Heating a rental property

[Keys]

Those eco panel heaters are gutless.

My ones are 400 watts. What do you expect from them? They take the chill off the room for me. That's all. Anything else requires more input to get the temperature up.

My office has three computers on 24/7. Their normal cooling assists with heating the room as well. While not comfortably warm, the room never gets freezing.

[PC]

It would be nice to have small heat pumps in each bed room.
Either wall or ceiling ducted.
But last time I priced something like it ->$7K Ouch!
Wouldn't be so bad if the rent went up $20pw - but unlikely.

[drelly]

I like log fires because they're very low maintenance. Tenants don't need to clean filters and they don't break down. There's also no surprises with power bills. ou can also chuck a big log on overnight and they'll heat the house all night.

[Eugene]

I like log fires because they're very low maintenance. Tenants don't need to clean filters and they don't break down. There's also no surprises with power bills. ou can also chuck a big log on overnight and they'll heat the house all night.

Does soot and smoke get into the room though? - trying to avoid extra redecorating

[PC]

Good luck getting a "low emission" log fire to go all night.
That is unless you're able to "fix" it after the council has signed off the installation.

[Bluekiwi]

Good luck getting a "low emission" log fire to go all night.
That is unless you're able to "fix" it after the council has signed off the installation.

First winter in our new house and its F.Freezing.

Have the fire going night, and in morning for kids.
And this is Auckland I am talking about.

Heat doesnt get out of the lounge / dining, down to the bedrooms.
So we are having Insulation put in the roof space today.

No space for underfloor insulation, so still expect it to be cold in the mornings.
Getting the guy out next week to quote on heat pump (have HRV already), he reckons about 3k (yeah the ducted one would be a bout 10k).

Probably wont do it, will wait to see what the insulation does for us, and just get a couple of heaters for the kids rooms.

What do people recomend for kids rooms ?
Anything to make them sleep better and not wake my up 5.30am on weekends LOL.

[Eugene]

Have a small (say 1000 watt) oil heater in each room, set at low, have going all night.

[Wayne]

Have a small (say 1000 watt) oil heater in each room, set at low, have going all night.

They do give a nice background heat and are pretty cheap. Consumer found some better than others, particularly safety wise.

[PC]

Be careful with kids not to over heat.

Heat transfer or positive pressure with heat reclaim (ie heated new air rather than just ceiling space air).
A bit more expensive though.

[sidinz]

I just moved into a place with wooden floors & its freezing. Even when the fan heater warms up the room the floor is still cold.

That's because fan heaters give out the wrong kind of heat. They just heat up the air, which then cools down again. What you need is radiant heat, which will heat the objects in the room, which then become heat sinks. That's one reason that fires are good - they're radiant heat.

[drelly]

Does soot and smoke get into the room though? - trying to avoid extra redecorating

Not if the flu is cleaned once a year.

[Raftcomm]

I too have a log burner at home and its on one end of my house. After leaving it on for awhile, it actually does heat up the corridors as well. My corridor is carpeted however so i would definitely recommend those carpets. I do question whether log burners are as expensive as heat pumps though. I typically use about 2 -3 cubic meters of firewood each season. When I buy them off trademe, they go on average for about $90 - $110 per cubic meter. Thats about $300 for an entire season to keep the house warm and not use any oil fin heaters. The only hassles that i know of for log burners is on those cold winter mornings, when your face and hands feel frozen, it can be a challenge placing the kindling wood and logs. On those mornings, i wish i could just press one button to turn it on.

I actually forgot to get the flu cleaned this year but its still burning clean with no smoke in the room.

[DIY Donz]

I too, have a log burner and love it to bits. It's on the end wall of the lounge. The house has raking ceilings and large (almost floor to ceiling windows) and no insulation in the ceiling. I work from home in an office at the other end of the house and currently I run a pedestal fan from inside the lounge pointing down the hall to push the warm air down to the office. I close all the doors to rooms off the hall that I'm not using and find that the office heats up to approx. 21 deg - quite comfortable. The plan is to put in a heat transfer kit as part of the upcoming reno.

One of my rentals also has a log burner and the tenants like it. I've had no problems other than when they've knocked the ceiling baffle down with a large chunk of wood thrown in and couldn't put it back in place. I've just had to educate them a little about throwing wood in, etc. I get the chimney swept and the fire box itself checked every year.

[Daisy]

What do people recomend for kids rooms ?
Anything to make them sleep better and not wake my up 5.30am on weekends LOL.

I know that feeling, very underpowered fire here. We put a wall panel heater in each of the bedrooms (with a thermostat). Works brilliantly in the kiddies room, mounted nice & high so they can't switch it off/tip it over/turn it up to high which were all issues we had with a freestanding oil heater. Even if they did touch it they wouldn't get burned either. It's a pretty small room but keeps it at 16C easily enough, then I run a dehumidifier for a couple of hours every day or two in there to make sure it is staying dry as well. Doesn't guarantee you a sleep-in though!

[Bluekiwi]

I know that feeling, very underpowered fire here. We put a wall panel heater in each of the bedrooms (with a thermostat). Works brilliantly in the kiddies room, mounted nice & high so they can't switch it off/tip it over/turn it up to high which were all issues we had with a freestanding oil heater. Even if they did touch it they wouldn't get burned either. It's a pretty small room but keeps it at 16C easily enough, then I run a dehumidifier for a couple of hours every day or two in there to make sure it is staying dry as well. Doesn't guarantee you a sleep-in though!

Yes yes yes, thats what we ended up doing.
And it works brilliatn doesnt it.
Just warms up the place a little bit and keeps them nice and warm, takes that chill away.