Electric Fire

[Nik2879]

After some advice please. In our front room we have an electric fire. The previous owner had taken the chimney breast out of that room so its now just a flat wall. Its quite a big room with a high ceiling so that fire is rubbish for the size of the room doesn't warm it enough. We also changed the radiators to a more modern one when we decorated the room. I didn't know at the time there rubbish compared to the old type in terms of how much heat they give out, had a known I wouldn't of changed it. Does anyone know if theres any other type of fire we could put in a room without a chimney that gives off more heat at all? Thanks for any advice.

Your best option in the long run is changing the radiator back to one that is more appropriate (in terms of BTU output) for the room size. There are radiator calculators online that will help you determine what is suitable given the room dimensions.

In terms of electric appliances, I would say an oil filled radiator is probably the best bet in terms of heating the space most efficiently compared to ye olde 3-bar electric fire. Again, make sure you get one that's suitably beefy in BTU terms. But any type of plug-in electric heating will be a lot more costly to run than radiators heated from a gas fired boiler.

We have an electric mock log-burner which produces decent heat. If the wall is external you could have a gas fire with a flue.

Thanks I will have a look into them. The wall was external and the previous owner built a garage so thats all thats on the other side. We do have a big radiator in the room, size wise its bigger than the old one that was there but its the modern ones they sell now. Which Ive only just found out produce 40% less heat. My own fault for not researching them before changing you just expect newer things to be more efficient therefore better.

I'm not sure where that 40% loss comes from to be honest, but to fully appreciate that I'd need to understand what radiator you put in versus what was there before.

The conventional wisdom is that modern radiators are significantly more efficient than older ones (let's say pre-2000s), if you're installing them on a like-for-like basis that is.

Have you e.g. replaced a conventional-looking radiator with a "designer" one?

When I bought my house from a property developer, I asked him to get rid of the nasty electric fire which was also on a wall without a chimney breast. The room has three doors in it, to the hall, a garden room extension and a dining room so no clear wall to put my settee with a fir there as well. This left the room a bit chilly so as soon as I could afford it, when I was replacing my boiler I had another radiator installed which now makes my lounge toasty warm.

The only issue is that I don’t have any independent form of heating if the boiler does not work but I have an oil filled plug in heater as back up.

Maybe you could replace a radiator with a bigger, more efficient one or add an extra one?

New radiators aren't less efficient than old ones, normally they are more so.

What might have happened is that you replaced the old radiator for one with less power output.

First, check and see whether it is a double or single sided radiator. Double ones are more expensive but radiate more heat. Second see about increasing the size.

Look on somewhere like screwfix and compare the radiator size you currently have with the ones on there. All "standard" radiators of roughly the same size and number of sides will roughly radiate the same amount.

It is easy to swap a single for a double sided of the same size. If you swap for a bigger size then you may need some sort of extension to the pipes, which can be a bit more tricky.

Finally, if your radiator is already about as big as you can get, think about joining another up to it. Remember, gas is 3x cheaper than electric, so its a lot more cost effective to use the gas CH than an electric heater.

It is a double one and quite big. A little bigger than the old one that was there so we did have to move the pipes so like you said must be less power out put.