cheap, hot portable heating wanted

ali-t

I moved to a new house earlier this year and although it has good insulation etc the house is pretty big and even with only myself staying in it the gas bill for a 6 week period was £150 which was a bit too :eek: for me.

All of the rooms are really large and because I have dogs I have hard floors throughout and blinds rather than curtains as upstairs is all velux windows.

I was looking at a couple of delonghi 3kw heaters that get ok reviews on amazon but when looking at them on other websites that link to energy consumption they are described as being very heavy electricity users and cost around £225pa in electricity to run.

Are there any cheaper solutions for heaters that will heat up a room quickly that can be used in addition to lower level central heating or am I as well to just take the hit with the central heating each year?

I am planning early incase there are any bargains to be had!

ed110220

Hi, I don't think you'll save any money by using electric heaters - on the contrary, electricity is usually a much more expensive way of heating than gas. Which is why people use gas, even though it's less convenient and involves pipes and boilers and all that palaver.

It may be a better idea to only heat the rooms you need heating when they need to be heated, say by putting programmable/timer valves on the radiators.

ali-t

Is that something I can do myself or do I need a tradesman? Would it be a plumber or a heating engineer?

alanobrien

Just close both the radiator valves on the rooms you do not want to heat and make sure you keep doors shut on the rooms you do want to heat.

keystone

alanobrien wrote: »

Just close both the radiator valves on the rooms you do not want to heat and make sure you keep doors shut on the rooms you do want to heat.

Thats the ticket - alternatively get yourself a portable Calor gas cabinet heater.

Cheers

Owain_Moneysaver

keystone wrote: »

Thats the ticket - alternatively get yourself a portable Calor gas cabinet heater.

Bottled gas is more expensive per kWh than mains gas or electricity
Bottled gas heaters must only be used in well ventilated rooms which means the expensive heat is lost
Bottled gas heaters produce water vapour which can lead to condensation, mould etc.

ali-t

I looked at some calor heaters online and they are really expensive and the cylinders are really expensive so would it not be cheaper to get an electric one or just put the heating on more?

shedhead55

The best tarriffs I can find have gas at about 3.5p per kwh, day rate electricity at about 13p kwh and night rate electricity at 5.5p per kwh while lpg (calor gas) in the larger propane bottles is about 13p per kwh.
It is therefore easy to see that where mains gas is available the choice is really a no brainer but does rule out portable appliances. Installing a fixed gas fire in the most used rooms may be cost effective, a balanced flue type being an option if there is no chimney.
Otherwise, as has already been suggested just turn off the radiators that are not in use and make sure your boiler is efficient.

ali-t

My house is only a couple of years old, is well insulated but the rooms are large and lots of it is open plan, hence £150 gas bill in 6 weeks. I will have to be much smarter with how I use the heating this year

shedhead55

ali-t wrote: »

My house is only a couple of years old, is well insulated but the rooms are large and lots of it is open plan, hence £150 gas bill in 6 weeks. I will have to be much smarter with how I use the heating this year

Sounds like everything is most probably efficient then. perhaps putting thicker thermals on would help.

keystone

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Bottled gas is more expensive per kWh than mains gas or electricity
Bottled gas heaters must only be used in well ventilated rooms which means the expensive heat is lost
Bottled gas heaters produce water vapour which can lead to condensation, mould etc.

Fair enough - t'was just a thought.

Cheers