Gas fitter help here please

hethmar

We have a very large country kitchen. We are on gas central heating and there is a rad in there but it often feels chilly. Id like to put a heater on the wall so that it can be used in addition or independently of the gas central heating, say in the summer on a chilly evening or whatever.

Ive started looking before I put this to the OH and I am confused about the difference between a balanced flue heater and a flueless heater. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of these please.

Also any recs for a heater up to about 4Kw to be wall hung. I dont really want one that makes a statement, no flickering flames etc., something discreet but modern would be nice to put on the external wall under a window.

Help please or it will be next winter before I even broach the subject with OH as I like to have the options cut down before I speak to him about it.

Wywth

hethmar wrote: »

We have a very large country kitchen. We are on gas central heating and there is a rad in there but it often feels chilly. Id like to put a heater on the wall so that it can be used in addition or independently of the gas central heating, say in the summer on a chilly evening or whatever.

Ive started looking before I put this to the OH and I am confused about the difference between a balanced flue heater and a flueless heater. Can anyone give me the pros and cons of these please.

Also any recs for a heater up to about 4Kw to be wall hung. I dont really want one that makes a statement, no flickering flames etc., something discreet but modern would be nice to put on the external wall under a window.

Help please or it will be next winter before I even broach the subject with OH as I like to have the options cut down before I speak to him about it.

A balanced flue exhausts to outside, whilst a flueless doesn't have an exhaust.

I'm not sure why your kitchen is so cold. Normally the kitchen is the warmest room in the house because not only does it often house the boiler, but because of all the heating used in there for cooking. Even the fridge and/or freezer will output quite a bit of heat.

An electric heater would be the cheapest & easiest to install. If you really need 4kW, you'll probably need to install 2 of them.

ollski

A flueless heater will generally have a requirement for a permanent air vent making the point of it pretty negligable.

hethmar

Thanks guys. Should explain kitchen is 32 ft x 16 ft and has a high vaulted ceiling, so you can see its a large area to heat.

So basically the flueless ones have no benefits over the balanced flue types? Ive looked at a couple of sites and the suppliers boast flueless give 100% heat opposed to 75% with balanced flues.

ollski

Yes flueless gas fires are close on 100% efficiency but they do need a permanently open vent to the outside of 100cm2 in general. A room sealed balanced flue heater doesn't need any ventilation. Have you considered a big towel radiator or similar with an independent electric heater in it?

hethmar

Thanks, not sure if that would be out of place in the kitchen. May be the balanced flue is the way to go. I have seen some reasonably discreet/modern looking jobs that could look ok under the window. Will speak to OH about it as a vent could be a pain couldnt it, though the new ones blend in rather well (OH uses them for his solid fuel installations)

Sandybanks

hethmar wrote: »

We have a very large country kitchen. We are on gas central heating and there is a rad in there but it often feels chilly. Id like to put a heater on the wall so that it can be used in addition or independently of the gas central heating, say in the summer on a chilly evening or whatever.

How old is your house? Is Victorian or older? These houses often have solid walls with no insulation and stone floors laid on earth. If the soil below the floor keeps getting wet because water is getting under the house, high water table old spring etc it will put damp into the air. If you dry the washing in the kitchen that will put damp into the air. If you have no ventilation in the room the damp will stay in the air and lead to high humidity.
When the humidity is high you feel the room to be colder.
We did some tests in our house last year with a Greenhouse temperature and Humidity tester. At times in the middle of winter unheated rooms climbed to 90% humidity. At a temperature of 10 degrees the room felt very cold. Put on the dehumidifier take humidity below 50% and it seemed warm.
Get yourself a dehumidifier and give a try they are cheaper to run than heaters!

oldskoo1

Hope you find a suitable heater

Our kitchen is also quite a big space to heat. It's 24x20 but doesn't have the high ceiling and its also the coldest room in the house.

This was improved by filling in the gaps between the bottom of the wall and where it meets the floor. There was an air gap there under the kitchen cupboards. Skirting everywhere else, plugging this and sealing some small gaps over the big doors going to the garden improved things a lot.

Still have some cold air coming in through the cooker hood vent and I'm sure some cold air is getting under the floor and radiating through the tiles.

But overall, like you have found 1 radiator in our kitchen isn't sufficient. Wish we installed underfloor heating. Our lounge is a similar size, longer but a touch narrower and that has 2 rads and another set of doors into the garden but its much much warmer.

hethmar

Yes, OH did think about underfloor heating but we had heard bad experience from a friend who got a leak :eek:

We have cavity wall insulatation and insualtion under the floor so I think we have done all we can on that front. There are vents in the room too. There are 4 large velux windows in the vaulted ceiling too, which are lovely in the rest of the year but I guess do allow some cold. Also two sets of french doors and another four windows in the walls. I suppose all in all we are lucky it keeps as warm as it does. I was seriously thinking of an electric fire as there are some very attractive boxy modern looking (bright red, to go with the fridge/freezer ) ones but OH says gas would be more efficient. It also means a lot more faffing extending the gas pipes though doesnt it.

sheffield_lad

A few posts on here suggesting electric alternatives. Easier to fit but 3x and in some cases 4x the running costs of gas.

I would never consider using electric heating unless for short periods of time IE 1-2hrs a day.

Wywth

howee wrote: »

A few posts on here suggesting electric alternatives. Easier to fit but 3x and in some cases 4x the running costs of gas.

I would never consider using electric heating unless for short periods of time IE 1-2hrs a day.

True, but don't forget ROCE

You could get a simple 2Kw electric heater from as little as £10

A gas fired appliance will probably cost at least 50x more