Heating one room

[Dave]

What's the best way (and by that I think I mean the cheapest way) of heating just one room? We have a box room that I'm going to set up as an office as I'm now going to be working from home. I assume that the way NOT to do it is have the full house central heating on and turn down (or off?) the TRVs in all the other rooms?

It's a 1960s semi-detached dormer (chalet) bungalow with one external wall being "normal" brick/cavity/brick, the other external wall has the window and has (I think) inner plasterboard/wood frame/outer tile construction and the other two walls are standard stud walls.

In case anyone was going to suggest one of those stand-alone gas heaters, I assume it would have to go on the brick wall but due to the room layout, that wall is the best choice for the desk and shelving so I'm afraid that's a non-starter.

TIA

[philipuk]

Best is a nice warm sweater. I just use a 2KW electric convector heater to top up the warmth in my home office when the heating in the rest of the house is off. I imagine an oil filled radiator would be an even better choice.

As it is a very small room it only takes a couple of minutes to take the edge off of the cold (and the IT equipment keeps it pretty warm except when it is really cold outside).

Philip

[fred]

In article , [e-mail] writes

Agreed although I found 2kW a bit aggressive in a small room so I disconnected one of the 2 x 1Kw elements in it. Get one with a thermostat.

I've also found that convector heat can be a bit eye drying, so again I agree that an oil filled thermostatic radiator could be better.

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

And regular cups of hot tea, which encourgaes one to get away from the screen and bend & stretch a bit.

Heat-wise I find that my feet tend to get cold down under a desk; last year I bought a think like a cross between a furry wellington boot and an electric blanket. It's a single boot into which you tuck both feet (so be careful when you stand up and try to walk away!) and it's heated. On cold days it's really good.

You do have to be careful if you've numb feet and can't tell how hot such a device is.

[Nightjar]

I use a thick pullover and a halogen radiant heater. It is me that needs to be warm, not the room.

Colin Bignell

[Huge]

I use a thick pullover and a cheapo 2kW fan heater from Sainsers, if required. Which it isn't at the moment. Radiant heaters are all very well on average, but half of you is scorched and half cold.

[Gordon Henderson]

2KW Electric fan heater with a thermostat... Well, works for me until it's properly cold enough to light the stove.

Just bought one from the local hardware store for a tenner. (well, £9.95)

Gordon

[Jeremy Nicoll - news posts]

And another advantage of that is that a room that feels chilly when you're just sitting in it quite often feels warm if you've gone away and wandered in a coller part of the house and come back to it - I've noticed this quite often with eg the lounge after several hours in front of the TV with a gas fire blazing away...

[Harry Bloomfield]

Dave was thinking very hard :

Cheapest would be an oil filled, thermostatically controlled, electric radiator, or just a none oil filled one mounted on a wall - if floor space is important.

[John Rumm]

You need a swivel chair and a laptop ;-)

[ARWadsworth]

Why not?

[Andrew Gabriel]

As just mentioned in the "Reverse Air con" thread, I use an aircon unit in heating mode. It will have the cheapest running costs, but probably the most expensive installation costs. Also, they tend to be quite powerful, so might not suit a small room.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Assuming you heat the house morning and evening as with normal occupation but out at work all day, a small electric fan heater on a thermostat should have no trouble keeping it topped up. Or a similar oil filled rad if you don't like the noise of a fan heater.

[gremlin_95]

Guessing the boiler would be cycling on and off a lot if just heating one radiator, our boiler modulates down to 12kw and if it runs just one radiator it goes on/off/on/off a lot.

[Dave]

Thanks everyone - an oil-filled rad with thermostat I think it is then! :-)

[Huge]

I have a swivel chair and three computers. But I only swivel through about 100deg.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Dave: dont even try. If you have you, a couple of computers a router and a printer in it a and a couple of lights on, provided its insulated it will be the warmest room in the house.

Have a little electric fan heater for those -15c days that global warming predicts will become more frequent.

Any attempt to use 'rest of house' heating will almost certainly use MORE fuel than the cost of the electricity.

Another possibility is to install a wood burning stove to use up all the waste paper people send you through the post marked 'HM customs and Excise' 'Inland Revenue - Final demand'.

Make every day a red-letter day, burn all the post. If they cant email you, they can f*ck off.

[The Natural Philosopher]

f*ck, if you have a laptop stay in bed!

[John Rumm]

If you are staying in bed, forget the laptop and do the other thing you suggest ;-)

[NT]

The central heating will be far cheaper for a given amount of heat than any plugin or portable heater. Gas is about 1/3 the price of electricity per kWh. If you're not working in the room with the thermostat, you'd best get a wireless stat. Better still would be to set the system up with a 2nd zone.

NT