We can definitely say that a full-fledged heat engineering calculation is the business 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, which must be observed inside the building, and the lowest outdoor temperature in this 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 the heat engineering calculation is done. Firstly, such a calculation is required when designing and installing a heating system for a cottage is in progress. In this case, the data obtained will help to choose a heating boiler of the required capacity, which, on the one hand, will not make the residents of the house freeze, and on the other, it will not have excessive power. Does it need to be reminded that excessive boiler capacity means not only overpayments when buying it, but also more expensive operation?
The second reason is the need to establish why the house is cold, despite the fact that the heating system is operating at full capacity. In other words, the thermotechnical calculation of the exterior walls and the further thermotechnical inspection of the house is done to establish a possible source of heat energy loss . This service is called energy audit and is carried out by energy engineers with special equipment. On the device, which is called a thermal imager, you can visually see where exactly this structure has losses, where the radiation comes from. On the thermal imager screen, individual structural elements are painted in different colors. And the colder the color, the less energy is emitted into the environment.
Further thermotechnical calculation of the wall, which copes with the role of the “thermos” worst of all, can show what work needs to be done to bring its thermotechnical indicators 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 carrying out these works, a re-examination is carried out to confirm that the expected result has been achieved.
In the first version, the heat engineering calculation is done by specialists at the design stage of the house. And the customer often does not even go into the details of how and by whom he is done. The future owner receives ready-made documentation on which a house 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 operating costs for heating. In this case, the customer is also sufficient to have only a general idea of the essence of the work in order to correctly formulate the task to the contractor.