How best to heat wooden garden room?

Dara Mac Donnell

Hi
Hoping someone can advise me on this.
We bought a house last year and it has a wooden garden room (from loghouse.ie) in the back garden which is wired for mains electricity.
In the summer it can get hot inside but now in the winter it is like a big fridge. There is damp near windows which we sealed a while ago.
I'd like to use it as a home office but it's too cold right now.

I am looking for advice on how best to heat it? I would like to be able to set a timer and a comfortable temperature on a built-in thermostat and let it manage itself if that is feasible.
I am thinking of some kind of electric heater either a standard one which would be cheap enough to buy but probably expensive to run. I was also looking at buying one of those Lucht LHZ heaters but while they would be cheap to run they are very expensive to buy (maybe €700).
I am also wondering if given the wooden walls and the not great quality windows will any heating solution be inefficient due to heat loss and therefore I should just a buy a cheap but decent quality electric heater and make do with that.

Any advice appreciated including on brands / models of heaters.

Idbatterim

Dara Mac Donnell wrote: »

Hi
Hoping someone can advise me on this.
We bought a house last year and it has a wooden garden room (from loghouse.ie) in the back garden which is wired for mains electricity.
In the summer it can get hot inside but now in the winter it is like a big fridge. There is damp near windows which we sealed a while ago.
I'd like to use it as a home office but it's too cold right now.

I am looking for advice on how best to heat it? I would like to be able to set a timer and a comfortable temperature on a built-in thermostat and let it manage itself if that is feasible.
I am thinking of some kind of electric heater either a standard one which would be cheap enough to buy but probably expensive to run. I was also looking at buying one of those Lucht LHZ heaters but while they would be cheap to run they are very expensive to buy (maybe €700).
I am also wondering if given the wooden walls and the not great quality windows will any heating solution be inefficient due to heat loss and therefore I should just a buy a cheap but decent quality electric heater and make do with that.

Any advice appreciated including on brands / models of heaters.

Is insulation decent? Air to air heat pump? Also acts as air conditioner in summer...or infrared heater beside couch or main place people will be sitting...

How far is it from house and how is house heated ?

I am assuming it has a vent in it ?

mrslancaster

We got a plug-in Dimplex Oil Free radiator 3KW for the garden room. It has a timer and is ok for a small space, cost under 200E. We put rugs on the floor and that insulation film on the glass, the type you heat with a hairdryer. It all helps. Friends just finished putting wallrock on their garden room, if its effective we'll probably do the same.

Gumbo

You’ll Spend a fortune heating a garden shed.
They are built as sheds. No air tightness, no heat loss measures etc

You have to look at how the hot air is leaving the structure.

Dara Mac Donnell

Idbatterim wrote: »

Is insulation decent? Air to air heat pump? Also acts as air conditioner in summer...or infrared heater beside couch or main place people will be sitting...

How far is it from house and how is house heated ?

I am assuming it has a vent in it ?

Thanks for your reply.
I would say insulation is poor but I don't know. Our one is very like this (I can't post full URL as a new user): loghouse.ie/product/kilkenny-log-cabin-4m-x-3m/
It comes with these as standard.
"FREE damp proof membrane
FREE 50mm floor insulation (value of €300.00)"
They have optional roof and wall insulation. I don't know if our one has either.

I would think a heat pump would be too expensive as a solution.
I'll have a look at the infrared heaters - thanks.
It is c. 40 metres from house. House is oil central heated (though we intend getting rid of that eventually and installing a heat pump for environmental reasons).
It does not have a vent.

I see on the LogHouse website they say: "We would also point out that most of our customers prefer to use small storage heaters in their Loghouse log cabins as the cabins get warm quicker and the heat stays longest. They’re also economical and safe."
Would a Lucht heater be a better buy nowadays than the older tech storage heater?

Dara Mac Donnell

Gumbo wrote: »

You’ll Spend a fortune heating a garden shed.
They are built as sheds. No air tightness, no heat loss measures etc

You have to look at how the hot air is leaving the structure.

It is a garden room rather than a shed as such. They say on their web site "we ensure by their makeup our log cabins are easy to heat and any conventional form of heating will be sufficient to ensure you can enjoy your time in a comfortable and warm log cabin any time of the year." and go on to suggest storage heating.
My guess is windows / doors are the weakest links.

Dara Mac Donnell

mrslancaster wrote: »

We got a plug-in Dimplex Oil Free radiator 3KW for the garden room. It has a timer and is ok for a small space, cost under 200E. We put rugs on the floor and that insulation film on the glass, the type you heat with a hairdryer. It all helps. Friends just finished putting wallrock on their garden room, if its effective we'll probably do the same.

Thanks for that. Some good ideas there. Never heard of wallrock.

ED E

Dara Mac Donnell wrote: »

It is a garden room rather than a shed as such. They say on their web site "we ensure by their makeup our log cabins are easy to heat and any conventional form of heating will be sufficient to ensure you can enjoy your time in a comfortable and warm log cabin any time of the year." and go on to suggest storage heating.
My guess is windows / doors are the weakest links.

I think you're taking salespeak at face value there. The one you linked is really a dolled up shed. Even with night rates it won't be cheap to heat.

helimachoptor

We've got a 5*5M loghouse cabin, myself and wife use it as our office.

We've two heaters, one of those oil rad things, doesn't really do a lot now its colder so bought a little fan heater.

Normally switch it on for 20 mins or so every couple of hours and that does us.

An Ri rua

Modern paraffin heater. Like the Inverter 5006. I've had one 10 years. Excellent machine.
I use mine in a large caravan that I'm using as s home office now (class 2 insulation) and it's well up to the job.

See sheds Direct ón Donedeal or MCL in Newbridge for the heaters.
I've rún mine on normal kero too (with Dipetane added for better combustion) but that's not everyone's cup of tea. Tozane/Rolf has almost no odour. My cats bask in it.

spaceHopper

An IR heat panel will heat the objects in the room and not the room itself, I'd go with one mounted on the wall or ceiling and a fan heater. Or start with a fan heater and if you need it install IR heaters

https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/infrared-heating-panels/

GreeBo

If you are up for some work over the break then I'd get some 50mm insulated panels delivered and insulate it internally yourself.

It's a shed so it doesn't need s great finish, just needs to be warm. You could then overboard it with OSB or ply and finish it nicely. I wouldn't put plasterboard in a shed like that though.

Even just putting the insulation panels on the ceiling will make a difference and should be trivial. A hand saw and some no more nails.