Cheapest way of heating one room

runninglea

Hi - could anyone come up with the most cost effective way of heating a singular room. It is for my gran who only has central heating for the whole house and for obvious reasons does not want to put it on all day.

Is a convection heater the best?

savemoney

Does she have thermostatically values on rads then you can just have rads one she wants. Gas is cheaper to use than electric. When you use electric it costs the same only difference is how it is used, fan, oil, electric bars etc

MillicentBystander

Even if she doesn't have thermostats on her radiators she can simply switch off the ones she doesn't need to be on. Having said that, she must watch out for damp when the really cold weather starts. This strategy involves no expenditure on a heating appliance whatsoever.

PS make sure her house is as well insulated as possible (she should qualify for free stuff).

AfricanViolet

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savemoney

True I think you need some heating on in rooms even if its just to allow heat form other rooms if its really cold. That said the key is ventilation and also some insulation where possible

MillicentBystander wrote: »

Even if she doesn't have thermostats on her radiators she can simply switch off the ones she doesn't need to be on. Having said that, she must watch out for damp when the really cold weather starts. This strategy involves no expenditure on a heating appliance whatsoever.

PS make sure her house is as well insulated as possible (she should qualify for free stuff).

chris1973

With the recent price hikes across all energy types, there is no such thing as 'cheap' heating anymore, those days are long gone for everybody.

Mains gas is currently the cheapest and probably always will be. Gas costs under 4p KW/H (if you shop around) compared to 12p - 20p KW/H for Electricity, even with Electricity being more efficient than gas, it still doesn't bridge the price void between them in cost.

You mention heating one room, however I assume she also uses the toilet and bathroom?, does she want to be leaving a heated room and doing these tasks in -17c night temperatures and the 'ice days' we've seen during the last few winters, where snow lies and it barely gets above freezing for several days on end?. What about any pipes or tanks in the loft and the risk of bursts?

What about the bedroom?, I can personally say with some feeling and due experience that there is nothing worse than getting into a bed with damp feeling sheets where they are left day after day in an unheated bedroom, gathering damp and cold and feeling extremely unpleasant.

Personally, i'd be looking at fitting thermostatic valves to all radiators, and keeping the one in the main living area as high as is comfortable and background heat at least for the bathroom and main bedroom.

Alternatively you could keep the central heating itself on a background heat and use one of the heated throw's the other person has recommended above, for 'local' heat whilst she is sat reading / watching TV etc. These consume very little electricity in real terms, compared to other forms of Electrical Heating, and getting 8 - 10 hours use from a heated throw for 1 KW/H worth of Electricity would be the norm.

If you do decide to follow the convector / electric heating route, make sure it is adequate for the size of room. Many people just buy the first heater they see, use it on its most economical setting and expect it to heat the entire room. However if its a poorly insulated room or a large room or both, then one small heater probably wont be enough to heat the room on the coldest of days to the temperature where it switches on / off, meaning it constantly guzzles expensive electricity and still never really feels comfortably warm.

Yes, all Electric heaters are the same as far as output efficiency is concerned, however if you have a room whose size and insulation level requires 3kW of heat to be input into it in order to raise the temperature from 12c to 20c then a single 1KW heater is never going to do it.

debtdesperado

For various reasons I haven't had heating for a couple of winters and it's absolutely miserable. I was permanently stiff, sniffly, coughing...awful. And I'm young! I can really see now how being cold can kill.

If you love your gran my advice would be to tell her to hang the expense, keep herself nice and toasty through the winter and you'll settle the bill for her in February.

If you don't think you can afford it, save the money by not heating your house.... it's seriously miserable though! This is no judgement of you, but having lived through no heating I wouldn't care what I had to go without to make sure an elderly relative didn't suffer the same. And if her house is warm, you'll be popping over all the time for cups of tea so she'll get the company as a bonus.:)

grizzly1911

I go with the gas vote and mange the amount used, TVRs, reduce the thermostat a little.

My mum doesn't undertsand the themostat at all and will not heat certain rooms but will others.

If you do decide on electric for supplemental heat I wouldn't recommend fan heaters as they create drafts. A slimline solid panel heater with a thermostat would be better.

MillicentBystander

Also, check out if she is getting all the help she can with regards to heating costs. If she's on certain benefits there's financial help available.

runninglea

harrowing. wrote: »

I'm with savemoney. Does she sleep in that room too? Cos I would certainly not advocate letting a bedroom get to freezing conditions if someone will sleep there!

Yes she has moved downstairs so basically sleeps in the living room, has a bathroom next to this room and then the kitchen.

Even if she has the central heating on all day she says she does not feel the benefit, especially if it going on and off all day when it reaches a certain temperature.

It is really something that she can herself switch on and off when and as needed.

purple45

We bought a cheap convector heater last year and it is far better than previous heaters we have used (halogen). It makes the large room that we spend most time in lovely and cosy and we put the central heating on maybe once a day just to stop the rest of the house getting damp.