Tumble drier vs heated airer

pattypan4

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

I've said it before and I'll say it again. For those that are thinking of using heated whatever just remember.... the water in the clothes doesn't just disappear it goes somewhere.

yes this moisture is insidious, it lurks in closed wardrobes, by windows, in the top corners of rooms and down by the skirting. All the time setting up home as dangerous mould which can damage health, particularly lungs, permanently. Then one day you actually see it, the black areas when they are big enough, having meantime breathed in millions of mould spores. Having vents open is not enough

madlyn

To be honest the risk of making the room damp and full of mould is the only thing holding me back from buying a heated airer.
The room is north north/east facing and can get quite cold.
I will give putting the oil filled radiator on for a couple of hours during the day ago while leaving the window open an inch or so and see how that goes.

muddlemand

I don't know except what I gather from reading reviews.: people use them to prevent damp rather than the opposite.

I've only just started keeping my radiator on low overnight, in the room that is worst for damp - it's north-east facing; exposed to gales and I'm in a rainy part of the country; window frame a bit draughty; boxes of things made of fabric and paper that (I assume) "hold" damp; plus I've just found the wall radiator isn't working!! So it's like a garden shed attached to the house! I tend to keep the door closed to stop the cold spreading from that to the rest of the house and putting my heating bill up, so it rarely gets aired except when the weather's warm.

I think damp problems are mostly about the temperature range between daytime and night, like condensation in a tent, but I'm no expert. I've just seen reviews by people saying the radiator is great for this purpose in unheated garages etc. Of course on its lowest setting, it uses no power except when temps are low enough to make it come on.

ukbfg

muddlemand wrote: »

I would still recommend the Pro Breeze (or probably any other make of) oil-filled radiator, as in my earlier post #30. £100-ish, and I was lucky and got a discount too. What I've seen of their customer service has been great too.

My heating was down for ten days recently, and I bought a second one. I was honestly tempted to buy one for each room, and save on central heating! I seriously think, if one day I need to replace my boiler, I might do that instead!

I'd cost up using the immersion heater for the shower instead of letting the boiler do it, that's all. I already use the kettle instead of the hot tap for washing-up etc, it's more economical and (in my kitchen anyway) quicker.

Anyway I now have two of the oil-filled radiators and that gives me a spare for guests, or for now it's keeping the damp out of a back room that's exposed and gets very cold.

Your wonder heater will be no more or less efficient than any other electric heater. i.e. not very.

You'd be better off just using your central heating.

muddlemand

ukbfg wrote: »

Your wonder heater will be no more or less efficient than any other electric heater. i.e. not very.

You'd be better off just using your central heating.

I think it's because my house is in poor repair (draughty) and upstairs is very exposed - I can have downstairs too warm for comfort, but still be cold upstairs. I mean cold as if you'd opened the door and gone outside. 15C or lower, when downstairs is warm enough for me in a sleeveless top. It's like living in a bungalow with an uninsulated portacabin on the roof. Cavity wall heating and lagging the roof made barely any difference to temps in the upstairs rooms on the north-east side. To make the house properly comfortable I already need these heaters in five rooms but instead I live with upstairs always cold - except when the weather's really hot, and then it's hotter upstairs because it's exposed.

The other thing it would give me is control in different rooms, eg a nice warm bedroom overnight but letting downstairs be unheated during the same hours. My rad has a timer. I've seen central heating systems with modern radiators that allow this, but that's beyond my budget.

I'm not planning on it! It was a (half joking) thought if the heating ever completely fails. I first said it as a joke, but the more I think the more it might make sense in my case. Half a dozen oil-filled radiators would cost a lot less than fixing the central heating!

Also I'm on heating oil here, no gas available, so bills are high no matter how heat-efficient I am. I can't afford the repairs that are needed as it is (window frames etc etc); I can't move for probably two more years for various reasons. When someone else moves in, it will be cost-effective for them to do all the improvements including solar panels and so on, if they're going to live here enough years to benefit from the lower bills.

Forgive me for carrying on about my oil-filled radiator! I'm very fond of it, feels like the height of luxury.

muddlemand

PS. I didn't mean *my* electric heater as opposed to others. What I do know is that the oil-filled kind are great, whereas fan heaters, and the kind with bars that glow, generally (if not always) aren't worth it.