Conservatory Heating? (merged threads)

sillysi

Hi,having a conservatory built at the moment and i am looking at heating solutions for it.I think i will go for a oil filled 2 kw radiator but was wondering what the running costs are.It will be on most of the time whilst its chilly .any ideas of rough hourly costs of these heaters ? Any other heating ideas welcome.

Poppycat

2kw would be around 12-13p per hour depending on the company you use.

djohn2002uk

Also bear in mind that it takes the best part of an hour to heat up.

Poppycat

Wouldn't a convectror heater be better? I thought they were cheaper to run. Good point about radiator they would take a while to warm up.

djohn2002uk

If it was me, and I had a radiator not far away inside the house, I would tee of that radiatos pipes into the conservatory and put a new radiator in there. Cheapest to run.

sillysi

I will probably think of getting a radiator put in next year. Are convector heaters cheaper to run then,what would be the running cost of a 2 kw p/h.Do convector heaters make a noise or are they fairly quite..........thanks

penrhyn

A 2kw oil filled radiator, a 2Kw convector, or a 2KW fan heater or for that matter 20 100 watt light bulbs all consume power at the same rate. The exact amount used can be regulated by a thermostat.
Convector heaters are fairly quiet though they might tick a bit when hesting up or cooling down. A fan heater would heat your room up quickest but is fairly noisy. You should be able to pick up a cheap convector for less than £20.00

Poppycat

Electric companies measure consumption per Kw. Currently 1 KW is around 6 to 7 p. So as I said before 2kw would be double that, which would be equal to 20x100 watt bulbs.

Converters are slow to heat up but then thermostatically controlled so once the desired temperature is reached it would then turn off and only come back on when its below that.

Fan heaters are quicker but may cost more to run, as next time you use it the room would have to be reheated again.

As djohn2002uk said if you can get a radiator fitted from your central heating that may be better.

It may be better to keep conservatory heating on at a lower temperature when not in use, otherwise you may get some condensation on the doors/windows. The hotter a room is the more it can retain water moisture.

bunking_off

Keep in mind that the radiator only pulls 2kW when it's actually on - in reality it'll be cycling on and off so won't use anything like that.

You'd be advised not to try to continually heat the conservatory to normal room temperatures (e.g. 18-20 deg C) as conservatories (relatively) have !!!!!! all insulation, and you'd really be paying to heat your garden. By all means turn up the radiator when you're using the conservatory, but leave it on e.g. frost guard otherwise.

I'd think carefully about fitting a radiator into your central heating system...I'm sure I read somewhere that the danger is that it'll be working so hard that it'll just pull all the warmth out of your house and your bill will skyrocket. Also, if you do plumb it into your heating, the conservatory will no longer qualify for exemption from planning/building regs approval (though there seems to be some debate on this).

See
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2005/12/07/pask07.xml
and
http://www.conservatoriesonline.com/heatq.htm
for advice.

letsbehonest

I have got to agree with bunking_off what ever you use to heat up your conservatory you are effectivley heating up your garden. I have the same problem, with mine as it is only used on occassions I found that the best method is a fan heater 2.4 Kw Argos £15.

mercurystar999

Wouldn't it only pull as much heat as the rest of the house? It would turn off and on with the other rads in the house. I suppose it would only pull more if a thermostatic radiator valve is fitted?