clay filled radiator

[rary]

I was thinking of buying one of the clay filled radiators for my conservatory as I cant use it in the winter, has anyone got any experience with this type of radiator and if so are they,
1/ able to comfortably heat a room (I know that I will require one suitable for the room size)
2/ economical to run
3/ worth the cost?

[arpoet]

Never heard of them... tell us more.

[Guest]

Never heard of them... tell us more.

Didn't like to say seeing as I worked in the plumbing industry for over eight years

[Nannysally99]

I think OP might mean storage heaters

[Guest]

I have just gone to get a rough idea of size of rad required (playing about) and on several online rad calcs they do not list conservatory. Being a conservatory I realise you would be struggling with heat loss but this just illustrates that companies don't even entertain it. The best I think you can hope for is taking the chill off and it wouldn't be particularly economical.

[Kristen]

Storage radiators pump out heat during the day, regardless of whether the sun is out, or not. Modern ones have a baffle to try to retain the heat in such circumstances, but I'm sceptical that it really works - happy to be enlightened though

We have underfloor heating in our conservatory, which is spec'd to be about 50% of what is needed. This outputs background heat without causing the conservatory to overheat (well ... fuel to be wasted ) when the sun comes out. There is then a conventional radiator to provide more "instant" heat to boost the temperature when needed, and not to have a huge thermal mass pumping out more heat after the sun has come out. I also felt that just having underfloor would have a similar problem when temperatures fall quickly, on a record-breaking cold night, for example, as the response time would be too slow; I think that would also be true of storage radiators on a night-time charging cycle, as they might not be hot enough by the time temperature was dropping during the night.

I think that oil-filled radiators exhibit similar characteristics - very slow hysteresis and thus likely to both under-heat initially and carry on putting out heat, and waste fuel, when the sun comes out.

[Bigmallly]

Conservatories a great in summer but a pain to heat in winter..........too much glass to be insulated.

[Kristen]

Conservatories a great in summer but a pain to heat in winter..........too much glass to be insulated.

Ours is very heavily insulated ... still more expensive to heat than a house, but it has a somewhat limited amount of glass (plenty, but there are also properly insulated walls between large windows and so on), plus the wall adjoining the house is not external. So I think it can be done ... but the uPVC type that conservatory companies put up are "pretty hopeless" in that regard.

We also have an "orangery" (the other half of the conservatory, so to speak) which has much less glass, with only a couple of Velux for light in the roof, which is even more energy efficient.

Never going to get ANY payback on the original building costs though!!!

[BertieFox]

I am bewildered that we are going to be stopped from buying high power vacuum cleaners and maybe even large cc lawnmowers, but the shops are full of all kind of power guzzling electric radiators and convector heaters, anything up to 3kw or more (at least they are over here). Electrical heating is the most inefficient and most expensive there is, and the only advantage it has is convenience and cleanliness (at the point of use).

Unless we all have triple glazed conservatories with thick insulated walls, we can never heat them to a comfortable level of warmth on cloudy, cold and dull winter days. I've just finished building one out of insulated wood and polycarbonate but I've noticed it already gets cold in the late evening and is chilly in the mornings.

We have a small spring next to it where the water never freezes in winter. I did wonder about routing this through pipes in the conservatory floor or wall, but then I wondered if it might actually draw heat away rather than add it. (Something like the coolant in a fridge does?) So I left it alone. Short of a whole heat pump caboodle, I don't think there is any way of using my slightly warmer spring water.

[teakdesk]

Electrical heating is the most inefficient and most expensive there is, and the only advantage it has is convenience and cleanliness (at the point of use).

Electrical heating can be the most economical in certain circumstances.

After a thorough review of heating costs (is linking the electric meter to my phone for immediate cost analysis and a web can on the gas meter for instant readings and hence cost) I was was able to determine that using the central heating to heat my study during the day was far more costly than using a 2kW fan heater and accurate thermostat, even when all radiators except for the study are turned off.

I have a 2kW electric kettle that boils a measured ammount of water far quicker than my kettle on the gas stove but once costs of the energy is calculated the difference is negligible. We use the gas kettle because we are much better at only filling it with just the water we need (otherwise it takes too long!); the electric kettle tends to get overfilled and hence waste money.

I agree with your comments about heat loss though. Did you know that pulling thick curtains over a single glazed window has the same effect as converting to double glazing? Or curtains over double glazed windows is the same effect as installing triple glazing?

[BertieFox]

Did you know that pulling thick curtains over a single glazed window has the same effect as converting to double glazing? Or curtains over double glazed windows is the same effect as installing triple glazing?

That's an excellent idea. I had not really considered curtains or blinds for our new conservatory but for winter use that could make a huge difference in keeping it frost free overnight. As we have built it with timber walls between the glazing it should be easy to put up curtain rails for this.

[rary]

Thanks Folks for all the info. with regards to the heater on when the sun is out, the conservatory only gets about 3hrs. of sun in the winter and that is if the sun is shining, and as I have solar panels fitted it would not be such a big waste of power for me.
I will have to think on the comments that have been made before doing anything.
so again Thank You

[teakdesk]

How many watt-hours do your solar panel produce on dark days like we have been recently? That will make a big difference to the answers we give.

Are you storing energy locally or giving it to the National Grid?

[rary]

How many watt-hours do your solar panel produce on dark days like we have been recently? That will make a big difference to the answers we give.

Are you storing energy locally or giving it to the National Grid?

Actually it has been quite sunny in this area recently, and the power goes to the national grid

[snakeshack]

My solar panels send nothing back to the grid, we have an "immersun" fitted which diverts surplus to an immersion heater in the hot water tank, this heats up the water during the day when the boiler is off and has the thermostat set to 85 degrees , 20 higher than the boiler so the tank acts as a thermal storage device


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