Electric Fires

[Paul Hutchings]

We want to get an electric fire for a smallish living room, probably 20' x 10' or so.

It doesn't need to be anything fancy, basically wall mountable instead of the current gas fire, and that's about it.

Are there any things to be aware of when choosing this sort of thing?

To put it in context, it's for an elderly relative who's having problems coping with the current gas fire, and rather than take the chance on them not gassing themselves, it seems simpler to get something where that cannot happen.

Presumably the cheaper ones just have a few metres of captive mains flex with a regular 13A plug on the end?

Any help/buying advice would be appreciated.

TIA, Paul

[Ian Stirling]

You need to get into contact with 'Martin'.

[Christian McArdle]

A modern gas fire has all sorts of safety cutouts that prevent the user gasing themselves, whatever they do with the controls. They also cost a quarter as much to run as the electric. Perhaps you should consider replacing with a modern gas fire.

Christian.

[Owain]

"Christian McArdle" wrote | > To put it in context, it's for an elderly relative who's having | > problems coping with the current gas fire, and rather than take | > the chance on them not gassing themselves, it seems simpler to | > get something where that cannot happen. | A modern gas fire has all sorts of safety cutouts that prevent the | user gasing themselves, whatever they do with the controls. They | also cost a quarter as much to run as the electric. Perhaps you | should consider replacing with a modern gas fire.

Gas or electric 'fires' share the problems of someone falling against them or a clothes-horse toppling, etc., and the electric ones especially being radiant heat only heat the front of the person, and old people often run them continuously to try to get their backs warm, when a little convector heater or a CH 'radiator' behind them would stop the chilled feeling.

Owain

[Paul Hutchings]

It's not really that sort of a situation, it's more that we feel uneasy leaving him with the current fire where you have to sort of twist, push, hold it a few seconds, twist a bit more until it sparks, turn the dial back etc. hell it takes me about two minutes to light the damned thing :-)

We don't have any real worries about trips/falls or things toppling onto elements,really we have no problem with him operating the fire, it's just the gas is a bit of a worry (an opinion shared by social services, apparently it's quite a problem with old people).

I did wonder about something free-standing, TBH I'm not at all clear on the real-world benefits of, say, a wall-mounted fire (looks pretty?) vs a freestanding oil filled radiator vs a panel heater etc.

The house has full central heating, and always seems like an oven to me, really this is for the sort of "immediate" heat that the gas fire currently provides.

I've never really had to look at fires, I just assumed with any gas fire you can potentially gas yourself if you don't ignite it correctly.

On the gas vs electric cost side, I think I just want something that will do the job in the most safe and suitable way, and if it costs a bit more to run so be it.

thanks all, Paul

[Owain]

"Paul Hutchings" wrote | I've never really had to look at fires, I just assumed with any gas fire | you can potentially gas yourself if you don't ignite it correctly.

Natural gas isn't poisonous like the old coal/town gas; the real danger is an un-noticed build-up to ignitable/explosive levels.

Owain