Effective and inexpensive heating for garden room

[Piplette]

Our garden room is being built in a few weeks and I'm looking into heating solutions.

It will be insulated and double glazed but will get cold during the cooler months.

It's going to be 5m x3.5m and will be used as an office and additional living area.

It has French doors and 2 full size windows at the front so nice and bright but also will make it cooler in shade. I am thinking of getting heavy curtains to help retain heat in the evenings as well as giving some privacy.

We will however require some sort of heating to make it use able.

Any recommendations on what methods of heating works best or what to avoid?

I would put in a little log burner, but it depends if you live in an smoke control area. anevaystoves.com/collections/small-space-stoves/products/the-shepherd-stove

Unfortunately we are so not an option. Would love it though.

We have this
kembox.co.uk/product/be-modern-orba-modern-2kw-matt-black-cast-iron/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAic6eBhCoARIsANlox86NsQfoAFRUug4oRFEa_L3oCsnAdyP6-W4Suo2n_PV3zylYsuoYgEEaAiELEALw_wcB

But I really wanted this

everhot.co.uk/Everhot-Electric-Stove.aspx

OMG @Movinghouseatlast I now want to build a garden room just to have one of those stoves!

How insulated will it be? I just built one with 100mm of insulation (floor, walls and ceiling), not many windows, all double glazed etc. and it is still pretty cold when it's freezing outside. We use infra red heaters as they are incredibly cost effective

Oil filled radiator, it’s what I use in my cabin/garden office and I work all year round in it.

This is what I use too. As it’s a small area, it warms up quite quickly

In our log cabin/home office, we have an oil filled radiator controlled via a smart plug so I can switch it on from the breakfast table on days when I'm working from home - and schedule it to switch off so I don't forget.

I'm considering installing a small reversible air conditioner - either a 'mini split' type of an all-in-one through wall unit - as they effectively work like a standalone air source heat pump and could save a big chunk of the heating bill. But then again, it only cost about £20 to heat for the whole of December so it would take a while to save back the investment even at current energy prices!

Calor heater, some look like log burners or oil filled radiator. The air to air heat pumps are supposed to be very good.

Oil filled radiator is what I use, works great but haven't actually worked out what it costs.

We have one of these.

We just have an electric stove, like a pretend log burner, but it's an electric fire. It heats up the room quickly .

Can you get underfloor heating put in? I know people say it’s expensive, but we pop it on for an hour or so a day (no other heating in the space), and it’s so warm and stays that way for a while. I work in that room all day and it’s not been costly.

The floor will likely get very cold in winter. In hindsight we would have put in underfloor heating in ours if we’d realised how cold it would feel.
Oil filled radiator does heat it quite well though.
They also get very hot inside in summer if it gets any sun on it so consider cooling options too.

Yes, definitely think about what side the windows will be on. I think ideal would be East to get the morning sun and warm up quickly. Mine are west and it’s too hot in the afternoon in the summer. Cold in the mornings.

Air source air conditioning unit. They heat as well as cool. We have one in our conservatory and for each kilowatt of electricity we put in, we get 4.5 kilowatts of heat out (or cooling in the summer). Our conservatory is now usable year round and if we leave the doors to the lounge open, we can heat the lounge as well.
www.airconditioningworld.co.uk/panasonic-r32-wall-mounted

Yep +1 to a mini split AC system. You can get them from like £400; they don't have to be expensive. Bonus being the room will be usable in summer.

Another vote for a proper installed aircon unit. Great for heating and cooling, and it amazes me how cheap ours is to run.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Underfloor isn't something we'd considered and it would depend on costs so will investigate.

The building will face north east and this and the position of surrounding buildings means that it won't get much sun in the morning but from late morning to early evening will get decent light but I don't think enough to merit aircon.

Do you have main gas to the house? I too was going to suggest underfloor heating. We have just renovated a derelict property from top to bottom. We also have a garden room but haven't moved in as yet, so still working out how the heating will work. So far the floor heating alone is more than enough though.