Hi

Anyone with experience of the relative merits of wall panel heaters.

Eg

Painel Aquedor Electrico versus Heatwafer

Thank you

Alan Chalmers

Hi

Sorry i can't comment on theheating you mention as i he aircon. Aircon is not expencive to use last year my highest bill was 58€ and when the bill was adjusted it came done it is now 46€ per month. THis is my only form of heating adit works well for me.

Aircon is an option but it would all depend on the size of the property you wish to heat.

Peter " Dreams can come true "

they are pretty much the same thing; electric resistance heaters.
The infra red ones throw some of the heat outwards, which can feel nice if you sit in front of it, but tend to be less effective at warming the floor.

A simple radiator sucks the cold air up from the floor and heats it. If you have a tight house, that works better at heating your room evenly, but if you have cold air coming in through leaky doors and windows, it will never catch up.

Peter, have you been at the plum wine?

I presume Pete is referring to "reverse cycle" air-conditioning, which also works as quite efficient heating [if it's not extremely cold outside].
They claim nearly 3kw of heat for every 1kw of electricity, although in reality 2-1 would be very good.

Every AC unit I found for sale in Portugal was the reverse-cycle type.
And oddly, I didn't find a window unit anywhere, only split units.

Hi Alan,
We have a ceramic panel heater in our entrance hall which is useful for background heat but our main heating is AC which is much more efficient in heating up the place quickly.
You can also get panel heaters which have a convector effect.
All are electric which is expensive in Portugal, if I had the choice I would have had gas central heating as we do at home.

Hi

First i mentioned that i aircon as my heating. To go into moredetail may have confused some members so yes as Liveabroad says it is a Reverse cycle split system and provides all the heat i need and cheap to run.

I have a friend who's son in the UK is a heating engineer and installed for his Mum and Dad a full gas system, rads all over the house and it uses a bottle costing 103€ per month. Over last Christmas with all his family over they where using 2 bottles a week. As they spend a large part of the day in the kitchen they also have a mobile gas heater in the kitchen.

Peter " Dreams can come true "

Your advertising again pete

Hi All

Advertising What.

A mistake, on this Forum you can't go back to correct something. What i should have said was they use a bottle costing 103€ PER WEEK and over last Christmas 2 per week.

Peter " Dreams can come true "

So, are we now saying that AC is best for heating?

Hi All

I am not saying aircon is best but it suits me. It seems cheap to run and my EDP bills confirm it. I leave my Bedroom door open during the time i have the aircon on because the unit i have it bigger that the room it's heating and it warms my bedroom.

Would it suit others who knows all i know is for me it's cheap to run and i just switch on in the morning and by the time the kettle has boiled it's nice and warm.

Peter " Dreams can come true "

It's difficult to compare systems; generally, everyone comes out to fight for their beliefs [aka, whatever they have in their house] with little in the way of objective numbers.
Since I hate the system I have [oil burner] I don't have an objectivity problem at the moment.

Reverse cycle [aka heat pump] AC can be a good, efficient system. The difficulty is that they work differently in different temperatures. In very cold weather, they have poor efficiency.
Of course we don't get many days of cold weather in Portugal.
Another problem is that AC and heating have differing ventilation needs. AC should be at the top of the room and heat at the bottom. Having the heat output at the top of the room [as they usually do] tends to leave your floor cold.
For a small house or an apartment, it's probably the best solution for now, but it all depends on where the price of electricity goes.

I don't know the price of natural [piped in] gas, or how many forum members have access to it, or the price.

Some people like bottled gas or oil. I say it's expensive fossil fuel with uncertain future prices. The big outdoor tanks don't save money for the majority of users.

The cheapest fuel heat in Portugal is wood. If you have the time for it, and space for fuel storage and the burner.

Pellet burners are nice too, but they're a bit pricey. The pellet prices could go anywhere, and you have to lug the pellets in bag by bag.
A big advantage is that aside from refilling the pellet hopper and cleaning out the ash, they run by themselves. Self light and extinguish on a thermostat. And [if you get that kind] they can easily be connected to underfloor heat or radiators in other rooms.

Solar heat is technically feasible, but hardly anyone actually installs it. Setup cost is high, and a system that will really work isn't available off the shelf, some parts need to be custom built. more detail on that if anyone wants to know.

Just to be clear, I don't sell any of this stuff.
I'm just bored, with no [paid] work and no one to talk to.

Thanks for all your replies. Yes, we have air con but have been a bit skimpy with it for heating re our impression, real or otherwise, that it gobbles electricity. The idea of the simple panel heaters, perhaps on a timed use, to provide some minor heating to help with the damp etc when the property is not occupied and as a complementary use to the wood burning unit when we are there. No one so far appears to have experience of the two electrical panel options I mentioned.

Appreciate the input.

Alan

The AC unit you have will use much less power than the panel heater for the same amount of heat; somewhere between 40 and 80%.

If the AC unit is in a suitable spot for what you need, use it.

Thanks Liveaboard

The panel sellers are keen to emphasise their units are very low cost consuming electricity equivalent to a couple of light bulbs per hour. Is this wishful/misleading thinking?