Optimal electric heating in a smart home
My main topic in a smart home is, of course, more related to heating, because it's constantly cool, there's not enough central heating, and of course I want to make it warmer somehow, but also often, let's say in a cottage or somewhere in a house where there's no other heating option, or let's say it's not always enough, then too some kind of additional electric heating is used, or it is a boiler that distributes hot water through pipes through separate radiators, but this is already such a serious decision, it can usually only be provided in houses, but if there is a very fast way, then usually an oil cooler, some kind of convector, or a fan heater is used, of course, each of these heating options has its pros and cons, I use almost all of these options and types of devices.
Usually, there are fewer problems with an oil cooler, as you are less afraid that something might happen to it, of course, this is also a rather dangerous thing, if it falls, it may overheat and not all radiators, especially old ones, have fall protection, and this is also not a very good story, but in general, at least there are no open sources, and there is not much heating, and accordingly it can just work almost all the time, they are turned on in my apartment, they allow you to create a comfortable temperature there, of course, it heats the oil heater more around itself, it gives off quite a lot of infrared radiation, that is, it actually heats up itself and warms everything around it, if you are next to it, then of course it gets hot enough, the convection itself is not very strong and the air from it does not go very well there, and additional He doesn't have any ventilation options either, and of course he's a much better fan heater in this regard, but usually a spiral is used there, which heats up quite a lot, and if you especially use a fairly powerful mode, then let's say I have a fan heater that doesn't work at a certain fan speed, that is, it always blows constantly, and if you add power, then an additional spiral just starts to warm up there, and in general it turns out like this the hotter air will come out of this fan heater, and accordingly, of course, there is always air, it burns out a little there, because the temperature of the spirals themselves is very high.
Of course, there are still options for such fan heaters with shades, but they will take a very long time to warm up and it does not always make any sense, the fan heater itself is quite noisy because of the fan itself, and of course you can't leave it at night, it really interferes with sleep, that is, it is almost impossible to be with it next to it, but how A temporary solution can only be to raise the temperature quickly, the fan heater itself heats up quite strongly, and it is also dangerous to place it somewhere and not monitor it, and the instructions say not to leave it on, accordingly, it is also better to observe and something can get on it, some kind of thing, or just dust and catch fire, that is, these cases can also happen, but there are fan heaters now, many with fall protection, that is, if you just tilt it, it has an additional contact from below, which he will determine that he is bent over and will turn off accordingly, well, there are more advanced ones who have this sensor built in inside, there is essentially an accelerometer there, and he understands that if he is not in the right position, then he will not work accordingly, well, maybe sometimes you need to place it somehow and direct it specifically, then most likely they will not allow you to do this, the fan heater itself heats the air more, that is, there is no such constant heat from it, things do not heat up, that is, wherever it blows, it actually becomes warm. if it just blows into the room inside, it turns out that the air heats up and, let's say, unlike a convector, the air goes along the floor and then rises to the top, and thus, of course, the air itself warms up very quickly, and it spreads around the room.
Of course, the convector is also a rather interesting solution, and due to convection itself, of course, its heat transfer efficiency is higher, that is, it is clear that the power of all these devices, which is written as it is, and heating them, respectively, all leads to heating of this room itself, but it still turns out that even if it heats it is important in order for him to distribute this warm air around the room, he does the convector a little differently, the warm air immediately goes to the top from it, the convector itself usually does not heat up much from the outside, that is, it is quite comfortable to be next to him, some things do not heat up from him either, because due to the design there is a very large draft of air going to the top, but the disadvantage is that the warm air immediately goes up and is distributed somewhere near the ceiling, for example, if you even put two temperature sensors there and measure let's say the difference is at a height of half a meter from the floor and at a height of 2m, then it is quite large, but let's say if the convector is operating at full power, for example, at kilowatt or 2 kW, then the difference can be 2 ° or even more, that is, it will remain there for some time anyway, then it is clear that the warm air will eventually mix and sink, things in the room, walls, ceiling will start to heat up, then of course it will become more comfortable, but still the floor will have cold air for quite a long time and the floor itself will be cold, that is, of course this solution is quite specific.
Alternatively, you can install some kind of fan, say, on the ceiling, now there are such, well, they also used to be, these are chandeliers with a fan, and they do that by turning on the convector, you can simultaneously measure the air temperature above and below, and if it is quite large, or if the converter is just running at high power, then turn on this fan forcibly, sometimes it may not be very convenient, for example, at night when you sleep, of course, the convector is there and warms the room, sometimes it happens that this may be the only heating format in the room, There's no central heating radiators or underfloor heating, but if the fan turns on then it won't be very good, but on the other hand, first of all, the savings will be higher, because after all, if the warm air is at the top, it can escape through the ventilation and through, say, open doors to other rooms. the rooms will leave, and it will not reach the bottom, respectively, it will never warm up below.
For example, when I try to warm up a little higher in one room than in other neighboring rooms, for example, if the door is open, it's practically useless, there's not even half a degree difference, because the warm air goes up, then it goes into the neighboring rooms, in reality it turns out that in all the rooms that are there They are located nearby, and they don't have any door there, or let's say it's open, so it's impossible to create a temperature difference so that it differs by 1 degree.
They also make the option that, say, in some room in large houses, they prefer if there is no one somewhere, then to heat in some rooms, and not to heat in other rooms, then this is also not a completely correct decision because, after all, through the wall can be transmitted, well, at least inside the house there may be walls. and the plasterboard ones may be very thin, and they don't keep the heat in any way, but anyway, through the door, through the cracks, it will all pass by, that is, of course, such a large temperature difference can be created, but for example, to have 10 degrees in one room, and it's almost impossible to do this on the other side, the air will just cool down there very much, and it will be completely uncomfortable, that is, it will be very cold downstairs, and it will already be very hot upstairs, even so that when you say you're standing it's not very pleasant at the top, your head feels hot, or even you're sitting when it's already hot, and if if you lie down, it may already be cold on the contrary.
Now, inverter convectors are also quite popular, well, that's what they're called, in fact, they can maintain a certain temperature by changing their power, which is also a big plus if, say, the room is cold and you turn on such a heater, it starts working at full power at first and of course it will warm up the ceiling there with great speed and force, but if the temperature has already leveled off and it starts to reduce power, which also has a positive effect, namely that the temperature difference is at the top and at the bottom, it's getting smaller and smaller, and if it doesn't overheat the air and doesn't work at full power, then the difference there is very small, for example, I also made such a convector, where I really regulate the power a little differently, it's not an inverter convector, but the usual one, but I supply it with limited power and it accordingly it also works there at 20% power, and in this mode the temperature difference between the top and bottom is 0.1 degrees, that is, in fact, it does not exist, of course, this is also a big plus when the convector reaches some target power, and for example, if you turn it off at night and turn it on in the morning, for example, in order to warm up the room again, this is not very reasonable because at that moment when it goes into heating mode, it essentially works at full power again and starts heating the ceiling and walls at the top of the room and the air at the top of the room, and to the bottom It may take a while to get there.
For example, I did this, I have two convectors on my balcony, they work there at low power, it's specially made, but also if I turn it off and the temperature drops to +15 degrees, then when I turn it on in the morning, you can see a big difference right away, it starts to warm up at the top, and it's still cold at the bottom, but I have such a fan there, I put a computer one, it's generally twelve-volt, you can also connect it to 5v, I did so, then it will blow less, but also hum less, and it allows the air to mix quickly, and I did so, what is in the scenario if the difference there is more than 2°, well, this is also adjusted for me, then it turns on and starts blowing down, this warm air is driven, and then it quickly mixes, the convector reaches the target temperature, reduces power, and then in fact it can work constantly at this low power and there will be no more overheating is actually the biggest plus that an inverter convector provides.
In order to limit the power somehow, for example, in a room if there really is no other heating, you can put two different convectors, one is not very powerful, there is 1000 watts, the other is set to 2000 watts, and then if you need to heat up very quickly, they can both turn on if necessary somehow you can already maintain the temperature, then leave only one, and then the temperature will gradually approach the target and heating will occur significantly less, that is, in this way you can turn on and off these convectors through some smart sockets, and then in this way it will be possible not to overheat this room, or alternatively, if the convector is not actually under warranty, then you can simply connect some relays to its connectors, for example, it can just be a 220V relay and then turn on and off the desired heating element, and if there are two of them, or there it is It can work in dual mode, and then you can also adjust the heating power in a smart home.
Automation in a smart home should be useful and create additional comfort, but sometimes everything goes wrong… The reasons for this, and how to configure everything, see on my channel.