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What heating are you using??

kegnkiwi

kegnkiwi

TK Veteran
I've recently got myself a 80w solar panel and some deep cycle batteries + Invertor. I was wondering if it is possible to create free heat ect. Aanyway looking into low power heater and i find that around 500w is the smallest decent heater i can find. I know my current solar panel won't run it for long (do have a wind turbine too). Anyway, i looked at the costs and running a 500w heater should cost around £0.15p per hour, but yet running a 24kw central heating is £2.76. I wondered if anyone else had looked at these figures before. I know that the central heating warms the whole house up.
 
I've not looked at cost but when our central heating packed up and we used a couple of fan heaters, they where 2kw and they needed to be on constantly otherwise the temperature soon dropped. Saying that we didn't have interior doors down stairs so the heat dispersed quicker. With central heating, it heats all the rooms up and then switches off and only comes on to bring temperature back up and as it heats the whole house the heat doesn't disperse as quick.

We found electric oil filled radiators to be more efficient than fan heaters.
 
There’s one way I can think of to create free heat 🤣

Central heating is cheaper than electric heaters. The key is to reduce your usage. How many radiators do you have in the house?

If you turn the radiators that you’re not using off, then your boiler won’t be running full time when using the heating.
 
Cheers grog and drox.

This is only as a pet project i have no problems with the heating in our house but i was just looking at costs for costs sake. My other half works from home some of the time and works in one room. I thought i could either run a power supply from my solar panels into the house or run a halogen heater from mains instead of the central heating. Other half has already turned the thermostat down to 17 deg.:fearscream:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08G55WQQV?ref_=cm_sw_r_apan_dp_Q12WDY56658TA2DJ0KRR
 
Have a look into those skirting radiators. The pipes run inside the skirting so heats up the entire room quickly instead of losing most of the heat out the window. Pricey, but could be worth it long term
 
jigger121 said:
Have a look into those skirting radiators. The pipes run inside the skirting so heats up the entire room quickly instead of losing most of the heat out the window. Pricey, but could be worth it long term
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We've already got those underplymth heaters in the kitchen, when the central heating is on it pipes hot water into a unit under the skirting board and a little fan pumps out heat. They are quite good when they are running.
 
Interested to see how this pans out @kegnkiwi Me and the Mrs both work mainly from home, different rooms, and it wasn't viable to heat the house all day with the price of gas last winter. Had the heating on first thing then a small oil filled electric radiator under each desk to put on when needed. I'm actually having a new boiler fitted next week and hoping for some efficiency savings but to run a heater off solar would be great.
 
pupuqiop said:
What solar panel/inverter etc did you get? Does the panel have to go outdoors or will it work inside in front of a window?
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I bought a 120w kit from Amazon but it turned out to be 80w only. I told them I wanted to send it back and after haggling with them they have me my back and told me to keep it. The panel sits on my garage roof. The batteries i get from work free part used and I have a 2000w cheap modified sign wave invertor. I bought a 2nd 30amp charge controller for £9.99.
 

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kegnkiwi said:
@pupuqiop the heater arrived uses about 430w on low and 922w on high. Our cats already moved in.
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They bang out some heat as well those halogen heaters don't they. What's the deal with the charging time vs use time, will the batteries hold enough charge so you can pretty much run the heater off them as often as you like?
 
pupuqiop said:
They bang out some heat as well those halogen heaters don't they. What's the deal with the charging time vs use time, will the batteries hold enough charge so you can pretty much run the heater off them as often as you like?
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I've just run an extension cable into the house that was plugged into the invertor just to test it out. It ran on both high and low settings but to fair i did not seem to run it any where as good as straight into the mains. We just wanted to see if it heated the lounge and dinning room up. I guess the running cost on mains is about 26p an hour. I took the temperature up from 18.5 to 19.2 in about 1/2 hour then i turned it off. It seems ok so i think we will be keeping it.
 
Solar power would be good but they are nowhere near powerfull enough to run and type of heating. I found just using a 2kw convector heater is as cheap as anything because they heat the room quickly and when room gets to temperature the stat cuts it out. You can use lower wattage heaters but you find because they don't give out much heat ,it takes the room much longer to heat up so the stat hardly ever cuts it out, so you don't really save much . Also Halogen heaters are ok if you are in front of them but they only heat objects(not the room) so as soon as you turn them off the room is cold.
 
formandvoid said:
Solar power would be good but they are nowhere near powerfull enough to run and type of heating. I found just using a 2kw convector heater is as cheap as anything because they heat the room quickly and when room gets to temperature the stat cuts it out. You can use lower wattage heaters but you find because they don't give out much heat ,it takes the room much longer to heat up so the stat hardly ever cuts it out, so you don't really save much . Also Halogen heaters are ok if you are in front of them but they only heat objects(not the room) so as soon as you turn them off the room is cold.
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The solar panel and batteries are just a pet project, I also have a 400w wind turbine thats still in the box. Its that big if don't know where to install it. The solar panel is just really for if power goes out then i can power low powered items up. I done it for a long time. That heater by the way is not a bulb its actually a carbon element and it does heat the room. In futrei can add more panels as i have lots of roof space south facing. I have often thought about installing lots of panels but its just weighing up the costs against what you can get back.
 
If you just heating 1 room then close the door and use the thermostat , I would prefer an oil filled rad . If 2 rooms then maybe better off putting the central heating on . My missus still hasn’t got the idea of a thermostat she just blasts it on max.
 
Better get my arse shifted as high winds are blowing in through my gaps in doors and vents and where my sat cables come up/down through floor.
Found 3 or 4 packets of bead sealer for doors draught excluders as stopping draughts will keep house warmer.
Chimney needs stuffing also and have old stuff to try and seal it.
 
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