Fireplace for conservatory- gas v electric

Trary

We have a north facing conservatory which was heated by a balanced flue hang on the wall heater (1980s style, brown and not very nice to look at), which is now dead.

We looked at replacing it with another but styles go from exactly the same (awful but £200ish) to beautiful (but £1500).

We could have a flueless but need an airbrick in the room. Not an option as it would but unheated a lot of the time so freezing and damp.

We could go electric. Cheaper to buy but more expensive to run.

What would you do? We want to use it more in the winter now the family are growing.

rustyboy21

I presume you have Gas Fired CH ?

If so, Have a look at something like this. My sister has just had one fitted. It takes the heat from the CH system and a fan blows it into the room. It has made a great difference to her conservatory

http://www.tesco.com/direct/myson-hi-line-rc-e-fan-convector-heater-20-14/436-6515.prd?source=others

Best website for a simple description of what it does.

Furts

rustyboy21 wrote: »

I presume you have Gas Fired CH ?

If so, Have a look at something like this. My sister has just had one fitted. It takes the heat from the CH system and a fan blows it into the room. It has made a great difference to her conservatory

http://www.tesco.com/direct/myson-hi-line-rc-e-fan-convector-heater-20-14/436-6515.prd?source=others

Best website for a simple description of what it does.

What is the situation with Buildings Regulations? The rule of thumb was a conservatory should not run off a house central heating system?

rustyboy21

Furts wrote: »

What is the situation with Buildings Regulations? The rule of thumb was a conservatory should not run off a house central heating system?

Ain't got a clue, but the GS installer, who I trust, had no issues.

Just checked, it must be able to be controlled separately from the house heating, as a conservatory is classed as poor for efficiency.

This product has a RC to use, so you switch it off when you don't need it. It is only like a fan heater, but gets its heat from the CH, so cheaper to run than pure electric heaters

phoenix_w

Furts wrote: »

What is the situation with Buildings Regulations? The rule of thumb was a conservatory should not run off a house central heating system?

I think the rule is that it's fine so long as you have a way of isolating the conservatory from the rest of the system. When we had ours built we had a wall panel with a big isolation lever behind it to perform this task.

thescouselander

We run an electric heater in our conservatory - it doesn't cost that much to run but then we don't go in there too much in the winter.

Considering an electric heater can be had for £50 you could use it a lot before the costs mount up to the purchase price of the alternative gas heater.

Furts

thescouselander wrote: »

We run an electric heater in our conservatory - it doesn't cost that much to run but then we don't go in there too much in the winter.

Considering an electric heater can be had for £50 you could use it a lot before the costs mount up to the purchase price of the alternative gas heater.

MiL has a decent size conservatory and has a 600W oil filled in the corner. This keeps it warm, and is only in use perhaps 3 months of the year. It cuts in & out on its thermostat. My guess is over a 12 hour day it is for about half the time, so costing her about 54p per day to heat it. However, she keeps the door open into her bungalow so this 54p also goes towards heating that.

The total annual heating of the conservatory and some of the bungalow comes to less than £50 plus standing charges on the meter - hardly a sum to complain about. Yet people do get hung up on the cost of electric heating!

Hence I am fully behind your logic in adopting a money saving stance and using a cheap oil filled radiator.

Trary

It seems we might lean towards an electric fireplace as they are cheaper to buy, need no servicing, can have thermostat, and look nice. We can get one to hang on the wall.

Thank you for all yoyr replies, certainly helping us xx