My new home with ceiling-to-floor windows along the entire long-side of my living room and making up 2 sides of my 2nd bedroom are exposing me to the elements! It’s a very small 2-bedroom home of only 53 sq meters wrapped around the corner on the south-east side of the fifth floor.
In Summer, when I moved in, the window fascias flooded my living space with much natural light and warmth – but in Winter I’m now cold and loosing all my heat through these glass walls. I have the wall mounted Mitzubish wall aircon unit (standard in these recent builds) set at 24oC all day but always feel a chill. And a constant stream of warm air at my face doesn’t quite cut it.
To compound matter, like most modern homes, I don’t have a bath and very much miss the splendid enveloping warmth experienced when you sink into a warm bath! It’s therefore very important that I feel warmth in the living space because once you get that chill, you usually feel that way all day.
So, I’m looking for a heater that properly heats my living space, not that just blows warm air at my face
or even worse, heat me intensely, but the moment I move away I’m plunged into coldness.
Any suggestions on the best heater for my situation would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
p.s. while the Dyson Pure Hot+Cool Purifying Fan Heater sounds like the Cool Kid-on-the-block, I’m sceptical of the concept of yet another heater blowing warm air… at my face.
Your problem is not the heater per se given the configuration you describe, but the cold resulting from heat loss through the windows. To address that with heat you would need to install baseboard heating under the lot of them.
I suggest you have a look at honeycomb blinds. They will reduce the light (more or less depending on the blind), but they can significantly reduce thermal heat loss, which in your case affects you as cold caused by the heat loss from your windows.
The oil filled electric heaters such as @Fred123 referenced, put in critical places, will cost less to buy and try and could solve or at least treat your problem. In contrast a large honeycomb (2x3m) can be in the order of $2,000 or more per window with low costs ones still over $1,000. Electric space heating can be expensive to run if ongoing budget matters.
We have a similar problem with large windows, but with hydronic heating and honeycomb blinds we turn it up a degree and it is comfortable. If we need a boost in the lounge or bedroom we also have splits, but that is rarely needed.
As @PhilT suggests amending insulation is much more effective than extra heaters. Any electric heater like a fan, oil or radiant heater will be far less efficient than aircon. Instead of medium priced heat going out the window you will have high priced heat going out the window.
Have a look at blinds or heavy curtains, these may have the side effect of making the house dark during the day but may be quite useful at night. Your problem is hard to get around unless you can install double glazing which sounds unlikely.
What is the radiant cold you speak of? If you have discovered a new force of nature there could be a Nobel gong for you.
The windows will be losing heat to the outside mainly through conduction and convection. Heat is conducted through the glass from the air inside to the air outside. On the outside the warmer than ambient air will rise to be replaced by colder air at the bottom. On the inside the cold glass will chill the air in contact which will fall down to be replaced by warmer air at the top. There will be a little heat lost from the glass by radiation of IR outside.
It was my bad for trying to simplify it knowing full well the amount of expertise that would read and probably correct it, as you have done, was inevitable. I know you know what I intended.
Thanks for your insights. I do have double-glazing and you’re right about the loss of heat - can’t imagine what it would be like without double glazing!
All I can say is, I don’t know how I survived living in the UK for over two decades!
One other thought that came up in another thread, the distribution of warm and cold air in the house may be part of the problem. A ceiling fan on winter setting (blows down instead of up) may be useful.
Thank you very much for your suggestions. I’m going to look into what sort of barriers I can put up to stop the heat escaping through my windows. Honeycomb blinds sounds promising!
I currently have roller blinds, but they are not ideal as with 4 blinds in the second bedroom, 4 blinds in the living room and 1 in my bedroom, it turns into an operation to adjust them morning and night.
This may sounds plain lazy, but believe me, the action of drawing blinds x 18 times each day gets old real quick!
Quality double glazing should be effective. Adding blinds or drapes as suggested can only improve the outcome. Internal shutters (colonial or Japanese styled) are another option, but even more expensive - luxury.
Other thoughts,
What is the model of split system you have installed? Is there just the one, or several? The question of sizing for the rooms comes into question.
Layering of the warm air near the ceiling is an issue we have with an old house and high ceilings. Using your ceiling fans has been suggested. If they are installed? We set our MHI guided vents to point down to blow the warm air towards the floor. In one room there are no ceiling fans. A tall floor mounted pedestal fan blowing along one wall is also effective in getting the air to circulate.
Some of us are more sensitive to the cold more than others. Our mum in her 90’s is never warm unless the whole room is at 25/26C. I’m more an 18-20C person, and am happy in a layer of light winter clothing. Have you checked the room air temperature using a thermometer where you typically sit? Perhaps the air is not really at 24C?
Thanks for coming back to me with your listed considerations.
The aircon is a Mitsubishi Electric - Slip-type air conditioner - Indoor Unit - MSZ-GE35VAD
Just the one unit, situated in the living room.
I think you might have hit the nail on the head regards some people being more sensitive to cold. I’ve been sensitive to cold my whole life as has my father. I know that when I go out for a morning walk and come back in I’m struck by how warm it is, but this quick changes within an hour as I become more sedate.
Perhaps check the room temperature with a thermometer in various places and find out where the problem lies. This will tell you if it is a warmth distribution problem, under-performing aircon or your subjective feeling. Doing this before buying more gear may save you the trouble.
My apartment has a LOT of floor to ceiling windows, all with vertical blinds (from memory about 12 total). I’m a tinkerer, and I’m trialling automating my blinds. So far I’m using the Kogan Smart Home Blinds Driver on a single blind. It does wireless remote control and scheduled open/shut times (though it’s not simple to initally setup), and once I’ve sorted hooking it up to my home automation I plan to buy more for the other blinds, and have all their opening follow the sun.
