Panel heater? expensive?

BEAT_THE_DEBT

Hi i am running a panel heater (electric) in one of my rooms are they expensive?
Thanks x

taxsaver

Depends on it's power consumption.... 1KW, 2KW, 3KW etc? Also how long it's on for and if you are comparing it to central heating a whole house as an alternative and then what type of fuel the CH runs on.

squeaky

Hi

I think the regulars on the utilities boards will be able to help you out with this one, so I'll move your query across for you.

Good luck

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BEAT_THE_DEBT

Its 3w and on for a few hrs a day to stp one room going damp as only a v sml radiator in this room. It would be extra to central heating.
Thanks xx

SammyFace

Let's say you pay 12p per KW for your electricity, that means your 3KW panel heater costs 36p per hour to run. That would cost £1.08 per day if you use it for 3 hours. x

You might try opening the window in the damp room for a little while each day to help with the damp.

chris1973

Depends on its rating and what you pay for a unit (KW/H) of Electricity

A 1KW heater will use 1 unit of Electricity for every hour it is heating, a 2KW one will use 2 units per hour, and a 3kw one will use 3 units per hour etc etc

Multiply the number of units by your Electricity unit cost (shown as per KW/H on your bill)

So if you have a 3KW heater and pay 13p for a unit (KW/H) of electricity it will use 3x 13p = £0.39 - so its running cost would be 39p per hour for that model.

These figures assume that the unit is running continuously, most models have a thermostat which, once the room heats up to the desired temperature the heater will then cycle the element on/off in order to maintain that temperature so it won't be drawing current constantly for every minute of every hour. How often the heater needs to switch on for, depends on things like room size, doors opening / closing, insulation level of the property and of course your own comfort level in deciding on the thermostat setting.

Of course, you also need to ensure that the room will be adequately heated by a single 2KW heater, some larger rooms, like living areas may need upto 5KW of heat input to raise the temperature to 20c when its 0c outside, so using one 2kw heater in a room where physics dicatates it needs 5KW of heat input to warm it comfortably is never going to be the most economical (or comfortable) arrangement!, and because the heater will never warm the room to the selected temperature, you are either going to need to sit on top of it, or wear a coat with it!.

You can calculate the 'heat input' required to warm a given room to a comfortable level when its freezing outside, by entering in the room dimensions into a calculator like this one:-

http://www.flickeringflame.co.uk/tech_detail/tech.htm

The first thing you need to do is to work out how much heat input the room you are heating needs and then select a heater(s) which can comfortably produce the heat input the room requires, or you will find yourself burning though electricity and never really feeling warm from it!. In most cases youll probably need two, mounted at opposite ends of the room.

Another thing to remember that non E7 / E10 tariff Electricity remains one of the most expensive methods of heating that there is today. Costing around 12p+ per unit, it compares expensively against heating oil (6p per KW/H) or Mains Gas (4p K/H). If you have any of these other options available to you, then the wise money would probably advise you to use them, and just heat the rooms you need with it.

The full range of heating methods and their individual per KW/H costs are shown on this handy graph

http://www.biomassenergycentre.org.uk/portal/page?_pageid=75,59188&_dad=portal

BEAT_THE_DEBT

wow great replies thakyou . You all know your stuff!!! x