by CoffeeHawk_0 » Fri Apr 30, 2010 9:50 am
Issue 1 is that we're all from different countries and many here are translating into English from different languages, and then that mess must be translated into Chinese. As an example, the above post is a hot-water system in my country, not 'central gas heating'. So no offense meant regarding language, but you'll need to describe the system you want in actual detail if there's going to be any hope of getting what you want especially after it's re-translated into Chinese.
Issue 2 is that having one large, gas powered, water heater in the apartment in Shanghai is not efficient and many times is not as effective as you might hope (for typical Shanghai system designs). I've lived in three 140~180 sq. meter apartments and the central heating has never managed the task well. It's also 3 times more expensive to run here than in Chicago where it's much colder. You could pay more for a better designed system, but I wonder if you can find a contractor willing to do that much work, such as insulating the water pipes.
Issue 3 is the water itself. Shanghai water storage tanks in apartment complexes are not well insulated, hence most gas powered, hot water heating systems can not over come the 1C water temperatures in the winter to give you both a hot shower and hot air coming out of the vents in the winter, especially if you want decent water pressure in the shower.
Issue 4 is that if the apartment is not originally designed for significant levels of incoming natural gas and exhausting the burnt natural gas, then it is either impossible or ridiculously expensive to create all the plumbing and piping to create such a system in a solid concrete building, especially if yoru apartmetn does not have a lot of exterior walls.
There are exceptions of course, and sorry if I sound negative, but the end of winter is the wrong fukkkkung time to ask me about fukkkkung heating in Shanghai.
If you can get a gas powered, water heating system installed, the floor systems are good, but the floors needs to be insulated well below the pipes.
If you get a water pipe and radiator system installed in the walls or ceiling, make sure the pipes are insulated especially the ones that run on the outside walls. The concrete walls and cold outside air 'suck' the heat out of everything.
Consider getting multiple water heaters, one main one and then a smaller one for each bathroom.
The most efficient thing however, is to put separate heaters in each room. Heat is heat (energy is energy) so heating something in one room and then piping it to another room is waste, especially in poorly insulated concrete buildings. Unless the look and style of the heating is important to you or the landlord, it would be about as efficient and probably much less expensive to put an electric, oil filled radiator in each room. But, you need to make sure the apartment's wiring and fuses can handle the wattage, about 600W to 1000W for small rooms and 1500W for large rooms. I did this in my last apartment, it ended up costing about the same (more for electric, less for gas) but the heat was consistent and the apartment was warmer and the heating system then never interferred with hot showers.
