Wall mounted space heaters

Sweet_Lew

All,



I'm looking to add a wall mounted space heater to each of my bedrooms and office. Has anyone installed one that they like? I've seen the Eco and the Envi ones online, but wanted to get opinions from people who actually own them



Thanks,



Lew

icesailor

Space heaters:

How do you heat these spaces now?

Sweet_Lew

Old school method.

Hot water boiler\radiator setup. It;s an old farm house with plaster\lathe walls which means, no wall insulation. The upstairs is usually a few degrees colder than the downstairs. 

Jack

Your best bet

would be the Rinnai Energysaver. Do not over size for small spaces. In a small space you must look at the low fire capability of the equipment. For instance, the ES-08 will modulate on the blower and gas valve from 3000-8000 btu. The ES-11 will go from 5,500-11,000 btu. There are larger units available but for small spaces, these are the way to go.

Sweet_Lew

Thanks!

Those look nice! I'm wondering if I can afford those. They look pricey! 

Sweet_Lew

Thanks!

Those look nice! I'm wondering if I can afford those. They look pricey! 

bob_46

fuel

In my experience it is not legal to install a gas fired appliance in a bedroom.

Sweet_Lew

I just noticed that...

I think my best bet is one of these wall mounted heaters. DeLonghi makes one that looks decent:



http://www.delonghi.com/us_en/products/hmp1500/



Here is the Eco:

http://www.eco-heater.com/



Envi:

http://www.eheat.com/

icesailor

Old house, radiators and heaters:

It's my experience that what you are proposing to do gives you an imaginary improvement. If the whole farm house is on one zone, split it in two or more zones. Zone valves are cheap.

You are considering three wall mounted heaters. They aren't cheap and the install can be silvery. Complicated too. If you are shy on insulation, you are just feeding the outside in a different way.

I've put in wood stoves and coal stoves in houses I have owned in the past. The room that the stove was in was too hot and the other rooms were cold because the thermostat never called. My fuel savings didn't come close to covering the cost of wood or coal.

If you have a room that looses 10,000 BTU's per hour and you have no insulation, you can cover that loss with a 10,000 BTU radiator or a 10,000 BTU wall heater. But if you add insulation that drops the loss to 5,000 BTU's, the radiator is twice as large as it needs to be, and the gas wall heater is over sized.

There are better ways to save money and do what you want.

Jamie Hall

Perhaps it's obvious...

but not to me.  If you have a working hot water system -- however uneven it might be -- it would seem to me that it would be cheaper in the long run to modify that system -- proper locally controlled zone valves or circulators -- and a boiler (mod-con) to match.  But maybe I'm missing something...

Sweet_Lew

It's the cost

Jamie,



I have already thought about zoning the upstairs, but the cost of a wall mount heater compared to zoning the second floor is a no brainer. If this house was something we are going to live in forever, I would consider it, but it isn't. If the boiler takes a dump within the next few years (which it could), then I'll probably spend the money and do everything.

Jack

Rinnai

Energysavers are approved for bedrooms. Direct vent sealed combustion. They are not cheap by any means, but you get what you pay for. What is the lay-out of this place.

Sweet_Lew

.

It's an early 1900'a farm house. 1500 sq ft on the first floor and roughly 600 sq feet up stairs. Cast iron rads in every room except one.

Jack

Lew, what do you want to do here?

You have an old system. Is it functional? is it worth saving? Is the distribution system the problem or the boiler/piping/controls the problem? We will all offer advise, but i think we'd all rather have a better description of what you are trying to achieve. What have the contractors who have looked at it said?



Do you want to be able to zone room by room and can your current system be adapted to this strategy. When you look at the original question, imho, the Rinnai's are the answer, BUT, you need to flesh out the building usage a bit better.



In my 2800 sq ft home I had a nice buderus cast iron boiler with some radiant. Great system, but I heated the family room and kitchen (where we spent our time) with a Rinnai. My boiler became my back-up heat. Nice back-up, btw, but I heated the area we spent our time in with the Rinnai. The boiler stayed at 60. I don't have any friends, so nobody ever came over so I never had to turn up the central heat. Very efficient, but it does tend to make you hang out at internet forums a lot

lchmb

Bob

The Rinnai unit is direct vent so it is approved for all bedroom applications

Sweet_Lew

HAHA

Nice post Jack!



I really appreciate everyone's responses. All I was looking for is if anyone has had experiences with wall mounted space heaters. I'm just looking to take the chill off in the bedrooms. I do not have the money to re-do my hot water heat system with dual zones, mod-cons, etc. The Rinnai looks like a great solution, but again, not in my budget at the time.



Thanks again.



Lew

Mike Kusiak_2

Thermostatic radiator valves

Have you considered adding thermostatic radiator valves to the downstairs radiators? This would be a fairly low cost, low tech solution to allow you to individually control each radiator, so that the downstairs would not overheat while the upstairs would reach a comfortable temperature. In effect, you would be making each room with a TRV its own individual zone, without the complications and cost of repiping the whole system.



You might have to relocate the thermostat upstairs so it would determine the temperature there, while downstairs, each radiator could be adjusted independently for the desired room temperatures.

Sweet_Lew

Thought about TRVs

I was about to have them installed last Fall, but the radiators currently have valves on them..And are painted and don't turn anymore. =/



I feel I'll open a huge can of worms when I start having them replaced with new TRVs. It does make sense financially to move the t-stat upstairs and install TRVs downstairs. I'll see if I can get a quote in the summer. I would also want to send some of the radiators out to get cleaned and repainted\powder coated when this is getting done.