Oil filled rad or convection heater

matelodave

Extra sockets are always a good idea, especially nowadays when lots of stuff needs to be plugged in as it can save trailing cables all over the place and having to use distribution boards.

I'd suggest that you see how it goes, most modern aircon units/heat pumps are nowhere as noisy as the rattly old things that adorn the fronts of some older premises.

You may even find that the place is more than warm enough overnight anyway if you turn the stat down a bit (consider a programmable stat which allow you to set different temps at different times of the day if the a/c controller doesn't offer that function)

We have a fairly large twin fan heatpump sitting next to our dining room window and honestly it hardly audible, even at night cars going up and down the road are a lot noisier and we live out in the country where its deathly quiet at night (and usually during the day). Our unit only runs overnight when it gets very cold (lower than around 2-3 degrees)

Try not to over think it or even have preconceived ideas as it will probably be nowhere as bad as you are anticipating.

Personally I'd see how you  (or you mum) get on, but if it really does annoy then a cheap convector or oil filled rad from B&Q or similar could be raked out of a cupboard if needed. 

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EssexHebridean said:

What’s the context for this? Is it just to top up heat where there is also a primary form of heating installed? If so, what is that primary form of heating? 

Storage heaters

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lohr500 said:

Cheaper to buy, or run?

Both will cost the same to run, but if used regularly any plug in heater is an expensive form of heating.

Convection heater likely to be a little cheaper to buy as they are a simpler design. Do a Google search to get some ideas of prices.

Hard to say what sized output you need for a 4 x 5 meter room. It depends on how well insulated the property is, height of room, frequency of opening and closing doors to adjacent rooms, etc, etc.

Go for a larger 2.5kW or 3kW model with variable heat settings. Then you can adjust the power consumption to suit your needs. Almost all convection and oil filled radiators will also have a thermostat to allow you to set the room temperature.A larger model is also more flexible should you want to move it to a larger room at any point.

Gerry1 said:

Plug-in electric room heating is a bad idea except for a few specific instances.

It's fine for occasional brief use e.g. in a shed or garage where there's no other form of heating available, but as each kWh is about four times as expensive as gas it doesn't make sense to use it as the main source of heating on a permanent basis.  It might be acceptable to take the chill off a bedroom when retiring and rising, assuming the room isn't used in the day and the door can be left open so that you don't get damp and mould.  However, a quick blast from a fan heater might be better.

If you can't get gas and you own the property and plan to stay a reasonable time you'd be better off with oil, storage heaters or a heat pump.  If you rent and it's all-electric with no storage heaters you might be better off moving.

Got storage heater.  All electric flat