Heating in a garden room???

[Garden Shed Projects]

Hi all. We are currently planning a garden room to be used as a gym, summer house maybe occasional over night accommodation. It won’t get continuous use. I would expect mainly weekends.

The question is what do you use for heating? It’s not viable to tap off the house central heating so would look likely to be electric wall heating.

-Are they on timers or frost guards?
-Do you just turn on as you need?
- What about prolonged periods of being closed up over winter?
-Has any one used electric underfloor heating?

Just looking to cover all bases. Thanks in advance.

 

[Lazurus]

I would use wall hung oil rads or convector heaters easy to fit and use. Or maybe an infrared panel.

 

[Lorenzl]

Or maybe an infrared panel

Second that.

Can I change my mind?

IR panels are expensive and if you want temperature control you might have to buy a controller as well which would include a timer. It would be good when occupied as it would tend to heat you up quickly.

We use a convection heater in an outbuilding which we intended to use with a timer. This could be done according to the instructions but the heater always comes on at 30C. It also is slow to heat a room but if you were just using it to take the chill of or as frost protection it would be OK.
Make sure you check the way the control works.

 

[morqthana]

I'd suggest an ASHP.

 

[PDW125]

Cheap air to air AC unit. Can cool as well as heat and you can get them for about £500 pre-charged so no F-Gas cert required.

 

[morqthana]

Cheap air to air AC unit. Can cool as well as heat and you can get them for about £500 pre-charged so no F-Gas cert required.

I'd suggest an ASHP.

 

[Scruples]

I use an oil-filled rad fed from a socket which has bee wired via a non-powered thermostat. Works for me and takes up little room. Good floor, wall and roof insulation would help to keep the cost down.

 

[mickbc]

Hi all. We are currently planning a garden room to be used as a gym, summer house maybe occasional over night accommodation. It won’t get continuous use. I would expect mainly weekends.

The question is what do you use for heating? It’s not viable to tap off the house central heating so would look likely to be electric wall heating.

-Are they on timers or frost guards?
-Do you just turn on as you need?
- What about prolonged periods of being closed up over winter?
-Has any one used electric underfloor heating?

Just looking to cover all bases. Thanks in advance.

I use an outdoor security light attached to a suitably sized piece of wood for stability, facing up, on top of this I use the old gardeners trick of a large clay plant pot, my workshop never gets cold, you can use any bulb between 100w to 500 w I leave it on permanently always toasty 15' by 10ft area

 

[SamG340]

https://www.theironmongers.co.uk/sp...2kw-indoor-paraffin-kerosene-heater-odourless
Apparently in Japan they don't have traditional central heating like we do in the UK , they use these instead

Inverter paraffin heater, nothing like greenhouse heaters of old, no trimming wicks and no stinky kero!

These are clean burning, no fumes, no flue, super efficient, thermostatically controlled. They do need a 240v plug in but they hardly use any power.

Fantastic bit of kit

 

[Spectric]

Surely the heat should come from the gym, think of it as an incentive to workout harder in order to keep warmer. Another option might be a woodburner, warm and cosy rather than just warm and metalic.

 

[Wood&StuffLtd]

Hi all. We are currently planning a garden room to be used as a gym, summer house maybe occasional over night accommodation. It won’t get continuous use. I would expect mainly weekends.

The question is what do you use for heating? It’s not viable to tap off the house central heating so would look likely to be electric wall heating.

-Are they on timers or frost guards?
-Do you just turn on as you need?
- What about prolonged periods of being closed up over winter?
-Has any one used electric underfloor heating?

Just looking to cover all bases. Thanks in advance.

We installed 1.5kw electric under floor heating in our large conservatory, have used 2kw oil heated radiator, also occassionally a convection heater but the real solution was installing a Mitsubishi heavy industrial air con unit. Cost £1700 and means we can realy use the conservatory all year round. Virtually instant heat and turn it off when not required. The underfloor heating acts as a frost stat in winter, as we have loads of potted plants. The unit was fitted by the installer in half a day. Cooling in summer if needed.

 

[rogxwhit]

Fantastic bit of kit

Not only does it use fossil fuel, but since it has no flue, all the water vapour that paraffin produces when it burns enters the room-space and will lead to an increase in condensation. Out of the ark, I'm afraid. Only for the desperate.

 

[SamG340]

Not only does it use fossil fuel, but since it has no flue, all the water vapour that paraffin produces when it burns enters the room-space and will lead to an increase in condensation. Out of the ark, I'm afraid. Only for the desperate.

No I'm afraid you're wrong ! they're not like an old fashioned ones

because these are electronically controlled they're very efficient ( almost 100%) there virtually is no condensation all.

Worth a watch if you're interested

 

[Dee J]

because these are electronically controlled they're very efficient ( almost 100%) there virtually is no condensation all.

..... Ye canny break the laws of physics... (and chemistry)! Combustion of hydrocarbon fuel (even at '100% efficiency) cannot help but produce H2O and CO2 - and the amount produced will be in proportion the energy released. As for smells, that's down to the quality of the fuel.

 

[Terry - Somerset]

You may need to decide what is important to you - money, style or convenience.

Electric heaters - cheap to buy - <£100, no/little installation cost/effort, provides quick heat, expensive to run. Suited to a room used only occasionally.

Underfloor heating - expensive installation, expensive to run, not very responsive. Reasonable solution only for a room used fairly regularly and continuously.

Aircon/heating unit - moderate cost to buy - £1000+, cheaper to run with CoP of 3.0-4.0, responsive. Good solution if garden room used more extensively inn summer.

 

[SamG340]

..... Ye canny break the laws of physics... (and chemistry)! Combustion of hydrocarbon fuel (even at '100% efficiency) cannot help but produce H2O and CO2 - and the amount produced will be in proportion the energy released. As for smells, that's down to the quality of the fuel.

I've been doing a lot of research online about this.

There's isn't that much info, it seems that well informed people on forums say just like you have that burning hydrocarbons always produces water vapour.

However! Every post I've read from someone who's had their hands on one of these says there's little to no condensation problem.

Maybe it's because they use so little fuel ? I don't know I'm not an expert

 

[Dee J]

Maybe it's because they use so little fuel ?

Could be. There's little water vapour from fuel you haven't burnt, but then there's no heat either.

 

[ivan]

Burn a litre of hydrocarbon fuel, you get 5 litres of water released into the atmosphere, unless the heater is roomsealed. There used to be roomsealed gas heaters for homes, could use bottled gas, but this not cheap either.

 

[ivan]

For seldom used situation a non refrigerant dehumidifier may be a better bet. These absorb moisture from the air, and recover it as water by heating the absorbing medium. You get freedom from damp and mildew and about 350 watts worth of heating - not much but useful in a small space.

 

[Seascaper]

Hi all. We are currently planning a garden room to be used as a gym, summer house maybe occasional over night accommodation. It won’t get continuous use. I would expect mainly weekends.

The question is what do you use for heating? It’s not viable to tap off the house central heating so would look likely to be electric wall heating.

-Are they on timers or frost guards?
-Do you just turn on as you need?
- What about prolonged periods of being closed up over winter?
-Has any one used electric underfloor heating?

Just looking to cover all bases. Thanks in advance.

Hello,
The simplest way is to install Dimplex electric heaters. The modern heatings have state of the art intelligence.
One can programme them to cope with any situation, out all day, in all day, off on holiday etc.
They really are get out of box, plug in and use. Worth the extra money. They even detect if someone has left a window open and shut down. The new ones are designed to save on electric bills.
Regards