Sherlock Holmes

Haven't seen a "How bloody cold it is indoors" thread for a while but for those of you still wondering how to take the chill off, I have recently taken out the wood heater in my office (too slow to warm up, too hot once it was going and put too much dust in the air for my large printers) and installed a Rinnai energy saver gas heater.

This isn't a non flued eye-stinger.

It isn't a flued (very wasteful) gas fire.

It's a powered flu, through the wall. Exhaust goes out through the inner narrow flu and air intake is through a concentric outer flu.

This has two major advantage. You don't need an air vent; the room can be airtight. The cold air coming in is warmed by the hot air going out in the flu creating more efficient combustion and using less energy.

Fully thermostatically controlled, timers etc. etc.

The one I bought is of 5.3 kilowatt heat output, the office is 5 metres by 8 metres.

I am pleased to report that I am VERY impressed with this gizmo. Not cheap to buy (but then nor are split systems or wood heaters.) $1,900 plus $300 to install.

So far, very cheap to run. I am on LPG. You can get mains gas versions.

The heat output is very close the floor and my feet have been warm for the first time in a long time.

The LPG models are available via the elgas website.

Link to energy savers here: http://www.rinnai.com.au/index.php?o...id=2&cat_id=42

The one I bought is here: http://www.rinnai.com.au/index.php?o...temid=2&id=298

Hoping this might be of use.

fish.01

wow, complicated...in brisbane i just leave my socks on

Sherlock Holmes

and your waders and souwester.

iamthecreaturefromuranus

and flippers.... and not forgetting to keep their hands warm by filling them with flood tax dollars.

Sherlock Holmes

fish.01

No, the cold has addled your brain, it's sub tropical winter so dry, blue skies and warm ...anyway back to your heating contraption thingymajig as it is an important topic for all southerners.

bcworld

It must've changed up there. When I lived there it was warm until the sun went down in winter then the temperature dropped like a stone - I guess those clear skies are to blame. My (wooden) house was freezing on winters mornings, and often took half the day to warm up with the cool wind whistling up between the floorboards. Toyed with those bog standard cheap oil heaters but they don't even take the edge off the cold in open plan rooms.

chris955

Our house is bloody freezing in winter, it can be 10 degrees lower inside than out, it starts to get warm about 3 o'clock in the afternoon by which time it has started to cool down again.

bcworld

That's pretty much how I remember it!

chris955

Because most houses are pretty ordinary build quality wise they offer little in the way of insulation and as soon as it gets cold the inside of the house just drops like a stone.

Keith

How about insulating your house?

Here in Canada we know cold and heat. Today it was 33C in Ottawa and in 6 months time it could be -33C but we have well insulated houses that lose little heat in the winter or cooling in the summer.

chris955

The problem is it is quite hard to insulate many of the older Queensland houses, we have insulation in the roof but the main problem is the walls and the windows. Double glazing is unheard of and to insulate the walls would basically mean stripping them and relining the whole place. Having seen lots of new places going up they still don't insulate the walls properly.

Sherlock Holmes

Don't get me started Insulation? What's that? Trying to convince an Aussie that insulation also keeps heat out is..well...a losing battle I'm afraid.

I've done all I can at home, roof, floor insulation and insulated cladding. Sure, it's better but still nowhere as good as it should be.

Bello

i used the cold dip method to get through it haha, took a cold dip too the south coast for a couple of months and got used to real cold then did a runner up north and am enjoying laying on a beach living off tax refund money happy days, gonna come hard when i have to work again though doh!!

DeadVim

1) Install insulation
2) Open house up in the morning and let any heat outside get in
3) Close house when the temperature outside starts to dip
4) Open fire + Small Oil Heater for kid's room seems to do the trick here

Or, I guess, get out of the house ...