Advice on Electric Heaters

[GillObrien]

Hi

We are about to move into a flat that has a combination of underfloor heating, which heats the rooms to around 13 degrees, and wall mounted electric heaters. The wall mounted heaters date from the 1980's. I am not sure what type they are but when the owner demonstrated them to me, he turned them on and there was instant heat through a grill that ran along the top part of the panel (like the picture below).

I would like to change these heaters for something more modern (and efficient) - he told me they were very expensive to run. We are expecting a baby and therefore will need to use the heaters more than if there were just the two of us (we like to keep the flat cool under normal circumstances). It seems to me there are three options (I am in France):

- some sort of panel heater http://www.castorama.fr/store/Radia...egories.$repositoryId:cat_id_320&osearchmode=

- convection heater http://www.castorama.fr/store/Convecteur-electrique-CN3-prod5290001.html?navCount=4&navAction=push

- 'intertie sèche' - sorry I can't translate - it seems to have some sort of ceramic core http://www.castorama.fr/store/Radia...W-prod12090007.html?navCount=5&navAction=push

Can anyone tell me what the difference is, and which is the more economic given that we also have the underfloor heating so this would be a top up. Also, which has the 'nicest' type of heat - i.e. doesn't give out hot, drying air.

Any advice appreciated.
Gill

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[Madrab]

The heaters you have may be a straightforward convector heater.
Any electrical heater can be expensive to run and regardless of how new it may be then it will probably still cost roughly the same to run as they are all just about 100% efficient, i.e. 100% of the power input is converted into heat. So depending on the cost of you leccy...
What feeds the underfloor heating? Is that electrical too?
The ceramic cored heaters are a little more controllable as they can be turned on at any time for almost instant heat and tend to store a little and modulate on and off determined by the thermostat as do convectors but any electric heating is usually more expensive in the long run. Convector heaters that use a hot element inside the case where the air is heated and exhausts out the top (like the one in your pic) will tend to dry he air out more than a panel heater
Can you change you system to a boiler, do you have gas? This may be the more cost effective choice in the long run.

 

[GillObrien]

Thank you for the reply.

The underfloor heating is fed from the Paris heating network (they have some sort of district heating system) so is included in the rent of the flat. The electric heaters are for topping this up when it gets cold.

We have no gas connection so there is no choice on the electric heaters. The electricty is expensive but there is no choice on that either! If there will be no change in efficiency in putting in new heaters then we will leave them as they are. I just dislike that electric convector heating smell!

 

[Madrab]

Yes, I know exactly what you mean, this is usually created by dust, etc on the element that burns off when turned on, can't really do anything about that. A panel heater would eliminate that but as far as efficiency is concerned then there isn't much of a difference unfortunately.
The only thing I would mention is check that the heaters you have are controlled by a thermostat and that it works correctly.

 

[Galoka]

Hi

We are expecting a baby and therefore will need to use the heaters more than if there were just the two of us (we like to keep the flat cool under normal circumstances).

What temp is 'cool' for you? don't worry, babies rarely suffer from it being too cold in house. Babies don't need it particularly warm, indeed, being too hot is one of the increased risk factors for SIDS. Recommendations seem to generally be in the range of 16 - 20C for a babies room. We don't have our house esp. warm, about 18C, and at night it will be lower than that . If the baby seems cold, just add some more clothing - or a wrap in blanket, or give it a cuddle We found baby sleeping bags good as the can't wriggle out or slide down under them. like Grobags (great name):

http://gro.co.uk/grobag-baby-sleep-bags

Other than that, yes, make sure the electric heaters are thermostatically controlled. because that could make quite a difference to running costs