there is a tap that turns off the battery - turn it off and drain it, if not - you can not do without calling a plumber.
The battery does not heat up
Cold water in the battery, although the heating has been turned on for a long time? Means, . In theory, your radiators should be equipped with a Mayevsky crane. If your battery is installed correctly (the angle at which the tap is installed should be slightly higher), then when you open the tap to bleed excess air, you will only get air out; as soon as the water has gone (do not forget to immediately substitute the jar) - it means that the air has come out and there is no more cork. If the radiator is installed completely horizontal, you may need to drain more water.
Rifar radiator has special taps for draining
Mayevsky crane not installed? Perhaps it is better in this case to still contact the experts. Why?
Equipment tends to fail over time.Imagine that you managed to cope with coking and drain the water. But to close them - no longer.
Can you imagine what the consequences will be?
- First, you flood the neighbors, and you still have to call a locksmith to turn off the heating in the whole house.
- Secondly, you will leave the whole house (or at least the entrance) without heating for a sufficiently long time - until the consequences of your “amateur activity” are eliminated.
- In addition, if the heating in your house is provided by an individual boiler, then the contract you concluded with the service organization states that it is forbidden to drain the water yourself. This is due to the loss of the desired pressure level, which is signaled by special emergency sensors.
How to properly drain water from the system
If a summer water supply was organized on the site and the water rose from a shallow well or well, then in addition to draining the water from the internal wiring system in the house, it is necessary to pull out the pump so that the water in the water supply pipe does not freeze. Such simple systems usually do not provide any specialized methods for convenient draining. If water is supplied to the house from a well with a caisson, then the pump from the well does not need to be raised - just open the drain valve above the head and the water from the water supply system will return to the well. The drain cock is located between the check valve and the accumulator. In the process of draining water, all taps at the points of draw-off must be open. If the house has a storage tank, drain the water from it. Do not forget about the summer water supply located on the street - it will suffer from frosts before anyone else.
To carry out an effective drain, the water pipes must have a certain slope so that all the water is guaranteed to leave the system and not linger somewhere inside. A small amount of water remaining in the pipe and turning into ice can break the pipe and break the tight connection. Even a pipe made of strong steel will not be able to withstand the pressure force of the ice that forms. Water from the water heater is also discharged through a drain valve connected to the tee. The faucet and tee must have a hose nozzle up to the non-return valve on the incoming hot water pipe. Another tee with a cock for supplying air when draining water must be installed on the pipe outlet from the heater.
If for some reason the drain taps were not installed during the installation of the water supply system, and frost is about to hit, then you can remove water from the pipes using a compressor. Getting into the pipes through the tee, compressed air is able to displace all the water out. The compressor can be used even with a drain cock if you want to blow out the system and make sure there is not a drop of water left in it. Air purging is especially important if the internal plumbing in the house is made of hard plastic pipes, which, for the sake of design, are mounted strictly horizontally. In this case, a complete drain from the system is obviously not guaranteed and the use of a purge is mandatory.
If you live in a country house permanently, and the heating system does not use antifreeze, but ordinary water, then before a long departure in winter it will also have to be drained so that the heating pipes and radiators do not fail. Of course, for such cases, options for on-duty heating of a water supply system, heating, or a room as a whole to a temperature of several degrees above 0 C have been developed for such cases. But all these methods do not guarantee complete protection, because the boiler or other heat source is mainly controlled with the help of electronics, and in your absence, electricity can be turned off. In addition, the electric heating equipment constantly turned on in the absence of the owners increases the risk of a fire.Therefore, the best, cheapest and most reliable protection of the heating system from freezing is the use of antifreeze.
But if it so happened that instead of antifreeze, water is used as a coolant, then how to properly drain this water from the heating system? Shut off the boiler or close the distribution valve on the pipe from the riser. Close the valve through which water is supplied to the heating system. To drain the water from the radiator system, use a hose of the required length to divert the water to a point of discharge into the sewer or outside. Open the drain valve on the radiator, and in the heating system, open the faucet with an air valve - this will speed up the draining of water.
Where else can water be left? Do not forget to drain the water from all siphons (water seals). There are water seals in every house, they are located in curved sections of the drain pipe under sinks, under bathrooms, in toilet bowls. Also, water remains in the coarse filter, in the main filter unit, in the washing machine and dishwasher and in the electric water heater. Simply put, before you close the cottage for the winter season, check all the devices to which water was supplied in the summer.
All work on draining water and conservation of the individual water supply system must be carried out at a temperature not lower than + 5 C.
Replacing a radiator in an apartment building
If you only need to change the radiator for repairs, then every owner of the apartment is obliged to know how to properly shut off the heating battery. If the system in the house was conscientiously mounted, then there is definitely such an opportunity.
By closing the shut-off valves at the battery inlet, which stops the water supply to the radiator, but does not stop the circulation of water in the heating system, you can start replacing the battery. Further actions depend on the presence of a drain cock. If it is, then the water is drained through the tap, but more often it is not there, so the drain is performed when the inlet or outlet pipe is disconnected. A water container should be placed so as not to flood the neighbors.
Knowing how to shut off the heating battery is also necessary to prevent various accidents, such as a strong leak due to the destruction of the radiator. Each owner needs to know the phone number of the organization where to contact about heating immediately in case of an emergency.
If a single-pipe heating scheme is used, then a bypass must be installed. A clear and precise understanding of how to shut off the heating battery in this case should be every apartment owner.
With such a circuit diagram, the following actions are carried out:
- the valve on the bypass opens completely;
- the shut-off valves on the battery are closed on both sides.
Having completed these operations, you can begin to remove the radiator from the system.
After replacing the battery, sealing the connections and tightening the lock nuts, the taps at the inlet and outlet of the battery are gradually opened.
At the same time, the Mayevsky valve opens and the bypass closes. Slow filling of the battery prevents water hammer, and air is bled from the battery through the Mayevsky tap until water appears. This will mean that the battery is filled with liquid, the air has been expelled, and the stopcocks on the battery can be fully opened.
