Rental property with heaters, but no central heating

Munin

IAmWales wrote: »

Buy a heater that you can use with a timer? [/url]

Have done that in one room. In the absence of any obligation from the LL to do anything (which based on the above feedback seems to be the case - thanks for your input all), I will get some more.

ProDave

Munin wrote: »

For further context, its a single electric system, but the central controller has failed. You can still manually turn on the wall heaters (there is an override feature on the unit itself). The controller unit itself was listed on inventory as broken, and has not worked at all during my tenancy. Engineers have been sent twice, but they don't seem to be able to fix it, and no progress is being made. It's now been broken for months - but I care more as it's cold!

So it's an all electric heating system, it's just that the central controller has failed.

So even if that was working, it would still be expensive electric heating. So you only complaint is the timers don't work so you have to come in to a cold house and it takes a long time to heat up.

Buy your own plug in electric heaters with a built in timer Here are some for £16 each if you buy 3 http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/pel00023/convector-heater-with-timer-turbo/dp/HG0091707?ost=hg0091707&iscrfnonsku=false&ddkey=http%3Aen-CPC%2FCPC_United_Kingdom%2Fsearch

Use those with their built in timer and thermostat to warm the rooms to a background level before you get home then turn on the other heaters if you need more heat.

AdrianC

ProDave wrote: »

So it's an all electric heating system, it's just that the central controller has failed.

So even if that was working, it would still be expensive electric heating.

This is a very good point.

Electric heating is pretty much always 100% efficient at turning electricity into heat - the only thing that varies is how well an individual heater will distribute that heat into a room.

Electricity isn't THAT expensive - the absolute maximum you'll get from a 13A socket is 3kWh - so at 12p/kWh, that's 36p/hr. And that's absolutely flat-out, which it won't be for long. Most small fan heaters are 2kWh, so 24p/hr. If you're concerned about how much you're spending, a small power monitor to plug between the heater and socket is cheap.

ProDave

I would never use a fan heater unattended. I have seen what happens when the fan fails and the result if you are lucky is a melted lump of plastic, if less lucky a house fire.

I would only use electric convector heaters unattended and even then be careful there is nothing that can fall onto them.

AdrianC

ProDave wrote: »

I would never use a fan heater unattended. I have seen what happens when the fan fails and the result if you are lucky is a melted lump of plastic, if less lucky a house fire.

It'd be a very, very cheap and nasty fan heater not to have a thermal cut-out in it.

lisyloo

I would recommend one of these short term (no recommendation, just an example and check size as there are singles and doubles)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreamlands-Washable-Chocolate-Microfleece-Electric/dp/B01LD388GK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1513184358&sr=8-1&keywords=heated+throw