Heating in a bathhouse in winter: heating options from a stove, gas boiler, heated floor or heater

In order to maintain a comfortable temperature in the main rooms of the bathhouse and ensure hot water supply, it is important to properly organize heating in the bathhouse from a heater located in the steam room, or use alternative sources. At the same time, each bathhouse owner can create an autonomous heating system independently, without involving outside help.

Rules for organizing heating in a bathhouse

Wood heating of a bathhouse
The simplest option is a bathhouse with heating from home. This scheme involves connecting the steam room, dressing room and other premises to the autonomous heat supply of the cottage. But this can only be realized if the bathhouse structure is closely adjacent to the house or is located at a distance of no more than 3-4 m from it.

The most common option for the location of a building on a site is remote from a residential building. How to make water heating in a bathhouse and at the same time optimize the costs of its organization? Options for using standard schemes are possible, but at the same time the specifics of using the bathhouse should be taken into account:

The source of thermal energy (boiler) must ensure heating of the air in the steam room to a level of +90°C +100°C. For this purpose, special sauna stoves with a container for stones are used;
For rooms larger than 60 m², it is recommended to install pipe heating. Together with it, you can make a hot water system to increase comfort. If there is a second floor, heating of the attic of the bathhouse must be provided;
Ensuring the removal of carbon monoxide along with a well-thought-out ventilation system;
Fire safety. Since wood is used in the vast majority of cases for finishing rooms, its contact with heating elements - pipes, radiators - should be prevented.

Gas heating baths

Another important point is the choice of energy carrier. Gas heating in a bathhouse is advisable only when installing a specialized boiler. Installing homemade structures can lead to emergency and dangerous situations.

In addition to gas, you can use other, no less effective sources of thermal energy:

Firewood. A traditional type of fuel with which heating a bathhouse in winter turns into a kind of ritual. A significant drawback is the constant monitoring of the fuel level in the firebox, as well as the impossibility of quickly adjusting the water heating level;
Diesel fuel or used oil. The most unacceptable energy source for a bathhouse. The problem is the unpleasant smell and the difficulty in organizing fuel storage.

How to make gas heating for a bathhouse yourself? To do this, you need to choose the right equipment and components for heat supply - pipes, radiators, as well as containers for indirect heating of hot water.

When heating a bathhouse from the heating system of the house, part of the pipeline located on the street must be insulated. To solve this problem, you can use special heat insulators or an electric heating wire.

Solid fuel boilers

A special place is occupied by combined boilers using liquid or solid fuel. The option is economical, but not entirely profitable. The price of liquid fuel is constantly increasing, so installing heating in a bathhouse that works on this principle is not entirely profitable. It is more economical to use firewood or coal. But in this case, you need to understand that they will have to be delivered frequently, and the area with the bathhouse must be available at any time of the year. And still the same drawback: “autonomously” such boilers only work for a few hours. For heating baths located in suburban areas, this is not a solution.

Solid fuel boilers. Possible, but not ideal

Today, a combined bath heating system is becoming more and more common. For this purpose, multi-fuel boilers are used. In the absence of any type of fuel, it simply switches to electricity. But these boilers are only suitable for water heating, and it is difficult to install. But having set a goal, almost every person with minimal experience will be able to create a heating system in a bathhouse with their own hands and set it up uninterrupted.

Heating a bathhouse in winter with warm floors

Today, when heating the floor in a bathhouse, expanded clay, felt and other materials are often used. The insulation layer is placed between the joists or layers of building concrete. The width of the insulator should be within 15 centimeters. It is worth noting that thanks to the use of expanded clay insulation, you can additionally make a hood in the steam room.

To install electric heated floors in a bathhouse, a layer of heat-insulating material must be attached to a smooth and completely clean floor.

This is followed by the installation of a special steel mesh separating the liner from the coating. After this, the guide rails are installed, along which the electrical wire passes, and then the connection to the thermostat follows.

Here we talk in more detail about sauna stoves and indoor thermal insulation

From the stove

There is no need to use a third-party heat source when the steam room has a very efficient stove, especially since heated floors in the bathhouse are only needed when it is heated. If the furnace has a water circuit or it can be quickly installed without damage, then the natural solution would be to use a water heated floor. In this case, there is no need to rely on the organization of natural circulation. The height difference is small, and even additional tricks will not increase the water flow significantly. It is safer to use a circulation pump that can quickly deliver the body from the stove to the floor surface.

Directing hot air from the stove into the crawl space is a bad idea. High air temperatures will dry out the floorboards and cause uneven twisting and deformation.

Gas heating

The implementation of such a heating system has several options.

Firstly, as I wrote above, it is possible to install a “classic” heater, in which a gas burner will be used instead of firewood.
Secondly, you can use a standard gas boiler (the same as in residential buildings). But in this case, you will have to take care of the equipment of heating systems (installation of heating radiators, laying pipes, connecting a gas-carrying pipe to the bathhouse or a cylinder connection system).
Thirdly, there is the possibility of installing heating from the house. In essence, this is the same option as the previous one, but with its own characteristics and disadvantages. A separate heating main is laid from the boiler used to heat the house to the bathhouse. This option is very convenient if your steam room is adjacent to the house or is very close to it.

If the distance to the bathhouse is relatively large, then in order to use this system in winter it is necessary to bury the heating main below the freezing level of the soil and insulate it well. This will prevent the possibility of defrosting and help reduce heat loss.

True, the undoubted advantage of this option is the complete elimination of the problem of maintaining a constant positive temperature in the bathhouse. In addition, you can do all the necessary work (if you have a certain skill) with your own hands.

Laying pipelines from the house to the bathhouse

Pipeline from house to bathhouse

Laying heating lines to the bathhouse is carried out in two ways:

External (open);
Underground (hidden).

External laying is used when the distance to the bathhouse is small - in this case, the construction of numerous supports, which are unnecessary elements on the site, is not required. When laying externally, pipelines are insulated and laid with a slope to free them from water.

The main method of laying heating pipelines is underground. The choice of material is carried out subject to special operating conditions - inaccessibility and absence of connections (hidden). The best choice is polymer pipelines. Pipes made of polyethylene (cross-linked), metal-plastic, polypropylene are laid on a sand cushion in an open trench, then buried.

The depth of the trench—the point where the pipes will be laid—must be below the freezing point of the soil for a particular region.

Heating a bathhouse in winter

Many people believe that the bathhouse is one of the best places to lift your spirits and heal illnesses. When people come here, they want not only to have a good wash, but also to have a pleasant evening. That is why, when building a bathhouse, you should pay attention to all the details, because even the slightest flaw can negate the entire effect and cause a feeling of discomfort.

More attention should be paid to issues related to high-quality heating, because a cold bathhouse, in which icy air blows from all corners, is far from the most pleasant place

Cozy bath interior

The bathhouse mainly includes two rooms: a dressing room and a steam room. The first is for resting and changing clothes, and the second is for washing. To build a bathhouse, you should use only high-quality materials; the reliability and durability of the future building depends on them.

Heater location

Usually the bathhouse is heated using one heat source. For a house next to which a unique bath complex is built (with a dressing room, steam room, swimming pool, relaxation room, room for playing billiards), a generally accepted heating system is required.

If heating is designed for a classic bath, then the stove is positioned so that it can be used to warm up each room. A tank of water is allocated a place near the washing room.

The ideal is a “through” arrangement of the furnace. The firebox door can be opened while in the dressing room. The stove itself will be located in the steam room, and the water tank will be located in the wash room.

It is important that each of the combustible elements of the furnace structure is protected from fire-resistant material. To comply with this, you can build a heater out of brick, but it will have large dimensions and take up a lot of space

A practical option is to build a stove, the design of which includes a tank and an open heater. The firebox for heating water is equipped with a register, which will prevent premature boiling of water, during which the unheated bath is filled with damp steam

Heating a bathhouse in this way requires observing an important nuance - the bottom edge of the tank should be 50 cm above the register

Heating with water and liquid fuel

Water heating is becoming more and more popular today. This is facilitated by the large selection of equipment that can be used. It should be remembered that this type of heating in a bathhouse should be arranged in such a way that during the warm season it can be turned off, leaving the heat exchanger to work only to heat the water. That is, you need to purchase a boiler with two circuits.

It is carried out using three types of fuel:

Gaza. To organize heating with gas, you must be connected to a common gas supply system. You will also need special equipment through which the fuel will flow. On the territory of our country there are a large number of settlements that are still not provided with gas. An alternative type of fuel – liquefied or bottled gas – has a higher fire hazard. Electricity

In order for electric heating to provide a comfortable room temperature, it is important to accurately select the power of the equipment. Due to the complexity of these calculations, it is not recommended to purchase and install an electric boiler yourself

Unlike gas heating, using electricity does not require the installation of a chimney. The disadvantage is the high cost of electric boilers, as well as the complexity of the technical process. Firewood. The wood-burning system allows you to warm up the room relatively quickly. In general, heating a steam room in a private house using wood-burning equipment is traditional. But many people do not like the complexity of the process of procuring fuel and lighting the stove.

Pros and cons of installation

This design has the following advantages:

electromagnetic radiation will not have its negative impact, which is inevitable when using electrical energy;
this design is completely environmentally friendly;
helps to heat the room more evenly;
saving resources;
fungus and mold do not receive a favorable environment for reproduction;
There is no risk of a draft, since the entire steam room heats up evenly.

Let's move on to the disadvantages:

the bathhouse is not constantly heated and there is a risk of pipes freezing, which can lead to failure of the entire system, so there is a need to drain the water from it every time;
the heat exchanger consumes a lot of energy, which it takes from heating, therefore, if there is no adequate power reserve, the room may take longer to heat up;
the volume and time of heating water will depend on how many adjacent rooms need to be heated;

Choice

What are the characteristics of gas stoves intended for baths?

Stones

The traditional stove for a Russian bath - a heater - is distinguished by a large number of round stones placed in a tray. The tray is located above the firebox and, after lighting the stove, heats up quite quickly; the stones heat up to temperatures of 200 degrees or more.

They perform a dual function:

By accumulating heat, the stones maintain a high temperature in the steam room after the wood burns out.
The very name “steam room” implies the presence of steam. The traditional mode for a Russian bath is 60 degrees with very high humidity. To add steam, just splash water from a ladle onto the stones.

Gas heater Ermak.

If you are a fan of the Russian bathhouse, a heater is your obvious choice. If you want to use a sauna with high temperatures and minimal humidity, you don't need stones. Heat accumulation in the case of gas, you understand, is of no value.

Water tank location

It may be located in the stove body or around the chimney. In the first case, the heat source for heating water is the burner flame, in the second - combustion products. In the author’s humble opinion, the second option is preferable: the tank additionally cools the combustion products, increasing the efficiency of the device.

Gas stoves

If you use bottled gas, a stove that combines two types of fuel would be an excellent solution for you. When the cylinder runs out, you can light the stove with wood.

Burner

Often it is purchased separately.

What should you pay attention to when purchasing?

With a steam room volume of 18 m3, the reasonable maximum gas consumption by the burner is 1.5 m3 per hour. It is easy to recalculate the required productivity for your volume.
The registration certificate and markings must be present. Automatic shutdown when the flame goes out is mandatory (in fact, now it is available almost everywhere).
Any damage, even seemingly uncritical, puts an end to the device. Big and fat. We are talking about people's lives and health.

Domestic burner Teplofor.

Operating principle and distinctive features

The oven consists of several elements:

Kamenka. Part of the unit where heat from hot stones accumulates. Heated with wood, electricity or gas.
Firebox. A container where heat is released from burning fuel. Equipped with a grill, the location of which depends on the type of fuel.
Lattice. Most often it is made of cast iron, as this material is resistant to high temperatures and durable during frequent and long-term use.
Ash pit. A container placed under the firebox. Designed to settle ash.
Passage tunnel with door. It is installed in the dressing room so that you can heat the steam room in the adjacent room.
Heat exchanger. An element designed to transfer heat to water from the firebox.
Tank. A container of water mounted to the stove, located on top or on the side of the device. It differs in volume and type of material.
Chimney. A pipe coming out of the firebox and directing smoke to the street.

Tank stoves operate on the following principle. Firewood is placed in the firebox to generate heat. The heated air rises through and heats the stones. They heat up and maintain the required temperature in the room. In addition, the tank heats up.

The speed of heating the water depends on the location of the tank. It may be located near the stove or in an adjacent room. To maintain the water temperature, you need to periodically add firewood.

There are stoves with long burning times. They work without adding firewood for up to 20 hours, which eliminates constant monitoring during operation of the device. The combustion process in such cookies occurs in the opposite direction - from top to bottom.

Bath heating system brief description, main advantages and disadvantages

Constant heating of the bath can be organized in several ways:

Connecting to centralized heating is not the cheapest, but the easiest option. Liquid or solid fuel boiler

The disadvantages are the same as those of a sauna stove: constant addition of fuel is required.

Using electricity is quite simple if it is possible to provide a separate, and what is important - guaranteed, 220/380V input (depending on the power of the heating boiler). But, firstly, you will need a whole package of documentation, which means money and time, and secondly, in rural areas there are often blackouts, and if your bathhouse is located in a summer cottage, then blackouts there may be the rule, not the exception

A power outage for several days in winter can cause the system to freeze. Heating using electricity also includes electric heated floors. The pleasure is not cheap, but comfortable. And you don’t have to cook batteries or registers; power outages do not have such fatal consequences: there is no water and nothing can go bad.

Gas boiler or convector. If your site has such a luxury as natural gas, then why not use it to heat your bathhouse? Of course, you need permits and a design, and gas boilers are not cheap, but the result is worth it. Use a pellet boiler. These systems are becoming increasingly popular. Firstly, due to the automated heating process. Pellets (from one bucket to several tons) are loaded into the bunker, and from there they are automatically fed into the boiler. You can check such a heating system once a month, or even less often: the fuel has a low ash content, and the bunker for storing it can be very large. Secondly, the installation of such a boiler does not require approvals, although the presence of electricity for ignition is required. But not everything is so rosy - pellet boilers have a high price.

If there is a heated house on the site, an option is to extend the heating main from the house to the bathhouse and heat it that way.

Heating route to the bathhouse

This option is suitable for those whose bathhouse building is located near the main house. You can extend the heating main to the bathhouse both by air and underground. Modern thermal insulation materials such as penoplex make it possible to make any heating main virtually energy-saving.

With a heating main, you can make even radiators or warm floors in the bathhouse.

For example, a heating main with 20 cm of foam insulation and a heating cable inside will not freeze in any frost, be it -30C or -40C. A self-regulating heating cable is needed to ensure that the water inside the heating pipes does not freeze in the event of a problem with the heating system of the main house.

Heating system

In most cases, continuous burning stoves are installed in bathhouses. which do an excellent job as the main source of heat in the room. At the same time, it is worth immediately making a reservation that for arranging the stove it is advisable to use only cleaned stones, the diameter of which reaches 10 centimeters. To achieve the optimal temperature in the room, it takes at least two hours to heat such a stove, during which you will have to periodically add firewood.

The bathhouse is a wooden building with a high level of humidity in the premises. As you know, wood that is regularly exposed to water can become unusable in a very short time. Because of this, unpleasant odors may appear in the bathhouse, and the building itself will require repairs in the future.

To avoid this, issues related to its quality heating should be resolved in advance. At the same time, it is advisable not to limit yourself to just one stove, but to supplement it with various heating systems, which, moreover, will significantly reduce the time it takes to warm up the premises before taking water procedures.

For safety reasons, in a wet room such as a bathhouse, it is allowed to use one or two heating radiators, which must be connected to the heating system of a residential building. In addition, there are several other options for heating a bath, the choice of which depends only on your requirements and wishes.

Heating radiators in the bathhouse

Several alternative options

Despite the fact that the options described above are the most popular and considered optimal, I decided to briefly mention some alternatives. In fact, they are varieties of stove heating, but have their own characteristics.

For example, if you have such capabilities, then you can install a diesel fuel boiler in your bathhouse. But this option requires a separate room (diesel fuel does not smell much), and you need to think about fuel storage.

There are also pyrolysis heating boilers. The undoubted advantage of such a boiler can be considered a very long, almost complete combustion of fuel. The disadvantage is the high cost and difficulty of operation (for example, raw wood does not burn in it).

It is also possible to use long-term combustion boilers, capable of burning a separate batch of fuel for up to 5 days, maintaining the desired temperature. There are even options for high-quality graded coal. But this is rather an “industrial” option, which is not suitable for a good traditional bath.

This is where I will finish the review of methods for heating a bath. Which heating is better is up to you to decide, focusing on your needs and capabilities. The main thing is that the rooms are warm and comfortable. Thank you for reading to the end. Until next time, see you on the pages of other articles. Bye!

Wisdom Quote: There are no dark times, only dark people (Roland Romain).

Electric heating

There are several options: you can install an electric boiler, since electricity is available almost everywhere. If we talk from a safety point of view, an electric boiler for heating a bathhouse is the safest option (subject to compliance with the rules and regulations). But the downside is that electricity costs a lot today, so you will have to pay large electricity bills. Another difficulty is that you will have to provide a separate input to connect the boiler, and often not 220V, but 380V is required, and these are completely different requirements and tariffs.

Electric boilers for water heating baths

If you use modern models of electric water heating units, then the bills may not be very large: they are controlled automatically, which maintains the set temperature in the room. You can set the temperature to +50C while you are not visiting the bathhouse. And the system will not freeze, and the bill will be small (provided that your building is well insulated). Moreover, to heat the bath, you can use stepped heating element boilers, induction and electrode (ion). They are not ideal, but according to experience, they are economical: bills come in 20-30% less.

Bath heating with convectors

If possible, it is most convenient to use electric convectors. Such a heating system in a bathhouse, of course, will be expensive. The equipment is not cheap, and electricity bills will also be hefty. But what is good about modern convectors: it is possible to set a certain thermal regime, which is maintained automatically. Many bathhouse owners do the following: while using the bathhouse, they heat the heater, and then set the anti-defrosting mode of the convector, which maintains the room temperature within +1 - +30C. Thus, the bathhouse premises do not freeze or become damp, and heating the bathhouse in winter will not cost a lot of money.

Heating in the bathhouse using convectors. Simple, but expensive and not always reliable

Electric heated floors

A very comfortable, but expensive type of heating. This applies to both the arrangement and the bills that will arrive. But if the bathhouse is insulated correctly and carefully, then maintaining the minimum temperature may not be so burdensome.

One more point: the system is installed at the stage of construction or major renovation, which is also not very convenient. Modern electric heated floors are no longer just cords that were laid out on the surface, and if damaged, part of the floor turned out to be unheated. There are roll materials with parallel thermal tracks. If one or more fail, the performance of the others remains unchanged, and the floor is still as warm.

Warm floors in the bathhouse can be made electric or water

Pellet boilers

This type of heating is used in almost 50% of European homes, and they can count. This popularity is based on the possibility of automatic fuel supply. Fuel is loaded into the bunker (it can be of any size from an ordinary box to a large room), which is supplied to the burner using a screw controlled by the boiler. In this mode, the system operates as long as there is fuel and the ash pan is not full. If the fuel is of high quality, the ash needs to be removed once every month and a half, and the pellet bunker, as mentioned, can be of any volume. The only thing: to ignite and maintain the operation of the equipment, guaranteed power is required (the consumption is very small). But modern heating systems, it seems, cannot work without electricity. Here, too, if you wish, you can find a solution - diesel engines, batteries, etc. Pellets are not that expensive; the only significant drawback is the cost of the boiler itself. Not everyone will decide to invest this amount in heating a bathhouse.

Pellet boilers are reliable and promising, but the equipment is expensive

As you can see, there are many ways to heat a bathhouse, but all of them are imperfect. You will have to weigh the pros and cons more than once and calculate the options.

Gas heating

The implementation of such a heating system has several options.

Firstly, as I wrote above, it is possible to install a “classic” heater, in which a gas burner will be used instead of firewood.
Secondly, you can use a standard gas boiler (the same as in residential buildings). But in this case, you will have to take care of the equipment of heating systems (installation of heating radiators, laying pipes, connecting a gas-carrying pipe to the bathhouse or a cylinder connection system).
Thirdly, there is the possibility of installing heating from the house. In essence, this is the same option as the previous one, but with its own characteristics and disadvantages. A separate heating main is laid from the boiler used to heat the house to the bathhouse. This option is very convenient if your steam room is adjacent to the house or is very close to it.

Gas heating baths

Water heating is rightfully considered one of the most convenient and effective methods of heating. In such a situation, there are also several options for manufacturing a system, which in any case will be powered from a furnace with a water circuit.

Fortunately, today in specialized stores you can easily select stoves that are ready for installation, equipped with a heat exchanger. This greatly simplifies the task of any builder of his own bathhouse. And now directly about the options.

Water heated floors

External heating. It is done very simply and, in fact, is arranged in the same way as a brownie. Pipes located along the walls are connected to the furnace. Depending on the area of your bathhouse, a certain number of heating radiators are connected to the pipes. Hot water passing through them heats the structure and, when cooled, returns back to the boiler.
Water heated floor. The principle of its operation is the same as in the first option. The only difference is that the pipes are hidden in the floor, which was previously insulated (I wrote about insulating floors in a bathhouse in more detail in other articles). This design is considered non-separable (although, of course, there would be a desire to break everything), and therefore requires a very careful approach to the procedure for its manufacture. In this case, I would recommend seeking help from specialists.

Heating main: to decide or not?

Installing a boiler in a bathhouse is always a bit of a hassle. In a good way, we need a project - and an approved project, and this is bureaucracy. But even without it there are enough problems: it’s expensive, proper installation is needed, various safety measures are needed... That’s why some bathhouse attendants are in favor of installing a heating main from the house. But there are some nuances here that you need to be aware of.

Firstly, there is no guarantee that groundwater will not accumulate at the pipe site at certain times of the year. Secondly, the heating main must be insulated - this is also an expense. Thirdly, if it is necessary to heat a bathhouse in winter in a trench, then all the pipes will have to be laid in a single pipe of a sufficiently large diameter - this is the only way to isolate communications from groundwater. But you can control the heat in the steam room using a simple remote control from home - and this is comfort.

But, no matter what alternative heating method is chosen, the main thing is to calculate everything in advance, and, if possible, invite a specialist: an experienced eye in this matter will not hurt.

Furnaces with heat exchangers

Furnaces equipped with heat exchange devices allow you to successfully solve all the problems of heating a room, heating water, and creating steam. Heating a bathhouse from the heat exchanger of a bathhouse stove can include not only the main rooms of the bathhouse, but also auxiliary ones, for example, a shower room, a relaxation room, a swimming pool, a billiard room, etc.

dimensions of the bathhouse and area of heated premises;
dimensions and weight of the furnace;
specific gravity of the heating device;
the number of heat exchange devices included in the furnace kit;
the total volume and composition of the circulating coolant;
diameter and length of the chimney.

Sauna stoves with a heat exchanger can be connected using heat-insulated pipes:

To a remote tank for heating water used in the washing section of the bathhouse.
To heating radiators located in the service areas of the bathhouse - recreation room, billiard room, etc.
To a hot water supply and water heating system, which includes not only the main and service areas of the bathhouse, but also the living areas of the house.

Stoves for heating baths with wood come with an internal or external heat exchanger. The internal heat exchanger is located in the combustion chamber between the body and the casing. It uses heat obtained directly from the combustion of fuel and heating of the furnace.

An external heat exchanger is installed around the chimney pipe. It uses the heat given off by heated gases when they are removed outside. Due to the increased volume of the external heat exchanger, its operating efficiency increases. Using the heat of the gases escaping through the chimney allows you to save fuel and increase the efficiency of the furnace by reducing the temperature of the exhaust gases.

In a cast iron stove, water is heated in a heat exchanger by exhaust flue gases and thermal radiation. The heat exchanger body is located in the upper part of the firebox in the area of the chimney.

A brick stove for a bath involves the location of a heat exchanger inside the brickwork in close proximity to the firebox. This somewhat increases the thermal inertia of the heat exchanger, and also reduces the likelihood of its overheating or oxidation of its surface under the influence of open fire.

Water heating design

Installing water heating is considered a convenient and fairly effective way to provide heat to a bathhouse. For this heating method, you can use wood, gas, or electricity as fuel, since this depends on the modification of the fuel boiler that will be installed.

The best choice of heating unit would be a cast iron boiler for liquid coolant. The water is heated in it, flows through pipes into radiators installed in the bathhouse building, and after heat is transferred, it returns to the boiler. The water system allows you to heat any room evenly and efficiently. In the same way, you can organize the heating of a bathhouse from your home.

Warm floor system

This option for heating a bathhouse is one of the modern methods, which has been used frequently in recent years. It is quite difficult to install special equipment without the appropriate experience.

It is much easier to install an electric floor system and you can do this work yourself:

First of all, a waterproofing material is laid, on which a layer of mortar is placed.
Next comes the installation of thermal insulation.
An electrical cable is mounted on top of the thermal protection layer and the screed is refilled.

The technology for creating a floor with water heating is similar, but in this case they do not use a cable, but rather lay pipes to circulate the hot coolant.

Water and infrared floor installation

Gas boiler diagram.

A water heated floor is a pipe system located between the base of the floor and its subfloor. The pipes are laid in loops over the entire floor area, a separate circuit is made for each room, the flow of coolant is regulated by taps that are installed on each circuit. Coolant circulation is carried out by pumps. Boilers (wood, gas, electric) are used to heat the coolant. When installing a water floor with your own hands, you must take into account the possibility of heat leakage through the base of the floor; to prevent this from happening, the pipes are laid on a heat insulator with aluminum foil.

An infrared heated floor is a film with radiating elements or a heating mat made of carbon rods. In rooms with high humidity, which is what a bathhouse is, it is better to use heating mats. Infrared radiation from the floor heats surrounding objects, which transfer their energy to the air in the room.

This heating method is more efficient than convection heating, and therefore the energy consumption for heating is significantly lower than that of an electric convector. Installing an infrared floor with your own hands is easier than installing a water floor. Waterproofing is laid on a dry and clean base, then a substrate on which a system of heating mats is mounted. During installation, it is necessary to take into account all the nuances specified in the manufacturer’s instructions.

Convectors, heating a bathhouse from a residential building The easiest way to heat a bathhouse is to use electric convectors. To feel at home in the bathhouse, just connect the convector to the network. However, this heating method requires significant energy consumption. Gas convectors are more complex devices; for their operation, it is necessary to install a gas and air supply system into a special chamber where the gas is burned, and to ensure the removal of combustion products. It is not possible to install such heating with your own hands; specialists must work with gas equipment. The installation of these devices is justified in production facilities, warehouses or garages. They are not suitable for a home or bathhouse.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v0vbA44F-Tc

If the home is heated with liquid energy, then the bathhouse can be easily connected to the heating system of the living space. Radiators are installed in the bathhouse and connected by pipes. The pipes are removed, insulated and laid in a trench; the depth of the trench should be below the freezing level of the soil. Next, we bring the pipes into the house and make a connection with the heating circuit. That is, another room appears near the house. But before you do such heating, you need to make sure that the boiler power is sufficient.

If the bathhouse is multi-story

The appearance of private households has changed significantly over the past few centuries. The same applies to the bathhouse. Today it is not uncommon for baths to have, for example, two floors.

The presence of more than one floor requires the organization of heating of both the first and second floors. Existing systems are conventionally divided into a number of categories:

integral or single heating;
separate heating.

In the first case, it is assumed that the stove is installed directly in the steam room or behind its wall. The pipe through which the smoke will be exhausted is fixed to a special outlet on the equipment. It passes the perimeter of the first and second floors and only then leads out onto the roof.

It is important to remember that single heating requires that the stove be heated constantly, even if the steam room is not in use. In addition, the complex path of hot air circulation results in a long heating period for the room.

In this case, in the area where people steam, a standard set is installed - a stone, a vertical pipe and the stove itself. The remaining rooms are heated by gas, electricity and other sources.

In order for the heating of the steam room to give maximum effect, you must adhere to certain rules.

First of all, this concerns firewood. They must be dry; the presence of even a small amount of moisture in them will slow down heating.
The firewood must have the correct size: the diameter does not exceed 9 cm, but not less than 6 cm. Average values will allow the fuel to burn for a long time, give the required heat and, accordingly, temperature.

Experienced users claim that high-quality heating is also determined by the use of a certain type of raw material. If the question is how to make heating in a bathhouse with several floors, it is better to give preference to birch. This wood does not have a large diameter. However, the high tar content ensures long-term smoldering, due to which a high combustion temperature is achieved in comparison with other materials.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=Kj2xVG2VRbs

Additionally, to increase the time of maintaining high temperature, coal is used. Oak and linden also performed well when solving the problem of heating a bathhouse with several floors. Poplar and aspen emit less heat, so much more of them will be needed.

If the bathhouse is equipped with an attic, it is better to use a fireplace to heat it. When installing it, be sure to take into account the weight of the device, which requires mandatory strengthening of the area. The weight of the fireplace depends on how often you plan to use it. It is known that intensive heating requires a large firebox. To make installation and operation easier, it is better to give preference to an electric fireplace. This will also reduce the cost of estimated repair work.

Do-it-yourself gasification of a bathhouse

Not the best option for connecting a sauna to a gas network. A similar gasification scheme is resorted to if the bathhouse was built a long time ago and registered in the home ownership documents. You can try to make changes to the plan and design of the house, change the status of the premises from an outbuilding to a residential building, but usually the owners do not do this.

Most often, “black” gasification is performed according to the same rules as regular gasification. First of all, you need to check the capacity of the pipe at the entrance to the building using reference books. For a bathhouse, it will be enough to lay a ¾-inch pipe, while a house of 60-70 m2 should be connected to a centralized gas supply system with a cross-section of at least 2 inches.

Important! Flexible hoses cannot be used to gasify a bathhouse. The metal pipe is taken out of the house where the heating boiler is located, at a height of at least 2 m, and brought into the dressing room, to the place where the gas heater is installed.

At the end of the pipe there should be a semi-automatic tap - a valve that ensures that the gas supply is instantly shut off in the event of depressurization of the equipment in the bathhouse

The metal pipe is removed from the room of the house where the heating boiler is located, at a height of at least 2 m, and brought into the dressing room, to the place where the gas heater is installed. At the end of the pipe there should be a semi-automatic tap - a valve that ensures that the gas supply is instantly shut off in the event of depressurization of the equipment in the bathhouse.

To protect the line, it is covered with silicone waterproofing or pulled into a polypropylene pipe, after which it is insulated with mineral fiber tapes. Inside the boiler room of the house, the gas pipe leading to the bathhouse is connected through a bronze tee and a valve at the entrance to the heating boiler. It cannot be connected in any other places; when the bath is operating, the flame on the water heater or gas stove may go out.

The most important thing is that it is not difficult to identify such amateur gasification of a bathhouse; any gas inspector will identify the problems. But the worst thing is that in the event of a fire, the fine for amateur gasification of a bathhouse will be two orders of magnitude higher than the cost of the entire building.

Features of installing a brick kiln

Installing a brick kiln requires compliance with its characteristic features:

Construction of a reinforced concrete foundation.

Construction of a foundation for a stone oven. Click to enlarge.

A thick layer of mortar should not be placed between the bricks to prevent it from being destroyed when heated and losing the seal of the oven. You should not unnecessarily save the solution.

During the laying of bricks, the mortar must be squeezed out. Vertical seams must be covered with top bricks.

The overlap should ideally correspond to half the length of the brick. Bricks should not be laid with the cut side facing the stove.

This precaution prevents the brick from breaking. Cast iron elements should be installed with a small gap

The upper part of the combustion door must be secured with a metal clamp.

Features of gas heating

A bathhouse with modern gas heating installed has its own characteristics associated with the possibility of gas leakage and explosion hazard:

Equipped with an automatic safety system that stops the gas supply when the flame goes out.
The use of a common line for supplying natural gas, an individual line for propane and butane.
The need to comply with general fire safety requirements.

Gas heating of a large bath complex or a classic bath is characterized by simplicity and a high level of comfort.

Chimney organization

Scheme of organizing a chimney in a bathhouse. Click to enlarge.

Black baths have not been heated for a long time, and combustion products are removed through a chimney.

The chimney can be installed independently if you have the following materials and elements:

Ceiling-passage unit.
Passage through the roof (flush).
Umbrella.
Sandwich pipe.

We should not forget that the structural feature of the sandwich pipe is the presence of a heat-insulating layer designed to prevent fire in the ceiling.

However, this layer may not be enough.

Therefore, when organizing gas heating, you should not neglect the installation of additional protection for the places where the chimney exits to the street.

In this article we have revealed some features of the installation and operation of furnace equipment intended for installing a heating system in a bathhouse.

It is important to remember that when installing and operating any type of heating equipment, it is necessary to ensure that comprehensive safety measures are taken.

Installation rules

To heat a bathhouse using a heater, you need to follow some rules:

Steel furnace

Metal stove equipment for baths

The base under the stove must be made of non-combustible material. Suitable for this purpose: fireclay bricks, sheet iron or concrete.
The firebox door should face the opposite corner.
It is advisable to cover the body with brick. This way you will protect people using the steam room from getting burned by the hot body and give the structure a more aesthetic appearance.

Brick oven

First of all, lay a reinforced concrete foundation that can support the weight of the future structure.

Foundation for the stove

Then work with brick begins:

The layer of cement being applied should not be very thick, as in this case it will quickly collapse under the influence of heat. (See also the article Double-bell heating and cooking stove: features.)
Each vertical seam must be overlapped with brick, thus forming a checkerboard pattern of masonry.

The process of constructing a heater from bricks

Install cast iron elements in compliance with the technical gap, which compensates for possible thermal expansion of the materials.

Electrical

And finally, let’s look at several ways to use electricity to heat a bathhouse. I’ll say right away: take care of the electrics in this case. Since the load on thermal electrical appliances is large, the quality of the electrical wiring should not be in doubt. Consider the total load, wire cross-section, wiring diagram and quality of electrical work.

Firstly, your room can be heated using an electric heater. True, in this case you will have to take care of heating the water in the shower in advance (for example, by installing a direct or indirect heating boiler). This type of heater does not require additional arrangement of the chimney and is considered environmentally friendly.

Secondly, the bathhouse (in particular the relaxation room) can be heated using electric convectors placed on the walls.

Well, thirdly, infrared film can come to your aid - the newest type of heater, which allows you to easily and quickly create warm floors both in the house and in the bathhouse. Detailed technology for installing heated floors is discussed in other articles.

Please note that the installation of heated floors is possible without the use of infrared film, but by laying electric heating cables. They are used both in underfloor heating systems and for heating water pipes.

It is quite possible to use infrared heaters as an additional source of heat. I hung it on the ceiling and forgot about it.

Using electricity to heat a bath undoubtedly has its advantages. You can safely use all the structural elements (heater, heated floor, boiler) at any time all year round. At the same time, you don’t have to worry about fuel or worry about pipes freezing. The only serious drawback can be considered the high energy consumption.

In the case when you do not often use the bathhouse (especially in winter, rarely coming to the dacha), then the most optimal option would be a mixed heating device. For example, a stove is installed and electric heating is installed. If you decide to take a shower, rest or “stretch”, use electricity. If you decide to take a steam bath “like an adult”, turn on the stove thoroughly.

Remember. Whatever the heating in the bathhouse, if you do not use it constantly in winter, then be sure to drain the water from boilers, water heaters, pipes, toilet tank (if there is one), etc. This is guaranteed to protect them from damage, and you from unnecessary headaches.

Heated floor control unit

Which oven should you choose?

To heat the bathhouse, choose a brick stove, steel and cast iron structures, or fireplace stoves. If a brick stove was chosen as a heating source, then its installation must be considered during the construction of the foundation. Install the stove in the rest room. It will decorate the room, heat both the dressing room and the shower compartment.

A heat exchanger is installed in the furnace, from which steam exits into the heating system. An expansion tank is installed in the washing room, from which 2 circuits are output. One circuit is intended for the steam room. The other is for heating water.

For a stove with a metal or cast iron body, it is not necessary to build a foundation, but it is necessary to prepare the site. It is better to equip a separate basement room for the unit. The fireplace stove is installed in the recreation room.

2 circuits are output from the furnaces. The rest room is often equipped with a “warm floor” system. Steam passes through the pipes of the system, giving off heat. Instead of "warm floors" you can install radiators. The coolant passes through pipes into the steam room and shower room. Heating devices are installed in the dressing room.

For lovers of wet steam, a steam generator is additionally equipped. In this case, the steam will be finely dispersed. It has a gentle effect on the body, enveloping it in heat. Its temperature is 80-95 0C. This equipment is installed for both liquid and steam heating: the unit is connected to a heat exchanger in the furnace.

Another option for generating steam would be heated stones. An area is allocated in the steam room. Pipes with steam are supplied to it. This can be a brick pedestal or a metal box. Stones are laid on the structure. It does not take much time to warm up the room, but the stones take longer to warm up to reach a certain temperature.

To obtain steam, you can make a small exit from the steam line. To do this, use a 21.3 mm or 1/2” pipe. A tap is installed on it, which controls the supply of coolant. Experts warn that this method of removing coolant is undesirable, because the temperature of the steam in the main reaches 130 0C.

If you handle the faucet carelessly, you can get severe burns. It is necessary to consider a system for regulating the supply and speed of steam. In the system, the coolant moves under a pressure of 170 kg/m2, at a speed of 30 m/s.

Self-installation of heating in the bathhouse

Installation of bathhouse heating is carried out before the interior decoration of the premises. Otherwise, there may be problems with the installation of pipes and radiators. The specificity of heating a summer cottage bath is that there is no direct contact between the lines and the internal decorative panels.

It is also important to correctly install the boiler for sauna and heating. If a brick oven will be used as the main component of the heat supply, you need to make an independent foundation for it in advance

Otherwise, its mass will push through the floor, and the entire structure will slowly sink.

The installation of an electric boiler for heating a bath is done after installing the electrical wiring. Its cross-section must be designed for the maximum operating power of all electrical appliances. An RCD must also be installed.

To fully heat a sauna attic, you need to know the following conditions:

Ensuring fire safety. The walls and floor around the boiler must be lined with non-combustible materials. For laying pipes and chimney, special heat-resistant sleeves are used;
The walls, floor and attic must be insulated. This is necessary to minimize heat losses;
Due to high humidity, a ventilation system is installed. It is a mandatory element for the safe operation of gas equipment.

As an alternative way to heat the bathhouse premises, you can consider installing a warm water floor system. This will allow for uniform temperature distribution and increase the level of comfort in the bathhouse.

In the video you can see an example of organizing water heating for a bathhouse.

The second option for solving the gasification problem

Everything is quite complicated and inconvenient. Allocating part of the living space in a private house to a bathhouse is not very convenient and is not always possible. A separate construction of a sauna in the local area looks much more attractive from both an economic and consumer point of view. Therefore, the problem of how to supply gas to the bathhouse is often solved from the end of the problem.

In this case, the algorithm of actions is reverse. Initially, you will need to select the most suitable bathhouse design. The idea is to build a residential guest house or summer kitchen in the local area, which can easily be converted inside into a full-fledged bathhouse. On a solid foundation, with walls made of non-combustible materials, with mineral fiber insulation.

Oddly enough, it is much easier to obtain permission to gasify a kitchen, house or outbuilding than to supply gas and install heating equipment for a bathhouse.

Therefore, first of all, we obtain permission from the architectural bureau to build a house. Next, a project is drawn up for a room with a sewerage system and a shower heated by a boiler installed in the kitchen section of the house.

Advice! But even in this case, in the design documentation it is necessary to plan and provide for all the fire safety elements that a full-fledged bathhouse should have. First of all, this concerns the materials used for walls, ceilings and the method of insulation.

Features of a sauna stove with a heat exchanger

A sauna stove equipped with a heat exchanger has certain design features.

tube supply system for coolant circulation;
thickened body walls;
increased volume of the heater;
the presence of an air distributor is mandatory;
firebox door made of heat-resistant glass.

The heat exchanger operates due to the constant circulation of water through all devices that make up the heating system in the bathhouse. To effectively use the heat exchanger, the length of each connecting pipe should be a maximum of 3 m. Especially if there is no external thermal insulation of the pipe.

Subject to fire safety rules, as well as the presence of forced ventilation and thermoregulation systems, a universal stove for baths and home heating can be equipped with a heat exchanger. The stove itself can be located in the bathhouse and connected to the living quarters of the house using a thermally insulated heating pipeline and supplying the home with hot water.

The simplest design of a universal stove is an electric stove with separate electric heaters for the stove sections with a heat exchanger and the heater.

Such a furnace can operate in several modes, namely:

In the mode of heating the residential premises of the house and its hot water supply (DHW) while maintaining the minimum required temperature in the bathhouse premises during the cold season.
In heating mode for baths and the entire house with hot water supply during the cold season.
Organization of heating of the bathhouse and heater in the summer.

A similar stove for bathing and heating at the same time can be created in the form of a continuous device using natural gas or fuel pellets. Using charcoal or wood as fuel in this case is difficult and has certain technical difficulties. After all, wood or coal stoves do not provide the ability to automatically adjust the temperature. This can lead to sudden temperature changes in the heating line.

Advantages of wood stoves

Sauna stoves differ primarily in the type of heating. They are electric, gas, liquid fuel, wood-burning. Gas and liquid fuel ones are rarely installed in bathhouses, giving preference to electric and wood-burning ones.

Electric stoves have one huge advantage: they do not need a chimney, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of installation and reduces the fire hazard. But, if you compare the cost of electric “fuel” with the price of firewood, it will be significantly higher. And such a heater will not work from a regular network; it needs to be connected to a three-phase network, which is not possible everywhere.

Electric furnaces differ from each other only in power, installation method (floor-mounted or wall-mounted) and design; they are always installed in a steam room, which limits their use if the bathhouse does not have its own heating and water supply. They are selected according to these three criteria.

Electric heaters attract with their safety and original designSource r-sauna.ru

A much more difficult task is how to choose a stove for a wood-burning sauna, especially if it requires expanded functionality, and not just heating the steam room.

The main advantage of such equipment is its autonomy and lack of dependence on connection to electrical or gas networks. But there are others:

Multifunctionality - a wood-burning stove can heat all rooms, heat water, and serve as a steam generator.
It increases the temperature faster and heats up the stones more strongly, the heat of which determines the degree of steam formation and the “softness” of the steam.
When wood burns, a special aroma is created - the sauna “spirit”.
Firewood is cheaper than electricity.

Additional advantages include the traditional nature of bath procedures in a classic setting. True, this applies to a greater extent to brick stoves, but nothing prevents modern metal hearths from being covered with brick.

Construction of a brick screen around a metal stoveSource ytimg.com

Independent arrangement of heated floors

The base of the floor is first prepared, then the screed is poured using cement mortar. Next, they waterproof the rough base using a special mastic. Then a thin layer of mortar is laid and carefully leveled.

When the mixture is completely dry, install the heat-insulating material. Take a heating cable or mat and spread it over the floor surface, connect it to power and test the functioning of the system.

If the structure works, a thin layer of solution is placed on top of the cable. After it has dried, they begin to finish the floor surface.

Disadvantages of gas-type heating

The relative complexity and high cost of the equipment in comparison with competing heating systems for baths.
Difficulty in installing a gas heating system. Only sufficiently qualified specialists can carry it out; not everyone can do it on their own, and such a solution can result in security problems.
The need to connect to the gas main. Not all areas of the country are gasified today. Using gas from cylinders for such purposes is not very convenient and quite expensive; they won’t last long.
A relative disadvantage can also be considered what many consider an advantage - the lack of odor. After all, the indescribable aroma of burning wood in wood-heated bathhouses gives the bathing procedure additional chic.

The opinion that gas heating in a bathhouse is dangerous can today be considered erroneous - these systems are equipped with many safety devices and assemblies and, if the minimum operating requirements are met, are completely safe.

Therefore, we do not include the danger of gas used as fuel among the disadvantages.

Gas heating of a bathhouse fulfills to a large extent the requirements for heating systems for bathhouses, subject to a number of conditions. Namely:

If possible, connect to a centralized gas supply.
When installing equipment by specialists of the appropriate level of qualification.

We make heating in the bathhouse. Commonly used options and methods

I am glad to welcome you again, curious readers, to the pages of this modest blog!
Today, succumbing to some inner call, and also taking into account questions from my subscribers, I decided to consider such a thing as heating a bathhouse.

At first glance, this formulation of the question may seem very strange. Well, really, why heat a bathhouse, which, in fact, already maintains a high temperature and creates a unique climate that is clearly different in its characteristics from the conditions outside its walls? But, oddly enough, there are reasons for this.

Baths are also different. They can be quite large in area, have many additional rooms (the heating of which, by the way, has not been canceled), and differ in interior decoration (wood, tile, etc.).

Finally, you may simply have, for example, three children who, when leaving the steam room into an unheated room, risk catching a cold. This article will discuss how to make heating in a bathhouse with your own hands. So, let's choose options...

Heating main: to decide or not?

But, no matter what alternative heating method is chosen, the main thing is to calculate everything in advance, and, if possible, invite a specialist: an experienced eye in this matter will not hurt.

Problems of arranging and connecting a gas furnace

We are talking about how to supply gas from the house to the bathhouse from an existing subscriber point of consumption of network gas fuel.
Gasifying a sauna using bottled gas makes sense only for very small sauna rooms, no more than 3x3 m. In other cases, only laying a pipe with household gas fuel remains economically justified. During the gasification process, several serious problems will have to be faced. Solving most of them will require extraordinary patience:

Obtaining permission to gasify a bathhouse building;
Obtaining permission to build a bathhouse in the courtyard of the house;
Selection or development of a bathhouse project in a configuration that would allow approval of permits for gasification without problems.

In addition, you will need to find a bona fide contractor with a license that would carry out the work of laying gas pipes and installation without extra costs.

Advice! It is known from practice that the success of gasification of a bathhouse depends 50% on competent and high-quality performance of work

It is very important. Often, mistakes made by the designer when drawing up a gasification plan can only be corrected by smart performers