Decided about seven years ago to NOT have a radiator installed in the living room. It’s only 12’x 18′ so figured a gas fire would suffice. Needless to say – it doesn’t. Should I invest in a fire with greater heat output or supplement the existing one with a secondary heat source?

If the latter what isn’t too expensive to buy and run and isn’t the size of a Datsun 100a?

Ta loves.

Put radiator in?

Jumper?

Brandy?

You could keep yourself warm while vapourising your neighbours. Its a win/win

Put radiator in?

Wot he said.

oh

Decided about seven years ago to NOT have a radiator installed in the living room

tight barsteward

A) Radiator
B) Bigger fire
C) Insulation
D) Air source heat pump
E) Coat

Is electric heater some kind of dirty word on STW?

Will probably work out to be the cheepest option unless you’re spending the next 10 years in the house. Unless you plan on staying warm purely through the sense of smugness gained form heat pumps etc.

if you choose to go the radiator route, check your boiler has enough grunt to heat it and the rest of your house.

Have you thought about carpet (if floorboards at the moment) and thicker curtains?

Improve insulation before wasting any more energy heating the front garden.

Farting ?

Under floor heating is really nice.

Oil filled, electric radiators reasonably cheap to buy, run and have a decent size/output ratio.

I realise you weren’t looking for a sensible answer when you decided to ask the STW massive, sorry.

A nice fat bird to cuddle up to.

And one of these each to go with Binners’ suggestion…

Electrical resistance heating is a very inefficient method of heating, utilising an expensive fuel source. Cheap to buy; very expensive to run.
Oh, and a thin bird will be warmer than a fat one, having a higher metabolic rate.

Christmas at Casa Starship

I see Frankie Boyle endorses the slanket siamese!

MF – is that hugh monoslipper heated as well?

Loving the suggestions so far 😮

Electrical resistance heating is a very inefficient method of heating

Um, aren’t all electrical heaters pretty close to 100% efficiency? First law of thermodynamics and all that.

Um, aren’t all electrical heaters pretty close to 100% efficiency? First law of thermodynamics and all that.

all heaters are 100% if you close your curtains to stop the light getting out 😀

I think his point is that electricity is an expensive way, per kw/h, to heat your house.

A) Coat = £2.50 from a charitee shop
B) Insulation = government grant is £200 for an average 3 bed semi cavity walls
C) Radiator – Couple of hundred quid to put in, then to heat
D) Bigger fire? as in Gas or do you mean lots more logs!
E) Air source heat pump = rediculously expensive for low heat output. Unless you have a NEW house forget it as leaky old houses and ASHP’s and GSHP’s dont get up to ‘usual’ heat requirements 🙁

try insulating your walls first and see what a difference it makes, if it helps then the £150 you save on fuel can go towards your roof insulation grant 🙂

Jumper?

Difficult to regulate – a nice cardy will offer better control

Whilst it is true that there is a performance drop off in extreme low ambients, air source heat pumps are far more efficient than electric resistance heaters. Yes theyre also ugly and expensive.

Some of the big hitters produce a lot of hot air.

wrecker – true

Thebrick – thats STW for ya 😆

I think his point is that electricity is an expensive way, per kw/h, to heat your house.

2kw electric heater – £16

The smallest air souce heat pump I can find on google is 4kw for £2.5k.

At 30p/hour for the 2kw heater or 10p/hour for the heat pump at 2kw (assuming 15p/kwh) it would need to run continuously for 1.4 years to break even, or at a more relistic 2 hours a day (clicking on/off on a thermostat) to heat a small room, for 20 weeks of the year it would take 22 years to pay back, assuming it doesn’t break down once in that time and you can install it yourself.