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My daughter has just moved into a shared house in Aberdeen. Typical student house, not terrible but basic. Her housemates are insisting that, to keep costs down, they will only turn the heating on x2 hrs per day. Clearly this is ridiculous and I’ve tried explaining to them the futility of this approach without success. My daughter though has a largish, north facing dormer room so is getting the worst deal out of this silliness. So I said I’ll buy her a heater.
I’m thinking hot air blower to warm the room up quickly but I am struggling to work out most efficient approach. She likes to sleep in cold room so typically she will only heat it during the evenings she is in and quickly in the morning. Low overall running cost is biggest priority.
Any ideas? Ta.
If not using the normal radiator, get an electric oil filled one instead?
Or Tinder
I believe the typical choice is Bumble not Tinder these days. Or an oil filled rad? Or just turn the heating on in spite of what the housemates say?!
If they've decided they only want to run a tiny amount of heating to save money, I can't see that running extra electric heaters is going to go down well.
Are the room mates locals ? They are going to freeze with that attitude up here.
If they’ve decided they only want to run a tiny amount of heating to save money, I can’t see that running extra electric heaters is going to go down well.
Was my thought as well.
I suspect that common sense will prevail. Although "thermostat wars" is at least great preparation for married life....
Install a wood burner.
If they’ve decided they only want to run a tiny amount of heating to save money, I can’t see that running extra electric heaters is going to go down well.
Was my thought as well.
Mine too – they want to keep costs down and you are providing what is possibly the most expensive solution.
Something like this?
https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/product/select-under-desk-heater/
We use them at work to keep the receptionists from freezing.
AidyFree Member
If they’ve decided they only want to run a tiny amount of heating to save money, I can’t see that running extra electric heaters is going to go down well.
Probably, but it’s her room so they’d just have to suck it up
I give it until the 3rd of November before the housemates cave in and heat the place properly anyway
2 hours a day and dormer windows... It's going to be a lot harder to heat when the pipes burst I suspect. I doubt the planned 2 hours included the middle of the night.
I give it until the 3rd of November before the housemates cave in and heat the place properly anyway
Its Aberdeen... I'd give it until Saturday or Sunday at latest
Install a wood burner.
Show me your parent is on STW without saying your parent is on STW
When I lived in a bedsit, bills were all inclusive but we had no control over the heating.
Of course it got very cold in winter, but we did have counter-top electric ovens... so we basically just left the ovens on with the oven doors open*
*deffo a safety hazard, but it worked.
So I said I’ll buy her a heater.
More appropriate maybe to buy the heat rather than the heater. Theres already a heater.
Your 'buy the heater, make her housemates pay for heat they don't get the benefit from' stategy risks your daughter getting into a pretty unpleasant and lonely situation. I'm presuming you're hoping she sees the course through to graduation.
Something that maybe is a good first step through is to get a little temp and humidity meter. I live in Scotland and I don't think out heating has been on in total for more than 2hrs so far since the summer. Its not some passivhaus eco temple - its an 70 year old ex-council end terrace but its reasonably well insulated without its ventilation being compromised and therefore more importantly pretty dry. We don't put the heating on much because it doesn't feel cold regardless of that the thermometer says. For me having the heating for 2 hours a day at present would seem like loads, so if it currently doesn't seem like enough maybe something else is needing addressing. A room at the top of the house would in many cases be one of the warmest so whats going wrong if it's not?
Multiple occupancy often comes with a lots of sources of humidity - more showers and baths, more clothes drying, more individual meals being cooked. If your daughter's room is at the top of the house it'll be copping a lot of that humidity and damp houses ofter feel a great deal colder than they actually are and damp houses are also more expensive to heat. Monitoring what the temp and humidity actually is might inform a better way of making the room she's in more pleasant, some of which may not cost anything at all.
Oil filled rad is the best method as it doesn’t produce the nasty dry heat of an IR or fan heater. I use one in my shepherd’s hut plugged into an eve smart socket. This can be m controlled by HomeKit or Alexa so you can schedule it easily and tie it into weather and presence. The eve stuff keeps track of power used so if necessary you could use it to work out electricity charges.
2hr a day for heating though seriously? The place will be crawling with damp and never truly get warm.
INFRARED heater as mentioned above
~~~~~
Heat the person not the room
As above, oil filled radiator. Quiet and constant background heat.
A fan heater would be the worst type, as soon as it reaches the set temp and turns off, your daughter will both feel the lack of heat immediately and even if she is not in front of it she will hear it turn off and feel cold.
It does sound like it could cause a falling out with other housemates if they find out (which could be as simple as noticing it's warm when they pop their head through the door). But then they could all have a heater tucked away. More covert options would be a heated mattress protector (ours is amazing) and heated snuggle blanket thing if studying.
joshvegasFree Member
Tinder?
Genuine lol, thankyou JV
Ah, this takes me back. I moved into a gaff in Newcastle donkeys years ago with 3 lads.
We had in-depth discussions about whether it'd be possible to live for a term on a tenner (kwiksave beans being 4p or 7p at the time).
Anyhoo, we tried turning the heating on twice per day for one hour at a time. From memory, this lasted for 1.5 months (and holy shit it was cold - we used to sit waiting for neighbours to start as it was when the heating came on) and the total bill for the quarter (Aug/September/Oct) was a tenner each. We were in residence for 1.5 of those months.
That quickly was canned and we turned it on properly. So a couple of hours in the morning, and from neighbours onwards till about 9pm in the evening. I distinctly remember the next quarters bill being about double the previous one (may have been 23 quid apiece). But the comfort level was off the scale. (So this would have been Nov/Dec/Jan but included Xmas hols when we all went home).
So not scientific, but it appears by leaving heating off, all you're doing is cooling the building down so that when the heating is on, it's working to boost the thermal mass temperature. Leaving it on more is just... More pleasant but not massively more expensive within reason.
Or, bumble and spend lots of nights away.
Someone is bound to be selling a job lot of tyres on the Classifieds. Burn them.
Great for WFT or study in a cold room.
And a heated blanket for the bed of course.
And jumpers - and those gopping snoody things. Only snag is you're not going to score on Tinder in a snoody so she'd need to get that order correct!
As for heating the room/house - have the rads got TRVs?
Can't believe how long it took to come up with wood burner.
With Rich_s on the whole don't turn the house into an ice cube approach being more effective for the modest extra outlay.
Oil filled radiator is good for a single room. If anyone has a hissy then offer another few quid on the electric bill.
As for the two hours thing I doubt that'll last unless her house mates are very hardy. They'll never get laundry dry and the house will end up damp feeling and clothes will smell permanently damp very quickly.
We were pretty tight at uni but allowing the house to be damp wasn't the answer.
Oil filled heater. Advantage being if she walks out and leaves it on the house won't have burned down when she returns from being on the lash.
I give it until the 3rd of November before the housemates cave in and heat the place properly anyway
This.
Currently 6c in my neck of the woods with a bitter easterly. There is zero chance of them sticking to that.
Personally I would get use to properly rugging up but the reality is if you don't heat the house then mould and then freezing pipes will come knocking. You can't not heat a house and expect things to be ok
Electric blanket. Or a down gilet and fingerless gloves.
I’d be checking the draught excluders first for leaks and cold. Then look at tinder.
Buy her jumpers and an old lady shawl/throw thing to put over her legs. That approach served my wife well 30 yrs ago in similar situation and son in Glasgow tenement recently. Make sure she understands about curtains etc (or even invest in better ones). We could all do with acclimatising to living slightly colder.
Personally I would get use to properly rugging up but the reality is if you don’t heat the house then mould and then freezing pipes will come knocking. You can’t not heat a house and expect things to be ok
but they are planning to heat it - for two hrs a day, and presumably there will be cooker, toaster, oven, kettle, light bulbs, tv?, fridge, laptops, phone chargers etc all pumping out passive low levels of background heat. If she’s got a dormer presumably there are floors below leaking heat upstairs. There will be no burst pipes (it’s likely that any heating has a frost stat anyway). All those things they tell us to turn off to save power are actually slowly warming the environment - she might actually be better with old school lightbulbs rather than LEDs!
Gas central heating is heck of a lot cheaper than heating rooms by electricity.
Oil filled electric heater if cheap night electric on Economy 7/10.
For individual warmth, electric heated pads are cheap to run, but they won't do much for the temperature of the room.
Some sneaky ways to warm room...
Keep pc and monitor on during day.
Older TVs give off a fair bit of heat.
Toaster in room.
Kettle bad idea due to moisture.
Set up an aquarium! 6 hours of lighting for plants and an external filter will add some heat to the room.
Back when I was studying in Cardiff in the last 80s, Students in the street behind where we lived got stoned and one (who was doing the ceramics course at our art college) having thought he was still in college built a rudimentary kiln in his upstairs bedroom and proceeded to fire a load of handmade pots. on the plus side there was lots of heat but it did burn a hole in the carpet, oh and the floor ...The landlord wasn't that impressed, the pots didn't really work either.
OP, decent oil radiator is the way to go plus, draught excluders and a load of bubblewrap on the window, possibly check the loft insulation and if its lacking, have a quiet work with the Landlord. And as others have said, wait till early-mid November when common sense re. central heating (or hypothermia) kicks in
Also, to pick up on Rich's point, a decent chunk of the heating bill, either gas or electric, will be standing charges so the relationship between heating on and bill is not linear, it might well be something like four times as much heating time for twice the cost. And if it's being used for other things anyway, hot water, lights whatever, that will further reduce the proportional effect extra heating has.
Maybe the OP could do maths for them? Eg. Bills £50/month no heating, £55/month minimal heating, £60/month lots of heating, just making numbers up there but you get the jist.
Get better housemates. This is some next level scarcity mindset, not healthy.
Dehumidifier is a clever one. Ours keeps the room (and even the house) noticeably warmer although it is a bit noisy. Ours is a 7 litre desiccant type, not sure if the compressor ones provide background heat) And it's definitely not going to look like a heater 🙂
Turn it on and then break the thermostat
Get better housemates. This is some next level scarcity mindset, not healthy.
It's just kids finding out how the hell the world works, they'll work it out.
I don't actually totally disagree with the concept, having loved in houses with zero insulation and gaps in the windows that whole newspapers fall through when trying to pack them. A blast at wake up time to take the edge off the day then wrapL up warm works pretty well without just posting fivers through the window gap. Character building too.
My housemates and i had an unheated place in the first year, the fire was condemned two days after we moved in and the hot water heater was an un-insulated 25 litre electric heater. Cost about 3 quid to heat up and cooled to ambient in about an hour.
The toilet used to freeze (early morning pee to defrost), the curtains froze to the windows when the condensation got bad (the curtains also used to waft around in the wind when it blew in the right direction). I suspect that the water pipes were on the brink of bursting for the entire time we were there.
I moved out in February, got a student railcard and commuted from home until the second year. Then got my own place. The other two guys moved out a couple of weeks after me.
FWIW, there is a noticeable difference in energy consumption and temperature in my current place, dependant on if it's just me there, me and the kids, or me, the kids and my partner and their kid... Less energy (for heating), and warmer.
On the other hand, electricity for lights, computers, phone charging, music, hot water all goes through the roof!
Thick jumpers and heated arguments - that’s how we did it back in the day.
As others have said, don't place her in a position where she heats her room at the expense of others. A very quick way to alienate her from housemates.
Would it not be cheaper for you to offer to just foot some of a heating bill for 6 months?
We did this with one of ours who also lived in a '2 hours heating a day' upstairs, dormer in roof tenement with no insulation and single glazing....It worked well as the 6 of them just benefitted from a bit more heat all round, and no personal heaters needed. IMO it was cheaper for us to commit to £50 a month for gas than buy a big enough heater and pay a much bigger cost in electricity....
For heat when studying, an electric slanket is good as is a great pair of slippers and a rug under feet.
What about setting up a decent hydroponics system, it'd keep her warm, she'll create new friendship groups and generate income.
The pub/clubs will be warm.
Your ‘buy the heater, make her housemates pay for heat they don’t get the benefit from’ stategy risks your daughter getting into a pretty unpleasant and lonely situation.
Unless they're really good mates then ^ this is a distinct possibility.
One of my daughters had great housemates but they barely ran the heating and even limited the use of the lights despite my explaining that they effectively used no electricity!
An oil rad would be nice but quite obvious to other housemates.
Dehumidifier would be a good idea as it will be damp in there regardless, but again they use electricity!
Electric blanket for the bed would be a good move.
We lived in uni accomodation in our first year, in a village/estate of purpose built houses (PJM, IYKYK). The heating was controlled centrally by the uni, and they didnt put it on till much later than we would have liked. Thankfully, as our bill were all inclusive, we were able to run the oven with the door open for the first couple of weeks.
Whats her laundry situation, heated laundry airer/drier rack? Two birds with one stone then.
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/brands/drysoon
Would it not be cheaper for you to offer to just foot some of a heating bill for 6 months?<br style="box-sizing: border-box; --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgb(59 130 246/0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; color: #000000; font-family: Roboto, 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, 'Noto Sans', sans-serif, -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', 'Apple Color Emoji', 'Segoe UI Emoji', 'Segoe UI Symbol', 'Noto Color Emoji';" />We did this with one of ours who also lived in a ‘2 hours heating a day’ upstairs, dormer in roof tenement with no insulation and single glazing….It worked well as the 6 of them just benefitted from a bit more heat all round, and no personal heaters needed. IMO it was cheaper for us to commit to £50 a month for gas than buy a big enough heater and pay a much bigger cost in electricity….
The sane answer.
Charge battery packs when in Uni, use one of these when at home.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/heated-gilet/s?k=heated+gilet
Although offering money towards the heating bill, rather than buying a separate heater seems the best option all round
I believe the typical choice is Bumble not Tinder these days.
Hinge is where the action is now.
As others have said - oil-filled rad is best option but risks escalating the situation, dehumidifier will take the edge off and be more stealthy, some kind of on-body or bed heating is possibly the most diplomatic.
Never mind the cold, will her roof still be on
Aren't student in bed all the time ??
Electric blanket
You might considerer a dehumidifier too. If the room gets humid with being at the top of the house, and all the humidity-generating activities, then it might benefit from being dehumified. Running a dehumidifier will also heat the room. Think it heats the room more efficiently than a heater (I have the figure four times as much in my mind, but stand to be corrected…)
At least >1:1, 4 seems optimistic, that's heat pump territory where you are taking the heat from an external source as well as the humidity in the room.
Also makes sense as it avoids accusations of "heating" the house. A desiccant type will be less efficient (i.e. more heat).
You'll need to figure out the drainage as even a small Meaco DD8L will max out it's 8l/d in a student house, so the little 2l basket built in won't be enough. Does she have a sink /ensuite in her room? Otherwise she'll be emptying it constantly.
TBH we did similar in our student digs, the thermostat was set pretty low then the person on the ground floor "living room" bedroom put an oil rad in their room as it weas the coldest and the heat would rise anyway. Cheaper to run that and warm his room up above freezing in the morning than have the whole house heated for the ~30min we were up before leaving for lectures.
A room at the top of the house would in many cases be one of the warmest so whats going wrong if it’s not?
Heat rises by convection, but the loft has by far the most surface area so unless all the doors in the house are open letting the heat rise then it could well be freezing cold because it loses heat but nothing rises to replace it.
A desiccant type will be less efficient (i.e. more heat)
And cost more to run.
As someone who has expertise in this area it’s interesting to read the comments!
Reducing heat loss would be a good start. Perhaps using this on the dormer would make a difference. Reduces black mould too which is a killer.
draught stripping is also cheap and effective sealing gaps around opening windows and filling in cracks around the dormer will be worth it Sealing the bedroom door to prevent cold air from the hall coming in will also be useful
lining the inside of the dormer with some of this will also help as they are often the least insulated bit of the roof. You can pin it up and seal the edges with tape
In terms of adding heat, warming the person is probably the way to go. A blanket or electric blanket can make you feel warm with low electrical input.
dehumidifiers don’t really heat rooms, they are internal to the room so the only heat input is the power to the compressor which is relatively low. In larger houses they don’t really dry anything out either as moisture quickly comes from elsewhere to replace the small amount you have removed.
as others have said, the best option on top of these is probably paying for a little more heating, rather than adding electrical heating which you have to pay for anyway. ( gas is at least 4 x cheaper per kWh)
And cost more to run.
Yes, but the goal was to heat the room, so efficiency is the enemy.
Going out on a limb but when i was a student I was upto more interesting things than reading the Which guide to dehumidifiers ?
dehumidifiers don’t really heat rooms, they are internal to the room so the only heat input is the power to the compressor which is relatively low. In larger houses they don’t really dry anything out either as moisture quickly comes from elsewhere to replace the small amount you have removed.
Not the case.
If a dehumidifier takes 8l of water out of the air, then in terms of energy that's the inverse of boiling dry an 8L saucepan.
You'll always get more heat out of it than you put electricity in.
Running mine flat out it uses ~660W (Meaco DBB8L), but the heat output is nearer 900W. About the same as a decent sized oil filled radiator, but with the added bonus of nice dry air.
A condenser type would be more efficient, You could probably find a model that did 15-20l/day for the same energy usage, But it'd be more expensive to buy. And the criteria was to heat the room without pissing off the other housemates. If the heating isn't on, then the loft/dormer is going to get pretty damp if she's up there studying / drinking tea / breathing.
Isn't uni all about figuring this stuff out by yourself? lettem get on with it
A compressor-type dehumidifier will add more heat than just the electrical input because it's behaving as a mini heat pump - the act of condensing water releases energy (latent heat of condensation), so this is likely to be the most efficient way of electrically heating the room and could be justified on health grounds. Agreed though that the best way is just to have the central heating on for a bit longer, possibly at a reduced thermostat setting. Also check that the CH boiler is running at the lowest possible temperature in order to maximise its condensing efficiency (latent heat of condensation again).
Isn’t uni all about figuring this stuff out by yourself? lettem get on with it
There do seem to be loads of helicopter parenting students threads at present don't there....
As above. Had the same with idiot flatmates. Oil filled radiator is the solution. I had 2 one for display that I could demonstrate was off (stopping arguments) and a flat panel type tucked behind my desk that cranked it out.
figuring stuff out just costs money. Used air blowers, bar heaters, gas cylinder fires, loads of options but oil filled was the solution for a damp cold flat
IR panel heater for stealth heat to avoid her being the villain
They can even be pictures or mirrors. Zero noise, on only when needed.
Yes, but the goal was to heat the room, so efficiency is the enemy.
Then just use a heater 😉
The goal is to create heat [or the illusion of it - i.e. drier air] without using too much power that would piss off the other housemates! The main issue is that [non-halls] student accommodation is truly shocking.
It's cheaper to run the heating on the whole of a 5 bed semi than a fan heater is what I found out one winter when one of my house mates did this.
Massive jumpers, duvets and a hat for a win. Down gilets make a huge difference
A big jacket. Or an oil filled radiator - we had some building work done last winter which meant the back of the house was missing for the coldest 2 months of the year. I work from home so borrowed a little oil filled rad from a friend and used it in my home office - was nice and toasty, warmed up quick and didn't make a noticeable different to the leccy bill.
It’s cheaper to run the heating on the whole of a 5 bed semi than a fan heater is what I found out one winter when one of my house mates did this.
Very much so. My energy billing is monthly, and for February's bill last year (i.e. the coldest month) our entire 1950s 4-bed semi used 2.2kW of gas on average, i.e. about the same as a single fan heater on constantly.
Last winter, turning three of our flat's storage heaters on ~2300-0700 (so just outside Economy 7 time range) most nights to ~75% "input" added ~£75 to our electric bill, so ~£175 total pcm. No gas, so electric immersion heater on year-round for ~60mins at the end of each Economy 7 rate nights.
Not had gas in years, but I'd guess 8 hours of central heating, which will sort out your hot water too, won't cost much more than ~33% of that.
These are quite good infra red patio heater. We use our camping and in the house to help boost heat an "office" room in the day and not have the central heating on full blast all day.
https://www.herschel-infrared.co.uk/product/havana-800w-infrared-patio-heater/
Infra-red, for sure, but the panel heater types (can be disguised, as BearBack says) NOT the halogen type.
It was mentioned earlier but get them to work out how much running the heating will be compared to not running it (standing charges) they will be surprised.
One of the most strident no heater voices will have it cranked to max when the others have gone home for the weekend.
Let your daughter sort it out for her self, it's part of growing up.
Heated throw to wrap around would be my suggestion