Addition of electric radiators

Judester

We have gas central heating. It is a 1920s house, no cavity walls so not very warm. The front room is north facing and always colder than everywhere else. We light an open fire in there quite a bit. It's a big room with two radiators but the larger is beneath the window so closing the curtains blocks the heat. We contacted a plumber about moving it to another wall and getting bigger radiators and he suggested using electric heaters so the system isn't overloaded. The house has an extension, pipes old so water pressure isn't great but seems to cope. From what I read electric radiators are expensive to run but maybe in this case they are a good option? Any advice?
Thanks

FreeBear

As long as your boiler has sufficient capacity (most do), then a larger radiator is not going to overload the system. What might be a limiting factor is the size of the pipes - 15mm is good for up to around 8kW of radiator, whilst 8mm micro-bore is limited to about 2kW.

Rather than moving a radiator, it might be a better idea to fit a third one on an internal wall. Tuck curtains down behind the other radiators to limit the amount of heat circulating around the window will also help.

Mark_d

Heating your house isn't going to be cheap.  I don't suppose you have an Energy Performance Certificate?

I think the most cost effective option is to use electric oil-filled radiators to supplement your gas central heating.  The only other option would be a replacement of your entire gas central heating system

grumpy_codger

Mark_d said:

I think the most cost effective option is to use electric oil-filled radiators to supplement your gas central heating. 

Oil-filled radiators have advantages and disadvantages, but all electric heating devices (except heat pumps) have the same cost effectiveness. Heat pumps are more effective (ignoring the installation cost).

FreeBear

Mark_d said:

Heating your house isn't going to be cheap.  I don't suppose you have an Energy Performance Certificate?

I think the most cost effective option is to use electric oil-filled radiators to supplement your gas central heating.  The only other option would be a replacement of your entire gas central heating system

With electricity some 18p per kWh more expensive than gas, it won't take long for a wet radiator to pay for its self. Certainly don't think a whole new central heating system is required.

I've got a late 1920s semi here. Over the years, swapped out some of the radiators for larger new ones. The old Baxi back boiler coped with the extra demand, and managed to heat the place just fine - Since replumbed the system and fitted a new condensing combi boiler. That in its self hasn't made much of a difference. The only reason to replace the entire heating system would be if the old system was beyond economical repair and/or a heat pump is being installed.

Oh, and it is possible to heat an old house cheaply (I'm spending around £250 a year on gas and maybe the same on logs). But it does require a fair bit of investment on thermal upgrades & draught proofing.

FlorayG

Why are you closing the curtains in front of the radiator? You should tuck them behind or if your rads are like mine and too close to the wall then fold up the bottom of the curtain onto the windowsill.
I have one cold North facing room as well and I have an oil filled radiator in there. It was £20 used on FB so even though electric is expensive it will be a long time before I spend enough on the extra electric to make it more expensive than paying to install a bigger/extra radiator

Keep_pedalling

Get curtains with a shorter drop, and insulate the wall. 

sk2402005

Adding additional heating capacity by way of larger or more radiators is the best way to go in tghe longer run, electrical heating is very exensive to run.

Your open fire is certainly not helping you, its will actually be cooling the rest of the house by drawing in so much fresh air - open fires at best are 20% efficient, a stove can be 80% - so unless you like the look of your open fire, really you are probably wasting your time.

If you can get free wood, then you migth be best placed looking into a wood burning stove, its hugely more efficient.

If your buying your wood then its probably actually cheaper to run the central heating, it almost certainly will be vs your open fire, that is unless your central heating boiler is really old.

Albermarle

sk2402005 said:

Adding additional heating capacity by way of larger or more radiators is the best way to go in tghe longer run, electrical heating is very exensive to run.

Your open fire is certainly not helping you, its will actually be cooling the rest of the house by drawing in so much fresh air - open fires at best are 20% efficient, a stove can be 80% - so unless you like the look of your open fire, really you are probably wasting your time. AFAIK , an open gas fire ( with artificial coals) are more efficient than 20%, especially the newer ones. Also they can give out some good supplementary heat, often to a side of the room that has no radiators. Not super efficient for sure, but OK as a cosy add on heat source in a cold gloomy February,

If you can get free wood, then you migth be best placed looking into a wood burning stove, its hugely more efficient but some would say more environmentally unfriendly, due to the particulate emissions.

If your buying your wood then its probably actually cheaper to run the central heating, it almost certainly will be vs your open fire, that is unless your central heating boiler is really old.

A couple of comments in bold. 

Judester

Keep_pedalling said:

Get curtains with a shorter drop, and insulate the wall. 

What is the best way to insulate the wall given there is no cavity to fill? 
I tuck the curtains up, there is also a sofa beside that radiator which can't go elsewhere so not an ideal location. I'm not a fan of short curtains unfortunately!

Judester

Albermarle said:

sk2402005 said:

Adding additional heating capacity by way of larger or more radiators is the best way to go in tghe longer run, electrical heating is very exensive to run.

Your open fire is certainly not helping you, its will actually be cooling the rest of the house by drawing in so much fresh air - open fires at best are 20% efficient, a stove can be 80% - so unless you like the look of your open fire, really you are probably wasting your time. AFAIK , an open gas fire ( with artificial coals) are more efficient than 20%, especially the newer ones. Also they can give out some good supplementary heat, often to a side of the room that has no radiators. Not super efficient for sure, but OK as a cosy add on heat source in a cold gloomy February,

If you can get free wood, then you migth be best placed looking into a wood burning stove, its hugely more efficient but some would say more environmentally unfriendly, due to the particulate emissions.

If your buying your wood then its probably actually cheaper to run the central heating, it almost certainly will be vs your open fire, that is unless your central heating boiler is really old.

A couple of comments in bold. 

The open fire is staying, I love it! It isn't a gas fire, just smokeless coal and logs. We have plenty of free logs to burn (particularly after the recent storm, have enough for several years).