Heating small box room (now home office!)

Amba_Gambla

Like many people, I'm now working from home, but vary aware of heating/energy costs.

I spend most of my day working from the 'office' - a 2x3m box room, but it's quite chilly. I don't usually have the heating on, because I think it's a waste heating the whole house for this one room. I'm thinking of a small heater (found a Which! best buy 3kw heater) for this room. I know they're not as efficient as GCH, but wouldn't it be cheaper than heating the whole house? (Not thinking constant use, just using as a booster to get the temperature up to a decent level).

Duggo

According to my smart meter, my central heating once it’s done it’s initial warm up costs about 4-4.5 kw an hour to heat a 4 bedroom house. (Radiators on frost setting in two bedrooms).  That’s not much more than the cost of your 3kw heater, Assuming it runs for the entire hour and doesn’t switch off once a certain heat is reached. I know gas heating is much cheaper than electric. Hope that helps.

Amba_Gambla

Ahhh, that's useful to know, thank you.

No smart meter here, but only a 3 bed house. Isn't 1kw on GCH is much cheaper than 1kw electricity?

rob7475

If you've got GCH, I'd use that rather than a fan heater. If it's keeping your house ticking over at a comfortable temperature during the day, it won't need to work so hard to get the house warm in an evening.
If you have TRV's on your radiators, you can turn them down in the rooms you aren't using during the day if you want.
If you wanted to make an investment in smart heating controls, I'd highly recommend Tado. I've been using it for years and it's never let me down. It uses geo fencing to control the heating when I'm away from home. You can add smart TRV's to each radiator which essentially makes each room a zone that you can control individually. It's quite a big initial investment but well worth it in my opinion.

Amba_Gambla

Thanks for the advice. I have turned the radiators off in rooms I don't use. I've had Nest for a few years, and like the control I get with that - the geofencing works well, and (when I'm there) I can turn the heating on as I leave work - makes it just about right by the time I get home!

Paradigm

Not cheap but they are very good, other manufacturers are available 
https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/infrared-heating-panels/

[Deleted User]

Hi,

what about a wee halogen heater, 3 different settings lowest only 400w.

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi Amba.

I think your choices will actually be quite simple. There is a water radiator in that room, then? Give it a go - set its TRV to 3 or above to give you a comfy temp in there, and set every other rad to no more than 2, so they'll barely come on - if at all. See how it goes, and take some measurements of gas used.

I suspect you'll find the most annoying part will be having to turn the other rads down and back up on a daily basis, but if that isn't an issue, then good chance you'll be happy enough with this setup - it shouldn't cost much to run, and your boiler will modulate/cycle as needed.

And the other obvious option is to leave the CH off (or very low if that's what you do anyway) and buy a 2kW oil-filled rad for that room. 2kW should be more than enough for a 2x3m room, and it'll only be on for part of the time as it regulates itself. Why oil-filled type? 'Cos they tend to give a nice steady constant heat out. Fan heaters are hellish, just hellish. Convector heaters are much better, but are too on-and-offy; I think you'd notice the temp swings.

Para's suggestion might be brill, but I don't know anything about them. But that one rad will cost as much as an annual leccy bill for your oil heater :-)

Finally, don't fall for the 'keeping-heat-on-all-day-will-make-the-house-easier-to-warm-up-later-and-will-therefore-cost-less' malarkey (not that I think you will). The more you heat a house, the more it'll cost. Heat loss is directed related to temp difference betwixt inski and ouski. So if you increase the inskie, you will lose more heat to the outski and it'll cost more to keep it going. Yes, the house will be quicker to get up to the higher temp later on, but you'll have been using constant energy to maintain the previous temp.

theonlywayisup

Have you considered a bioethanol stove/heater?  Some are really funky and they aren't expensive to run.

Jeepers_Creepers

theonlywayisup said:

Have you considered a bioethanol stove/heater?  Some are really funky and they aren't expensive to run.

Lovely things. But the best part of a £ per hour to run?

Homer_home

[Deleted User] said:

Hi,

what about a wee halogen heater, 3 different settings lowest only 400w.

Nooooooooooooo

Bad bad idea, they only heat you , throw out a horrible bright light and cause they don't have thermostatic controls they use a constant supply of electricity therefore eating it, 400w would not be enough to heat you sitting down for long periods either