portable gas heater

smeelicious

Having prepayment meters fitted tomorrow so i can budget my spending and see how much i am spending on them. I'm thinking of getting a small portable gas heater to heat the living room instead of using central heating. I'm wondering if others have tried this and if its helped x

ariba10

Beware of problems with Carbon Monoxide poisoning!

ash28

ariba10 wrote: »

Beware of problems with Carbon Monoxide poisoning!

You just have to be careful when buying a heater....quite a lot come with an oxygen depletion system and will shut down when gas and oxygen levels aren't right.

McKneff

And condensation. You would have to be opening windows to counteract this so it would really defeat the object...

matelodave

Portable heaters aren't all that cheap to run. The Calor Gas website price list for a 15kg cylinder of butane is £34.99. Each kg of gas produces about 13.7kwh so you'll get about 205kwh from a cylinder = 17p a kwh which could actually be more expensive than electricity depending on who your suppliers is and where you live. Propane is a bit cheaper but is still nearly 16p a kwh


Smaller cylinders cost more per kg and larger ones are a bit less, but not very portable. Most portable heaters take a 15kg cylinder. You've also got the inconvenience of swapping cylinders - a full 15kg cylinder is quite heavy weighing 30-35kg and you'll have an initial charge of £35 as well if you don't already have a cylinder


Whatever you do make sure you get a carbon monoxide alarm and be aware that gas heaters give out lots of condensation, so you'll need to ensure plenty of ventilation which actually reduces the efficiency of an lpg heater

seven-day-weekend

We had three large bottled gas heaters when we lived in Spain as our house had no heating whatsoever apart from a woodburner in the main sitting room and no piped gas. We used them in our large kitchen, the dining room and on the second floor.

As others have said, be sure to buy one that has the automatic cut-out and make sure your room has some natural ventilation, like an air brick or something similar. ( The gas engineer in Spain would not supply us with a gas bottle until we had a drainpipe-sized hole through the wall!). Install a CO alarm in the room where it is used.

We did not find they caused condensation, but then none of our doors and windows fitted properly

I don't know the cost of running them in this country, but in Spain it was cheaper than electricity which was the only other option.

AnthonyUK

Calor Gas Mobile Heaters do not generally cause condensation in most properties as there is natural ventilation anyway thru air coming under doors and round windows without need to open them while it's in use. They are only dangerous if misused or not regularly serviced. Most modern calor heaters shut down automatically on a lack of oxygen eliminating danger.