Calor Gas Heaters

[tintinthegingertomcat]

My dad, bless his cotton socks is going to pay for me to have a calor gas heater as I cannot afford to put the heating on twice a day. It appears that the main cost of central heating is the initial turn on and heat up so I have decided only to have the heating on once a day to cover late afternoon/evening and to suffer the cold in the mornings.

The calor gas heater will only be used for about an hour or so in the mornings to take the chill off the air.

Am I right in understanding that the gas cylinder will last about 60 hours or thereabouts. If so, then the calor gas should last up to two months with a useage of one hour or so a day. When not out job searching I tend to go out in the day - either shopping, meeting friends or down to the library so heat in the day is not quite so essential.

Any information supplied by you lovely ladies will be much appreciated.

[duck_a_lorange]

Make sure that you have enough heat in every room in the house to stop any pipes from freezing. 

Not sure what a calor gas heater is like, but if it doesn't have a balanced flue you will need ventilation otherwise you may get a build-up of carbon monoxide.

Get a carbon monoxide alarm.

I also think it may give off water vapour, so more need of ventilation.

[chickengrandma-2008]

There was something on TV a few days ago about heating a small room with tea lights.  I'm afraid I didn't really watch it properly but maybe someone else has seen it.  He said you can get 100 tea lights from Ik*a for £1.  You put 8 on a tray in a circle/group and light them all.  You  put a clay flowerpot upside down over them then you put another, larger pot over the first, resting on the edges of the tray.  He said this will burn for 4 hours for 8p and warms up a small room.  Don't know if it works or not but perhaps worth a try??    

[stroppy*cow]

Watch out for condensation - they seem to create an awful lot of water vapour.

[lost.parrot]

It's advantage is it's portable; beyond that, there isn't much.

As someone has already said , you will get condensation on cold surfaces, which will then get mouldy if not dried, eg mirrors, walls etc, will show sooty mould

It's usually more expensive per kilo watt hour, though the fuel is not that much different from your domestic natural gas supplied

All devices burning natural gas or derivatives will produce water vapour as a by-product, you just dont see the boilers as it goes out the flue, you will likely see a calor gas heaters though

Safety wise, it is a potential hazard. If you hae to have one, buy new, but really a pre paid meter might be better, though devices aren't portable

[**forum-decorum**]

I agree with lost.parrot.

[captainbovine]

we used one for years and it was good. True about the condensation though. Just be careful with it, but your son is old enough not to touch the thing.

I'm keen to give that tea light thing a go  but I think our room is too big for it to work.

Agree wholeheartedly with the former post about getting a carbon menoxide detector...

[bitsnknots]

I know that when I've had a tea light in my bedroom, some heat does come from it but I've just used one.  I can see the benefits of using them.

[**forum-decorum**]

I would go for something like this if cost is an issue rather than the calor gas.

 Ebay item no.281051396409

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adax-Neo-Designer-Electric-Panel-Heater-Radiator-Convector-Slimline-Wall-M...

Cheap to run and clean, slimlined and can be wall mounted to be out of the way. and no condensation.

[duck_a_lorange]

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't want one in my house.  Not without proper ventilation and a flue. I keep thinking of my (late) next door neighbours, who had double glazing put in but kept their open gas fires.  You could smell the fumes in the house, and they both died within a year.  OK, they were in their late eighties but I don't think the fumes helped.

Have you considered a convector heater with a thermostat and maybe a timer for the hour or so you need heat in the mornings? EDF have just notified me of their new prices - 14.5p per Kw Hr - so for example, a 2kw convector heater run full blast for an hour would cost 29p.  You can get them for £25-£40 , £35 average. The calor gas heaters seem to start at £64.

[duck_a_lorange]

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@golden*nugget28 wrote:

I would go for something like this if cost is an issue rather than the calor gas.

 Ebay item no.281051396409

 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adax-Neo-Designer-Electric-Panel-Heater-Radiator-Convector-Slimline-Wall-M...

Cheap to run and clean, slimlined and can be wall mounted to be out of the way. and no condensation.

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A 2kw panel from them is £151!

Something like these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_from=R40&LH_ItemCondition=3&_nkw=2kw+convector+heater+wit...

[**forum-decorum**]

Many of those though duck are not as cheap to run.

You'd have to do some searching to find a bargain buy that will be cheap to run also. I was just pointing out the type of heater.

[kaeptm]

I've seen a convector heater in Wickes it's up to 2kw and is £16.99. I would put a link but I don't think I'm allowed to. Just search on the website,  I'm getting one this weekend. It looks a really good buy, 3 heat settings, thermostat, portable and as said before reasonable to run.

A Calor gas fire will need ventilation and sort of defeats the object really. 

[duck_a_lorange]

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@golden*nugget28 wrote:

Many of those though duck are not as cheap to run.

You'd have to do some searching to find a bargain buy that will be cheap to run also. I was just pointing out the type of heater.

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But - 2kw per hour is 2kw per hour regardless of the equipment - if you boiled a 2kw kettle for an hour it would cost the same as running a 2kw convector for an hour.  I think with that make you're paying for a designer label.

[lhasa.two]

I would ask your father to help fund the additional cost of running the central heating in the mornings, rather than buy another gas appliance. The cost of fire up - if it's a modern combi condensing boiler, ie. made after 2003 for the condensing part, is negligible.

[fluffypenquin]

I used to have got a calor gas heater and they give out a lot of warmth but sadly a lot of fumes and do cause condensation.  It had a safety cut out that detects if the oxygen level in the room is dropping too low - if this happens it cuts out.  To prevent this from happening, you need to leave a window or door open, which seems to negate the benefit of trying to heat the one room thoroughly.

[cee-dee]

Lhasa.one is spot on. Ditch the idea of a CG heater.

[lost.parrot]

OP, if you check on the gas bottle, assuming it's say 15kg, it should contain about just over 200 kwh of energy

Take whatever price you might pay for the bottled gas and divide by that figure ( assuming 15 kg bottle ) should give you a price per kwh

If you paid say £30 for one, that would be 30/200 or approx 15p per kwh. You can compare this with whats on the back of your bill somewhere, if you are looking at relative cost. If you haven't an empty bottle, they will charge extra. That's ignoring cost of heater itself

Because it's mobile, a gas heater can be placed close to you if you are static, and you get the warmth close by, but then if you move about it's not so warm elsewhere. Opening a window to allow air changes, will reduce the feeling of warmth, but you may need too, to try to avoid condensation. Really apart from mobility, most other factors for such heaters are negative

[auntieannie44]

how about Halogen heaters, I have always found them to be economical and instant, also they are safe.

[ed_blackadder_1]

We had one of those that had three heat settings and it moved from side to side.  When our heating broke down a couple of years ago in the bad winter and we had to wait 3 weeks for an engineer, they were very busy, it was a god send we put it on upstairs on the landing and had the gas fire on downstairs, the house wasn't hot by any means but it did take the chill off. I think it cost about £15.00.