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shazamataz · Mar 25, 2009, 05:47 AM

Hi guys! My partner and I just purchased our first home and we are moving in on Sunday. It is a 3 bedroom house but it is till relatively small and the lounge/dining/kitchen is all open plan. There is a small wood heater in the lounge room but we would like to avoid using it.

Can anyone recommend another form of heating that is fairly cheap to run? As I said this is our first home and we basically have no idea on what is expensive or cheaper to run.

Thanks :)

sarnian · Mar 25, 2009, 07:12 AM

Hello shazamataz

Think more about insulating the house rather than heating the house. Of course you need a source of heating, but what you keep in does not have to be provided.
Spend your money on insulation. Of walls, of ceilings, of windows, and reduce draft (doorstrips etc).

The advantage is that proper insulation also helps in summertime to keep the house cool, and much more economic on long term !

435Studio · Mar 25, 2009, 09:45 AM

It would help to provide a little more information: Where are you located, what is the climate like? How big is the room/space you want to heat? How many doors, windows and height of the ceiling. Is the "wood heater" a stove, fireplace insert, what?

One alternitive, although not inexpensive is a mini split system with a wall mounted interior piece and an external compressor. Can be heat, cool or heatpump model. Runs on electricity...

dac122 · Mar 25, 2009, 10:06 AM

I too am wondering what region of the country you are in since you list only a small wood heater as your sole heat source. This would suggest you are in a regions that gets pretty hot in the summer, which begs the question of what type of cooling do you have as that might be a place to combine some functionality.

shazamataz · Mar 26, 2009, 04:32 AM

Thanks for replying guys, I will definitely look into better insulation.

Unfortunately I can't give you very accurate info on the room sizes at the moment, other that all the rooms are separated by archways, there are only doors leading into the bedrooms down a 3 meter hallway. (I'll measure them when I can)

The wood heater is tiny... it's just set into a marble fireplace and takes 18" logs, I'm not sure what to call it exactly, to say I'm not very knowledgeable with heaters would be an understatement.

Also I'm in Tasmania... the temperature ranges from 40C (104F) in summer down to -3 degrees (26F) in winter so it's pretty extreme. We have a ceiling fan and a portable air conditioner for summer, but I don't know if the little wood heater is going to cut it in winter, we don't have much cash left after doing necessary renovations either :(

dac122 · Mar 26, 2009, 05:01 AM

I'm not familiar with that region of the world and apologize for thinking you were in the US. With little funds your options are limited unless you local government provides assistance in installing/upgrading a heating system. If you can give some idea if that is possible and what utilities are available, what their costs are including taxes and how reliable they are. Most posters here are from the US, so many things are assumed.

sarnian · Mar 26, 2009, 05:50 AM

Originally Posted by shazamataz

...the temperature ranges from 40C (104F) in summer down to -3 degrees (26F) in winter so it's pretty extreme. We have a ceiling fan and a portable air conditioner for summer, but I don't know if the little wood heater is going to cut it in winter, we don't have much cash left after doing necessary renovations either

Ok : first the cheapest form of isolation than :

- Repair and seal all draft points.
- Install doorstrips.
- If you have an attic, install isolation over the ceiling. Most heat leaves via the roof.
- Isolating walls and install double glass in windows is expensive, so have to wait

Till you can provide and install proper isolation, just get a couple of cheap electric heaters (warm air fan type) : they are cost effective on short term and are always handy to have around.

Dual purpose aircon systems (heating and cooling) are expensive and therefore not on top of your list of new investments.

For summertime a ceiling fan in each bedroom is advised : cheap and effective.

shazamataz · Mar 28, 2009, 05:53 AM

Originally Posted by sarnian

- Repair and seal all draft points.
- Install doorstrips.

Till you can provide and install proper isolation, just get a couple of cheap electric heaters (warm air fan type) : they are cost effective on short term and are always handy to have around.
.

Putting seals under the doors seems really obvious but it's something we didn't think of, thank you!

We have a couple of small fan heaters but I heard they were expensive to run? I guess we will find out after our first power bill! Lol

wmproop · Mar 28, 2009, 11:15 AM

I wold call on a few (2 0R 3) local heating and cooling companies and as them out to ook over your house and give you some options to think about (with the price options ) every part of the world and each country vary so much the local people cold help you to decide,, good luck and write back if we can be of more help