Plug in heater for kids room advice

ochilmum

Hello!

We just moved into a new rental which is big and OLD. The thermostat doesn’t seem to correlate to room temp that well so we’ve just been basically putting heat (gas powered radiators) on for a few hours morning and late afternoon/evening. I’m concerned the kids’ room is cold overnight but don’t want to blast the heat all night. Parents and 2x big kids have hot water bottles but obviously not safe for toddler in her cot. I was thinking of a space heater for their room but not sure which style to go for in terms of safety and efficiency? 

Ideally I’d like to have the heat running all day (We are home most of the time) and night and be able to control the temp like in our last place but not sure how to get that working!

ive inclduing a pic of our set up. It’s not normally so cold! It’s -2 outside and I forgot to add extra hours for the heating this morning, it went off at 8 I think. The house doesn’t hold heat very well! 

MultiFuelBurner

Do the gas fed radiators have controls on them 0-6 or are they just on and off.

The best and cheapest way would be to control your heating through the radiator thermostat controls in conjunction with your controller and schedule.

Otherwise an oil radiator may be best, definitely not an electric fan heater for safety.

ochilmum

MultiFuelBurner said:

Do the gas fed radiators have controls on them 0-6 or are they just on and off.

The best and cheapest way would be to control your heating through the radiator thermostat controls in conjunction with your controller and schedule.

Otherwise an oil radiator may be best, definitely not an electric fan heater for safety.

They do have settings on them but as I want heat the the living areas in the day and bedrooms at night would mean changing 9 radiators twice and day, I just don’t think I can manage that 

ochilmum

ochilmum said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Do the gas fed radiators have controls on them 0-6 or are they just on and off.

The best and cheapest way would be to control your heating through the radiator thermostat controls in conjunction with your controller and schedule.

Otherwise an oil radiator may be best, definitely not an electric fan heater for safety.

They do have settings on them but as I want heat the the living areas in the day and bedrooms at night would mean changing 9 radiators twice and day, I just don’t think I can manage that 

Also, the downstairs would then be cold in the morning as it takes a while to warm up. Old house problems 🙈 planning to install secondary glazing film this weekend over the single glazing so might hold heat/warm up faster after that

CliveOfIndia

I agree with the previous poster - the cheapest way would be to run the CH in conjunction with a TRV.

Aside from that, when it comes to electric heaters, they're all 100% efficient - 1KWH of electricity consumed equates to 1KWH of heat kicked out, however the manufacturers try to dress it up.

In terms of practicality, safety and effectiveness ("effective" is a very different thing from "efficient" !), I'd agree that an oil-filled rad is probably best.  It tends to give a more "even" heat output, ironing out the peaks and troughs, as it were.  You'd probably want one with a built-in thermostat so that it can keep the room at a constant temperature.

A simple convector radiator might also do the trick, though it's marginally less good at giving a nice even heat output.  But either would be more practical in this situation than a fan heater.  A fan heater is cheap to buy (and no different in terms of efficiency to any other form of electric heating), but it will emit a reasonable amount of noise, which is probably not ideal in a bedroom.  And whilst it's highly unlikely there would be any safety issues with it (getting knocked over or whatever), you'll probably sleep better at night knowing there's no risk whatsoever.

So yep, probably an oil-filled rad with a thermostat would do the trick.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a basic model from Argos or wherever.

ochilmum

CliveOfIndia said:

I agree with the previous poster - the cheapest way would be to run the CH in conjunction with a TRV.

Aside from that, when it comes to electric heaters, they're all 100% efficient - 1KWH of electricity consumed equates to 1KWH of heat kicked out, however the manufacturers try to dress it up.

In terms of practicality, safety and effectiveness ("effective" is a very different thing from "efficient" !), I'd agree that an oil-filled rad is probably best.  It tends to give a more "even" heat output, ironing out the peaks and troughs, as it were.  You'd probably want one with a built-in thermostat so that it can keep the room at a constant temperature.

A simple convector radiator might also do the trick, though it's marginally less good at giving a nice even heat output.  But either would be more practical in this situation than a fan heater.  A fan heater is cheap to buy (and no different in terms of efficiency to any other form of electric heating), but it will emit a reasonable amount of noise, which is probably not ideal in a bedroom.  And whilst it's highly unlikely there would be any safety issues with it (getting knocked over or whatever), you'll probably sleep better at night knowing there's no risk whatsoever.

So yep, probably an oil-filled rad with a thermostat would do the trick.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a basic model from Argos or wherever.

I just had to google TRV and discovered those little symbols have way more meaning than I thought! I've been adjusting them randomly my whole adult life. Honestly why do we waste so much time at school learning useless skills and no one is teaching this!! Mine has I II III not numbers but even they seem to have actual celsius correlation. Mind. blown.  

Edit: mine is I - III rather than 1- 6, as EssexHebridean has pointed out, they are both sets of numbers! 

EssexHebridean

ochilmum said:

CliveOfIndia said:

I agree with the previous poster - the cheapest way would be to run the CH in conjunction with a TRV.

Aside from that, when it comes to electric heaters, they're all 100% efficient - 1KWH of electricity consumed equates to 1KWH of heat kicked out, however the manufacturers try to dress it up.

In terms of practicality, safety and effectiveness ("effective" is a very different thing from "efficient" !), I'd agree that an oil-filled rad is probably best.  It tends to give a more "even" heat output, ironing out the peaks and troughs, as it were.  You'd probably want one with a built-in thermostat so that it can keep the room at a constant temperature.

A simple convector radiator might also do the trick, though it's marginally less good at giving a nice even heat output.  But either would be more practical in this situation than a fan heater.  A fan heater is cheap to buy (and no different in terms of efficiency to any other form of electric heating), but it will emit a reasonable amount of noise, which is probably not ideal in a bedroom.  And whilst it's highly unlikely there would be any safety issues with it (getting knocked over or whatever), you'll probably sleep better at night knowing there's no risk whatsoever.

So yep, probably an oil-filled rad with a thermostat would do the trick.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a basic model from Argos or wherever.

I just had to google TRV and discovered those little symbols have way more meaning than I thought! I've been adjusting them randomly my whole adult life. Honestly why do we waste so much time at school learning useless skills and no one is teaching this!! Mine has I II III not numbers but even they seem to have actual celsius correlation. Mind. blown.  

I’m wondering whether it is limited to those of us above a certain age that will be looking at that and thinking “but those ARE numbers?” 😆

ochilmum

EssexHebridean said:

ochilmum said:

CliveOfIndia said:

I agree with the previous poster - the cheapest way would be to run the CH in conjunction with a TRV.

Aside from that, when it comes to electric heaters, they're all 100% efficient - 1KWH of electricity consumed equates to 1KWH of heat kicked out, however the manufacturers try to dress it up.

In terms of practicality, safety and effectiveness ("effective" is a very different thing from "efficient" !), I'd agree that an oil-filled rad is probably best.  It tends to give a more "even" heat output, ironing out the peaks and troughs, as it were.  You'd probably want one with a built-in thermostat so that it can keep the room at a constant temperature.

A simple convector radiator might also do the trick, though it's marginally less good at giving a nice even heat output.  But either would be more practical in this situation than a fan heater.  A fan heater is cheap to buy (and no different in terms of efficiency to any other form of electric heating), but it will emit a reasonable amount of noise, which is probably not ideal in a bedroom.  And whilst it's highly unlikely there would be any safety issues with it (getting knocked over or whatever), you'll probably sleep better at night knowing there's no risk whatsoever.

So yep, probably an oil-filled rad with a thermostat would do the trick.  It doesn't need to be anything fancy, just a basic model from Argos or wherever.

I just had to google TRV and discovered those little symbols have way more meaning than I thought! I've been adjusting them randomly my whole adult life. Honestly why do we waste so much time at school learning useless skills and no one is teaching this!! Mine has I II III not numbers but even they seem to have actual celsius correlation. Mind. blown.  

I’m wondering whether it is limited to those of us above a certain age that will be looking at that and thinking “but those ARE numbers?” 😆

  fair enough!!