The Lemon Fool

Geoff's thread about his rather extensive to reduce his energy consumption led to a side thought about localised heating.

MrsF spend her working days in her office, and as the weather changes this tends to inolve a wollen blanket over her lags and a hot water bottle and hoping the dog doesn't fart so she can keep the window closed.

Elsewhere we had been discussing electric cars, and how much ie affects range, and it turns out they tend to heat the contact points, heated seats and steering wheel as this is more eficient than heating space.

SO I set about looking for something similar for her office. The offce is at the back of the house in an extension, and get no direct sun until late afternoon, and is also at the end of the heating pipework (microbors through the walls) so takes ages to get warm when the heating is on. There is an old Calor fire but she isn't keen on the smell, so we have been using a 2kW fan heater. Rather than leave it set to a room temp, she flicks it on and off.

Now there are loads of heated office chairs, but also loads of heated car seat covers on Ebay, often for abut £15. They all need 12V, and take about 4-5 Amps, so also we'd need a suitable power supply. Also available on Ebay, howeer gien the length of use and the relatively little difference in cost, I went to Argos and Halfords.

I bought
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7065567
and
https://www.halfords.com/camping/coolbo ... 90806.html

A total initial outlay of £40.

Yesterday we tried it out, and it turns out that even on low (35W) setting she needed to keep turning it off. She still used a blanket over her legs, but it meant that she was actually warm enough.

I also have a 'plug-through- power meter similar to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195362117321 , and that showed that between 2pm and 6pm the heated seat used 30wH. Yup, 0.03 kWh, so at the new 34p/kWh this is about 1p, and even all day running cost will be about 10p/day.

Last year I monitored the fan heater and it was using 3-4kWh/day, and she was still actually a bit too cold.

We'll see how she gets on over the enxt few weeks, but it looks like it will have paid for itself before Xmas.

Paul

DrFfybes wrote:Geoff's thread about his rather extensive to reduce his energy consumption led to a side thought about localised heating.

MrsF spend her working days in her office, and as the weather changes this tends to inolve a wollen blanket over her lags and a hot water bottle and hoping the dog doesn't fart so she can keep the window closed.

Elsewhere we had been discussing electric cars, and how much ie affects range, and it turns out they tend to heat the contact points, heated seats and steering wheel as this is more eficient than heating space.

SO I set about looking for something similar for her office. The offce is at the back of the house in an extension, and get no direct sun until late afternoon, and is also at the end of the heating pipework (microbors through the walls) so takes ages to get warm when the heating is on. There is an old Calor fire but she isn't keen on the smell, so we have been using a 2kW fan heater. Rather than leave it set to a room temp, she flicks it on and off.

Now there are loads of heated office chairs, but also loads of heated car seat covers on Ebay, often for abut £15. They all need 12V, and take about 4-5 Amps, so also we'd need a suitable power supply. Also available on Ebay, howeer gien the length of use and the relatively little difference in cost, I went to Argos and Halfords.

I bought
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7065567
and
https://www.halfords.com/camping/coolbo ... 90806.html

A total initial outlay of £40.

Yesterday we tried it out, and it turns out that even on low (35W) setting she needed to keep turning it off. She still used a blanket over her legs, but it meant that she was actually warm enough.

I also have a 'plug-through- power meter similar to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195362117321 , and that showed that between 2pm and 6pm the heated seat used 30wH. Yup, 0.03 kWh, so at the new 34p/kWh this is about 1p, and even all day running cost will be about 10p/day.

Last year I monitored the fan heater and it was using 3-4kWh/day, and she was still actually a bit too cold.

We'll see how she gets on over the enxt few weeks, but it looks like it will have paid for itself before Xmas.

Paul

Aldi are doing heated car seat covers for £7.99.i bought 4, 2 for the car and 2 for the house. I have also ordered 2 mains adapters from Amazon at £14.99 each.

The 2 fitted in the car are excellent, particularly so on the low setting. The hot setting is uncomfortable after a short time. From the spec sheet, the low setting is 28 watts, so half an old light bulb. The Amazon adapters are due tomorrow, I'll report back then.

Thought this was a post where I might mention that useless guy Eugene in "production"... but no
- I've not changed his name just in case he's reading and gets the message!

In the recent cold spell I tried wearing a hat indoors. It works: when your body is already well wrapped a lot of your heat loss is through your bonce.

Kantwebefriends wrote:In the recent cold spell I tried wearing a hat indoors. It works: when your body is already well wrapped a lot of your heat loss is through your bonce.

Doesn't that depend quite a lot on your hair? It would be rude to ask where you stand on a scale from hirsute to bald, but the information would seem very relevant to your observation!

Back in the early days of the WWW, I recollect reading a page from a guy in Canada. He loved the outdoor life, and would be out there in the depths of Canadian winter.

People had commented that his ample beard should keep him warm, so he decided to put that to the test. He shaved off half his beard: one side of his face (there was a bizarre half-bearded mugshot). He found that the clean-shaven side of his face did indeed get much colder. And he also found unexpected side-effects, like when moving at any speed the wind would pull his head round to the side as the beard offered one-sided resistance, making his regular cycling unexpectedly difficult!

Myself, with an ample beard and a reasonable amount on top, I've never worn a hat. But for the first time in my life I really could've done with one when I went for a long Dartmoor walk in the harsh sunshine of last summer!

Tedx wrote:

DrFfybes wrote:Geoff's thread about his rather extensive to reduce his energy consumption led to a side thought about localised heating.

MrsF spend her working days in her office, and as the weather changes this tends to inolve a wollen blanket over her lags and a hot water bottle and hoping the dog doesn't fart so she can keep the window closed.

Elsewhere we had been discussing electric cars, and how much ie affects range, and it turns out they tend to heat the contact points, heated seats and steering wheel as this is more eficient than heating space.

SO I set about looking for something similar for her office. The offce is at the back of the house in an extension, and get no direct sun until late afternoon, and is also at the end of the heating pipework (microbors through the walls) so takes ages to get warm when the heating is on. There is an old Calor fire but she isn't keen on the smell, so we have been using a 2kW fan heater. Rather than leave it set to a room temp, she flicks it on and off.

Now there are loads of heated office chairs, but also loads of heated car seat covers on Ebay, often for abut £15. They all need 12V, and take about 4-5 Amps, so also we'd need a suitable power supply. Also available on Ebay, howeer gien the length of use and the relatively little difference in cost, I went to Argos and Halfords.

I bought
https://www.argos.co.uk/product/7065567
and
https://www.halfords.com/camping/coolbo ... 90806.html

A total initial outlay of £40.

Yesterday we tried it out, and it turns out that even on low (35W) setting she needed to keep turning it off. She still used a blanket over her legs, but it meant that she was actually warm enough.

I also have a 'plug-through- power meter similar to https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195362117321 , and that showed that between 2pm and 6pm the heated seat used 30wH. Yup, 0.03 kWh, so at the new 34p/kWh this is about 1p, and even all day running cost will be about 10p/day.

Last year I monitored the fan heater and it was using 3-4kWh/day, and she was still actually a bit too cold.

We'll see how she gets on over the enxt few weeks, but it looks like it will have paid for itself before Xmas.

Paul

Aldi are doing heated car seat covers for £7.99.i bought 4, 2 for the car and 2 for the house. I have also ordered 2 mains adapters from Amazon at £14.99 each.

The 2 fitted in the car are excellent, particularly so on the low setting. The hot setting is uncomfortable after a short time. From the spec sheet, the low setting is 28 watts, so half an old light bulb. The Amazon adapters are due tomorrow, I'll report back then.

The Amazon adapters:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07 ... UTF8&psc=1

arrived yesterday. I'm sitting at my desk with the seat warmer plugged in. Very pleasant indeed.

Well worth it.

Seat warmer update 2 months after I bought the Aldi £7 car seat warmers.

The ones in the car are great, although you have to rearrange it underneath you after sitting down as it crumples up as you slide into the car seat. No big deal, but a minor gripe. 8/10

The one in my office on a swivel chair is superb. No crumpling up when you sit down and, more imprtantl, no heating on in the office through the whole of the winter, just the pc & the seat warmer. The Amazon bought power adapter works perfectly - you can hear a faint click as the heating switches on and off. The adapter itself is cool to the touch and it's generally on for most of the day / 5 days a week at least. On the low setting it is comfortable.

On the low setting (28 watts), at my current day rate, I reckon it's costing me £1.85 per month. Say two quid with a bit of leeway.

What can I score it other than 10/10?

Might be stating the obvious, but what about an electric blanket? No power adaptor needed....
And you can sit on it AND wrap it round you!