Halogen heater question

GValue

My mother has a 1.2kw halogen heater that runs on three 400 watt bulbs that work independently so she can run one, two or three bulbs at any one time.

She is constantly turning it off and on because she says the room gets too hot. As the bulbs are replaceable, would it be possible to replace the bulbs with ones 230 watts or 120 watts or a mixture so one would be 400watts, one 230watts and one 120 watts?

These bulbs cost £1 each and as her electricity is 34p per kwh, would she also get a significant saving on her electric bill?

JohnJ76

i'm not sure there would be any saving on the energy bill. if you have a 400w bulb on for half an hour to heat a room, there is no saving in having a 200w bulb on for an hour to heat the same size room.  sounds like she would be better with an oil filled heater or similar (we use an 800w one in a caravan) with a built in thermostat that you can set so it just works in the background.  as for the internal electrics of the heater and how it would react to the different bulbs i've no idea sorry.  

GValue

@JohnJ76 Thank you I think you can get oilfilled thermostic radiators at 500watt and 650watts, so that could be an option. :-)

ThisIsWeird

GValue said:

My mother has a 1.2kw halogen heater that runs on three 400 watt bulbs that work independently so she can run one, two or three bulbs at any one time.

She is constantly turning it off and on because she says the room gets too hot. As the bulbs are replaceable, would it be possible to replace the bulbs with ones 230 watts or 120 watts or a mixture so one would be 400watts, one 230watts and one 120 watts?

These bulbs cost £1 each and as her electricity is 34p per kwh, would she also get a significant saving on her electric bill?

Is she finding that a single 400W element is too much?

You are going to struggle to find a 'heater' of lesser power than that. As suggested above, a slow-release heater with a thermostat (ie, oil-filled) sounds like a better bet. You turn on whatever 'power' level you like, but dial up the actual 'room' temp you wish to achieve. It then turns on and off to maintain that temp.

GValue

@ThisIsWeird Good point as I assume a thermostat would modulate and kick in and out by its self.

grumbler

A 400W heater simply cannot make a room too hot. It's a human body that gets got because of the radiated heat. An oil-filled radiator heats the room/air, so it's absolutely different thing.

Regarding lower-power bulbs, I'm no expert, but I think there can be different bulbs for lighting and heating with the same connectors. If so, it's not just the power that matters.

GValue

@grumbler are you saying that for a balance heat she really needs both types of heat combined? If so, do you know of such a heater?

grumbler

GValue said:

@grumbler are you saying that for a balance heat she really needs both types of heat combined? If so, do you know of such a heater?

Only she knows what she needs. Does the room not have any other heaters, e.g. CH radiators?

What I'm saying is that 400W is too small power to heat a room, let alone to make it too hot. Halogen heater works by radiating heat in some direction and normally one can feel it only if the radiation is directed to the body. If she feels too hot the heater probably just needs moving further away.

GValue

@grumbler Yes, she's very near the halogen heater and the room has got a CH radiator, but she doesn't use the CH and just wears lots of layers, that she which she takes off when she gets she gets too warm
She puts the layers back on when leaving the room to go to the unheated loo or kitchen or bedroom.
So, I don't think moving the halogen heater further away, would help.

grumbler

GValue said:

@grumbler Yes, she's very near the halogen heater...
So, I don't think moving the halogen heater further away, would help.

This makes no sense.

If she is near and gets hot, why moving it away wouldn't help?

If you really want to heat the room, not the body, then indeed you need an oil-filled radiator. But this will be much more expensive than heating it with the CH radiator. As you don't want to heat other rooms just turn the radiators thermostats down in that rooms.

GValue

@grumbler when she come in the room, the room is cold, so she is very near the halogen heater and she stays near and removes clothes and puts them on a chair next to her to get them warm, before leaving the room or getting too hot to turn the halogen heater off, to cool and save energy. She's not using the central heating and the radiators don't have thermostats.