cheapest to heat a conservatory

nursemolly

with forever rising fuel bills. can someone advise me the cheapest way to heat a conservatory..
we don`t have a radiator in there.
thanks
molly
xx

Cardew

If you use it a lot, in the long run it might be cheaper to get a radiator fitted(assuming you have Gas CH)

Otherwise you have little option but get some form of electrical heater. It really doesn't matter what type as they are all 100% efficient; so for the same cost, you get the same amount of heat from all types.

A small cheap fan heater is as good as anything.

Ken68

Did once see, Molly, a large conservatory in which the owner had built thermo block structures to absorb the suns heat. A type of storage heater. The conservatory had roof insulation blinds and thick curtains. Expensive to install all at once tho.

punamulta

your best bet would be to fit an aircon heat pump, these are are very green and efficient, often giving over 3 kw units of heat for one kw unit of power used, they do this by extracting residual heat from the outside air, people in Scandinavia use them to heat their houses.

B&Q are selling them at half price at the moment, here's a link to the A rated inverter easy fit unit £349, which can be fitted by any competent DIY person. these will give you air conditioning in the summer too.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9376868&fh_start_index=6&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b10096%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b10098%7d%2ffeaturesBrand%3dAirforce&fh_refview=lister&ts=1190716294706&isSearch=false

Cardew

punamulta wrote: »

your best bet would be to fit an aircon heat pump, these are are very green and efficient, often giving over 3 kw units of heat for one kw unit of power used, they do this by extracting residual heat from the outside air, people in Scandinavia use them to heat their houses.

B&Q are selling them at half price at the moment, here's a link to the A rated inverter easy fit unit £349, which can be fitted by any competent DIY person. these will give you air conditioning in the summer too.

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav/nav.jsp?action=detail&fh_secondid=9376868&fh_start_index=6&fh_eds=%c3%9f&fh_location=%2f%2fcatalog01%2fen_GB%2fcategories%3c%7b10096%7d%2fcategories%3c%7b10098%7d%2ffeaturesBrand%3dAirforce&fh_refview=lister&ts=1190716294706&isSearch=false

You are quite right that heat pumps are extremely efficient. However are very expensive. Even small ones I have seen cost a couple of thousand pounds. Systems for a house cost £15000 upwards

Are you sure the appliance in the link you gave is not a ACU with a simple fan heater? It says nothing about it being a heat pump - or discusses how efficient it is at heating.

punamulta

yes they have been, and can still be very expensive here, but now that the Chinese are making them in bulk the prices have tumbled, the ground and water source heat pumps cost the sort of figure you mention due to their high installation costs, but air source pump's efficiency have improved immensely in the past few years with COP ratios of up to 1kw to 5kw heat and just need a hole in the wall for the pipework and cables.

an ac unit running in reverse is a heat pump, it can't use more power than an electric motor, which uses far less than a heating element, I have 2 of these things, they work!

the kiwis seem to have cottoned on to these things, here's a link to similar inverters there. which explains reverse cycle aircon heating.
http://www.enviromaster.co.nz/products.html

Cardew

Personally I fully understand the principle of heat pumps as I have been looking at them for a number of years, albeit mainly for swimming pools. I have posted on this forum about their advantages several times.

Your link is good however for those who want a simplified explanation.

However I really hadn't appreciated that prices for air source appliances had come down to £349 - in fact I was looking at a system that cost over £2000 recently.
I am surprised that the B &Q link doesn't give any details like COP etc, or even mention that its is a heat pump.

punamulta

I suspect that B&Q don't realise that the Inverter at the top of their AC range is a heat pump, they briefly mention that it also heats, but have reduced it along with the rest of their a/c kit, you would think the A enegy rating would give em a clue,

There are also several for sale on ebay with the same easy-fit connectors

I too was quoted £2k here for one installed, I might have fallen for it had I not just had a panasonic one fitted for 800 euro in Finland. I have just bought the B&Q inverter for my house here and installed it myself.

jediknights70

I am a conservatory installer and I have been using radiant panel heaters in all of my projects. I have found them to be efficient , effective and very easy to install. None of my customers have ever complained about the heaters. If you Google the "Tenderheat Sunrise" or "Tenderheat Sunburst" a list of supplers will come up. My personal preference is to get them through Heattend who are the main UK supplier.

Cardew

jediknights70 wrote: »

I am a conservatory installer and I have been using radiant panel heaters in all of my projects. I have found them to be efficient , effective and very easy to install.

They may well be effective, easy to install and indeed have the same 100% efficiency as all forms of electrical heating.

However any form of electrical heater* is still the most expensive way to provide heat.

* excluding heat pumps.

1carminestocky

In the long run, with the way fuel prices are going, it may be best to convert the conservatory into a 'proper' extension! That's what we are planning to do this year. We insisted on very deep (for a conservatory) foundations when we had it built, for this very reason. They really are very inefficient structures when it comes to heating them.