Working from home - Heating

Heatmeup1

I am currently working from home,  everyone else is at school/work during the day. It’s starting to get a little colder now so need to heat the room I’m working in. Do I switch on the combi boiler (about 5 years old)  and heat the whole house (4 bed semi)  for a short period of time or use a small fan heater for a short blast of warm air in the room I’m in. Which is the cheaper option? 

Petriix

Turn off (or down) all the other radiators and use the gas boiler. An electric heater is ~ 4 x the cost per kWh to run. 

RelievedSheff

I am going to be having this issue shortly. I am also going to be working from home this winter, have been since March this year. So far I have not needed to have any additional heating in the kitchen where I am working but as the weeks drag on it is going to get to the stage where I will need some additional heat in this room.

We live in a new build super insulated 3 bed detached house and it takes very little to heat the kitchen. When the washer dryer or the slow cooker are on they heat the room enough to stay comfortable and the sun, when it is out heats the room nicely. But as the temperatures drop a little more heat will be required. I know that the gas central heating will be cheaper to run than a fan heater or similar but it seems daft heating the whole house to keep me and the dog warm in the kitchen.

Petriix

The ultimate solution is having smart TRVs throughout the house, but that's terrible money saving advice because they're ludicrously expensive. Seems criminal that they are still allowed to build houses without them.

MWT

Even without a TRV smart or dumb you can still turn off the radiators you don't need on.

Takes a few mins but worth doing in these circumstances