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Wifey has been complaining it's freezing in her playpen! - We had a fully fitted kitchen fitted and tiled about 3yrs ago, but when doing it they removed the central heating radiator and never refitted it. Problem is all the wall space is now used and the bits that aren't won't fit a rad and are tiled. At the moment she is using a bottled gas heater but that's working out at nearly £40 a fortnight! - last night she had an idea! about fitting a rad to the ceiling above her work area, we don't mind doing a few mods to blend it in, but would it be feasible? thoughts please!
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>> last night she had an idea! about fitting a rad to the ceiling above her work area,
Can't see it being very efficient. Heat rises, and if it's already at ceiling level, then it's going to need a lot of heat output to be of any benefit.
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I heat the room I'm mostly in with with a 2KW oil filled radiator. Works well and heats up quick. Thermostat clicks on and off to maintain temp and be more efficient.
2KW @ 15p her kWh works out at £16ish per 14 days, assuming an 8 hour run time with element activated for 4 of those.
I don't see the point of heating the whole house, when i mainly sit in one room.
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You could try tealights and flowerpots. Apparently. At least these barking ideas are sort of free.
www.homemadehomeideas.com/5-ways-to-heat-your-home-for-free/
Of if you have towels hanging in your kitchen on a rail already, could you make it a heated one or something?
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Plinth heaters
tinyurl.com/ybetebqu
Failing that, tell her to use the oven and hob more
Last edited by: R.P. on Mon 11 Dec 17 at 12:45
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That could be of interest as I also have a fairly cool kitchen. No reason it shouldn't be plugged into a standard 13a socket is there?
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>> That could be of interest as I also have a fairly cool kitchen. No reason
>> it shouldn't be plugged into a standard 13a socket is there?
Should be ok, its only 2kw, just a matter of getting the mains wire to the plug.
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>> Failing that, tell her to use the oven and hob more
>>
Put another jumper on and tell her to move around a bit faster. That will warm her up.
I think we mollycoddle women a bit too much. I know I do.
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Another vote for an oil fill radiator, we have an office separate from the house that my wife uses these days, an oil filled rad heats it well and quite efficiently. We also have one we have on low in our conservatory during the winter.
We had a wall taken down this year and had two contemporary design vertical rads fitted to replace two normal rads, they are only about 440mm wide and chuck out loads of heat, not cheap though. We also have a vertical rad in our bathroom, only about 200mm wide and also effective.
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We have a plinth heater. They work like a car heater
i.e a fan pushes air through a matrix of pipes through which hot water from the central heating system flows.
Cheap to buy, easy to fit if you have the pipework in place, I used flexible connectors, cheap to run and efficient.
Surprised your kitchen installer didn't suggest one.
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For ease of installation I'd use an electric one. Wish I'd known about it when we had the kitchen done!! Central heating pipes are all underfloor, under tiles. There is a gch rad in the area I'm thinking of, but some heat pushed out by a fan would be a bonus. (Part of the area is a flat roof, which means a huge cols area. It may not be that well insulated but I'm not about to start ripping it apart, so this would be a "quick fix")
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>> Failing that, tell her to use the oven and hob more
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Or, swap both for an Aga and the kitchen will always be warm :)
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We started off using a 2kw fan heater but that gobbled the leccy something terrible! - we then thought of a oil rad but it would have to be something huge, and i doubt it would ever reach set-point so would be bouncing away all the time, hence the calor fire! - the pipe stub ends are there above the wall cupboards where the rad used to connect to .....so will have to think of someway of squeezing something in elsewhere that can utelise them! - seems pointless having the heating on and not using it fully! - brain cells working overtime!
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Dont know how much rom you have abouve the wall cupboards but you could possibly use one of these. similar really to the plinth heater in principle.
www.warmrooms.co.uk/radiator-supplier/smiths-environmental/smiths-ecovector-high-level-fan-convector---central-heating.aspx
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Thanks CG! - that link looks quite interesting! - may do just as she requires! will look into it ;-)
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I opened up my kitchen a few years years ago...more light but much colder. Sheepskin slippers and Icebreaker merino wool base layers sorted that problem. Staple diet of cereals, poached egg beanz on toast meanz I'm barely in that part of the house.
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I fitted an electric plinth heater into our kitchen. Does exactly what we wanted it to do, although the prices are eye watering for what is basically a 2KW fan heater.
Daughter has one plumbed into her heating. Doesn't produce anywhere near as much heat as our electric one.
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Off peak storage heater...timed to come on and heat room when used.
Fit, set up and forget..
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Have you got Economy 7 tariff madf? I don't know why but I was looking for the cost of one recently and couldn't find anyone who did them. Unless I'm going barmy...
The high-up fan would be more unsightly and messy for me to install.
My mate has underfloor heating, on it's own circuit of his gch (I.e. with it's own controls and timers etc). That's what I'd get if I was re-doing the room. It means the tiles are comfortable but also heats the room very evenly and subtly.
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Economy 7 isn't very economical. You will find that they up the cost of the peak time electricity used so unles you have strage heaters all round the house its not a good idea .
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>> Economy 7 isn't very economical. You will find that they up the cost of the
>> peak time electricity used so unles you have strage heaters all round the house its
>> not a good idea .
You don't necessarily need storage heaters. We use washer, dishwasher and tumble dryer* overnight and it's worthwhile for us. But you're quite right about (some) providers upping the cost of daytime.
My current So Energy tariff expires in a few weeks. I have a log of my usage for last couple of years and will use a spreadsheet to confirm comparison site outcomes.
*I know there's a risk of immolation but it's a newish heat pump dryer, well away from occupied bedrooms and there's little flammable material in the utility room.
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I have solar panels for daytime :-) Though not so productive at this time of year...
Last edited by: smokie on Mon 11 Dec 17 at 15:41
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>> >> Failing that, tell her to use the oven and hob more
>> Or, swap both for an Aga and the kitchen will always be warm :)
The bloke who used to service our Rayburn told me to get an Everhot -electric.
Last edited by: VxFan on Tue 12 Dec 17 at 01:55
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Or, swap both for an Aga and the kitchen will always be warm :)
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Even in Summer!
I stayed in a house in Wiltshire this summer which had an AGA. The kitchen was unbearably warm. Horrendous waste of heat and oil.
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Absolutely. You need to also have another cooker and not rely upon the Aga for hot water.
Great for 3/4 of the year but a pain on a hot summer's day.
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Definitely don’t rely on an Aga for hot water; they are, AFAIK, not thermostatically controlled and so it’s possible to boil the water if you go away for a long weekend. Hot water was disconnected from ours when we moved in. O
Oherwise no issues, and it doesn’t got too hot no matter what time of year. A function I suspect of a large room with a high ceilings, and internal doors left open! At £180 a month for all gas and electricity (including a PHEV) for a reasonably large Edwardian house it’s not *that* expensive to run. We save almost half that by running a hybrid ;)
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Our previous house was a very large Edwardian house with a lot of original (single glazed) windows. And they are big windows and French doors etc. We paid nowhere near £180pm for gas and electric.
Current house is a bit smaller and properly double glazed and gas/electric is £80pm. And I work from home so use heating and electric during the day (no PHEV).
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>> Plinth heaters
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>> tinyurl.com/ybetebqu
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Yes, electric plinth heaters used to be quite popular seeing as smaller kitchens rarely have enough spare wall space for a radiator, but the rise of under-floor heating means they are on the wane a bit these days.
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An infrared panel heater fitted on the ceiling overhead might work. They are relatively low wattage and give out radiant heat. If she wants the heat in one place it could be a simple and effective solution.
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unusual idea! - VxFan
