I am looking to replace an old Heatseeker 1 inbuilt, flued lounge room heater. The area that requires heating is about 70 sq. m. and has raked ceilings.
I have had one recommendation for an Escea DF 700. Does anyone have one and could comment or interested in alternatives.
The opening is about 66cm x 57cm.
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Some reviews for this model and another Escea heater on Product Review.
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Maybe an alternative thinking outside of the box answer:
A reverse cycle split system air con, it will cool in the summer heat and warm in the winter cold. It won’t risk Carbon Monoxide poisoning, gas poisoning and particulate inhalation and is a very efficient warming device for energy expended. As an added bonus it likely will help reduce Greenhouse gas emissions and the need for further gas wells. Another small benefit in that no longer will Flue cleans be needed.
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Second that motion! We installed a Split system inverter - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and have not lit our wood fire for years, despite an abundance of firewood. It pulls little load; our electricity bill didn’t change. We use it to take the edge off the cold in the mornings (but it never gets below zero here) and some evenings, but also rug up. It may pull more power in other areas with lower / higher temps and more demand.
However, if a cheery flickering flame is your thing … I kept the wood burner just in case we sell.
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Heheh they do have screens that produce the image but no heat 
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@grahroll’s comment is the ‘gold standard’ for heating although heat pump and boiler hydronics remain popular for comfort. It is based on the trend to solar and batteries making an all electric house, once an anathema to $sensibilities, the most economical moving into the future for ‘solar enabled’ buildings.
If one wishes to go split while maintaining the ambience of a fireplace there are 3D holographic products that are hard to discern from wood or gas fired real ones, although perhaps not in an exact drop in size for your cavity space, as well as models that also heat.
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Costco selling a few of those at the moment, and for some of them you can alter the flame look to boot.
Some of the choices (but not all) are below
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Thanks. Will check it out the reviews
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Yes. I will consider alternatives. We already have ducted air con to the room so reverse cycle heating would be doubling up. The particular model will be flued and is supposed to be efficient but will read reviews and investigate further.
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Could it be seen to be doubling up by installing another heater as well?
If you installed a Split to the room you could close the ducting to that area and push more air to the other areas that have ducting. Or instead of new heating could you change the amount of heated air that flows through that duct into that area, our house has 10 zones all individually controlled. Another choice could be a fire looking electric heater used when needed, that could also perform well. If nothing else is gas in the house you could also be saving on the daily supply charge.
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Then I do not see why you want to replace a gas heater. The aircon is far more cost effective.
With gas, wood or a hot-element electric heater you can only get out the amount of energy consumed as useful heating at most. In the case of gas or wood where much heat goes up the chimney less in practice. Aircon gives you more heating than the electricity consumed. Depending on efficiency, for each unit of energy used you get about 2 1/2 as much heating in the house.
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The ducted aircon is only cooling🙁
The gas log fire looks great and that is what I was looking to replace. Apparently the newer ones are much more efficient although having read the reviews of the one I asked about it only rates 3/5 and it is expensive…probably twice as much as reverse cycle split system.
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Our areas are not zoned due to the design of the house however I am able to isolate rooms to make for heating specific areas. As I said in another reply our ducted system is only cooling.
The idea of putting the r/c split system is a good option. We have done this in a family area.
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Thanks
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Just block the duct to that room and then only rely on the Reverse Cycle AC to cool and heat that area. Cooling in all other areas where ducting is will get improved air flow from the ducts.
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Choice has also recently updated information on how to best select a heating system for a home…
This may also be useful to read when considering the planned purchase of you flued inbuild gas heater.
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