Kitchen Plinth Fan Convector Heater

[kates]

I am thinking of installing one of these in the kick of my stairs in my very cold stairwell. The outside walls can get very damp but here is no room for a radiator if you want to get anything up or down the stairs.

The space behind the stairs (in the cellarhead) has flow and return pipes for the lounge radiator running right behind the stairs, and an normal elec socket. The smallest heater I can find (made by Smiths) is 700W / 2400 Btu/h on normal output and higher on boost but I don't need the stairwell to be hot - just warm enough to prevent condensation.

So...on to the questions:
1 Is this amount of heat overkill for a stairwell (there is also a radiator 180 degrees round a corner on the landing?)
2 Can you connect this kind of heater to the house thermostat or will it have it's own thermostat?
3 Will it need its own elec supply / special spur thingy?

Thanks in advance k

 

[simond]

1. Can't see your stairwell and you have provided no measurements. The question is therefore unanswerable .

2. The heater will come on when the water in the pipes warms up, in other words, when your CH is on. It doesn't need a separate wall thermostat, although you can fit one if you want a more regulated air temperature for this area. Smiths sell their own wall stat.

3. Yes, either a 13a outlet or a fused spur. Current consumption is very low.

 

[kates]

Sorry about that Simon

The stairwell is narrow - 700mm wide - going straight up a flight in a small terrace, so it's only a small space.

It gets v cold as it's next to the passageway and over the cellarhead. My main concern was that it'll use loads of energy to heat this area, but I might be confusing fan convector heaters with electric fan heaters which are very greedy.

 

[Corgigrouch]

The only electrical energy these units use is to power the electrical fan, so they use very little electricity..I'd be inclined to put it on its own thermostat so that you can control the temperature.. Only issue I have with them is that they do get a little rattly after a few years and they do suck in a lot of crap/ dust