Electric Heaters

factoryworker

aelitaman;

i agree with you generally; the trouble is with elec heating, people don't switch off...they leave on so that short quick birst to dissapate the chill becomes 2 hours of complacent heat.......

"What I think incubus is saying is there is a situation where using electric heating in one room is cheaper than turning the GCH on. "

for (very) short periods this may be true, but i stand by more than an hour a day on elec is dearer than gas. if people are VERY disiplined, using only one room, with eht elec heater on for very short periods, it can be cheaper, The trouble is, people don't live in one room (rarely) and don't turn off quickly; i reiterate i would be concerned at the stated level of usage 2 x300-400w elec heaters; if that was my mother, i'd either be driving up to put her heatng on and puttting £50 quid in the kitty, or i'd be ringing social service because i was concerned for their welfare

Robert2009

In fact the heating has been off for just over 2 hours and the temp in this room where the computer is is 23 C whilst downstairs the temp is 18 C so the computer raises the temp by 5 C

if your computer raises the temperature, running on elec, a dearer fuel

as someone said, heat rises, my upstairs is always warmer than dowstairs.

something to do with the fact that the bedroom ceiling is more insulated than the floor:beer:

Also there are three fans inside my computer pumping out 300 watt of heat and if I want to use my computer I have to pay the money:D

Cardew

aelitaman wrote: »

I agree with you that GCH is cheaper than Electric if used over a long period - hours.

What I think incubus is saying is there is a situation where using electric heating in one room is cheaper than turning the GCH on. I do this when I want to just take the chill out of the room i.e when is is about 6c outside air temp. I am in the living room and if I turn the GCH on then to get just the radiators warm in the lving room is 2m^3 of gas (it uses less after .4m^3 per hour) because it obviously heats up all the water in the pipes that run through the house even if all of the other radiators are turned off. Now to take the chill of the air with the 3Kw electric heater take about 40mins.

So gas is about 2 x 11.2 = 22.4Kwh x 3.5p = 78.4p

Elecy 3Kw x 40/60 = 2Kw x 14p = 28p

I admit that if it is freezing outside the small elecy heater will not heat the room, and I also admit that the residual heat in the radiators keeps the chill of for much longer than after I turn the electric heater off. But this method is great for when you just need a quick heat up like reading the papers on a sunday morning before going out for the rest of the day so the residual heat in the radiators would be wasted money.

I understand your point, but that is not what incubus was saying.

I have my PC in a study. The central heating goes off in the house around 10pm. If I am using the computer much later than that and the study gets cold, I can switch on a small electrical heater rather than switch on the CH, and go around the house turning off radiators. It is more for convenience than money saving.

However make no mistake, the cheapest option is to switch on CH and turn off unrequired radiators.

factoryworker

Robert2009 wrote: »

as someone said, heat rises, my upstairs is always warmer than dowstairs.

something to do with the fact that the bedroom ceiling is more insulated than the floor:beer:

Also there are three fans inside my computer pumping out 300 watt of heat and if I want to use my computer I have to pay the money:D

as someone said, heat rises, my upstairs is always warmer than dowstairs

physics...won't disagree with that....

something to do with the fact that the bedroom ceiling is more insulated than the floor

Good..i'b be concerned if it wasn't

Also there are three fans inside my computer pumping out 300 watt of heat and if I want to use my computer I have to pay the money

fine.

the difference is you understand that and accept the cost of doing so...unfortunately the masses don't...notwithstanding that my mathamatical prowess is struglling to get around 300w equating to such in an increase in temperature.....doubtless a few haloge bulbs giving of a nice heat?

factoryworker

sorry, just reread and see your PC is upsatairs, hence increase in heat (heat rises).....

Cardew

factoryworker wrote: »

notwithstanding that my mathamatical prowess is struglling to get around 300w equating to such in an increase in temperature.....doubtless a few haloge bulbs giving of a nice heat?

The most important 'law' to remember is that you cannot destroy energy!

If the PC is using 300w you get the benefit in heat. Albeit that is a mighty powerful PC!!! and/or a huge old CRT monitor.

Mankysteve

300wats iam guessing is the psu rateing rather than actually sustained usage, the amount it use will vary ive gt 500 watt supply but the most ove ever seen it use is 110w. But anyway i digress, not all the energy it uses will be converted into heat.

somefunky

leccy is my only option of heating. i find storage heaters impracticle to the times i want heat - only minimal in evening. what is the advice on most effecient/economical types of plug in heaters - halogen or oil filled. is there a particular model/make for best performance?

penrhyn

Just get something with a decent thermostat. All electrical heaters are near 100% efficient.

calvincamel

Oil filled are very good. They're slower to start up though, obviously, and slower to cool down (like a normal radiator). But they don't dry the air as much and generally tend to use less power as there's no fan involved, just convection currents. I bought one for Mum the other winter, as her gas/electric cuts were causing CH system problems. One oil radiator kept the living room warm and kept the chill off the kitchen and front room - she'd start on full heat then turn it down after an hour or so to 800w. Pretty darn good, I'd say.