Electric fires and other heaters

[Gardengirl]

The only heating in our living room is a radiant fire, fitted by the developers in a very odd position for heating us up. I understand that a radiant fire may also not be a good way of circulating the heat around the fairly large room.

We haven't needed any heat so far, having moved in during April, with our last visit ending mid-October. However, we are going over for a month soon, and will need heat. We plan to spend a couple of months or so there during winter, hopefully soaking up the sun instead of November and February gloom here in UK, but realise that the lovely blue skies also bring very cold temperatures.

We had thought about a couple of portable heaters, maybe low panel types, which would seem to be fairly unobtrusive. We are now thinking about an electric fire which pretends to be either a log or coal fire; we have seen ads which state that they give out 100% of heat, as there is no heat going up the chimney (which we don't have - it's a modern apartment). I'm thinking it will also give the room a focal point and make us feel warmer just to look at it.

Does anyone have experience of these types of fire, or comments on portable heaters of any sort? The fires I've seen so far need fitting on to a wall, rather like those modern TVs around just now.

Thanks for any comments, Jo

[JohnRoss]

How about a poele à pétrole turbo or mèche type. The mèche type has a nice red glow to it. We have one of each and are happy with them. More to go wrong on the turbo type but is more efficient than the other, see my post on Squall heaters. Mèche types don't need an electricity supply. Only a slight smell of paraffin on lighting or turning off but does increase the humidity a little..........................................JR

[woolybanana]

Can you please give an idea of the increase in humidity you get, please? Do you counter it with humidity collectors. I have rather a lot of books and papers which I dont want to get damaged.

[bosie]

A friend has just recommended Halogen heaters to us as being quick to heat and cheap to run. They also give off a warming glow and you can buy them with remote control and timer. Don't have any personal experience of them but are definitely considering getting one.

[JohnRoss]

 

On the subject of humidity increase it is rather difficult to say. Burning paraffin does push the humidity up but we find the increase small compared with changes due to the weather. Some folk seem more concerned with other products of burning paraffin and this site is a bit negative for example: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/02/paraffin_heater.php. We have an electric dehumidifier which I have never had to put on just because we are using either of the paraffin stoves. So despite what some say about them being dodgy it has not been our experience.  We always have some ventilation via a window open a little bit in the room the paraffin heater is being used as most experts would recommend. So sorry cannot give figures but, as I say, it has not been an issue for us and we can maintain close to 50% RH with little problem.

As an alternative one all electric solution I have seen and been impressed by, is the wall mounted heat pump type of system with the heat collector of the air type mounted on an outside wall, quite expensive compared with a paraffin heater. With this you would need another additional source of  heat in the depths of Winter in my opinion though it might be sufficient for a smallish area on its own. They can be reversible to give cooling in Summer......................................JR 

PS I should add that the room in which we use these paraffin heaters is 40 square metres with an open plan kitchen leading off and a staircase leading into the room so pretty good ventilation. I would think that humidity might be a problem in a small room with no opportunity for the warm water vapour to escape in which case there might be significant condensation issues.

 

[Thebiga]

We bought a electric fire with the wood burning effect and it has been really good for our lounge. We got it from Mr Bricollage and it is a make EWT it has three settings. one with just the flame effect and another two heat settings. It blows the heat out from a vent at the bottom and it works very well for our space. We also have in other rooms and properties either the small paraffin fires which are pretty economical and put out good heat and the portable gas fires that run on a tank in the back which again are fairly economical. The paraffin one does smell a bit when first lit but then is fine and they usually come with a built in c02 detector just incase.

[Gardengirl]

Thanks for the replies; we'll have a few things to think about, and then some heater shopping when we get there.

Jo

[Callie]

We've had a couple of mobile gas heaters (super SERs) for about 20 years and they are brilliant.  They will heat a big room with high ceilings with no problem.  But, like the petrol heaters, they do make a bit of condensation if you have them full on.  We run ours on medium or low but turn it off from time to time.  If they start smelling, it usually means the gas cylinder is running out !