Heating one room - advice needed!

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pothole50 wrote: »

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

That is an excellent buy, great brand and some good features on that model + the 5 year warranty.

Ben84

If you have gas central heating then turning off the other radiators in the house and just using the one in the room you're heating is probably the cheapest option readily available for space heating. Of course, running around the house turning radiators off and on again twice a day takes some time and effort.

If this isn't practical or your heating doesn't work well this way, you'll need a space heater. Electric is easiest, just plug in a normal 13 amp plug and you can have up to 3 kW. However, it's more expensive than gas and you can't save energy buy buying a more efficient heater as they're all nearly 100% efficient. However, if the cable reaches (electric heaters should not be used on extensions, always plug directly in to the socket) then you can benefit from sitting near it at least.

grahamc2003

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.

let's see your maths for the £8 claim. I run two, and both together they come to less than £8 a week!

They do turn themselves off you know, and don't operate all the time. As soon as the air reaches the set humidity, they turn off, then on again when it rises to the kick in humidity level.

The rating of a dessicant one is higher than a fridge cycle one, mainly due to heating elements within the machine. Mydessicant runs between about 350W AND 800w depending on the setting, my compressor one runs at about 240W (when actually running). I run mine for 7 hours overnight - in that time, the dessicant uses 2kWh and removes 2l from a cold damp room (77% start rh), the compressor one uses 1kWh and removes 1l from a warm dryish room (about 72% start rh).

The main points in favour of the dessicant is that it works down to 0C where it still works at the same water romoving efficiency, whereas the compressor one sturgles to remove a few drops at anything below 10C room temp, and spends a lot of time defrosting (i.e. not doing anything except waiting for ice to melt. The compressor types are VERY sensitive to temperature and can remove loads at high room temps (if humid), but nothing at all at low temps. At around 11/12, ther compressor keeps running, using 180W, but not actually removing much water.

Although the dessicant is rated higher, it removes moisture all the time, and anyhow, it supplies very useful heat to cold rooms (further rasing the rh).

It's clear to me what type to recommend. If used in warm rooms only, say above 18C, I'd say get a compressor type for lower running costs when heat isn't required (I have an ebac 2560E, works well with good customer service), if used in cooler rooms (say below 15C) I'd say get a dessicant type, where the higher rating provides useful extra heat (I have an EcoAir, with ioniser, whatever that does, very light to move around, also good to use as a low powered heater, better than a heater in fact). I think ecoair, meaco, premiair etc etc are all the same rebadged model, cost about £150, model DD122FW-MK4.

frothy-coffee_2

Ben84 wrote: »

If you have gas central heating then turning off the other radiators in the house and just using the one in the room you're heating is probably the cheapest option readily available for space heating. Of course, running around the house turning radiators off and on again twice a day takes some time and effort.

I do this.

I Just have the double rad in the lounge on