Electric heaters, wall-mounted, how to make more effective

edgex

A friend of mine is in a 1-bed flat, with the only heating being wall-mounted convector electric heaters. They are mounted on what are external walls (1 wall is the staircase the other side)
They only have on/off & very simple thermostat control, no timer etc, & work only on convection, no fans
The flats were built within the past 5 years, & are double-glazed.

When they are on, you can feel the heat from them if you hold your hand over them, & they do eventually heat the room, but not very well.

2 things:

is it any use putting reflective foil behind the heater

could a fan/s be attached to the bottom, to increase airflow over the heater elements, & try & push the heat round the room more



they look like this, but wall mounted, & hard-wired

Cardew

Foil will be of no use.

Why not buy a £20 fan heater to supplement the heating? All heating costs exactly the same to run.

edgex

Cardew wrote: »

Foil will be of no use.

Why not buy a £20 fan heater to supplement the heating? All heating costs exactly the same to run.

Would that be used in say the living room, to get a decent level of heat, & then just use the existing heater as a background heater to maintain that level?

richardc1983

Have you thought about fitting ceiling fans??? U can run these in reverse in winter to push the heat down from the ceiling. I run them in forward (summer mode) all year though as I prefer to feel the warm draught being pushed down rather than the heat being pushed down the walls in reverse mode.

200

really what richard sais is a good idea,
however if he gets himself those "wet" electric radiators he could get better
savings or so they say. is the flat well insulated ie. no very large windows insulated
walls, thick curtains could save you a lot of money you know.

richardc1983

Can the OP come back to the post regarding the suggestions.

mp80

i am in the same situation, with exactly the same heaters! (Dimplex) but a terrace house.

make sure no draughts are coming in from colder parts of the flat - also check windows for leaks, i had to redo the seal around my double glazing in one room, now it's really made a big difference!

make sure pointing is up to scratch, as if it's an exposed wall, can get very cold in the cavity which will just cool your interior wall down (don't block up any ventilation bricks though!!)