Heating one room - advice needed!

fillerbunny

Hello there,

I work from home most of the time. I have been avoiding having the heating on during the day so far this year because the house is quite big and expensive to heat, so I've been making the most of my hot water bottle and jumpers. However it's starting to get a bit nippy even for that so I'm thinking about getting some kind of electric heater that I can just have in my office.

My question is, what kind of heater is the most economical? Last year I had a small fan heater but the electricity bill shot up far too noticeably!

Thanks in advance.

oldskoo1

oil filled radiator, a jumper + fleece and good slippers.

And shut the door too and possibly move to a smaller room so you can use more heat from the PC

Beastface

I also work from home a lot and it made me laugh to see someone else adopting the jumper and hot water bottle approach :rotfl:

I refuse to turn the heating on when it's just me in the house so watching this thread with interest.

grahamc2003

All electric (resistive) heaters will cost the same for the same heat output, but you may have preference for a certain type of heat output, eg halogen heaters giove off a nice glow I think. Some like paraffin heaters, supposed to be unlike those from several years ago in that you don't get much smell, but you do get a lot of water put in the air, which copuld cause problems.

All electrical devices give out their energy as heat eventually, after they've done what they were designed to do. So for example, if you have a freezer which uses 80W on average, that will keep your food cold, and also give you 80W of heating (plus the heat taken out of the food). So I think heaters should be a last resort when you can't think of any devices to turn on (for electrical heating that is).

You could try a dessicant dehumidifier - on max setting, mine gives out around 800W, which could be enough to take the chill of one room, plus, for the 800W cost, you also get some extra heat from the water which it condenses out of the air. A further benefit is that with less moisture in the air, raising the temperature of the air requires less energy, so your other heaters (when and if you turn them on) won't use as much energy for the same temperature rise. Obviously, if you have a condensation problem, a dehumidifier will be a great help.

macman

This question is regularly asked... all electric heaters have the same efficiency and (for the same rated output) give out the same amount of heat for the same cost.
So an electric oil filled rad will be exactly the same as a fan heater or a convector.

jalexa

fillerbunny wrote: »

I'm thinking about getting some kind of electric heater that I can just have in my office.

Think about a small (450-500W) oil-filled radiator under your desk. That will keep certain regions toasty:).

Start with the stat low and gradually increase until you are comfortable. If you switch your pc off when not in use, think about connecting the heater to a saver plug controlled by the pc.

Because of better thermostatic control this should be more economical in use than the fan heater.

penrhyn

I'm looking at getting a dehumidifier for my daughter, any recommendations?

PS Sorry to hijack the tread.

Swipe

penrhyn wrote: »

I'm looking at getting a dehumidifier for my daughter, any recommendations?

PS Sorry to hijack the tread.

I've got the DD8L which has the ioniser which I never use so I'd recommend this one.

http://www.meaco.com/proddetail.asp?prod=DD8LJunior

Top notch customer service from meaco too.

It's exactly the same but without the ioniser and £25 cheaper. This is a desiccant one, much lighter than compressor ones, kicks out more heat but slightly more expensive to run but works down to 1C rather than 10C. After owning a desiccant one I'd never go back to a compressor dehumidifier again.

rogerblack

While dessicant dehumidifiers may collect more in very cold conditions, they are also significantly more expensive to run.
For example, the above, in 'high mode' - will use around 8 pounds a week more to run than a dessicant dehumidifier.
In normal room temps of ~16C say, a conventional dehumidifier will be _lots_ cheaper to run.

pothole50

I have one of these http://www.ebacdirect.com/product.php?productid=27 bought it from Argos about two weeks ago and it really makes a difference to the house and dries clothes as well. If you buy it from the Ebac site you get a free 5 year warranty

Swipe

rogerblack wrote: »

While dessicant dehumidifiers may collect more in very cold conditions, they are also significantly more expensive to run.
For example, the above, in 'high mode' - will use around 8 pounds a week more to run than a dessicant dehumidifier.
In normal room temps of ~16C say, a conventional dehumidifier will be _lots_ cheaper to run.

That is indeed true. However, in my case, I never need to use my dehumidifier at temps of 16C. It's mostly in cold hallways and spare unused rooms in the winter so a desiccant type makes sense for me as my old compressor one was forever freezing up.