Calor Gas Portable Heaters in Flats?

Coldfeet_2

Hi,
Does anybody know how effective/economical portable calor gas heaters are in flats? We've just had our winter electricity bill and it was £350 for three months! My husband wants to get a portable Calor heater but I hate them!!

There's only the two of us, out most of the day in this double glazed, wall insulated, all electric one bed 1st floor flat. We don't have a tumble drier, big screen tv, big freezer or anything flashy. We only turn the water immersion on for 90 minutes a day and switched the stupid storage heaters off years ago. We have one electric heater which we use as and when needed i.e. turn on about 4pm and off about 8pm.

The other question I've got is what is a normal / green / healthy room temperature at this time of year in the UK. My octengenarian aunt says 65F but I'm not made of such stern stuff!
Kind regards,
Coldfeet and getting colder (yes' I've already got 2 pairs of socks on!!):j

Magentasue

Was it an actual or estimated reading for your last bill?

We've had calor gas heaters and they are nice to sit in front of when you're cold, but they produce a lot of condensation and they can be dangerous, fume wise. I don't think they're much cheaper to run, if at all, than electric heaters.

Our CH thermostat is set to 18deg daytime, 20 deg evening and at 16 deg it usually switches off so that's what it's set to when we're out/in bed.

Fire_Fox

I would agree that calor gas heaters kick out a lot of water, and may cause damp problems in your flat. Secondly you may well find you are breaking the terms of your lease/ letting agreement by using gas in your all electric building.

Are you on an Economy 7 tariff, yet using most of your electricity on the expensive day rate? Are you using the one heater to heat the entire flat or just one area? Have you checked you are with the cheapest energy supplier?

We are two in a two bedroom all electric flat and our direct debit has just increased to £34 a month. We try to keep our main living area at 18C which means we need one large panel heater on for two hours on very cold days, keeping the door closed so as not to lose heat to the rest of the flat. We have an electric underblanket in the bedroom and do not bother heating the room at all. We find 45 minutes per night is sufficient use of the immersion.

Hope this helps.

Coldfeet_2

Condensation? Oh thank goodness for that - a wonderful reason not to have the horrid smelly things (we only got rid of the condensation problem when we forked out for new double-glazed windows). A thousand thank yous!! I've checked our supplier, it's not the absolute cheapest but seems to have the best reviews out of the top five for our area. We're going to try reduce the time our heater and immersion are on and see if that helps. Many thanks again.

Fire_Fox

Are you ventilating the flat properly (previous condensation problem might suggest not)? If you have damp air the flat will feel colder. Lots of heating and good windows will hold the water in the air, but it's still present.

pogofish

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I would agree that calor gas heaters kick out a lot of water, and may cause damp problems in your flat.

Secondly you may well find you are breaking the terms of your lease/ letting agreement by using gas in your all electric building.

Yes - they are sods for condensation.

Also very important - After a number of incidents involving explosions, gassings & carbon monoxide poisonings from ill-maintained fires back in the 60s & 70s, many landlords, esp councils & housing assocs wrote clauses banning their use into leases.