Electric radiators

[RF Lighting]

Hello all.

I'm currently designing a new heating system for the local scouts and guides meeting hall.

It is currently rather ineffectively heated by a mish mash of fan heaters, convetors panel heaters and warm air curtains.

The building is a timber construction, but is reasonably well insulated.

The building is often only in use for maybe 2 to 4 hours in an evening, and occasionally on a weekend too.

There is currently no off peak supply and I don't really want the added cost of installing this, plus if OP storage rads were used the building will be warm all day, which is not nesacarry.

The current heating is controlled through a room stat / programmer and contactor arrangement, which if possible I would like to reuse.

I have seen what looks like a standard radiator, but with an internal electric element.

Does any one have any experiance of using these, and if so are they any good, and suitable for this sort of application?

Do they get very hot to the touch? I expect they will, so some sort of guard would be required to protect the youger kids that use the building?

How long do they take to get up to temperature?

Are they reasonably economical to run?

Does anyone know a more suitable / better sort of heater for this sort of situation.


If you have got this far, then thanks for reading

 

[Lectrician]

Oil filled rads are the closed electric rad to a conventional wet rad.

Not to great on providing a quick heat up time though.

Blown warn air from either a gas or elec source is usually the best for providing quick heat for short durations.

The radiant overhead gas things (no idea what you call them) used in green houses, sports halls etc are also good for this, and can be scaled down to fit smaller buildings.

I think a call to dimplex for a rep visit may be in order

 

[Space cat]

Blown warn air from either a gas or elec source is usually the best for providing quick heat for short durations.

I agree. Any kind of convection heater will warm up the hall from the top down. For instant heat at floor level you need to blow warm air downwards. This has the added advantage that the heaters can be placed out of reach of little fingers!

Mains gas, if you've got it, is much cheap than electricity. Check the price per kilowatt hour. (If your gas supplier is still using therms, one therm is about 30 kW hours.) Last time I looked at the price of bottled gas it cost more. I don't know the exact calorific value but 10 kW hours per kg won't be far out.

 

[RF Lighting]

Thanks for the replies so far



There is unfortunatly no gas supply to the building, and it would be a major job to have it installed. I was hoping to save a few £££, and utilise the existing wiring, but with some better, more suitable heaters.