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Gas stoves for heating a house are sometimes the only solution to the issue of warmth and comfort in a room. A stationary or portable version of the heater will be able to quickly and evenly gain temperature, and if it is additionally overlaid with brick, you have a reliable and productive unit that can compete with other types of heaters.

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Features of gas stoves for summer cottages

Such furnaces are the most practical and economical after solid fuels. You can fill a gas cylinder at any gas station, and the performance level of the latest infrared and other types of heaters surpasses classic stoves.

In gas-fired ovens, a burner flame is used, which is mounted in the furnace compartment. By design, gas stoves are similar to wood-burning units.

Gas-burner

But here you can install a system for automatically adjusting the operation of the heater. This feature allows you to further save fuel and maintain a constant temperature in the room.

By installing a container for heating water on the stove, we get the opportunity to carry out a water heating system. Gas stoves are good for everyone for heating a house, but the most suitable option is to buy combined devices that can run on several types of fuel.

Advantages and disadvantages

Many experts argue about these types of heating devices and the advisability of installing them in a country house. For us, consumers, knowledge of all the positive and negative qualities of such structures is required:

• having concluded an agreement with the gas service, you do not have to fill the cylinders with fuel yourself, and interruptions in the operation of the heater are excluded;
• compared to electricity, the cost of gas is much lower;
• modern designs can significantly save fuel while maintaining the power and productivity of thermal energy;
• the operation of the equipment can be fully automated and controlled from a mobile phone at a distance;
• after burning the fuel, only carbon dioxide exits the chimney, so it will not be necessary to clean it of soot.

Controversial shortcomings include:

Kinds

Heat capacity level

Gas heating furnaces differ in the level of heat capacity. It depends on the ability of the structure to accumulate heat. They can be carried out with the condition of continuous or periodic operation of the equipment.

• Furnaces with a constant heating cycle are made with thin walls and cannot accumulate thermal energy. But such devices are able to quickly and evenly heat the premises of a country house. These devices consume more fuel and are not as economical and are suitable for periodic space heating when the owners visit the country house.
• Heating devices that turn on periodically are a stationary stove lined with bricks or fenced with reflective screens. The automatic control system ignites the burner when the temperature in the room drops, and after turning off, the stone screen gradually releases heat into the atmosphere of the room.

Furnace material

The price and durability of heating furnaces depends on the materials from which the furnace and other parts of the unit are made:

• The best option is a cast-iron stove with a refractory glass firebox door. But this design comes at a cost.
• The next one is a firebox and walls made of stainless or heat-resistant steel. Such equipment will serve for a long time and reliably, but the level of heat capacity of such furnaces is much lower, but in terms of the speed of heating the room, they are preferable.
• You can make homemade structures from sheet iron or improvised materials and overlay them with brick / ceramic tiles. This equipment will not last as long as a cast iron furnace, but in terms of basic characteristics and price, such furnaces can compete with industrial designs,

By appointment

According to this characteristic, we single out stoves that work in a house with permanently residing owners and the stove is periodically turned on.

The main purpose of stoves is the same, regardless of the type of fuel - to heat a residential building quickly and maintain a comfortable temperature.

By type of fuel

Furnaces running on bottled gas are, of course, good. But if there is an interruption in filling your tank, you will have to freeze.

Therefore, the best option, especially if you live in a wooded area, is combined stoves that can run on all types of solid fuels and on liquefied gas.

Such equipment is a little more expensive, but its characteristics and savings in operation quickly pay for the money spent on the purchase of combined heaters.

Which gas oven is better to choose for a home?

When choosing, be sure to consider several key factors.

Criterias of choice

Manufacturers

Among the manufacturers of equipment, we single out several indisputable leaders.

How to calculate gas consumption?

The calculation requires knowledge of 2 parameters:

• power of the heating device;
• the total area of ​​the garden house.

A building with a large area will require large supplies of fuel. When choosing a technique, we remember the basic rule for choosing a furnace in terms of power - for each m 2, 1 kW of unit power will be required.

1. The calculation of the gas required for the season is carried out according to a certain formula - 0.112 m 3 of gas will be required to produce 1 kW of power.
2. Now you can easily calculate how much gas is needed to heat a room whose area is, for example, 50 m 2.
3. We multiply 5 kW by 0.112.
4. The result - 0.56 m 3 of gas will be required to heat the room for 1 hour of operation of the furnace.
5. Now it is easy to calculate the amount of gas consumption for 1 day and the whole season.
6. We will spend 13.44 m 3 per day, and 403 m 3 of gas will be needed for a month of continuous operation.

Operation features

How to reduce fuel consumption by operating gas stoves for heating a summer house? To do this, you need to follow a few simple recommendations:

About security

During the operation of gas appliances, it is important to comply with all fire safety requirements.

We pay special attention to the rules for the maintenance of gas cylinders:

Conclusion

A gas stove for heating a summer house or a house is an excellent and economical choice. But before use, be sure to study the fire safety rules and the operating instructions.

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The gas furnace is currently of particular interest. Let us make a reservation right away that further we do not mean gas cooking stoves and hot water boilers; These are separate types of heat engineering devices on gaseous fuel. Also a special topic is technological gas furnaces for industrial purposes. We are interested, simply put, in household gas stoves.

The cost per unit of heat from natural gas is currently much lower than from other sources, including electric heaters. In terms of ease of delivery and use, natural gas is second only to electricity, but it can be stored for future use and stored without fear of dampness, bituminization, spontaneous combustion, and other disadvantages of solid and liquid fuels. In the coming decades, this situation will continue; in any case, for a time several times longer than the estimated service life of gas heaters. If you come up with a way to distribute heat throughout the rooms without pipes, radiators and coolant, then gas heating will not only be economical during operation, but also require 1.2-2 times less initial costs than traditional water heating. And this method is already known, see below.

We will also consider gas in more detail. A citizen of average and above average income in his apartment can afford a maximum mini-sauna, see fig. But they are produced mainly electric, the park flies a pretty penny. And to get permission for gas - as they say, not by night, be it said. Plus - the defeat in the apartment from construction and installation work.

In general, those who like to take a steam bath in their bath now do not go to it, but go out for the weekend. But firewood "from the forest, of course", alas, is a thing of the past. In the vicinity of holiday villages, everything is picked up cleanly. At least scrape together for kebabs, but for a bathhouse of firewood you need a few armfuls. Moreover, the time factor: the sauna is heated with firewood until ready for at least 2-3 hours. Steam family in shifts - 3-4 hours. You can’t fuss about steamed, otherwise the bath will only do harm, it’s another 2-3 hours of rest. How much is left for other chores and entertainment if an overnight stay is not planned? And if it is planned, then out of 2 days off, only 1 remains for household chores. What does a bath gas stove give in this case? Quite a few:

• The kindling of the furnace is instant; about an hour is saved on a fuel tray alone.
• Women and children can steam already 30-40 minutes after starting the stove (if it is of a special design for gas, see below), and the whole family will have enough for 1.5-2 hours; total gain in time - 3-4 hours, i.e. an extra half day for housekeeping.
• Gas for a bathhouse costs comparable to solid fuel, and what is more convenient to carry - a propane tank or a bag and a half of coal? The question is rhetorical.

What is often forgotten

Gaseous fuel has a remarkable property: its combustion rate can be arbitrarily high, up to detonation. They fight against the danger of an explosion by adding a fragrance to household gas: the human nose literally smells molecules of mercaptan, and an unbearable stench will force you to take the necessary measures, in the words of physicists, many orders of magnitude before the concentration of gas in the air reaches a dangerous value.

In this case, something else is more important: with the correct design of the burner, the gas completely, to CO2 and water vapor, burns out for several centimeters from the burner nozzle at any value of its supply. As a result, firstly, in a gas sauna stove, you can not be afraid of clogging the flowing (open) heater with soot and soot.

Secondly, a gas stove for heating a house is able to maintain maximum efficiency. up to 5% and even 3% of the nominal power; for solid and liquid fuel furnaces, when the power drops below 10-15% of the nominal value, the efficiency drops sharply. Since in the middle latitudes during the heating season, the heat loss of a building changes more than 10 times depending on the weather, the savings in the thermal equivalent of fuel are almost double.

Thirdly, the risk of burning decreases sharply. Carbon monoxide, carbon monoxide, has no smell, and the first symptoms of poisoning appear already at a rather severe degree. Fragrance - mercaptan burns more difficult than saturated hydrocarbons, and if the fuel does not burn out, its smell will water your eyes long before the waste goes off. A person, without harm to himself, can withstand a concentration of CO2 up to 2% by volume (in the atmosphere - 0.04%; in residential premises up to 0.6% is permissible). These circumstances make it possible to organize gas mobile and temporary heating, for example. for giving, see below.

But why bake?

Well, the reader may say, we already know about gas. Perhaps more than yours. But why is it in the oven? Natural gas is widely used by industry and public utilities.

Heating residential premises with the help of individual stoves can be saving for the environment. And the point is not only that up to 30% of heat is lost in the CHP mains. Small emissions of combustion products, stretched over time and distributed over a large area, nature has time to process before they harm. And the same or even smaller burst emission from the pipes of thermal power plants, which also burn gas to CO2 and H2O, partially reaches the stratosphere and adds to the greenhouse effect.

For comparison: during a summer thunderstorm in the Moscow region, energy is discharged up to 2 Mt of TNT equivalent. Within a few minutes, on an area of ​​​​about 10 square meters. km. And over Hiroshima it was blown up 20 times less, but instantly and at one point.

Buy or do?

The first thing you need to know when interested in gas ovens is home-made gas appliances of the Ministry of Emergency Situations are not certified; their use is expressly prohibited. At the same time, buy a good gas stove for permanent heating of 1 room up to 120 sq. m of domestic production is possible for an amount equivalent to 800-950 US dollars. "Firma" will cost 50-150 USD more, but this is money "for an asterisk", the quality of Russian gas appliances is recognized throughout the world.

A mobile gas heater with a power of up to 12-15 kW costs up to 350 USD; you can find a good certified one for 150 USD. Separate heating elements (for more details - below) for 8 sq. m of permanently heated area cost about 100 USD, i.е. a heating system for a medium-sized house on them will cost less than 1000 USD, including the installation of pipelines and fittings. This is several times, just like that, cheaper than building a conventional furnace, and no complex construction work is required in the building; pipelines can be laid under a false ceiling.

Can you do this work yourself? No, only certified specialists are allowed to work with gas. The contracting company itself will draw up all the documents for gas heating. It will cost, together with work, about another 600 USD, which is still much cheaper than the construction of a Swede that heats 1-2 rooms.

With your own hands, you can gasify an existing stove by buying a special stove burner for it (see Fig.) for 200-250 USD (in rubles). Such burners are equipped with automation that shuts off the gas when the flame goes out, the furnace and ambient air overheat, gas leaks, etc. More expensive models are equipped with auto-ignition.

Note: only forced draft burners are suitable for domestic ovens! Atmospheric burners, without pressurization, are intended for other purposes. Their use in domestic ovens is unacceptable!

Furnace gas burners are supplied with a certificate of suitability (do not forget to ask the seller!) And go on sale as separate devices. They are installed in the opening (created) of the furnace and do not require alterations to the furnace. Thus, a gas-wood stove is obtained.

Which stove is suitable for gas?

Natural gas, as already mentioned, burns very quickly and releases a lot of heat. Brickwork is simply not able to immediately perceive and transmit such a flow to the room; a gas burner is an instantaneous device, and a brick oven is a heat accumulator. Therefore, only gasification is unambiguously suitable, their efficiency on gas increases. If you still want to gasify grandfather's stove, then the brick gas stove must meet the following conditions:

1. Not to have an extensive furnace part and massive masonry - disappears.
2. The furnace must be made according to the channel scheme with a developed smoke circulation system, or.
3. All heat generation must take place in the furnace, i.e. all without exception disappear: natural gas is too energetic for them, the exhaust gases from under the dome of the hood will be forced into the chimney, not having time to give off heat to the body of the furnace.

In any case, the acceleration of a brick oven on gas requires a very long time, 4-6 days. During this period, the gas supply is gradually increased from the minimum to the nominal value. Hence the corollary: it makes sense to gasify a brick oven only if it will be heated continuously for a long time. But what kind of masonry is needed that can withstand constantly large, over 450 kW / cu. m, thermal stress?

Note: however, traditional stove-makers are not giving up on trying to develop gas-fired brick ovens. There is a sense in these searches - it breathes, which creates a healthy microclimate in the room. Of the successful samples, one can note the heating and cooking stove AKH-14 designed by Yu. P. Sosnin; its advantages are confirmed by operating experience, more than 10,000 copies are in operation in the Russian Federation. But still, the cost and weight of its "brick" plus additional construction work - the foundation for the furnace is needed.

What do you need besides money?

First of all, you need to check if the certificate for the burner is valid. The easiest way to do this is to make a copy of it and show it to the gas service inspector. He can also advise in advance which model is better to take. The burner power for a bath stove is calculated based on the value of 1.5 kW per 1 cubic meter. m for warming up the steam room to 80 degrees (where did the 252 kcal / 0.4 cubic meters walking in Runet come from? To count it was inconvenient, or what?); for household - according to the heat engineering calculation of the building, or it is taken equal to the power of the existing furnace.

Note: no need to fight too much with the heat loss of the bath, turning the steam room into a thermos. Proper, healthy bath should breathe.

Next, you need to check your stove: the opening of the firebox should be with a metal frame. Dimensions of the opening itself - height within 470-550 mm, width 350-450 millimeters; together with the overlay, respectively, 615-680 mm and 515-665 mm. Then there is the room. Installation of a gas stove is allowed in rooms with a volume of at least 8 cubic meters. m with a ceiling height of at least 2.2 m. In a room with a stove, there must be an opening window with a width of at least 60 cm, with an area of ​​​​0.6 square meters. m, and a gap under the door of at least 40 mm for air flow. Instead of a slot on the door, there may be a ventilation grill. The distance from the furnace to the nearest wall of combustible material is from 500 mm. Removal of the refractory base of the furnace - from 100 mm in any direction.

For a bath, an additional condition applies: the firebox door should not go into a washing or steam room. Therefore, the fire chambers of gas sauna stoves (see below) are made elongated so that the door goes into the dressing room. So keep in mind, it’s better not to think about gasifying a potbelly stove with a heater standing right in the steam room. A typical diagram of the installation of a bath gas furnace is shown in fig; it is also suitable for other cases, only it was no longer necessary to bring fireboxes into the next room. For more information about the bath device, see the video below; everything shown there applies to gasified baths.

Video: bath device

Note: pressurization with automatic require power supply. Therefore, in regions with unstable power supply, it is not necessary to close the gas burner tightly into the oven so that you can heat it with wood / coal if necessary.

After installing a burner, or a new furnace, a gas inspector is called in for inspection; if necessary, eliminate the observed deficiencies. Next, the furnace is connected to the gas main; this should be done by experts. When the burner is powered from a cylinder, you can connect it yourself using the included burner (do not forget to check!) Hose and reducer and present for verification all at once. Then - walking through the authorities with papers, the description of which is a separate topic; ends with the issuance of a permit to operate the furnace.

Note: a hose with a reducer and other fittings can be bought separately, but obtaining a permit is much more complicated, because. certificates are required for each separately purchased node.

When Papers Are Not Needed

Home-made gas stoves, without worrying about permits at their own risk, are often used by home craftsmen for technological purposes in non-residential premises. Gas allows you to get a chemically neutral flame with a temperature, when supercharged, up to 1600 degrees. Craftsmen-jewelers use micro-burners from medical needles of different diameters, supercharged from an aquarium compressor. In any case, the room in which the oven/burner is operated must be ventilated to provide at least 2 complete air volume changes per hour.

To end the baths

Among household stoves for sale, gas baths are perhaps the most sought-after product, so you need to add something about them. Namely: a gas sauna stove is definitely suitable for a sauna with absolutely dry steam; it is difficult to steam in a bathhouse with such a Russian-style stove, with a birch broom and kvass.

The reason is the same too rapid combustion of gas. A gas burner, without blazing into the pipe in vain, is able to “burn” the heater properly at the rate of 6 kg of river pebble per 1 cubic meter. m of a steam room, and for a vigorous Russian steam you need at least twice as much stone. Experienced manufacturers (Termofor, Tulikiivi, for example) find a compromise, firstly, by offering to buy a stove made of stones that combine high heat capacity with high thermal conductivity, for example. steatite and other rocks from the group of talcochlorites. However, there is a large fee to be paid.

Secondly, this is already a domestic notion, the heater is made double: the main one is a large heat-storing closed one and a smaller open one especially for the extra; the diagram of a gas furnace with a double heater and its appearance are shown in fig. The configuration of the convector (it is needed to speed up the heating of the bath), the size and location of the holes in it are accurately calculated.

It is possible to give such a heater from an ordinary stone about once every half an hour, and only with water. Restrictions are also imposed on the broom: only birch and only dried. Adding kvass and steaming with a freshly cut birch broom turns out to be hard even for a strong, non-drinking peasant, and it’s probably better not to experiment with the heroes with an oak broom.

The second possible option is to gasify the heater-basket like Vesuvius, see fig. on right. However, the warm-up time of the bath will remain "wood-burning", and the gas supply, so that the heat does not fly away in vain into the pipe, will need to be smoothly and gradually increased from a minimum to about 0.7 nominal within 1-1.5 hours. And most importantly: sauna stoves-baskets are not produced with an elongated firebox, i.e. according to safety rules, they are not subject to gasification; the firebox door with the burner base cannot be brought into the dressing room.

Which oven is best?

So, since we are talking about gas, you still need to buy a stove. In this case, naturally, we need the best gas oven. How to choose it? The rumor of the people, that is, consumer ratings, is essentially true, but it would be strange if advertisers did not gradually try to use such a powerful tool for promoting goods in the interests of their customers. In addition, a quiet, imperceptible, but far-reaching revolution has recently taken place in the gas-furnace business. We will talk about it below, but for now we will discuss how to choose a better oven yourself, regardless of the principle of its operation.

Quantity

In this case, this concept refers to the efficiency of the furnace. To calculate it, in addition to your own initial data, you need to know the gross calorific value of the fuel, or its calorific value. For combustible gases used in everyday life, it is as follows:

• Natural gas in the Russian Federation - 34-38 MJ / cu. m; average - 36 MJ / cu. m.
• Pure methane - 34.67 MJ / cu. m.
• Pure liquefied propane (density 0.51 kg / l) - 25.54 MJ / cu. m
• The same, butane, density 0.58 kg/l - 28.61 kg/l.
• Summer propane-butane mixture (50% / 50%), density 0.545 kg / l - 27.09 MJ / kg.
• The same, winter, 90% propane and 10% butane, density 0.517 kg / l - 25.85 MJ / kg.

Note: those who wish to determine the heat of combustion of gas from their pipe by measuring the boiling time of a kettle, etc. you should know that the efficiency of a kitchen gas stove does not exceed 65% And what exactly will this particular stove in this particular kitchen with this particular vessel with this particular water on this particular burner at this particular atmospheric pressure - only the local particular Barabashka knows specifically, and no one but.

Now let's define the consumption of heat and fuel. Take, for example, a country bathhouse with a steam room for two with a volume of 12 cubic meters. m (2x3 m in plan and with a ceiling height of 2 m). It will need 1.5 kW x 12 cubic meters. m = 18 kW of heat, or 18 kJ / s of heat flow from the furnace. Per hour - 18 kJ x 3600 s = 64.8 MJ of heat. Further, we consider that our bath is gasified. Then for an hour of bath procedures at 80 degrees it will take 64.8 / 36 \u003d 1.8 cubic meters. m of gas.

Here it is necessary to take into account the fact that furnace manufacturers give gas consumption in them based on heating the steam room to 60 degrees; doctors say that at a higher temperature for women and children and at least something at least a little sick (including temporary malaise after yesterday and euphoria from recent libations) it is dangerous to bathe. The heat loss of a room actually depends on the temperature difference between inside and outside according to a power law, but since temperatures are measured from absolute zero (-273.16 degrees Celsius), then within 80-60 Celsius it can be replaced linear without noticeable error.

So, at 60 degrees and the efficiency of the furnace in 100% gas, 60/80 \u003d 0.75 x 1.8 cubic meters will be needed. m = 1.35 cubic meters. The choice of a furnace is generally simple: the closer the fuel consumption declared by the manufacturer to this value, the better the furnace. You just need to remember to look in the specification for what volume of the steam room it is declared for, and bring it to 12 cubes. If less than 1.35 cubic meters of gas is declared for 12 cubic meters of the steam room, then it means a swindler. Or he invented a perpetual motion machine, but he himself does not know about it.

Now let's check independently, according to the rumor of the people. For example, in the Russian Federation, Termofor Urengoy oven is in 1st place with a decent margin from the rest. Perhaps because of the price of only 12,000 rubles? We look at the declared gas consumption for 12 cubic meters of the steam room - 1.71 cubic meters. m/hour. We consider the efficiency of Urengoy: 1.35 (theoretically ideal consumption) / 1.71 (real for this furnace) = 0.79 or 79% Very good and very close to the truth indicator; Might be worth picking up this stove.

Roughly offhand

compact infrared gas heater

As for infrared gas heaters, which will be discussed below, their market with a culture of use has not yet developed properly, and a unified methodology for determining efficiency has not yet been developed. These devices, unlike bath stoves, are of long continuous use, so you need to somehow take into account the cost of heating and its reliability. Therefore, it is possible to choose more or less definitely only by comparison.

First, without worrying about dimensions and any other physics, we multiply the “expenditure” parameters: the hourly gas consumption declared in the specification by the cost of the device. We get some carelessly abstract value A. Then we multiply the “economical” indicators: thermal power by the duration of the company guarantee in months; we get the same value.

Further, too, nothing complicated: C \u003d B / A. The more C, the cheaper the heating will be. This is enough to compare different models, and you can calculate the exact cost of heating, knowing the amount of heat demand, the calorific value of the available gas and its consumption according to the specification for the selected sample.

Quality

It remains to understand such consumer parameters as reliability and functionality. Here the only possible way is to compare the popular rumor with the sales rating. In terms of sauna stoves in the Russian Federation, the already mentioned domestic Termofor and Finnish Tulikivi are in the lead; for permanent infrared heaters - also domestic Bi Car and American Master. Recently, the Russian-Chinese Comfort has been erupting well. They speak well of him, but they have not been on the market for long. Therefore, having looked at the Comfort gas stove, it is advisable to consult with real users.

Gas Furnace Revolution

This revolution is connected with the advent of gas infrared emitters, or infrared burners; both are abbreviated GII. There is a difference between them; what - see below. For now, it is worth noting the fact: in terms of a set of parameters, including price, GII overtake conventional heating stoves, like a Porsche - a pre-war emka. For example, a GII with a power of 1.5 kW heats an area up to 12 square meters. m, he weighs about 7 kg, and costs up to 5000 rubles. We emphasize: this is not an analogue of an electric fireplace, we are talking about constant heating of residential premises. The price of a gigacalorie of heat is 1.5-2 times lower than from any other source. In addition, household gas stoves based on GII are significantly better than other heating appliances in terms of sanitary and hygienic indicators.

How is this achieved? Due to the distribution of heat, similar to a warm floor, see fig. The comfort zone is where people are, and heat losses through the ceiling are sharply reduced, which is especially noticeable in one-story houses. Plus, the floor can be insulated from the inside; the flow of heat from above will not let the dew point into the room. But, unlike a warm floor, complex construction work is not needed, there is no thin winding pipe walled into the floor that can become clogged or leak (and how to repair without breaking the floor?) Unlike electric heating, it is not expensive electricity that heats, but gas, a unit of energy which is many times cheaper. Another plus is that the flow of warm air from the heated infrared floor is uniform over the area of ​​the room; the inhabitants live, as it were, on a warm island with an even climate.

GII device

GII burners are open type devices. In them, the gas-air mixture is blown through narrow channels with microdoses; air is sucked in naturally without pressurization. In ceramic GIIs (scheme in Fig. yb; t), nozzle channels are made in a ceramic (most often carbon) plate, which itself heats up to 900 degrees. Due to the high temperature in the microcombustion chambers, the efficiency of the device exceeds 90%, and 70-75% of the gas energy is converted into infrared radiation.

In catalytic GII burners, the combustible mixture passes through a catalyst mesh. The actual combustion catalyst is either a platinum coating (eternal, but expensive), or a nickel coating with additives (cheaper, but gradually burns out). Anyone who has used a windproof gas lighter is familiar with catalytic combustion.

Ceramic GIIs are cheaper than catalytic ones, but their power is limited to 12-15 kW, because it is difficult to make the flow of the mixture through narrow nozzles very intense. Dimensions of ceramic GII cannot be very small; For effective radiation, a rather large area of ​​the plate is needed. Catalytic GII for power up to 30 kW and more weigh several kg; they can be made miniature, but are expensive.

GII emitters, or gas heating elements (the diagram in the figure) are free from this drawback, therefore they can be used for constant heating of residential premises. They require pressurization, so they are volatile, but, on the other hand, any modern gas-fired hot water boiler is also volatile. And one and a half hundred years ago, pipelines for gas lighting were stretched by cobwebs throughout the houses, and nothing, there were no general emergencies, although the gasification technique was then compared to the current cave. Also, gas heating elements require a gas duct, but typical ones in new buildings are quite suitable: there is nothing to exhaust gases (it is already difficult to call them flue gases), and their temperature is up to 400 degrees.

Appointment and evolution

The first to go on sale were open ceramic GIIs for temporary heating of garages and outbuildings, pos. 1 in fig. Probably, it was the need to create a comfort dome in a room with large own heat losses, without burning exorbitant amounts of fuel, that prompted the creators of the first GII to develop them. GII for the garage is successfully used to this day: sellers offer them in a wide range, and prices have fallen from 800 to 90-150 USD in 7 years; certification and a separate permit for the operation of garage GII is not required. In everyday life, ceramic GII have also been used to replace electric fireplaces, pos. 2, but this is just a mechanical translation of a principle capable of much more.

GII as powerful, relatively inexpensive, reliable and non-volatile heat sources immediately attracted the attention of participants in field and expeditionary work, hunters, fishermen, tourists, yachtsmen and others who faced the problem of heating far from civilization. But these categories of users needed a large specific power in relation to the mass and dimensions, so they preferred catalytic GII.

The first samples (pos. 3) looked like their non-catalytic counterparts. In the end, the "suburban" branch of the GII evolution gave rise to a gas mini-oven (fig. right), which can be carried with you while moving on foot. However, there are few of them for sale: the roads themselves, from 200 USD, and expensive gas for lighters is required for refueling.

The development of GII in the direction of constant heating turned out to be much more productive. The high specific, now per unit of the radiating surface, power of the GII made it possible to organize warm islands directly in the open air, for this it was only necessary to assemble the radiating panels under the reflective umbrella and hoist it on a rack, pos. four.

The efficiency and economy of heating with GII-“umbrellas” turned out to be so high that the question arose of using them for permanent heating of housing. At this time, warm floors were just widely dispersed; their sanitary and hygienic properties were not in doubt, but the question of the complexity of installation in existing buildings and maintainability arose. You already know the solution: the GII burners were replaced with gas heating elements, and the umbrellas were removed from the racks and hung directly from the ceiling. Here, a large reflector is not really needed, and ceiling-mounted GII emitters are often made in the form of flat panels; in multi-storey buildings on floors below the uppermost, the overall efficiency does not noticeably worsen from this.

gas in cooking

The next area where gasification of stoves is not only useful, but simply necessary is culinary and technological equipment. A gas bakery oven, for example, takes up only about 10 sq. m of ordinary, non-industrial area and without requiring an industrial gas supply with electricity, allows you to bake up to 100-200 loaves of bread at a time, see fig. Individual bakers take advantage of this circumstance with might and main, and those who really know how to bake bread well, do a good business at home with always guaranteed demand.

The second culinary device where gas turned out to be more than out of place is this. Already a household desktop (left pos. in the figure on the right) gives out a product that even an unpretentious eater immediately distinguishes for the better from baked with an electric grill. In this case, the role is played by the large density of the heat flux generated by the gas compared to the electric one.

A completely unexpected result was the gasification of the traditional Pompeian pizza oven, right pos. Inveterate gourmets do not distinguish the taste of a real noble pizza from a wood-fired or gasified Pompeii oven. But the productivity of the unit (and the income of restaurateurs) has grown almost one and a half times. In this case, the high energy intensity and rate of gas combustion provide accelerated and more uniform heating of the furnace roof in time, which increases its productivity.

Gas in the workshop

The high attainable temperature and the absence of chemically aggressive substances in the combustion products make the gas flame very attractive for home craftsmen. You don't need much here: a heating furnace for heating small metal parts is obtained from ... an empty tin can, see fig. Just remember to leave a gap at the bottom for air access!

Small-sized and gas-fired melting furnaces, incl. desktop are also commercially available. But a do-it-yourselfer or an IP homeworker will have to be disappointed here: the fire department and the gas service do not issue permits for their operation to individuals. And legal entities - only provided with a production area, equipped accordingly. So in unsuitable rooms you will have to do with electric stoves.

About gas fireplaces

The remarkable properties of natural gas gave rise to attempts to make a gas stove. However, it is impossible to recognize them as successful: the blue light is beautiful in its own way, but it is still not a living flame. Manufacturers, being wise with burners, sometimes create something similar to it, supposedly in a modern style, see the figure on the right. However, the psychological and aesthetic significance of the fireplace traces its lineage to a primitive tribe fed after a successful hunt in a cave by the fire, and without chaotically dancing tongues of fire, a fireplace is not a fireplace. It's like putting a mast with a mainsail and staysail on a Predator with a 400-horsepower Mercruiser. It will float, once it floats on the water, but there will be no romance of sailing.