Heater selection

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linw

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#202041 14-Sep-2016 20:31

Need a new 2000-2400W elec heater for the lounge. Always had radiant heaters, right back to the old Conray, that is still used downstairs!

Fairly hard to find radiant heaters, now so am considering convection ones. The micatherm type seem good.

But, still a bit wary of not having direct radiant heat and I wonder about how the high power convection heaters get the heat out without the outer shell getting really hot. Do they just rely on the heated air being shot out the top?

Interested in comments. TIA.

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#1630499 14-Sep-2016 20:35

I bought this micathermic one since it was the last biggish heater in briscoes during a cold snap a couple of months back. Mrs MDF was skeptical as she is an oil column aficionado.

But it works amazingly well. Fan in the bottom does make a slight hum, but heats up super quick and circulates the warm air around the room, making it noticeably warmer in very short order. You wouldn't want to hold bare flesh against it for any length of time, but the surface of it doesn't get hot enough to scald from a brief touch.

tdgeek

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#1630501 14-Sep-2016 20:42

We have and I still think have an old Evantair. It is dented, has a fan that we never used as it rattles. 750W and 1200W option. Its awesome. We were in Harvey Normal, and spotted another, almost identical, Mica something, it was almost free. $17 $27 cant recall, but we grabbed it. Fan was quiet too. They work really well IMO

linw

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#1630609 15-Sep-2016 07:50

Thanks, guys, for your welcome input.

I have a problem with fans in heaters, as, in my experience, it isn't long before they are so noisy as to make them unusable. With radiant heaters they can be just left off, but with convection heaters??

Leaning towards a micratherm convection but still wavering!

Cheers.

timmmay

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#1630617 15-Sep-2016 08:12

I use a fan heater in my office, they generally last 3-5 years if you buy decent quality. They can be a bit loud, but they're much faster to warm a room than an oil heater, which is what we use the bedroom.

My wife really doesn't like heat pumps, because they're so noisy, she much prefers central heating with radiators, which is silent. She prefers the loud heat pumps to it being cold though.

Jaxson

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#1630687 15-Sep-2016 09:36

From an electrical load perspective, they're all the same, so it's a case of how they circulate/distribute the heat around the room/direct it at you etc.

Only a heatpump offers a cheaper electrical energy option to run, but they cost dramatically more than a basic electrical heater, so you are playing the long game with a heatpump.

You get cooling in summer though, which is a bonus, but that uses more power than not using anything at all.

richms

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#1630691 15-Sep-2016 09:40

timmmay:

I use a fan heater in my office, they generally last 3-5 years if you buy decent quality. They can be a bit loud, but they're much faster to warm a room than an oil heater, which is what we use the bedroom.

My wife really doesn't like heat pumps, because they're so noisy, she much prefers central heating with radiators, which is silent. She prefers the loud heat pumps to it being cold though.

Noisy? My aircon on low fan is quieter than my "silent" fans in my PC.

Richard rich.ms

hsvhel

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#1630740 15-Sep-2016 10:13

I use a Micothermic in my daughters room in winter, no fan and its dead silent apart from the thermostat click to start it.

Heats extremely well in a very short space of time and has not slaughtered our winter power bill like the oil column used to

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timmmay

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#1630742 15-Sep-2016 10:17

richms:

timmmay:

I use a fan heater in my office, they generally last 3-5 years if you buy decent quality. They can be a bit loud, but they're much faster to warm a room than an oil heater, which is what we use the bedroom.

My wife really doesn't like heat pumps, because they're so noisy, she much prefers central heating with radiators, which is silent. She prefers the loud heat pumps to it being cold though.

Noisy? My aircon on low fan is quieter than my "silent" fans in my PC.

My 10kw Fujitsu Nocria, on auto, is loud enough we have to turn up the TV. On low it's ok, and on "silent" you can't really hear it. However reducing the fan speed reduces the efficiency, so the initial heating at least should be done on auto fan.

The slightly older 7kw Daikin is quite a bit quieter, but it's in the kitchen/dining area so the volume isn't that important anyway.

So I guess the thing to note is indoor unit fan volume varies significantly, and to have a listen to them before you buy one. I bought more on efficiency, and they are both quite efficient.

neb

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#1630982 15-Sep-2016 14:41

richms:
timmmay:

I use a fan heater in my office, they generally last 3-5 years if you buy decent quality. They can be a bit loud, but they're much faster to warm a room than an oil heater, which is what we use the bedroom.

My wife really doesn't like heat pumps, because they're so noisy, she much prefers central heating with radiators, which is silent. She prefers the loud heat pumps to it being cold though.

Noisy? My aircon on low fan is quieter than my "silent" fans in my PC.

I was going to say the same thing, if you've got some old unit where the bearings are starting to go they can get noisy, but any modern low-noise unit should be close to silent. I wouldn't even consider anything other than a heatpump for a place you're planning to be in long-term.

timmmay

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#1630986 15-Sep-2016 14:46

It's the same as when it was new. It's just the volume of air coming out of the thing, it feels like it could blow enough air far and hard enough to heat a stadium. That's possibly the downside of buying the biggest model available.

neb

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#1631005 15-Sep-2016 15:00

timmmay:
It's the same as when it was new. It's just the volume of air coming out of the thing, it feels like it could blow enough air far and hard enough to heat a stadium. That's possibly the downside of buying the biggest model available.

Does it run like that all the time? Initially when heating a cold room it'll push through a lot of air, but once it's close to temp it'll settle down to a very low flow or, with decent insulation, off most of the time with only an occasional top-up.

ubergeeknz

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#1631008 15-Sep-2016 15:03

3rd vote for the micathermic heaters - they seem to work nicely and because they radiate heat out the front things feel warmer quicker than with a convection heater

linw

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#1631070 15-Sep-2016 15:48

Thanks, all, looks like we'll go for a micathermic.

richms

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#1631075 15-Sep-2016 15:52

Dont get one if you have a cat that may pee on it tho. Mine was in the shed over winter and got peed on by some random cat, so then mine had to re-mark it and boy did it stink when turned on. Had to throw it out.

Richard rich.ms

timmmay

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#1631133 15-Sep-2016 17:21

neb:
timmmay:

It's the same as when it was new. It's just the volume of air coming out of the thing, it feels like it could blow enough air far and hard enough to heat a stadium. That's possibly the downside of buying the biggest model available.

Does it run like that all the time? Initially when heating a cold room it'll push through a lot of air, but once it's close to temp it'll settle down to a very low flow or, with decent insulation, off most of the time with only an occasional top-up.

We have decent insulation, as good as could be expected in an older house, double glazed and such. It's definitely loudest when it's first on, it seems to be on fan setting 4/5 initially. Just keeping the room warm it seems to go down only one notch to 3/5, and sometimes not even that low. I manually set it to lowest fan position and it's pretty good, and if you set it to silent it is really quiet, but I wonder what it does to the efficiency.

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