We can definitely say that a full-fledged heat engineering calculation is the work of specialists. But if desired, any person with a head on his shoulders who is friends with mathematics and physics can figure it out. For calculations, you need to know some initial parameters - the volume of the room that is currently being investigated; the desired temperature to be maintained inside the building and the lowest outdoor temperature in that region. In addition, specific knowledge will be required - thermal characteristics, which are taken from professional reference books, correction factors, formulas.
There are two main reasons why a thermal calculation is done. Firstly, such a calculation is required when designing and installing a heating system for a cottage. In this case, the data obtained will help to choose a heating boiler of the required power, which, on the one hand, will not make the residents of the house freeze, and on the other hand, will not have excessive power. Do I need to remind you that the excessive power of the boiler means not only an overpayment when buying it, but also a more expensiveoperation?
The second reason is the need to find out why the house is cold despite the fact that the heating system is running at full capacity. In other words, a thermotechnical calculation of the outer walls and a further thermotechnical survey of the house is done in order to establish a possible source of heat loss. This service is called an energy audit and is carried out by energy engineers with special equipment. On a device called a thermal imager, you can visually see where exactly this structure has losses, where the radiation comes from. On the screen of the thermal imager, individual structural elements are painted in different colors. And the colder the color, the less energy is radiated into the environment.
Further thermotechnical calculation of the wall, which copes with the role of a "thermos" the worst, can show what work needs to be done to bring its thermal performance to the desired level. As a rule, we are talking about additional thermal insulation - internal or external, about replacing obsolete elements (for example, old wooden window frames with plastic double-glazed windows with better thermal insulation characteristics). After these works are completed, a re-survey is carried out to confirm that the expected result has been achieved.
In the first option, the heat engineering calculation is done by specialists at the design stage of the house. And the customer often does not even go intodetails of how and by whom it is done. The future owner receives ready-made documentation in his hands, according to which a residential building is being built, and the house turns out to be convenient and comfortable.
In the second option, the customer has to look for narrow specialists who will provide energy audit services and help reduce heating operating costs. In this case, it is also enough for the customer to have only a general idea of the essence of the work in order to correctly formulate the task for the contractor.
