Electric Heating - 'Feel' thread

iamaparanoidandroid

Dear All

I have read a number of the threads on electric heating, but have not yet found anything which covers my question.

I undertsand the principle of electric heating (i.e. 1kW of electric = kW heat) and I understand kWh. I am also aware the electric heating is the most expensive form.

Situation: I am contemplating renting a studio flat over someone's garage. Currently, the only fixed heat is a fan heater in the bathroom. The flat is about 500 Sq Ft of which about 240 Sq ft is the main living area. In addition there is a Kitchen, Bathroom, Separate WC and Hall. The electric is submetered off the main house and is single rate. There is no possibility of Economy7. I will not be there too long (<18 months), so installation of other systems is not an option.

I am intending to only really heat the main room (possibly with a small heater in the kitchen for the depths of winter).

Question: I can forsee that there are a number of ways to do this, but which is likely to 'feel' better for a given amount of kWh?

1. A powerful oil filled radiator on a timer and thermostat to come on a little while before I get home, and go off at bedtime. (High use, short bursts)
2. Smaller oil filled rad on a themostat all the time as a base load heater with a secondary heater to top up in the evening. (Lower use long slow burn)
3. A IR heater to just heat me when I'm sat in the armchair. (Cold house but nice and warm in one spot)
4. Second hand Night Storage heaters, timed to charge up while I'm at work and discharge evening/overnight (no E7 - Remenber). (Slow burn and warm when I come in).

I'm thinking that options 2 or 4 might 'Feel' better as it will be a gentle pleasant heat and will let the fabric of the building warm up over time, preventing it from feeling cold and damp.


What do people think?

HappyMJ

I'd go with 1 and 3. 4 is too expensive for such a short time. 2 is too expensive to be left on 24 hours. A 1kW heater will use 24kWh per day.

I would not have the heating timed to be on if you aren't there. As soon as you get in turn the heaters on go and make a cup of tea go to the bathroom and 10 minutes later the one room will be warm enough to sit down and enjoy your cup of tea and watch TV. A 3kW heater on for 4 hours in an evening will use no more than 12kWh half the cost of keeping a low power one on for 24 hours. Try and not use the heating in the morning. Just get up get dressed and leave the house.

lstar337

I would go with 1 & 3, but I would probably substitute the IR heater for an electric overblanket, or a hot air blower.

IR devices only seem effective on bare skin. Since I am guessing you will not be sat naked, an electric blanket or hot air blower would be more effective.

iamaparanoidandroid

Thanks for the input guys.

By small background heat (number 2) I really did mean small - Argos do a 0.45kW heater which would use approx £1.6o per day (based on 15p/kW).

Whilst I am keen to minimise expenditure/ensure that I make the most of the electric I am using, I have lived in cold houses before and would rather spend a little more and be comfortable (the rent is affordable becuse the property is basic).

I can lay my hands on the storage heaters for cheaper than buying oil filled rads, making them quite cost effective - would this not be an overal better solution due to the gentle release of heat, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

HappyMJ

iamaparanoidandroid wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys.

By small background heat (number 2) I really did mean small - Argos do a 0.45kW heater which would use approx £1.6o per day (based on 15p/kW).

Whilst I am keen to minimise expenditure/ensure that I make the most of the electric I am using, I have lived in cold houses before and would rather spend a little more and be comfortable (the rent is affordable becuse the property is basic).

I can lay my hands on the storage heaters for cheaper than buying oil filled rads, making them quite cost effective - would this not be an overal better solution due to the gentle release of heat, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

450W will be big enough to keep a small bathroom warm. I'd go for a high powered one so the room heats up really quickly and doesn't need to be 24 hours a day.

Electric heaters can be purchased for around £15 each. Storage heaters even if free would cost you £50 or more for the meter exchange and another £200 or so for the wiring so they only operate during E7 hours....and that's if the landlord allows you to make what I would consider a major change to the property. For 18 months it just isn't worth the hassle.

lstar337

iamaparanoidandroid wrote: »

Thanks for the input guys.

By small background heat (number 2) I really did mean small - Argos do a 0.45kW heater which would use approx £1.6o per day (based on 15p/kW).

Whilst I am keen to minimise expenditure/ensure that I make the most of the electric I am using, I have lived in cold houses before and would rather spend a little more and be comfortable (the rent is affordable becuse the property is basic).

I can lay my hands on the storage heaters for cheaper than buying oil filled rads, making them quite cost effective - would this not be an overal better solution due to the gentle release of heat, or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Even if you can get storage heaters cheap, you can't just plug them into a 13A socket. Plus they weigh a ton! They are filled with Magnetite bricks, which are heavier than solid iron.

Also, oil rads are not expensive, even if you buy them brand new. I got some really nice ones from screwfix, only £30.

Also, they will take a long time to heat up, really long.

Since you can't have E7, stick with an oil rad and electric blanket/air blower.

iamaparanoidandroid

HappyMJ wrote: »

450W will be big enough to keep a small bathroom warm. I'd go for a high powered one so the room heats up really quickly and doesn't need to be 24 hours a day.

Electric heaters can be purchased for around £15 each. Storage heaters even if free would cost you £50 or more for the meter exchange and another £200 or so for the wiring so they only operate during E7 hours....and that's if the landlord allows you to make what I would consider a major change to the property. For 18 months it just isn't worth the hassle.

Thanks for this MJ:

I would not be looking to get the meter changed (as per my original post) as the property is submetered. I would purely be using the night storage heaters (on 13a plugs) as delayed action/buffered convector heaters to make the heat release characteristic less 'spiky' and improve the cold/damp issues.

I can get these for free (ish) locally, so should be able to fit them for pennies.

I get what you are saying about cost saving but I also remeber living in a house as a child that had coal fired central heating - whilst it was never really warm, there was something nice about the house having a low level of background heat at all times.

As I say, I am not neccessarily looking for the absolute cheapest running cost, just the most cost effective way to make the place 'feel' warm/cosy.

Thanks

HappyMJ

iamaparanoidandroid wrote: »

Thanks for this MJ:

I would not be looking to get the meter changed (as per my original post) as the property is submetered. I would purely be using the night storage heaters (on 13a plugs) as delayed action/buffered convector heaters to make the heat release characteristic less 'spiky' and improve the cold/damp issues.

I can get these for free (ish) locally, so should be able to fit them for pennies.

I get what you are saying about cost saving but I also remeber living in a house as a child that had coal fired central heating - whilst it was never really warm, there was something nice about the house having a low level of background heat at all times.

As I say, I am not neccessarily looking for the absolute cheapest running cost, just the most cost effective way to make the place 'feel' warm/cosy.

Thanks

Then they aren't being used as storage heaters. I don't see the point in using a 3.4kW storage heater on peak day rates. Although they are 100% efficient they are really quite inefficient in that the heat emitted is not being taken advantage of. They are also very slow at emitting heat so you'd have to keep them on all the time. A 3.4kW storage heater stores it's heat over 7 hours and emits it's heat over 17 hours at 1.4kW per hour (on average-in reality it's much more in the morning and much less in the evening...neccesitating the need for supplementary heating for most homes in the evening) A 3kW convector heater only needs to be on for a short period of time and you will feel warm. After a half hour the whole room temperature will be really quite comfortable.

If you want cosy ask the landlord if you can have a small propane/LPG heater. They'll cost a little more than electric heating per hour but you will feel cosy having a flame to keep you warm. The landlord may not allow it if the ventilation of the property is insufficient as they emit water vapour along wth heat and that could increase damp problems.

lstar337

iamaparanoidandroid wrote: »

Thanks for this MJ:

I would not be looking to get the meter changed (as per my original post) as the property is submetered. I would purely be using the night storage heaters (on 13a plugs) as delayed action/buffered convector heaters to make the heat release characteristic less 'spiky' and improve the cold/damp issues.

I would advise heavily against this. Storage heaters are not designed to be connected to a 13A socket, and will likely just trip out the ring every few minutes. Tripped ring = no heat.

iamaparanoidandroid wrote: »

I can get these for free (ish) locally, so should be able to fit them for pennies.

It won't be pennies when an electrical fire burns the place to the ground.

Cycrow

i would just get a small heater than wait until the winter to see how cold it actually gets. You may not even need to use heaters all that often.

Last studio flat i was in, i turned on the heater about 3 times in a year, totally no more than 10 hours of running.

My current place has storage heaters, and they have never actually been switched on