The cost of living... what can we do?

Looks like an patio heater to me. My living room one is like this but a different picture.

Infrared Heater Picture with built in Thermostat "PRIMROSE RANGE" 750W (Metal)

The bedrooms have ones of similar size and rating, but not as good. They're plain white and a lot cheaper. If I was to start again with what I've learnt since using them, I wouldn't go for the cheapest model again because they're just not as good, but when I first took a punt, I didn't want to spend much in case they were terrible, and I did our bedroom first because I was working from home and my desk was in there so I needed a bit of warmth. It was alright, enough to convince me to put one in the kids room, but I didn't want a big plain block of white in the living room so I spent a bit more. I paid more for the aesthetics but I soon realised it wasn't just the same thing but with a picture, it's actually a better unit all round.

 

I thought it was probably different to what you are using, just wondered if it worked on the same principle or in a similar way.

 

It's the same principle, in the sense that all heaters throw out infrared light. But the key difference being efficiency. That patio heater will throw out quite a broad spectrum of light, with the far infrared wavelength being just a bit of that spectrum. It's the far infrared that we perceive as heat. The science bit is it needs to be just the right wavelength. Visible light doesn't really warm us because it just reflects off us. The longer wavelengths pass right through us without doing anything, but the sweet spot gets absorbed in solid things, like people and furniture. If you can regulate the temperature to that sweet spot, then you get all the warmth without wasting energy producing other wavelengths. That's how my 750 watt panel is enough to warm our living room.

As this is a gardening forum, let's using a horticultural analogy. Botanists have figured out that plants only use two colours of light. Red and blue. So modern grow lamps save energy by only producing those wavelengths. No energy wasted on wavelengths that the plants can't use. Same with the far infrared panels. Heat the surface to a very specific temperature and it will radiate a very specific wavelength of light, far infrared, which is the bit of the spectrum that makes us warm.

 

So we'd be microwaved??

 

Any idea what effects this kind of heating has on house plants?
Do they feel the warmth or does it just pass though them, or does it kill them?

 

Microwaves are at much, much longer wavelengths than far infrared.

Some fun facts about microwaves. We're exposed to them constantly. If you have home WiFi or a mobile phone, you're exposed to them. Even if we had no technology at all and still roamed the jungles naked we'd still be exposed to them because the universe is chock full of them.

 

It's exactly the same energy as the bit of the sunlight spectrum that makes us feel warm, so I can't imagine it does them any harm. And I in early spring I always fill every available window ledge with seed trays, and as much as I'd absolutely love to grow a mutant plant of some kind, alas, I mostly just get ordinary courgettes and peas and sunflowers and whatnot. I'll keep trying.

 

Clueless, in the mid 1960's my family moved into a newly built detached house without a central heating system. My dad who was a mechanical engineer built his own gas boiler-ed system from scratch, including the boiler. Almost unheard of then were finned skirting radiators, not the type you have described. His original version had a flap at the top that could be lifted to produce more heat in each room. Below are a couple of images of how they look now, no radiators as you see and not immediately under windows. As we know, heat rises so it made sense for them to be at floor level.

 

Some good ideas here if you have half an hour to spare.

 

Just got my energy bill from BG.
It comes with some really interesting information, like, you have used more gas and electricity than you did at this time last year.

Now I wonder why that could be????

 

TBH, this is really the kind of information you seem to get from a smart meter.
It's kind of energy "shaming" and telling you just how much you are using and you should be economising.
For gods sake they are charging us enough, just to try and keep warm, we really dont need this kind of hassle.

 

I must be a bit thick cos I don't get it.

Maybe you have used more gas than you did this time last year?

 

Exactly, I've had two greenhouse heaters running and the central heating.
I was expecting a huge bill.

The thing with all this is I'm not seeing any real shortage, just a price hike.
Profiteering is mostly what is going on these days.