At present we’ve a cheapo fan heater that does do an OK job of warming up our freezing conservatory (only a small thing, about 2x3m)..

It’s just on the floor, and kind of gets in the way…
WE’re having the thing knocked down for an extension next year, so not looking to plumb in any heating..

What’s best to keep it warm?

Over door heater blower thing?
Wall mounted electric panel?
Keep the fan blower?

Cheers!!

DrP

I know the issue, more guests than we’d like on Christmas Day, so we just got an electric oil-filled radiator from screwfix £35 has a time dial and thermostat, (one year guarantee)
Can get anything between 750-2500 watt, I can’t imagine they are too economical, but we will use infrequently
Home bargains have got some in for £20-25

Definately takes the chill out the air and reviews seem good

Suggestions to heat a conservatory/lean to thing..

= Suggestions for dong your best to greenhouse the planet as fast as possible.

Is there realy not enough space in the main insulated body of the house till you build the passive house standard 44kwh/m2/year extension? Think of your future children and grand children and the world you’ll leave them..

= Suggestions for dong your best to greenhouse the planet as fast as possible.

Is there realy not enough space in the main insulated body of the house till you build the passive house standard 44kwh/m2/year extension? Think of your future children and grand children and the world you’ll leave them..

Hero right there!

Anyway back on topic and the real world I’d go for a nice wired socket out of the way and as above use an oil filled radiator. I do find that fan heaters create their own issues as they sort of create a draught at the same time.

Is there realy not enough space in the main insulated body of the house

Nope. Next.. 🙄

Will look at the oil filled radiators – I suppose the issue there is that the fan heater works pretty quick to heat the air..is the oil filled rad a lot slower?
I guess it needs to go on an hour or so before?

DrP

If it’s anything like our conservatory, a can of petrol and a match should be a great improvement

Was in a similarly sized room last night, oil heater had it warm within a quarter of an hour.

As you have discovered conservatories are shit. Edukator may well have taken an STW crown for that post but the analogy works, about as effective as putting A/C in an open top sports car.

Perhaps you could mount the fan heater vertically on the wall so there is no draft?

An oil rad is a little slower to heat the room but as long as you put it on in advance of guest arrivals you should be fine.

If you have trickle vents in any units it would be worth closing them, also consider if the foam seal around the doors and other openings are intact, it’s cheap and easy to replace.

WE’re having the thing knocked down for an extension next year, so not looking to plumb in any heating..

You’re already planning for the best thing you can do…

I guess it needs to go on an hour or so before?

They have a thermostat, I’d leave it on all the time (or a time switch for when you’re in the house) and see how much it’s costing to run – maybe not much.

Also, you could try some of that clingfilm double glazing to slow the heat loss.

Given that all you’re aiming to do is convert electricity into heat, it doesn’t matter what sort of heater your use. Keep the fan heater and only use it for the time the conservatory is in use. Edukator should also be happy as it’s using the least embedded energy for a temporary solution.

So… piles of burning baby seals are out I guess?

Will keep the fan heater then, and just tell people to be careful!

DrP

Also, you could try some of that clingfilm double glazing to slow the heat loss.

Or wrap the outside with 270mm of fibreglass wool? duct tape and zip ties should help. You might need to spend little more on lighting during the day, but this should be more than offset by the savings on heating.

fan heaters cst a fortune to run.An alternative is an ” aviary heater “, these can be bought from DIY shops and are cheap as chips, its basically a heated cylinder that you can tuck away out of sight and run on low power.

If it’s guests your entertaining tell them it’s a Christmas jumper party.

Oil radiators seem to be much better than fan heaters in my experience. They actually heat the space not just one spot directly in front of themselves 😉

If it’s guests your entertaining tell them it’s a Christmas jumper party.

Alas, it’s one of ‘DrP’s sexy christmas parties’… you get the idea…

DrP

*It’s not. Mum, dad, and sister would be properly weirded out… 😯 😀

We have an oil filled electric radiator in our ice box “conservatory”.

It works well – put it on Nuke mode for 30 mins before people arrive and then turn it down to simmer mode and it maintains the temperature pretty well.

I am unsure however of the baby robins/ per unit ratio in terms of that environment..

In our convervatory we have a couple of electric panel heaters that are screwed to the wall but just plug into sockets. The conservatory is a proper heat sink so for all the col months of the year it’s generally shit off to keep the heat in the rest of the house. However if we have a load of people round we have the heaters on and open the conservatory up to the kitchen diner where we have a couple of big radiators. Can get it warm enough whilst people are there, but I can’t imagine it’s cheap to heat for that time.

Our conservatory is also getting knocked down in 2018 and replaced with a well insulated proper extension. It currently has a triple glazed polycarbonate roof which is about as good as keeping heat in as cling film stretched over the roof frame would be. In the summer it also gets hot enough in there to melt candles…..