canuckguy

I purchased an older home earlier this year and now comes the expensive task of trying to heat it. I already had a new furnace installed and having made the windows and doors as air tight as possible. Now I would like to heat just my daughter’s room at night time while letting the rest of the house get cold as well, hell.
It would be a major task to do each day, to close all the vents to allow just the furnace to heat her room, so I was looking for away of heating just her room. Now my daughter is young (18 months) so safety from those very busy hands is priority one, second would be cost to run such heater.
I was thinking there were two ways I could heat her room, one would be to mount a heater high enough and safe enough that she could not get to it, or to put to a heater in the hallway and let a fan blow the air into her room. Doing some online shopping I am not sure what heater would work best or if anyone has any had prior experience with any small portable heaters. not looking to spend more then 60 bucks, and was hoping to get something that would be low engery use as possible. thanks again for any input


Here is a link to some heaters that are available in my area.
http://www.canadiantire.ca/assortmen...pCurrentPage=2

or go to www.canadiantire.ca,
postal code n6e 1v1 (it ask you for pricing/availabilty)

Leto

I'm wary of space heaters. In my older (1920's) house, I have put newspapers inside the registers to block the heat from going into the Living/dining rooms, and kitchens. I figure that I don't mind if it is cooler there. That way, all the heat is forced into the bedrooms.

Who did your furnace? I need to replace mine too.

canuckguy

I got several quotes and went with Reliance (use to be union energy), they did not proved the cheapest quote but the 24/7 service and other benefits convinced me. I had an extremely old furnace that did work but I could just sense that it was going to go and was not worth the cost of repair. When I bought the house it was one of the things we knew had to be replaced eventually.

My wife is not infavour of the space heater idea (safey/fire..etc) but it is the only way I can think of to heat just her room at night, letting the house go down to say (62-ish range) during the night. One of us is always home during the day so we need to keep the rest of the house warm (68 is warm to me, cold to the missus) so blocking the vents is just not practical, plus the vents in our house are so old I know that it still would not be that efficent to block them do to heat loss even before the vent is blocked.

I was thinking of getting one of those heaters with the fan on it, putting it in the hallway just outside her room and let it blow in. I would prefer to have a heater in her room on a shelf up high, secured to the wall but the missus is just not a convinced. All this because of the increased cost to heat your home. I read that the heating cost is expected to be triple what it was last year....think I just had a minor stroke there....

sashime76

We bought two portable heaters for our sons, one is 4 1/2 and the other 2 1/2. Needless to say they get their hands on everything and anything. The heaters we bought aren't very hot to the touch and shut off if tipped over. I can't tell what make or models but you can find them at Walmart easily.

Our thermalstat is downstairs so by the time it detects the desired temperature, upstairs bedrooms are too toasty. Our boys inhereted the nose bleed from me so we can't really rely on the thermal stat. With the portable heaters each room can be heated to suit their own comfort.

catback

A space heater is really the only best way to heat just one room. I don't see the hallway idea working too well because if the door is open the heat will just escape to other parts of the house. Because your daughter is so young and curious a space heater within reach of her (on the floor) is a big no no as is putting it on something it could fall off of. Personally if I was in your shoes and really didn't wanna bite the heating bill bullet I'd get an electric space heater put it in the middle of the room, build a nice good size enclosure for it (not to small, don't wanna make it hot or catch fire) so she couldn't get to the heater inside, and kid proof the cord by securing it from being pulled out and put it under one of those cord protecters that offices use so people can step and run over the cord without damaging it. Dunno if you care for that idea but to me it's probably the safest way aside from biting the bullet.

Salomon

What I did to keep the kids warm were 2 things: either run the furnace, use a heating blanket, or use multiple warm blankets. If I used the blankets, I also covered their head with a warm hat, the kind without a brim that might unfold down over the face. Whatever you do, and you seem to already understand this, listen to the wife here. If you end up getting a space heater against her wishes, go ahead right now and prepare a space outside for your future bedroom.

Good luck.

canuckguy

Thanks for all the input! We have been bundling the little one up at night time, and she has enough blankets to cover half of north america but she is not in a crib anymore and moves around alot at night time so she is normally not covered besides her clothes.
I went and got a small heater with a fan, I am going to try putting it in the hall, just outside her door and blow into the room. We have a baby gate at her door so she won't be able to reach the heater. If that does not provide enough heat, I will rig up something to have the heater directly in her room and build a shelf and cover for the power cord.

shakran

That's not going to work very well because the open door will let all the heat right back out. A space heater in an unattended child's room is dangerous, no matter what you do to keep the kid away from it. The things can still sometimes catch fire even if you don't knock 'em over.

You need to run a zoned heating setup. It's not that hard to do. check here for info.

http://www.smarthome.com/howto11.html

canuckguy

Thanks for all the tips!

Everything is dangerous in one form or another. I don't think I could have that done in my old house. I am not to worried about heat loss out of the room, just to take the chill off. Her room is very small. And her door is only open about 5-10". And putting the heater in her room would be safe (to me) as there is nothing she can climb on or use to reach that high up. But the missus is against it so its not an option at this point, fires can happen anywhere, we have a smoke and carbon detector in her room. My father in law is a firefigher so our house is covered!

canuckguy

Just tried the heater fan thingy I just bought, yep it sucks ass. return.

shakran

If your house has central air, you can zone the heating. All it takes is installing valves in the HVAC plumbing that's in your basement (or attic, if you don't have a basement). The valves are electrical and controlled by a single controller. You can set 'em to automatically close everywhere but her room at night, and automatically open back up again in the morning.

cyrnel

Space heaters are such a hazard. Babies throw things into the most unlikely places, and one of them would eventually be the heater. Especially if it's red (hot) or has a moving part (fan).

I'd go with shakran's zoning. You'll need valves and at least one more stat/sender, but it would be the most convenient. The other side would be investing in window covering and insulation.

Maybe put the baby in the most central room that stays warm the longest, even if just for the winter.

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canuckguy

the vent that feeds to my daughters room is an entire pipe that feeds all the rooms on the top floor of our house, there would be no way for me to block those vents before it reaches the top floor. atleast that i know of!

canuckguy

the space heater is not a heating coil just sitting on the floor, it was heater totally incased, with a kill switch on tip over, overheating..etc. the heater stays cool to the touch during operation, would be impossible for her to stick anything into it. plus she would need to climb a flat wall 6ft off the ground so safety is not a concern of mine at this point. thanks for all the ideas.

canuckguy

Forgot to add, last night I did setup the little heater/fan in her room on a shelf, secured it to the shelf and hid the cord behind her dresser. she had no access to the heater, set it to keep her room at 68, which it did to a great job at. her room was toasty compared to the rest of the house. But not sure I am going to keep it that way. I will look more into the zone heating but i don't think its possible in my old house, without a major investment. which is something i don't want to do.

ngdawg

individual electric radiator is great for a kid's room-we used ours in there for years and they never went near it. Plus, it's easy enough to cover-if you're half-way handy with wood, you just make a plywood case-leaving enough space around it to allow the heat to circulate and cover the front with metal lattice. Good side-feature-you now have an extra display shelf
May I assume this is your only child? I ask because of the over-cautiousness the wife has. New heaters meet or exceed safety guidelines. That, along with some no-touching rules and a watchful eye will more than be enough, safety wise. I'm more concerned about the abundance of covers-she could crawl under in her sleep, mixing exhaled air with limited inhaled, making for a very sleepy, lethargic kid.

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canuckguy

This is our first child yes, how could you tell? We have now only the one blanket on her bed, but she did have quite a few before, mostly used for padding as she still rolls around so much at night.

The one thing I noticed last night was that the heater we did put on the shelf came on and off alot. Her door was left slightly ajar but still it keep going on and off, like it was having troubles regulating the heat, or just poor design. I have the heater all secure but I think now I am leaning towards the oil filled heaters that you can get, similar to a rad. About the same size as the heater we are using now, and should give off the same heat, but not turn on/off so much.

You can so tell we are new parents eh, we probably over due everything for her........not probably, we do. But hey its our first and we always wanted children so it is so special, every new experience, I can't wait to have more. And like all new parents I can bet our next kid will get 1/1000th of the worry this one gets.

THGL

I was going to mention the oil-filled radiators if you didn't. We have one in our youngest daughter's room. It works almost too well (set very low it keeps the room toasty warm). It's a pretty big heater, about 2.5 feet tall, and could probably heat an entire floor if on full blast.

The only time it's turned on is when she's asleep in her crib (13 mo. old) so there's no worry about her burning herself on the heater. When she gets to old enough to climb out of her bed unassisted, then we'll move the heater elsewhere and come up with a new idea.

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kazoo

Part of the problem with mounting a heater on a shelf is that heat rises, so you're really effectively heating the level of the heater and up. It feels toasty to an adult, because you're standing. I'd give a nickel to know the difference between ceiling and floor temperature in such an arrangement. This is why electric radiant baseboards with integral or wall mounted thermostats are the simplest for DIY jobs. Your only restriction is that you cannot locate them beneath wall receptacles, as flexible appliance cords across heaters is a bad plan. Quick and dirty sizing method is square foot of the room times 10 = wattage needed. Radiant baseboard heaters are good for 250 watts per foot of heater, so an 8 x 8 bedroom needs 64 x 10 or 640 watts of heat, so I'd install a 3 foot or 750 watt baseboard unit.

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canuckguy

have a ceiling fan in her room so that blows the heat down.

canuckguy

Just an update, I did end up getting the mini oil filled heater. It works like a charm. I have it secured to a shelf and it keeps her room around 68-70 measured at her bed. Damn I am anal! Anyway, the rest of the house drops down now to 58 at night! Should do wonders on my energy bill! thanks for all the tips and ideas!

1010011010

Magnetic register sheets may work if you want to block the other vents.

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