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Post by FFG on Nov 4, 2015 1:48:21 GMT
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Post by OP on Nov 4, 2015 9:25:35 GMT
I bought one similar to that a number of years ago. It is junk. Noisy and not very efficient. It also has to stand on a firm surface as there is a safety cut out push button underneath. The thermostat does not work on the ambient air, but the air around the heating element. Sorry, learner, but that is my personal experience with it.
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Post by Learner on Nov 5, 2015 1:31:17 GMT
I bought one similar to that a number of years ago. It is junk. Noisy and not very efficient. It also has to stand on a firm surface as there is a safety cut out push button underneath. The thermostat does not work on the ambient air, but the air around the heating element. Sorry, learner, but that is my personal experience with it. You may well be right. Nice to have opinions from others. We have used a very similar cheap fan heater in our conservatory since the wall mounted gas-fire refused to light. £300+ for a replacement gas fire then fitting costs on top. Having bought a very cheap fan heater in our local supermarket for back-up/emergencies we stuck that on last autumn. It does a really good job... back-ground heat, switches itself on and off reliably and it is sometimes left switched on 24 hours a day but turned low. We liked the cut out button underneath - if it's knocked over we know it will be safe. Despite electricity being a dearer fuel than gas the thermostat has kept costs down so we do not notice any significant increase in bills.
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Post by OP on Nov 5, 2015 8:07:33 GMT
Wouldn't a fan heater of that sort give a rather hot then cold then hot again atmosphere for a budgie enclosure? I found when I used that type of heater in the conservatory to do just that. One minute I was nice and warm the next I was cold waiting for the heater to blow again. In the end I extended my central heating by putting a low profile radiator in the conservatory. Not perfect but with the assistance of the rest of the house the temperature is warm enough to sit in. I'm not suggesting extending your central heating into the budgie house, they might like that though. But a more constant type of warm air circulating around the enclosure might be better than a fan blowing hot & cold. There are a number of oil filled radiators on the market. I used to have one in my DIY shed which was quite good. It never got hot enough to burn ones fingers on but it ws more constant, it was also thermostatically controlled. Just an idea mind
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Post by Learner on Nov 9, 2015 2:45:44 GMT
I had considered an oil-filled radiator (as we have an old one spare) but they are so slow to heat up and cost so much more to run. Lots of energy goes into heating the oil before it gives heat out into the air. Open the shed door and the heat is gone...
I have found the shed warms up when I use the vacuum cleaner to pick up seed husks and floating feathers or vacuum the cages. In a matter of a couple of minutes the temperature is up a degree or two or even more. When it's just me in there pottering about with nothing turned on the temperature can go up a degree. The place is very well insulated.
The fan heater has several temperature settings and I have it pointed away from the birds either towards the door or under the indoor flight. This reduce the waft of warm air but quite quickly lifts the temperature before the thermostat cuts the heat.
Separate thermostatic control keeps the temperature within a couple of degrees of the one set. I haven't found it too expensive to run (cost is monitored by another little plug in device shows how many pence worth of power used).
I aim not to overheat as I'm pretty sure the birds are healthier in a cool winter environment rather than too warm a one. I think speedy changes in temperatures (especially drops) can be more of a problem than being on the cool side.
Heating a conservatory? In the conservatory over the road we have a long radiator... works very well lifting temperature up to 23C+ speedily so my mother can sit in there when it's quite cold outside. We do turn the other radiator thermostatic valves down or the bungalow would be too hot while keeping the conservatory that warm. In our place we had a wall mounted balanced flu gas heater in our conservatory. It was good because it ran independently of the main central heating so could be left on very low over night in the depths of winter. Unfortunately the gas heater needs replacing (had it donkeys years - it's given up the ghost) A new one is £300 plus fitting so...... we now use a very cheap electric fan heater. Does a brilliant job. Keeps the place free of condensation and can be warm enough for my wife to work out there when she turns the thermostat up a bit. So far (after one winter) we have not noticed a big rise in fuel costs.
Again it's all a matter of choice as well as different situations / needs... down south our winters are probably milder than many parts. We are happy with temperatures that my 95 year old Mum would find uncomfortable.
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Post by OP on Nov 9, 2015 9:21:10 GMT
All very valid observations there Learner. Of course it is always a coat warmer darn sarf as we say. Except when you are having blizzards and we are baking in sunshine. My conservatory is one that Colin built and is less than draught proof and in the depths of Winter the radiator, whilst working properly, is not able to heat the whole conservatory up to a temperature where I can sit in it without additional heat.As you say
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Post by Learner on Nov 11, 2015 1:01:13 GMT
All very valid observations there Learner. Of course it is always a coat warmer darn sarf as we say. Except when you are having blizzards and we are baking in sunshine. My conservatory is one that Colin built and is less than draught proof and in the depths of Winter the radiator, whilst working properly, is not able to heat the whole conservatory up to a temperature where I can sit in it without additional heat.As you say May the sun shine on you through the winter and give you that extra bit of warmth. (We could do with a few extra hours sun down here at the moment.... Grey, grey and more grey presently)
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Post by FFG on Jan 23, 2016 19:09:31 GMT
Finding a tube heater constantly ticking over is enough to keep the chill off. Then an oil filled radiator coming on from the buds bedtime to morning is doing the job a treat
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Post by steve05412 on Jan 24, 2016 13:46:40 GMT
Always good to have a second heat source should one fail.
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