What watt heaters do I need to be effective? and where to put them?

Bexm

Hello!

I am hoping you can give me some advice.

I have already established storage heaters are useless, so I am not continuing down that route and we can't get gas and no room for oil, so it has to be electric.

So what I am trying to work out is how many heaters and what wattage do I need to stay nice and warm.

I have a 2 bedroom house, that currently only had 1 storage heater in the living room (that only half seems to work), plus an 800w oil filled and a convector heater in one of the bedrooms..!

Our stairs go up from our living room, so currently all our heat seems to go upstairs which always seems nice an toasty.. but the downstairs is always freezing..

I know 800watt is useless but I'm not sure what will work? plus how do I stop all the warmth going upstairs? Can I position my heaters in any particular place that will help?

Thanks in advance

Bex

bryanb

Bexm wrote: »

Hello!

I am hoping you can give me some advice.

I have already established storage heaters are useless, so I am not continuing down that route and we can't get gas and no room for oil, so it has to be electric.

So what I am trying to work out is how many heaters and what wattage do I need to stay nice and warm.

I have a 2 bedroom house, that currently only had 1 storage heater in the living room (that only half seems to work), plus an 800w oil filled and a convector heater in one of the bedrooms..!

Our stairs go up from our living room, so currently all our heat seems to go upstairs which always seems nice an toasty.. but the downstairs is always freezing..

I know 800watt is useless but I'm not sure what will work? plus how do I stop all the warmth going upstairs? Can I position my heaters in any particular place that will help?

Thanks in advance

Bex

I would recommend heaters that are too big, but capable of being turned down.
Best way to stop heat going upstairs is to block it in some way, even a curtain will help. Have you considered bottled gas type heaters? They do make a lot of condensation though.

Bexm

We can't block the stairs as they are completely open to the living room.. don't think it'd be possible to put a curtain completely round them..

We tend to have lots of condensation as it is so gas heaters may make things alot worse, will consider it though!

Its so frustrating.. in the summer our house gets soooo warm.. but its the complete opposite in winter!

Cardew

The size of the property and insulation levels determine how much heat you require.

If you are determined to get rid of storage heaters(and you should think very carefully before you do) then just get several 3 kW heaters.

Nearly all £20 -£30 3 kW oil filled radiators or convector heaters have several settings i.e. 1/2/3 kW and a thermostat.

The cost of heating your room(s) to a set temperature will be exactly the same regardless of the wattage of the heaters you use.

To give you an example:

Let us assume to heat a room to 20C for 6 hours uses 6 kWh. A 1 kW heater will run continuously for 6 hours, a 2 kW heater will switch on and off and run for 3 hours and a 3 kW heater for 2 hours. The cost will be exactly the same.

The advantage of the 3 kW heater is that it will bring the room up to temperature quickly.

bryanb

Bexm wrote: »

We can't block the stairs as they are completely open to the living room.. don't think it'd be possible to put a curtain completely round them.

Curtain at the top of the stairs?