Most economical heater type for bedroom

[Willingtolearn1]

Hello all! Being a noob to electrics could anyone tell me what type of heater this is?

Although this heater outputs heat quite quickly from cold, I'm concerned that in a cold winter it would be uneconomical to run overnight.

But if I replaced it with a storage heater I'm of the understanding that it would not produce heat quickly enough from cold i.e when arriving home on a cold evening.

What would be the most economical type of heater for a bedroom in a flat with electric only, no gas?

Heater

• Willingtolearn1
• 22 May 2012
• 1

Heater close up

• Willingtolearn1
• 22 May 2012
• 1

Cheers!

 

[RF Lighting]

That's a convector heater.

Storage heating is ok and will save money but only if you have an economy 7 supply, and even then some wiring may be required.

If you're unsure what supply you've got, post a couple of photos of your main incomming cable, meter(s) fuse box(es) etc.

Have a google for electric radiators. They work just like a central heating radiator, but have an electric element built in to do the heating. I have fitted a few of these and been very impressed.

 

[Willingtolearn1]

Thanks RF Lighting, muchly appreciated!

Just googled electric radiators and they seem like a great solution.

Any good makes of electric radiators to look out for?

I found some info from ecopower heating on their 'economiser' range of rads (not sure if they're a good make or not, anyone had any experience with them?), they say they use 60% less energy than conventional storage heaters because they modulate power to the embedded elements in the ceramic cells.

The flat does have eco 7, but I'm not sure if the rate switches automatically for all the electric points in the flat used within the eco 7 hours, I'll try and get some photos when I'm at the flat tomorrow

 

[ericmark]

All electric heaters will produce either radiated or convected heat unless your sitting on them when you could get conducted heat. One other exception is the heat pump.

With convected heat the heater heats the air which in turn heats you.

With radiated heat it heats you directly.

So if the air changes are high as in a garage where the doors are opened to get cars in then radiated heat works best.

However to measure radiated heat is a problem as most thermostats will be activated by air temperature so they tend to waist heat as not controlled too well.

So a mixture is likely the best and with some radiated heat the thermostat can be turned down lower.

Since we tend to want the heat higher at night than during the day and also lower once we go to bed and switch off the lights using a light bulb which gives off radiated heat is likely one of the most economic methods of supplementing the heating plus by using tungsten bulbs there is less mercury released as lamps are disposed of. So swapping discharge to tungsten in winter and tungsten to discharge in summer is likely the most economic method or lighting and heating.
i.e. the so called energy saving bulbs only save energy in the summer.

Assuming you have energy saving bulbs all year around then to fit a mixture of radiant heaters and converter heaters so you get the instant heat or the radiant heaters and more controllable heat of the convector heater.

Much depends on the room the bathroom radiant heater are likely best as you only want it warm for a short time and have many air changes to get rid of the steam.

Although the radiant heater will give instant heat to get dressed with the convector heater will warm the air you breath so you do want some back ground convected heat.

With an electric convector heater they will all give out the same heat for the same amount of energy used. However the thermostat will produce a sine wave of temperature depending on type from half a degree to 5 degrees between switching on and off. The amount of heat the unit stores will also effect the sine wave and the distance between the heater and thermostat. So the same heater in one house can work very well or produce a large sine wave where you start to feel cold before the heater turns back on.

It will change home to home but in general the oil filled radiator tends to hold enough heat so it never cools down completely before turning on again so tends to damp down the sine wave. But so much depends on the home and air changes there is no best or worst heater.

It's a case of matching to the home and having thermostatic control.

Using anything which accelerates the air changes be it a tumble drier, bathroom fan or kitchen fan will mean you spend more on heating. If the kitchen gets too hot then reducing the heat going into the room is clearly better than increasing air changes to remove heat although some air changes to remove moisture and smells is required.

So a hob which heats a pan direct and does not heat a hot plate which then heats pan and air will save energy.

A tumble drier which puts water into a bucket to be emptied because it does not blow heated air outside will produce less drafts and so use less power. However take the two tumble driers and use them in a shed outside and the type with a blower uses less energy to dry so the labels are confusing as they give which uses least energy when outside in a unheated shed not when in a heated kitchen.

What we have to do is look at the home as a whole. Not just individual little bits. Everything needs to integrate so heat exchangers which remove hot steam laden air from bath room and use the heat to warm the incoming air to living room will likely be more common in the future. As will heat pumps. Used air heat pumps back in 1980 in Algeria in the dry atmosphere of Syria worked well but between there and coast in certain weather they would become lumps of ice. I am told in very cold places where there is no moisture in the air they also work well. However can't see them working too well in the UK.

 

[ericmark]

As a P.S. to have the fridge and freezer in the bedroom where you want the heat may tick all the energy boxes but clearly having motors start up during the night is not what you want.

So may be best idea is pick one which looks nice! Interesting to transfer heat the surface should be black. Look at your car radiator or the one inside a box like the Myson. But for some reason we have traditionally used white for radiators which means they have to be bigger to give out same amount of heat. Or run hotter. So using a black one could help is looks does not matter.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I painted my radiators matt black in one room once - it went well with the decor. Can't say I noticed any improvement in performance.

Anyway - to answer the OP's Q: An air-source heat pump.

 

[ericmark]

I painted my radiators matt black in one room once - it went well with the decor. Can't say I noticed any improvement in performance.

With TRV's unlikely one would, but in the college I went to the guy in charge of the science department wanted radiators mat black as he felt he should practice what he preached. But they had to be re-painted as science department became too hot and other areas of the college the radiators were just warm where his alterations had cooled the water too much.

I also painted my car radiator white to fill some pin holes and car started boiling and I had to repaint mat black over the top of white and it did stop the boiling.

Heat pumps as you say in theory should be cheapest option but not sure how many years it would need to run for to pay for the extra cost of fitting in first place.

It was back in 1980 I used them. I hope they have cured the freezing problem? Many times I was called to one not working and it was just a block of ice.

 

[OwainDIYer]

Although this heater outputs heat quite quickly from cold, I'm concerned that in a cold winter it would be uneconomical to run overnight.

Why would you need to run heating overnight?

If your house is losing heat at that rate it needs insulating.

Then buy a duvet and an electric blanket.

 

[Willingtolearn1]

Thanks Rf Lighting and all! I've added a couple of photos of the supply meters.

The new meter seems to be connected to the output of the old meter.

On the new meter is written 'multirate' and '2 rate' - so with this setup will the electricity supply (and all sockets?) automatically switch over to the eco 7 rate at night?

Meter

• Willingtolearn1
• 2 Jun 2012
• 1

Meter close up

• Willingtolearn1
• 2 Jun 2012
• 1

Cheers!

 

[RF Lighting]

Right what you've got there is a dual tarrif meter and a time switch.

The meter is the digital jobbie on the left and the time switch is the old think on the right.

When the time switch is on everything in the property will be supplied with electricity at the cheap rate.

When the time switch switches off, it will disconnect the supply to the off peak board (heaters and immersion) and switch the meter back to standard rate metering.

 

[Willingtolearn1]

Thanks RF for clearing that up! It makes more sense now.

Am I right in thinking that the digital meter being newer would also be able to control the timing of eco 7 activation without relying on the old timer switch?

Based on that I assume the old timer's just been left as it provides the cable feed to the off peak board (heaters and immersion)

Cheers!

 

[crystal ball]

Check your bill to see what tariff you are on, its not always the case that you have E7 because you have a timeswitch and multirate meter