cheapest way to heat conservatory?

ecclesto

I have to buy an electric fire to heat my conservatory, 10' x 10'. I do not know whether the cheapest way is, convector, halogen, fan or oil filled radiator. With all the sales on now has to be the time to buy!

ormus

not too sure which is the cheapest to run, but the oil filled rad is one of the best ways. safest too.

mattogier

Cheapest way is to hook it up to your central heating - the cost of running ANY electric heater will far out weigh cost of extending your CH.

ariba10

An oil filled heater will take longer to heat up but will still give out heat after it is switched off.

A fan heater will give out heat quicker when you switch it on.

It depends how often and how long you use the conservatory.

But a 3Kw heater uses 3Kw no mater which one you use.

As has already been stated. Linking it to the central heating is the cheapest.

teadrinker_3

I was just going to ask the same question as ecclesto. I would have thought linking into central heating system would be the best but friends say no. They even had a builder in who also said no.

I currently have a wall mounted electric convection panel heater that heats it up ok but I dread to think how much it might be costing me.

mattogier

teadrinker wrote: »

I was just going to ask the same question as ecclesto. I would have thought linking into central heating system would be the best but friends say no. They even had a builder in who also said no.

I currently have a wall mounted electric convection panel heater that heats it up ok but I dread to think how much it might be costing me.

Not that I'm cynical BUT - perhaps their builder is not too happy about getting his fingers wet! I calculated that, at 5 hrs a day and 8.6p per KWh then a 3.5kw heater would cost £45.00 per month - if it were running all the time during that 5 hr period.

The same amount of heat output from a gas fired boiler (condensing) would be at 2.1p per KWh input which even with a 25% efficiency loss (2.6p per KWh output) is less than £14.00 per month - say you run it for 6 months of the year then you save ...

£186.00 per year

This would be saved every year so would probably pay for itself in the first year alone!

The heat loss through your conservatory would be the same in either case.

If you don't have a condensing boiler - GET ONE NOW - It'll pay for itself in a year easy!

teadrinker_3

Thanks Mattogier. I have the condensing boiler already. I ought to have had a radiator put in when the conservatory went up. It is my favourite room in the house but at this time of year is cold.

It should not be too bad a job to do. I might even diy it, I can make as good a job as some professionals, but I'll get some quotes first.

Conservatory is 4m x 3m with height of 3m.

mattogier

teadrinker wrote: »

Thanks Mattogier. I have the condensing boiler already. I ought to have had a radiator put in when the conservatory went up. It is my favourite room in the house but at this time of year is cold.

It should not be too bad a job to do. I might even diy it, I can make as good a job as some professionals, but I'll get some quotes first.

Conservatory is 4m x 3m with height of 3m.

You SHOULD go for the BIGGEST Rad you can with Condensing systems - for ALL your rads - Condensing Boilers work more efficiently at lower temps so, by over sizing the rads you have you can chip even more off your gas bill - we have a 7 bed house (used to be 4 but I have self built the extension) and since installing a condensing combi (hot water on demand) we have cut our gas bill by nearly 40% compared to when we were 4 beds with an old style boiler.

flea72

we have just had a conservatory built, and are also dithering about what heating to put in

we have decided to extend our central heating (wish we had done this before it was finished), but the size rads we are being quoted are humungus. however, we dont have any heating in there at the mo, and we find its still livable. so, do we request smaller rads, or just go with the big one and not have it turned up so high. bearing in mind its -c outside at the mo, and the temp in the conservatory is about 10c with no heating in the room (other than the sun on it this morning)

Flea

mattogier

flea72 wrote: »

we have just had a conservatory built, and are also dithering about what heating to put in

we have decided to extend our central heating (wish we had done this before it was finished), but the size rads we are being quoted are humungus. however, we dont have any heating in there at the mo, and we find its still livable. so, do we request smaller rads, or just go with the big one and not have it turned up so high. bearing in mind its -c outside at the mo, and the temp in the conservatory is about 10c with no heating in the room (other than the sun on it this morning)

Flea

Best option is to go for underfloor heating - may be the most expensive option to install but will pay for it'self again and again.

Yoshii

hi with regard to mattogiers comments about getting big as possible radiators for all the radiators , would this not this be too much btus for the boilers as i have been lead to believe. this is all very confusing

would this mean that the rads would not get hot enough because too many btus on demand at the same time?????

very interested on thjis subject as i want too change to a 36 kw bosch boiler to power 14 rads with possible need to get 3 extrea rads on new extention. any help appreciated.

yoshii