Heating a large space **HELP**

fozzledozzle

Evening,

I have recently bought a groundfloor one bedroom flat and I am having problems heating the living room up. The flat is electricity only, therefore gas/central heating is not an option.

The room:
6m x 5m = 30 square meters
Floor to ceiling is 10.5 ft
2 large windows approx 7ftx7ft (two of these)

I have spoken to numerous people about numerous solutions (infrared, storage heaters) but I am still not clear about what can help me and which is most efficient.

At them moment, the room has 2 small convector heaters in the corner of the room, they blow hot air out immediately but they are near useless as the hot air rises immediately and has literally no effect on the room even after leaving on for 8hrs straight. I bought an oil filled 'portable' heater which gives off good heat, but is only small and again is near useless.

Can anyone please help me or advise me what the best solution would be.. I am starting to worry about whether or not it is going to be possible to keep the room warm without running up a massive bill.

I am only in the flat 6pm-bedtime through the week and obviously at weekends too. I am planning on ordering thick lined curtains to help keep the cold out/warmth in.

Any help is greatly appreciated - thank you and happy new year!

CashStrapped

Hello and welcome.

I'll go through a few options, I am sure others will chip in too.

GAS
With it being a small one bedroom flat, the cost of installing gas is unlikely to be an economical option, even in the medium/long term. I know you did not mention gas, but I thought I would get it out the way as an option. You will have the cost of a new boiler, piping, radiators and ongoing maintenance. For a large property this cost may be worthwhile, but not usually for a small flat.

That leaves the all the electric options.


Instant Heat Electric Radiators
Ignore any marking articles about specialist infra-red heaters or ones with clay cores that will heat your room using electric more efficiently than others. It is nonsense. These usually cost a lot of money and are no more efficient than a £50 oil heater / panel heater from B&Q. Wall mounted ones come in at around £150 - £200

If you are in and have these on for most of the day, the cost can soon mount up.
So it depends what your living habits are.

The last, but usually most cost effective option is a modern storage heater system.


Storage Heaters
Storage heaters of old have a bad rep. But modern ones, installed in suitable properties can be very effective.

They charge at night, using a much cheaper night electricity tariff (economy 7). Then they release that heat during the day. Modern ones can be set to release more of their heat later in the day.

There is a larger upfront cost to these (compared to portable heaters), but are the cheapest and most economical long term solution. There should be very little (if any) maintenance costs.
Another bonus of economy 7 is that you can programme many domestic machines (wachince machine/dishwasher) to start at specific times so you can run them early morning to use the cheap rate too. Some people worry about having machines on while you may be in bed, but each to their own.

The one caveat with storage heaters and economy 7 is that you have to try and shift as much of your electric usage to the night period as possible. To get the best out of it you should be aiming for a minimum 65% of electricity use at night. So you have to consider your living habits to work out if it is good for you. The bulk of that 65% will be heating but the other things I mentioned do contribute.

You need to go through and work out your current electricity use in KWH, start taking weekly readings. Do you have usage data? This would be useful to see what you use on an annual basis.

In addition, because they charge at night and release heat during the day, some people struggle to get their head round this fact. They cannot be used like instant heaters, so you have to plan ahead a bit more.


Insulation/Draught Proofing

Your biggest saving (solution to keep the flat warmer for longer) may come from the little things. You need to look at ways to minimise heat loss in the flat itself.

As it is a ground floor flat, you are lucky to have the insulation of the flat above (rather than a cold roof).

Is it a period property with old period windows or modern with double glazing?

If the former and you want to keep these period features look at good thick curtains and consider secondary glazing.
Is the front door well insulated? All these little draughts add up to heat leaking from the property.
Make sure you don’t block up ventilation in the kitchen or bathroom though as you will end up with a mould problem!
Good luck!

Cardew

In addition to the above, with storage heaters on an Economy 7 tariff, your domestic hot water for baths, taps etc can be heated at cheap rate overnight.


It is important that you take note of the point made above about not being fooled into buying expensive, much hyped 'German' clay filled heaters etc. Remember all electric heaters are 100% so your convector and oil filled heaters will cost exactly the same to run, for the same heat output, as ANY other electrical heater.


If you are on your own, you might consider buying a CHEAP infrared heater like:


http://www.amazon.co.uk/Becks-Oscillating-Heater-1200W/dp/B002Q12ILA/ref=sr_1_1?s=kitchen-appliances&ie=UTF8&qid=1451654168&sr=1-1&keywords=infrared+heater


Whilst this is no more efficient than any other electrical heater, it 'beams' heat towards you, but doesn't have much effect on the rest of the room.

poppasmurf_bewdley

You may be better off purchasing a portable LPG gas heater from somewhere like Calor or B&Q.

http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home/portable-gas-heaters.html

I have used one of these in the past and they certainly throw out a lot of heat, and are cheaper to run than electric heating of any kind.

Gloomendoom

poppasmurf_bewdley wrote: »

You may be better off purchasing a portable LPG gas heater from somewhere like Calor or B&Q.

http://www.calor.co.uk/shop/in-the-home/portable-gas-heaters.html

I have used one of these in the past and they certainly throw out a lot of heat, and are cheaper to run than electric heating of any kind.

They also produce a lot of water vapour that can result in condensation problems.

CashStrapped

I agree with Gloomendoom. Calor gas is not a good idea without good controlled ventilation. The water vapour produced can indeed cause condensation problems, especially in small flats.

poppasmurf_bewdley

Gloomendoom wrote: »

They also produce a lot of water vapour that can result in condensation problems.

CashStrapped wrote: »

I agree with Gloomendoom. Calor gas is not a good idea without good controlled ventilation. The water vapour produced can indeed cause condensation problems, especially in small flats.

Agreed. You need to leave a window open slightly which will take care of any problem. This is not a problem, especially if you are above the ground floor.

The amount of condensation is far less than that produced from paraffin.

Nada666

fozzledozzle wrote: »

The room:
6m x 5m = 30 square meters
Floor to ceiling is 10.5 ft
2 large windows approx 7ftx7ft (two of these)

That's your living room. But what is the 'large space' you mention in your subject line?

PasturesNew

A cheap solution would be to buy a cheap pop up tent, that needs no ground fixings. Pop it up in the living room, crawl inside, just heat that.

I've never wanted a big room, with tall ceilings and lots of big windows ....for just this reason: how do you heat it, how do you pay that huge bill!

WobblyDog

With a (warm) money-saving hat on, what about wearing warmer clothes during the winter and accepting lower room temperatures? Also, the lower the temperature of your flat is, the more you will benefit from heat flowing from adjacent flats.

fozzledozzle

That is the large space... I'm lead to believe that for a living room with such high ceilings that it is quite a large space.