How to Efficiently Get Hot Water and Heating for a Country Bathroom
You need a specific type of boiler
I live in a city, but I also have a brick house in the countryside. At 27 km from the city, the house was left to me and my parents by my grandmother, who passed away. The house is unfinished, and to be able to start using it for weekend getaways, we had to start with at least making a bathroom, by transforming the small room in the back, one that was originally meant to be a storage closet.
Let’s do this, people!
This endeavor required financial and physical resources from all members of my family. We had to team up, hire a plumber, and start the work.
We began with basic things, like digging a ditch for the draining system, installing the pipes and fixtures necessary for the water supply, and also installing the pipes and fixtures for the drainage.
In the image below you can see the bathroom after it was finished. You may notice that there are some flaws in the way everything is arranged. The best example is the sink and this is because initially, we thought we will use an electric boiler, one that will not take up space.
Well, it’s also because we rushed things a little bit.
Change of plans
In the meantime, the plans changed. We realized that if we will use an electric boiler, not only that we will have greater electrical bills, but we will also need to buy a heater of some sort. An air heater that is electrically powered would be another burden for the electricity bills. The only advantages of an electric boiler were: its price, which began at about 100$, and its smaller size. Neither one would have served our purpose.
We began to look online for alternatives. I did not mention that the house is not linked to the gas pipe network, being away from the main gas line. This means that getting a gas boiler was out of the question.
A wood-fired boiler
The solution we found is a wood-fired boiler. We store a lot of wood every year because we also have a wood stove that we use for cooking. With only a very small percentage of that wood, we could fuel the boiler.
On the other hand, the bathroom was about to be used by me, my parents, my fiancee, my sister with her kids, my uncle, and probably other people visiting. This means that the boiler would have to be a little larger. I spoke to other people, friends and neighbors, and this is the conclusion I came to: we need a 100 liters boiler, well-made so that it doesn’t leak and that is made of a material that doesn’t rust.
From the reviews I found online, I had doubts choosing stainless steel because it could bend easily (unless it was very thick), and any other material that is not specially painted or protected against rust. You don’t want after a year or two to take a shower and get reddish or brownish water from the faucets.
With all this being said, we eventually bought a wood-fired boiler made of 3 mm thick metal, painted electrostatically for better resistance against rust. The price was about 350$ without the necessary pipes. Additionally, we needed a thermomanometer for indicating the pressure, up to 6 bars, and the temperature of the water.
In the next step, we hired a person to apply tiles on the floor and walls, and in the end, we installed the boiler. We placed the boiler inside the bathroom, to also benefit from the heat that was dissipated from it. It proved to be a good idea, and the bathroom was prepared…
The first shower
The first shower made in the new bathroom was a huge success! We had very good pressure and the water was very hot. With only a few pieces of wood burned, we had hot water and heat for the whole day. The entire family made showers with just a small fire. Minimum use of wood with maximum results. This solution may not be the most eco-friendly, but it is very efficient.
The only drawback to this may be the heat generated by the boiler during the hottest days in the summer. I used it in June and it doesn’t feel too hot.
Note: All the images in this article were shot with my phone and they represent the real things that I am writing about in the article.
