Heating our bedroom - Groundhog Day!

Anyone familiar with cove heat? It's electric heat that goes near the ceiling and it's radiant. From what I've read which is not a great deal, it's overly expensive to put in. Your standard electric bill when using electric heat.

Yes this is for our bedroom. Third winter approaching. The Duraflame infrared electric heater, Shop Duraflame 5200-BTU Infrared Quartz Cabinet Electric Space Heater with Thermostat at Lowes.com, we bought last year did a pretty good job. Compared to what we've used before, it was by far the best. I'm still looking for something permanent. Unfortunately funds wise I was not able to afford to put in a direct vent propane heater. Which means that the mini-split was also out of my price range.

We talked about it today, and both agreed we could go another winter with the infrared heater. It kept the room around 62-64 degrees, and our electric bill do not go up staggeringly as we expected.

Sorry to keep brining this up every year. Hopefully this next year financially we'll be able to put in a permanent solution, and be done with it.


Jason from RI

 

How about making your own heat?

 

We practice that. It's a great way to make heat, but if I am not careful with that heat we'll burn down the house.

 

If it's just bedroom backup heat have you looked at a 120V fireplace?
the wife will be happy with the furniture aspect and a cozy no mess fire in the bedroom

 

Not backup heat. There is not other heat source in this room.

 

Doesn't seem like a great idea to put radiant heat near the ceiling. Heat's gonna' stay right up there, unless you turn on a ceiling fan.

 

This is one of the websites I looked at, Electric Wall Heaters Electric Radiant Heaters Radiant Systems Inc Radiant Systems. Maybe that will help.

 

when I was 100% wood heat, we inherited an electric fireplace with blower from SIL (that I bought her for Christmas)
She just took it last week which has me looking for a new one..
It took care of the 50-60deg morning bedroom temps on really cold nights

 

My buddy bought a house with all electric radiant heat in the ceilings...they had $8-900 per month electric bills when it got cold (and they were still freezing)...so they had gas co. install a service line and HVAC dude come in to install new duct work for NG furnace and whole house A/C...big bucks, but pay back was only a few winters.
They worst part was they lived on a very heavily wooded property and had a fireplace with a slick wood storage area that was accessed from both the inside and outside...would have been so easy to slide a stove in that large fireplace...but they didn't want to fool with it...oh well, he had me haul many many loads of wood out of his woods for him...win for me

 

I put a link to the Duraflame Infrared heater we bought last year.

 

Yeah....................you know, like the "rub two sticks together" thing they teach you at summer camp???????????

 

Looks interesting, but I thought this was also an interesting choice of words........"When the comfort cove is first energized, an initial break-in fragrance may be noticed - this is normal."

I'll acquiesce to those smahta than I.
Absotively boettg33 , give it a shot and let us know.

 

We use the oil filled radiators in the bedrooms at the cottage in the winter. The wood stove heats the main room but with only 2x4 construction and many single pane windows, that heat doesn't really make it to the bedrooms. They are thermostatically controlled and because they are sealed they pose no fire hazard like other ceramic/exposed element heaters and I find they don't dry out the air as much as other heaters. They are also very quiet unlike fan type heaters

Our son's bedroom at home is in the north west corner of the house and exposed to the heaviest and coldest winter winds. His bedroom is also the furthest from the furnace. Before we changed the windows and added one of these oil filled radiators to his room, his room was always several degrees colder than the rest of the house. There would be ice on the bottom of his windows where the condensation accumulated and froze.

Being thermostatically controlled they are great for single room heating. Once they hit the desired temp, the turn off but remain warm for a while. We used to roll one into the bathroom when the kids were young for bath time. It would warm the room and we would also drape the kids towels over the radiator so they were toasty warm when they got out of the tub.

 

Any way to button up that room better to prevent heat loss?

 

I've replaced the windows with more energy efficient ones. The garage beneath has insulation in the ceiling.

The ceiling is tongue and grove pine. My dad did not insult this when he did the work. I secretly call him mister shortcut. He used large beams exposed to cary the weight of the roof. One thing I'd like to do is either spray foam with a closed cell insulation, or simply put up fiberglass insulation, then put wallboard up. I've determined that I could do that while still leaving an inch and a half exposed of the beams. They look nice. This would give me the best bang for my buck. The only thing holding me back is that I need to re-roof this room. Without doing that, I don't dare insulate the ceiling.

Another option I've considered is conditioning the air in the garage below. The floor in our bedroom is always cold. Even though the garage ceiling is insulated. I figure if I were to warm the space below, we'd see some residual up in the bedroom.

If you look at old threads with regards to this problem, I've looked at just about every conceivable option out there. Here is the list:

1. Electric baseboard heating. - cheap to put in, expensive to run.
2. Electric radiant under floor heating - don't know about it. Seems like it would be one of the better options. Currently have Pergo laminate wood flooring. I don't know how well the electric radiant under floor heating would do under that type of material.
3. Wood stove - out due to obvious concerns.
4. Pellet stove - out due to obvious concerns.
5. Mini-Split unit - Honestly I think this would be the best option. It's a matter of cost. Very expensive to purchase and have installed.
6. Direct vent propane heater - Surprisingly this was rather expensive as well.
7. Boiler in the garage - Again expensive, the need to run a zone in the bedroom. Another oil tank or propane tank to fuel the boiler.
8. A wood furnace in the garage - Need to run ductwork for heat and cold air returns. Garage is not easily accessible from the bedroom. This could be done. Not sure about CO concerns with this option.

Maybe someone has something I've not looked at.