Operation Deargodwillthiseverbefinished continues apace (a slow pace) at IHN Towers.

The kitchen and utility room are being knocked into one, new swanky kitchen etc etc. The layout will be such that there will be no exposed walls on which to hang a radiator, so our heating options are plinth heaters or underfloor heating.

Are plinth heaters any good?

the fan type kick out good heat, but they chew electricity

More than electric underfloor heating would?

Central heating connected plinth heaters (smiths type) have a thermostat controlled fan, are effective and avoid the electric bill issues. Bit noisy though.

I’ve had both the central heating, plumbed in version and now the electric only version.
It’s only used as a back up and very rarely at that.
As others have said, they’re noisy and I’d only regard them as a last resort.

No idea about plinth but our electric under floor heating is just brilliant… can’t say how much it costs but we only have it on low, and didn’t check consumption pre kitchen re-do.

water based underfloor – mine was cheap to install and is soooooo good.

I don’t think I’d want to try and heat a room just using plinth heaters.

I’d try and avoid it due to the noise of the things, we had a similar need in a small kitchen, but hardly used it due to the noise and the localised blowing of hot air.

water based underfloor – mine was cheap to install and is soooooo good.

Can’t really do water-based due to issues with floor heights.

Contrary to what has been said above, we have 2 central heating fed plinth heaters in our kitchen, and while they are a little bit noisy, it’s not unbearable and they work pretty well. They are the only heaters in the kitchen and they do a pretty good job of heating the space evenly.

Underfloor would have been ideal, but the cost put us off as we would have had to dig down

When we say noisy, do we mean as noisy as a ‘normal’ fan heater?

Less noisy than a normal can heater, and two settings too. They are a ‘bit’ noisy, rather than obtrusive noisy. IMO.

Interesting – didn’t realise you could get ones that plumb into your central heating…..

http://www.astra247.com/8854/Smiths/Smiths-Stainless-Steel-Central-Htg-Plinth-Heater/?gclid=Cj0KEQjw2v2sBRCazKGu3tSFz64BEiQAKIE1hszC-R2uFrnhsiKJSaAClv-lyJL3mCDygKjnKxScd4caAlYH8P8HAQ

This kind of thing

Plinth heaters are noisy, but they’re great on a cold morning when warm air hits your ankles and re-routes up your dressing gown…

water based underfloor – mine was cheap to install and is soooooo good.

Can’t really do water-based due to issues with floor heights.

We didn’t think we could either but did and didn’t have to dig down.

You can get some really thin UFH setups,probably best at 16mm overall depth,you can lay timber flooring / Tiles directly on top.

What type of floor is it? Screed or joists. If joists water UFH isn’t that difficult to install. I also know someone who had his screed floor dug out to install water UFH, wasn’t too expensive but one hell of a messy job. I had a ch connected plinth heater in my first house. It was pretty useless. Luckily it was a small kitchen so by leaving the door open the heat from the adjadcent rooms rads was enough to heat it.

We have a small otherwise unheated kitchen with a fan type electric plinth heater. It is rarely used but on a cold winters morning it goes on and is effective. We normally leave the door open to allow the wood burner in the living room to heat the kitchen. Or rely on the heat from the oven or stove. Our kitchen is truely very small we are probably among the few who looked at Millibands “second” kitchen with envy before the full story came out.

I had a Dimplex one in my old (small) kitchen. It did the job reasonably well and wasn’t too noisy. The thermostat was keen though so it cut out earlier then necessary.

We had a kickspace heater at my parents, which I think is the old name for a plinth heater

Whilst they worked fine, they were normally blocked by one of our staffies

I’ve got a central heating one

It is a bit noisy, but nothing ridiculous, just squeaky until it gets going 😀

It’s a small kitchen and I didn’t want a radiator on the wall