Heating a 20sqm outbuilding in the winter - what do i do ?

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Hi All.

I have a 20sqm outbuilding which I use as an office mostly during the day and at night during busy periods, with the current covid situation I am working a lot more from the outbuilding. At the moment, it has one of these designer 2kw wall hung heater, completely useless. I have had to bring out my old oil filled electric heater and place is besides where I sit.

Its costing an absolute fortune, my electricity usage is about £5 extra a day anytime I work out out of the outbuilding.

Insulation wise, its a cavity wall insulation and highly insulated. Also insulated in the loft, about 200mm thick. But maybe I should revisit this, the garden is south facing and the building is at the bottom of the garden. As I have not worked from the building since xmas eve, its freezing here and the electric heater has been on for 5hrs now and its barely noticeable.

Now, I am reading up about my options. One of the regrets I have is not having a gas feed ran along the garden as we had major works done and I had the opportunity to do this.

Anyway, from my research. It looks as though the options are as follows.

  • Portable gas heater
  • Infra-red ceiling heater
  • Log burner
  • Air conditioning with heater


I dont want to make a rash decision out of frustration, this is the reason why I would like to know which option is cheapest to run, I have read up about log burners, they do look good I must say but I would like to hear from others who have a better experience here, and apart from log burners, what is the second/third best option in terms of running cost.
 
Log burners are only cheap to run if you've got a ready supply of free wood. Buying wood for them gets expensive. They're also a pain to fit in single storey buildings as the flue needs to be 4.5m long, which can be difficult to achieve safely.

Infrared heaters are good if you sit in one location, as they heat the surface (IE you) rather than the air. If you're moving around in there though, you'll need several which gets expensive.

A portable gas heater should cost about half what your electric one costs to run, and is cheap to buy so payback will be quick.
 
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muggles said:
Log burners are only cheap to run if you've got a ready supply of free wood. Buying wood for them gets expensive. They're also a pain to fit in single storey buildings as the flue needs to be 4.5m long, which can be difficult to achieve safely.

Infrared heaters are good if you sit in one location, as they heat the surface (IE you) rather than the air. If you're moving around in there though, you'll need several which gets expensive.

A portable gas heater should cost about half what your electric one costs to run, and is cheap to buy so payback will be quick.
Click to expand...

Thanks very much for this useful bit of information, log burners are definitely out of the question.
TBH, I do tend to sit in one place (in front of my monitors) but occasionally move around.
One thing I did not mention, I have a tall fridge/freezer in the room, is this adding to the problem ?
 
I find that my Devil heater is too good for my double garage and have to turn it off after a while but I do open a window for ventilation.

Andy
 
Your fridge-freezer won't be adding to the problem. It's one of the age-old riddles - if you leave a freezer door open, will the room get warmer or cooler? The answer is that it gets warmer.
 
Do not get one of the gas heaters it just pumps out condensation and not cheap to run.
 
HERTS P&D said:
Get one of these:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Marksman-S...ords=Gas+Bottle+Heaters&qid=1609766563&sr=8-9

Andy
Click to expand...

Bad idea and for two reasons - They cost as much to run than an electric heater and they chuck out lots of moisture, plus combustion products into the air, so some ventilation is needed.

I'm surprised that a 2Kw electric heater isn't adequate, if it really is well insulated.

[EDIT] If you must use bottled gas, then think in terms of a large portable gas bottle, stored outdoors, then gas heaters which are room sealed, so you just get the heat and none of the moisture or combustion products. The larger the gas bottle, the cheaper each kg of gas. Room sealed heaters, able to run on bottled gas, are used in tourer caravans, but there are other sources.
 
Last edited:
Harry Bloomfield said:
Bad idea and for two reasons - They cost as much to run than an electric heater and they chuck out lots of moisture, plus combustion products into the air, so some ventilation is needed.

I'm surprised that a 2Kw electric heater isn't adequate, if it really is well insulated.

[EDIT] If you must use bottled gas, then think in terms of a large portable gas bottle, stored outdoors, then gas heaters which are room sealed, so you just get the heat and none of the moisture or combustion products. The larger the gas bottle, the cheaper each kg of gas. Room sealed heaters, able to run on bottled gas, are used in tourer caravans, but there are other sources.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info. The construction was filled with 100mmm cavity insulation, not sure if anything else can be done ? With the loft, I can see its insulated but not sure how I can tell that is the source of heat loss. The thing here is that the room needs to be heater, the insulation helps in keeping the heat inside rather than escaping, I am on the look out for the cheapest way to heat the room.

I really should have had a small combi boiler here.

Now in terms of a large gas bottle, it would not be a problem for me because at the back of the outbuilding, I have a 600mm void between that an the perimeter fence, so I guess the gas cylinder can go there, I just want to understand what solution to go for first.

Its a big open room 3.1m x 6.5m, so whilst i sit in one position for 80% of the time, any heat from the electric heater spreads to the rest of the room even though I am not there.
 
Depending on your budget (installation wise) you might want to look at propane gas or oil fired central heating for the space. Or maybe even air source heat pumps. You'd be looking at a chunky up-front investment for sure (£3k plus maybe for oil and gas, no clue on ASHP) but would get a long term non-intrusive solution with sensible running costs. Depending on your financial circs you might even be able to offset it against income tax
 
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