Smart electric heating suggestions please

Bendy_House

I'd have thought that the 500W jobbie would do the job perfectly. But, pretty expensive!

(Although your conversion will not conform to Build Regs, it should be easy to heat IF the insulation used was summat like Celotex. It's 'legal' provided you don't call it - or turn it in to - a 'habitable' room, but leave it a garden room/person-cave/shed...)

You could work out what heating is required but simply plonking a cheap oil-filled rad in there and try it. Look for one with a 500W setting, and you'll likely pick one up for less than a £enner on t'Bay or Marketplace. Try that first, over some cold evenings.

If it works - and I'll bet it will - then that's a less-than 3A draw, so in THEORY pretty much any standard Smart control should do (Hive etc), but I wouldn't go there since the initial draw from a cold resistive load could be higher than that, or at least too borderline.

However, there are plenty of 'underfoor' electric heating Smart Prog Stats also available, and these can switch up to 16A, more than enough. Some of these come with dual temp sensors, so have built-in 'room' temp sensors as well as the expected remote ones at the end of a cable for fitting under the floor. You choose via the menu which one to use. Most use the 'Smartlife' or Tuya App which is free, has quite a nice interface, but may not have individual day control - ie only either for 5+2 or else all 7.

So, I'd buy a cheap free-standing oil-filled rad to test/confirm that 500W is enough, and then either blow the budget on that fancy rad or else go 'cheap'!

Oh, and don't heat the room when not in use, other than having it on 'frost' - just crack open the window to 'vent'. It'll be cold, but DRY.

Oh, oh, and when you leave the room of an evening and turn the heat off, definitely crack open a window to ventilate away the warm moist air you have been producing, or you will, almost certainly, start suffering from condensation.

Cold-but-dry.

danrv

Marksfish said:

Im wary of panel heaters and convectors being "instant heat" whereas the fluid filled ones should hold the heat a bit better. I was looking at the panel heaters which are rated well too, but wonder if they may not cost more to run in the long run. 

500w panel, oil filled, convector will all put out the same heat. COP of 1 eg. 500w in, 500w out.
Oil filled would take longer to warm up and cool down. Convector is quicker.

I'm all for split aircon as suggested. I have a multi split system in my property. COP of up to 3 but more expensive to buy and install.

Bendy_House

Yes, with leccy heaters, what you get out is what you put in = 100% efficient.

But they do provide that same warmth in different ways. A high-ceilinged room might, for example, be better heated using a fan rather than a convector.

Oil-filled rads tends to give a more stable, level output. Less temp fluctuation - smaller hystericalesus. Just more comfy and pleasant. 

With Smart, Mark can turn on the heating before he even heads out there, and can tell how warm it'll be before he arrives

FreeBear

Marksfish said:  Was thinking along the lines of this: https://www.homebase.co.uk/tcp-wall-mounted-smart-wi-fi-oil-filled-radiator-500w-white/12892565.html, will 500w be enough though?

Really depends on the volume of the space and how well insulated it is. I have a small box room (nominally 2.4m by 2.4m and 2.4m high) that is well insulated. 150W is enough to maintain a constant temperature when it is freezing outside.

There are calculators available online where you can enter room size and insulation levels, and it comes back with a heating requirement - Bit like the "what size radiator" type calculators, only with a higher level of detail. Don't have a link at the moment, sorry.

Bendy_House

His room is a nice size but compact - around 12' square - and seemingly an insulated box! There's every chance 500W will be more than adequate.

But easy to check for a £enner.

ILoveSittingDown

Bendy_House said:

I'd have thought that the 500W jobbie would do the job perfectly. But, pretty expensive!

(Although your conversion will not conform to Build Regs, it should be easy to heat IF the insulation used was summat like Celotex. It's 'legal' provided you don't call it - or turn it in to - a 'habitable' room, but leave it a garden room/person-cave/shed...)

You could work out what heating is required but simply plonking a cheap oil-filled rad in there and try it. Look for one with a 500W setting, and you'll likely pick one up for less than a £enner on t'Bay or Marketplace. Try that first, over some cold evenings.

If it works - and I'll bet it will - then that's a less-than 3A draw, so in THEORY pretty much any standard Smart control should do (Hive etc), but I wouldn't go there since the initial draw from a cold resistive load could be higher than that, or at least too borderline.

However, there are plenty of 'underfoor' electric heating Smart Prog Stats also available, and these can switch up to 16A, more than enough. Some of these come with dual temp sensors, so have built-in 'room' temp sensors as well as the expected remote ones at the end of a cable for fitting under the floor. You choose via the menu which one to use. Most use the 'Smartlife' or Tuya App which is free, has quite a nice interface, but may not have individual day control - ie only either for 5+2 or else all 7.

So, I'd buy a cheap free-standing oil-filled rad to test/confirm that 500W is enough, and then either blow the budget on that fancy rad or else go 'cheap'!

Oh, and don't heat the room when not in use, other than having it on 'frost' - just crack open the window to 'vent'. It'll be cold, but DRY.

Oh, oh, and when you leave the room of an evening and turn the heat off, definitely crack open a window to ventilate away the warm moist air you have been producing, or you will, almost certainly, start suffering from condensation.

Cold-but-dry.

On your point about smart plugs. I have a 2kW oil-filled radiator in my shed that I control with a smart plug and always turn on from cold to max-heat setting. No problems with my TP-Link smart plugs and they've been setup this way for over a year, although they are rated at 13A