Cold kitchen

[MrAlyakhin]

Our kitchen is 5x7m so pretty big with a tiny radiator. Due to kitchen cupboards various doorways etc there is limited room for a bigger radiator. At weekends it does get warm as heating on all day but in the week we switch it off as we're all out so it gets cold and takes ages to heat up.

I want an additional heat source just to be able to get a quick blast of heat in the morning and evening when we're having breakfast and dinner.

Looking online I could get an under plinth fan heater. Or a wall mounted fan heater. Or a wall mounted oil filled radiator. Or an electric panel radiator.

What would people recommend?

If you have enough wall space for a second radiator I would just get another normal one plumbed in. If not then go for a plinth heater.

We got around that issue in our conservatory by putting in a electric ceramic panel heater. Its slimline and programmable and cost was minimal.

Ours has a plinth fan heater but it is heated by the radiator pipes rather than an electric element. Only heats when the heating is on though.

I think we'd struggle to get the pipework fitted. It's the opposite side of the room to the other radiator. Access from below is really tight so we'd have to take the floor up which would be very expensive. Electric is our only option really for now.

How about a ceiling mounted infrared panel? Mine is freestanding and warms the room up in minutes. Not expensive to run. Ceiling mounted is the best I believe though and good for awkward spaces.

We've got a plumbed in plinth heater to complement a vertical radiator and I really like it. It's a little noisy when it's on but the heating feels longer lasting and radiates out more effectively than an electric fan heater, plus the convenience of it coordinating with the central heating schedule so it's warm when we come down in the morning. I don't know how much heat you will get across your size kitchen though as it's quite a large space and two may be quite noisy when they are both on together?

We had an electric plinth heater with remote control added to a previous smaller kitchen and it was effective to give us a blast when needed like if we had come in from being out for the day, but much noiser than the plumbed in version and it didn't have a timer on it. We use
this fan heater on really cold days which is neat, cheap and compact and I think aside from the hassle of having it sitting on the floor instead of hidden in a plinth it's as good as an installed one. Perhaps worth trying to see if an electric plinth heater will do what you hope before the expense of getting one installed https://www.argos.co.uk/product/3032020?clickPR=plp:4:20

Is the radiator under the worktop, or is it on a bare wall? I bought a vertical radiator for the kitchen as there was a small space length ways but I could get a vertical one which was much bigger in the space.

Is that the only reason its cold? Draughts, or a thin external wall?

Replace the small rad with a larger one with double or triple bars
ie wider
or/and if you can fit it higher or wider

If you pop into a supplier with your room dimensions including room height and size of windows they'll calc the btu requirement for the room and recommend a size for the rad

I need nearly 10,000 BTU. I know the radiator I have could be swapped for a vertical one but the pipework will be messy as it's a wide radiator and the vertical ones don't come that wide. One day we might replace the flooring at which point we'll sort it all out properly. Until then we'll just have to make do with an electric one.

I have no experience of them but somewhere I saw a couple refurbing a house and they were talking about putting in ceilng infrared heating panels. Might be worth a look ....

We have a portable oil-filled electric radiator that we can move around the house as and when needed. Would that work? Half the year it could live in the garage/ shed, but is also handy for cooler spring days for example, when you don't really need the heating on but fancy it a bit warmer for sitting watching TV.

We have a plinth heater in our utility room, its never used but when it is, its very effective

The other thing, do you have a fire place or chimney breast area? I am going to get an Everhot stove put in mine, electric but looks really good.

You wouldnt need it so wide if its tall

Don’t do plinth heaters. They are awful for getting dusty and then becoming a major fire hazard.

We have a massive kitchen with north facing windows which has an old gas fire in it and no radiators. The gas fire no longer works as of about two years ago so we needed a new heat source. We got some under-plinth fan heaters which were ok, until one of them almost caught fire! (There were baking products in the cupboard including flour and I think some of it may have got into the heater). So we don’t use those anymore. This winter we have had two oil-filled electric radiators fitted to the wall and they’re amazing. One is a standard size/shape (wide, rectangular) and the other is a tall, slim one to fit into the space we had available. Would definitely recommend. just asked OH and he reckons they were about £700-£800 for the two. We got them from electricradiatorsdirect.co.uk. They have WiFi connectivity etc so they’re quite ‘high spec’- you could probably get cheaper ones.

Crossed posts- yes, this is what happened to us.