Hi all.
I'm trying to determine the best way to heat my bedroom (office).
Home sits in concrete slab. 2 stories (so office ceiling is insulated). Timber/veneer construction. Room is at corner of house so 2 of the walls face the outside. These 2 walls are insulated (I think). Both outside walls are under a verandah. Room faces south. 2 windows single glaze aluminiue. No drafts. Rooms is approx 16m2 (4x4).
Currently using a 2400 watt oil column heater (cheapie from Target). Keeps chill out of room all day as I work., but running the equiv of 24 x 100w lightbulbs is costing me a lot of money (I suspect).
I was thinking of buying a 12v (or 24 or 48v) ceramic heater (but have done no research yet so no idea if these animals still exist), run from car/deep cell batteries, and top up batteries via a solar panel. I'm a complete novice so have no idea if this is the best method to heat small space (from say 8am to 8pm).
I'm hoping the photovoltaic input will supply the juice read to keep the batteries at full capacity while they are supplying the necessary amps to drive the heater.
I don't need the room hot, just warm enough to keep the chill off while I work.
Oil heater heats room to approx 24 degrees when it's 10 degrees outside air temp thru the day. Some times this is too warm for me so I'll shut it off for a couple of hours.
I'm open to any reasonable suggestions. Trying to keep costs to a minimum (isn't everyone?).
If I can find a satisfactory solution then I'll also implement for 2 other bedrooms same size (so my 2 boys can ditch their 2400w column oil heaters too when they do homework etc at night or play all day on their pc over the weekends).
Cheers,
Mark