Heating Advice needed

karenski

Hi currently have economy 7 and multi fuel stove for heating. I've been looking at possibly putting vent free gas wall heaters in as a cheaper and more convenient option. Seen some reasonably priced Kozy world dual fuel,10000 btu's on net. These come from America. I wanted to ask if anyone knows about them and if they are legal/safe in this country?

rustyboy21

Never heard of them, but you can get balanced flue wall heaters here which are very efficient and cheap to run.


http://www.valor.co.uk/catalogue/gas_collection/Wall-Heaters/Brazilia/index.htm


If when you say vent free, you mean flueless ( with a catylitic convertor in them) then I would suggest not. Not made for UK market, need warm air already to stop condensation, and IMO a death trap ( majority of RGI's feel the same)


Just had a look at them, they are similar to the mobile heaters , but are static. Problem is they won't run on UK nat gas, they will be set up for US NG or propane. You wouldn't get anyone to fit them for you.


Years ago we used to have similar here. Valor made one called Tropic Trend. BG condemned all of them as they did not have any outside ventilation and were a danger.

karenski

Thankyou rustyboy21 for reply. Kinda thought they wouldn't be ok to use in UK. Looked at valor ones, just a pity they didn't make them cosmetically nice. Though at the end of the day its about being warmer. Thankyou again

Robwiz

If you're looking for low cost heating, it's worth thinking about an air to air heat pump (aka a split air conditioning unit). The snappily named Mitsubishi Heavy Industries SRK20ZJX-S has a coefficient of performance of 5.71 – which means it puts out 5.71 kW of heat for every 1 kW of electricity it uses, giving an effective cost per kWh of heat of around 2p on standard rate electricity. For a lengthy discussion search for the Carbon Commentary blog.

That model of heat pump costs £620 and installation is around the same again (I was quoted £1200 to supply and fit). It qualifies for 5% VAT on domestic installations. Compared to installing a wood burning stove, it's a cheaper cost to install and to run.

There is a Hitachi model (SX8) with a COP over 6, but it's much more expensive to buy and would take for ever to recover the extra on electricity savings.