most economical way to heat

warped

i have a 3 bed house with combi boiler central heating

i need to heat the one bedroom more than usual to dry out a damp area and keep it warm

I also need to heat the bathroom because it is freezing in there lol

Both rooms have raidators

Is it cheaper (in terms of utility bills) to have the heating on more or get a small fan heater in the bedroom and a small fan bathroom heater wired up in the bathroom (as well as a few hours of heating each day)

Any ideas

david29dpo

Have the rads got TRVs? If so, use them.

warped

the rads has thermostatic valves but my heating is a closed loop system

surely if i shut off one of the rad valves then the others wont heat (of am i being simple)?

latecomer

It doesn't work like that. If the rads already have TRVs on them then when they reach the set temperature then the valve closes. simply turn up the TRV on the room you want to dry out and leave the rest the same.

Jonesya

Why not put a dehumidifier in the damp room? That way you can remove the moisture from the room rather than putting it into the air, plus any electricity it uses goes into the room as heat.

EliteHeat

Oddly enough, that is an extremely difficult question to answer and depends on many factors.

However it is easy enough to calculate the cost of using a 2kw fan heater since you know the cost of each Kw hour, factor in how long it spends off due to reaching temperature in any given period and the rest is easy.

The calculations for the central heating side are far from easy.

27col

Why is the bathroom cold. If it is because it is under radiated, then it would make more sense to up-size the radiator, than to get involved in the expensive of installing electric heaters, which use kwatts which cost much more than gas heated kwatts. It will never be as cost effective to heat by electricity as by gas. If the rooms are cold then you need to run the ch for longer.
At risk of being tedious, what is the insulation like. Perhaps it needs upgrading.
When a heating system is designed it is normal for the levels of insulation values to be taken into account in the calculation. If the ch cannot cope the there is either something wrong with the design or you are not running the ch for long enough. This assumes that the radiators are getting hot and that there are no air locks.

EliteHeat

27col wrote: »

Why is the bathroom cold. If it is because it is under radiated, then it would make more sense to up-size the radiator, than to get involved in the expensive of installing electric heaters, which use kwatts which cost much more than gas heated kwatts. It will never be as cost effective to heat by electricity as by gas. If the rooms are cold then you need to run the ch for longer.
At risk of being tedious, what is the insulation like. Perhaps it needs upgrading.
When a heating system is designed it is normal for the levels of insulation values to be taken into account in the calculation. If the ch cannot cope the there is either something wrong with the design or you are not running the ch for long enough. This assumes that the radiators are getting hot and that there are no air locks.

I'm sorry, but this demonstrates a lack of knowledge about how space heating systems are designed and controlled.

The OP specifically wanted to know how to heat two specific rooms and asked what was more cost effective, gas CH or electric heating.

The fact that a Kw hour of gas is cheaper than that for electricity is irrelevant and as I said before, the answer to the question is extremely complex.

It does not help to OP to !!!!! the surface of a problem and dress it up as a definitive answer.

27col

I do not wish to get into a technical discussion or a row with eliteheat. But at least I have given the subject some thought. All he says is that it is a complex problem without proposing any possible reason.or solution. That was already apparent. The op did not ask how to heat two specific rooms. He/she asks how to augment the already existing heating.
It seems to me that, a very obvious question would be, why is the existing heating inadequate.
The fact that electric kwatts are much more expensive than gas kwatts is not irrelevent. It is fundamental to the costs of heating.
I have always thought that elitheat's posts contained a lot of useful information and do not appreciate being put down in this way. The advice that I offered was not intended to be a definitive answer, it was my personal thoughts on the subject. If anyone has any other ideas, then lets hear them. I stand by what I said. I was involved in the original calculations for my self build and obviously did something right, as this house has never been cold.

smitht3

i have a similar situation and would really appreciate some advice.
I'm getting damp and mold in my bathroom. The small extractor fan i put in is not making a difference.

i need to heat it and looking for a solution. there is a small radiator in there but i cannot leave the whole central heating on just for that one small space. Granted i could switch the rest off but that means running round with pliers every time i want heat in others rooms too.

Changing the radiator is not a solution for me (best not to ask) although i realise this would be best long term.
What about short term though to tackle the initial problem whilst i'm at work?