Halogen heaters

HappyShopper3

Not sure if this is the right board, but I'm thinking of buying a halogen heater. I wondered if anyone here has one and how economical they are. Do they give out a lot of heat and which is the best place to get one? Thanks for any help!

deanos

They are just light bulbs in a box light whats in security lights, my dad has one dosent give out much heat but for background heat they are ok.

Patr100

I've got one for a tenner - they are very good and economical - it gives very good heat but as with most radiant heaters eg a fitted fire you need to sit near it to get the benefit.

cattie

There have been quitea few posts recently about these heaters & the general cost of running these & the various other types of electric heaters, so if you do a search you should find some helpful info.

Cardew

All electrical heaters are just about 100% efficient so you get the same amount of heat for your money.

The advantage of halogen heaters - as Patr100 states above - is they are radiant heaters and they give out 'instant' heat to anyone in front of them.

They used to be very popular for unheated toilets where you could sit under or in front of them - or garages.

They are more economical in the sense they can be used where direct heat is required quickly, but to warm a room they are no more economical than any other electrical heater. They are of course far less economical than central heating.

Patr100

To be fair, , each bar or bulb on a halogen is usually only 400 watts - max 1200 watts (1.2KW) as on the one I have - so in their similar limited use compared to an old fashioned 2 or 3 KW bar fire, they are more economical to run-

Cardew

Patr100 wrote:

To be fair, , each bar or bulb on a halogen is usually only 400 watts - max 1200 watts (1.2KW) as on the one I have - so in their similar limited use compared to an old fashioned 2 or 3 KW bar fire, they are more economical to run-

It depends how you define economical!

A 400 watt halogen heater uses 40% of power of a 1kW bar fire, and hence 40% of the cost to run; but it only provides 40% of the heat.

allycat999

I use one as background heat for my conservatory during the winter, personally I really like them and at night time the light you get from them is great. Mine has a good safety feature that if you knock it over it turns off therefore safer than a bar fire. Obviously they are more expensive to run than central heating but still good.

HappyShopper3

Thanks to everyone who replied on this thread. Some say its economical, others say not and if you have to be right infront of the heater to feel the warmth then I guess its no good to heat up a room. I have Economy 7 heaters which were here when I moved in. I really hate them. Costly and they don't give out much heat at all.

squiggles

No advice to give about how economic they are but wilkinsons had some quite large ones reduced to £10.

penrhyn

Using electricity for heating is always going to be more expensive than using gas.
As a previous posted said you get out the energy you put in, they are very efficient but are never ever economic.
Economy 7 is the only way of getting cheap units, modern storage heaters are much better than older models but are expensive, not to mention as heavy as a pile of bricks!

Electricity costs about 4.5p per Kilowatt Hour, Gas costs about 1.2p per Kilowatt hour.