using portable heaters instead of turning on the heating

Spoonie_Turtle

We used to have a 3kW heater in the lounge, one in my bedroom, and the oven in the kitchen before we had central heating.

It was miserable. 

Even layering up and wearing blankets with a hot water bottle underneath didn't keep me warm, every winter was awful and I just wanted to hibernate.  Nobody else enjoyed it either.

Granted, we live in a semi-detached house of 89m², but we had cavity wall insulation and it was newer than the flat you're looking at (1940s instead of Victorian).  However we are exposed on the north side of a hill.

So you might get away with a 3kW heater, or a couple of 2kW, or a 3kW and a supplementary 1kW.  But just one 1kW heater I can't imagine will get you through winter.

(And for context, we now keep our central heating at 18℃ and still layer up, so we weren't expecting tropical temperatures from our standalone heaters.)

amanda1024

doodling said:

Fan heaters will be substantially more efficient than a gas system where 10% of the heat disappears up the flue. 

Except that a big chunk of the UK's electricity is generated from gas fired power stations, which is hardly a loss-less process, which is why domestic electricity is more expensive than gas. 

jrawle

amanda1024 said:

doodling said:

Fan heaters will be substantially more efficient than a gas system where 10% of the heat disappears up the flue. 

Except that a big chunk of the UK's electricity is generated from gas fired power stations, which is hardly a loss-less process, which is why domestic electricity is more expensive than gas. 

Except that's already accounted for in the price consumers pay for electricity. Almost 100% of the 30p or so of electricity that the consumer pays for is converted into heat, and I suspect that's what the poster here is interested in, rather than the environmental impact.