OV9

Want to be able to heat the area above our garage (separate building to the house). Not as a sleeping/lounging area, but an area to be able to work in.

No gas out there (and installing a separate boiler for this would be stoopid), so looking at electrical options - dry or oil filled - suitable for occasional use. WiFi switchability might be useful, but beautiful contemporary design less important.

Immediately confused that oil filled wall mounted radiators are about 8x the cost of portable units. What am I missing?

What about a heat pump?(Aircon in reverse?)

What’s the humidity like ?

Get the humidity to 60% and it makes a big difference to how it feels. I have no heating in mine and it’s a single brick garage.

If I want heating I put a normal fan heater on for where I’m working.

Dave!

We use free standing oil filled heaters for tenants when the heating fails and always get great feedback.

If it's occasional use I'd try one or two of those at £30ish each and see how you get on. You can always add a wifi socket to preheat.

The fixed storage heaters must be heavier and more efficient to justify the £300+.

Heat pump ftw.

KiwiDave wrote: Mon Aug 02, 2021 11:06 pmHeat pump ftw.

How much are they in NZ? They're quite expensive in the UK AFAIK (maybe £6k for a small unit) I know they're cheaper in some other countries.

Marv wrote: Tue Aug 03, 2021 5:55 am How much are they in NZ? They're quite expensive in the UK AFAIK (maybe £6k for a small unit) I know they're cheaper in some other countries.

Erm we had two mahoosive ones fitted, plus two more normal sized ones - the two little and one of the big ones running off one massive outdoor unit. About 8500GBP.

Too much of a luxury for part-time requirements. (Oil filled portable rad is about £30).

Carlos wrote: Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:56 pm We use free standing oil filled heaters for tenants when the heating fails and always get great feedback.

If it's occasional use I'd try one or two of those at £30ish each and see how you get on. You can always add a wifi socket to preheat.

This…

We’ve used them n the past when the heating went, mid winter, and there was a delay in the repair.

Sounds perfect for your needs

We used to have an oil-filled rad in our last office to help during winter. It did sweet FA - you only felt the benefit if you hugged it (or had it sat right next to your desk). Two fan heaters had a far greater impact.

If you do end up with plug ins don’t run them off an extension lead, keep them directly plugged into the socket

I have some Mill branded wall mounted electric heaters in my flat. They cost £120 each but they blend in well and have an app so you can remotely control them or program when they turn on and at what temperature. They do warm up the place pretty well and are way better than using the AC units heating function which is both noisy and ends up making you feel really dry.

But any electric resistive heating will give you a 1:1 ratio between electricity cost and heat output. Electric oil rads won't make a difference. 'Mill' electric heaters also. They will all give exactly the same output for any given electricity input.

Using the AC units will get a COP of >1 on just about any day, so although more expensive to install will be cheaper in the long run.

A friend fitted his own DIY split level unit for about £1200 a year or so back IIRC. Just had to have the electricity wired up for it.

Yes, spend £1200 on an AC unit to heat your garage and a few hundred more paying someone to wire it in. You’ll save 20 pence each time you use it and might break even in 200 years if it never goes wrong.

Now we're on the same page Mito! Get AC Mik, that's your answer.

Clearly the answer is to buy a new house with an already heated garage with the small change your found down the side of the couch.

You're all DIW. Heat pumps/AC units have very little to do with the cost equations - they just feel FG when you're in a space ruled by them. I thought this was the home of Evonomics - the correct answer should be burn the house down and start from scratch with a full climate control system as seen in containment labs.

Since Concorde was grounded, I’ve discovered that Olympus engines are much more affordable than previously. The age of heating occasional-use spaces with supersonic commercial afterburner jet engines are - sadly - probably coming to an end. So as a last hurrah…… well… I think I owe it to supersonic commercial afterburner jet occasional use space heating fans everywhere.

I have however exercised considerable restraint by ordering only 3 as opposed to the full quartet - I’m not a total idiot!

Greta thanks you.

Put on a jumper.

Dave!