Infrared panel heater - efficient alternative to hot water bottle?

vic_sf49

Swipe said:

elsien said:

With apologies for jumping on board, is anyone able to recommend a heated foot pad or similar?

I can keep my top half warm no problem, but I’m getting chilblains on my feet already even with a couple of layers of thick socks on. Primarily due to sitting at my home desk without moving around enough. I don’t wear slippers because they irritate me immensely.

Not sure if these are suitable or will irritate you but I have a couple of these, one for the kitchen and one for the living room. Best money I ever spent. If my feet are warm my whole body is warm even at 16C

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3443592

I had one of those, and while it kept my feet warm, I struggled with my flexibility trying to get both feet into it. The inner lining moved, and it was like playing twister.

I've reverted to sitting with my ever frozen feet on a hot water bottle.  

I'm looking forward to the electric throw I've just bought from Lakeland though. 

Spoonie_Turtle

vic_sf49 said:

Swipe said:

elsien said:

With apologies for jumping on board, is anyone able to recommend a heated foot pad or similar?

I can keep my top half warm no problem, but I’m getting chilblains on my feet already even with a couple of layers of thick socks on. Primarily due to sitting at my home desk without moving around enough. I don’t wear slippers because they irritate me immensely.

Not sure if these are suitable or will irritate you but I have a couple of these, one for the kitchen and one for the living room. Best money I ever spent. If my feet are warm my whole body is warm even at 16C

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3443592

I've reverted to sitting with my ever frozen feet on a hot water bottle.  

I'm looking forward to the electric throw I've just bought from Lakeland though. 

Feet on a hot water bottle is bliss - but I have found that if the surroundings are cold, the tops of my feet won't warm up if they're already cold.  But using a hot water bottle to prevent getting too cold, it can certainly work.


Edit: I feel a shoutout for Yuyu and similar hot water bottles would be appropriate here.  I've used hot water bottles since my teens, and the Yuyu is the most expensive I've ever used but honestly one of my best investments, probably second only to my offroad wheelchair!  It is SO much better at warming me up / keeping me warm than ordinary bottles because it is so long, and doesn't need refilling so often because I don't get so cold in the first place.  If it's filled with the right amount to be easily folded over, it certainly could encase feet keeping them warm without feeling like slippers around the ankles.

SamDude

QrizB said:

QrizB said:

SamDude said:

I'm looking at whether a freestanding 180/300/500w infrared panel heater would be a cost efficient way to keep a person warm when we're not using the gas central heating during evenings/weekends, compared to a hot water bottle every hour or compared to putting the gas central heating on for the whole house for an hour at a time?

The hot water bottle is the cheapest option to run.

A heated throw or seat cushion will be cheaper than the IR panel.

I did some calculations on this a year or two ago. I'll get them out and update them.

OK, let's compare:

1. 2-litre hot water bottle, refilled hourly to 50C using hot water from the kettle.
2. 2-litre hot water bottle, re-heated from 30C to 50C hourly in the microwave.
3. The same hot water bottle, but emptied and refilled with gas-heated tapwater hourly.
4. Electricaly heated seat pad like the one I'm currently sitting on (see details here).
5. Electric heated throw, 90 watts (example).
   
6. 180-watt IR panel heater (example).

What is this going to cost?

1. If your incoming mains water is at 10C, filling the HW bottle anew with 50C water will take 93 watt-hours of energy (via omnicalculator). A kettle is 90%+ efficient (assuming you don't overfill it), so let's say it uses 100 watt-hours of electricity to heat the water. At the current capped SVR of 27.35p/kWh, 100 watt-hours of electricity will cost 2.7 pence. doing that once an hour, your cost is 2.7 pence per hour.
   
2. Heating 2 litres of water from 30C to 50C will use 47 watt-hours of energy. According to this study, microwave ovens are typically only 72% efficient at converting electrical energy into heat, so putting 47 watt-hours into our hot water bottle will need 65 watt-hours of electricity. At the SVR, 65 watt-hours will cost 1.8 pence per hour.
   
3. This is just like case 1, but using gas. A gas boiler oprating at a microwave-like 72% efficiency (ie. a pretty ropey one) will burn 129 watt-hours of gas to provide that much useful heat. At the current capped SVR of 6.89p/kWh, 129 watt-hours will cost 0.9 pence per hour.
   
4. My electric heat pad draws about 20 watts, but the mains adapter gets slightly warm so let's call it 30 watts. At the SVR, that will cost 0.8 pence per hour.
5. The 90-watt throw, at the SVR, will cost 2.5 pence per hour.
6. The 180-watt IR heater, at the SVR, will cost 4.9 pence per hour.
   

Suggestions for Mrs SamDude:

• 2.7p per hour, for the current approach, isn't terrible. If it works for her, she can carry on doing it. Doubly so if the hourly kettle-boiling is also used to make her tea/coffee/cocoa.
  
• Re-heating the HW bottle in the microwave (assuming you have a microwave already) would save 1/3 of the energy cost and avoid any problems with boiling too much water.
• Using gas-heated hot water from the tap, rather than the kettle, would save another 1/3 compared to using the kettle. This assumes you have gas CH; it might also work if you have E7 electric-heated water, but that will depend on the tariff.
• An electrically-heated seat pad has a similar running cost to a gas-heated HW bottle.
• An electrically-heated throw has a similar running cost to an electrically-heated HW bottle.
• An IR panel heater will cost at least twice as much as any other option, but might provide broader quality-of-life improvements that are worthwhile.
  

Personally, I'm going to continue sitting on this heat pad!

Thank you everyone for your input - especially @QrizB for your detailed cost comparison!

From your comparisons, whilst the IR panels are good for having that 'get up and go' practicality - at ~double the running cost of heated throws, I will have a look at the throws and find something nice and toasty for MrsSam.

mmmmikey

Reading this got me thinking maybe I should get a heated throw, then I remember I bought this a few years ago to keep a friend who was recovering from covid warm in the car:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07YXN7DCT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

Been using it today whilst sitting at the computer, just thrown over my legs. No energy being used at all. Not exactly "the full @HertsLad" but wow, what a difference.

Sometimes the simple solutions are the best - off now to knit myself a shawl :-)

SamDude

I've bought this: Lakeland heated throw (currently £42): https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0CCS5Y236

Reasons for choosing it:
-Lakeland is a well known brand
-their heated throws/blankets perform well in Which?/GHK tests
-this is a 160w so should keep MrsSam happy at lower settings (and the Silentnight ones that state the full specs are 100/120w?)
-price is only a little higher than the highly rated but no-name items on Amazon

QrizB

Sounds like a good choice. I hope Mrs Sam is happy with it.

Please let us know how it works out!

QrizB

QrizB said:

elsien said:

With apologies for jumping on board, is anyone able to recommend a heated foot pad or similar?

@Grumpy_chap endorses his "Fellowes Climate Control Footrest", but it's not cheap:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78872749/#Comment_78872749

If that's not wht you're looking for, how about a heated pet pad (example)? Fairly cheap, intended for the floor, should be fine with socks?

Bumping this thread (from a year ago?!) to say that I've recently bought one of those heated pet pads (something like this) from eBay and I'm sitting on it right now. My glutes and lower back are lovely and warm

Grumpy_chap

QrizB said:

QrizB said:

elsien said:

With apologies for jumping on board, is anyone able to recommend a heated foot pad or similar?

@Grumpy_chap endorses his "Fellowes Climate Control Footrest", but it's not cheap:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/78872749/#Comment_78872749

If that's not wht you're looking for, how about a heated pet pad (example)? Fairly cheap, intended for the floor, should be fine with socks?

Bumping this thread (from a year ago?!) to say that I've recently bought one of those heated pet pads (something like this) from eBay and I'm sitting on it right now. My glutes and lower back are lovely and warm

I still like my footrest and still recommend it - used daily and is the only heating on in the house when I am working from home alone.

I understand the various pads that people use on chairs but always felt they might become restrictive as I do tend to jump up quite a lot through the day, plus wheeling back on the office chair.  Others with experience may explain how these constraints are not as much as I might suspect.

I have also seem to have got Reynauld's type symptoms which only seem to get worse.  The footrest is super for addressing that but I am finding I have cold hands all the time and currently considering something like this desk pad:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yangers-80×33cm-Electric-Mousepad-Keyboard/dp/B0BK5T6YQH/

Alnat1

Fingerless gloves work better for me. It seems if I keep the back of my hands warm, my fingers keep warm too.

elsien

I get Reynaud’s. It doesn’t always seem to be a temperature thing though. I can be sitting in a hot bath and the blood will shoot out of my toes and back up my legs.