What to use as supplementary heating? Inertia radiators, radiator-radiators...

[JamesPa]

11 hours ago, Mike said:

12 hours ago, Garald said:

How many amperes do sockets usually provide?

 

There's a lighting connection that is essentially useless

In a modern French installation, 16A for power and 10A for lighting - you should be able to verify that on your consumer unit.

 

A 500W heater uses 2.2A, so no problem

The electrician could convert the lighting socket to a cable outlet if you want it 'fixed'.  1 hr job, 2 if he attaches the radiator to the wall, has a cup of tea and makes a few phone calls.

[Garald]

Updates:

 

1. Got the 500W heater (13eur+3 eur for 12-hour shipping) from Amazon. Yes, it works very nicely in this space: from 17.5C to 20C in an hour - I doubt anybody would be unsatisfied. Bit noisy, since it has a fan.

2. An impolite electrician came (I was computing 750W/220V = about 3.5 amperes (OK, 3.4 amperes), thinking aloud, and he said "sir, I do not know who has told you that, the power in electrical lines is 16 amperes" and I had to tell him in the most polite of ways that, since 3.5<16, that confirmed what he said: the radiator would be fine - one can plug it into a socket; I did not even venture the idea of converting the lighting socket that has been given here) and gave me a quote of 300eur for a radiateur rayonnant. He was extremely irritated by the suggestion that the difference in efficiency between that and a more expensive radiateur à inertie would be minor (indeed non-existent, if we are pedantic about what mean by "efficiency": it's always 0%, in that what we are doing is precisely converting energy into heat and nothing else - of course I didn't say that).

A hopefully more polite and less stuck-up electrician should visit later today. I'm frankly tempted to keep the 500W heater. I'm just a little bit concerned that some problematic guest might fall asleep over it while exhaling alcoholic fumes, all while wearing a paper hat made out of Kleenex or something.

 

[SteamyTea]

48 minutes ago, Garald said:

I'm just a little bit concerned that some problematic guest might fall asleep over it while exhaling alcoholic fumes, all while wearing a paper hat made out of Kleenex or something.

Well it is Paris.

 

[Garald]

Speaking of which - yes, I have fire alarms, but shouldn't I get some fire extinguishers? Of what type? Since I don't have gas, I imagine the only real risk is electrical (and the electrical panel for the entire house is in the AirBnB, don't ask me why). Does that mean I should get a small CO2 extinguisher for the AirBnB, and perhaps the same plus some other extinguisher for the rest of the house?

What about small all-in-1 fire extinguishers such as https://tinyurl.com/ms2fnww7 or https://tinyurl.com/2cshfr2c - are they nonsense?

 

 

Edited March 7, 2024 by Garald

[SteamyTea]

Most portable fan heater have a microswitch on the base, so cut out if knocked over.  They also have a thermal fuse or thermal cut out if the airflow is reduced too much and the element goes over temperature.

I broke my favourite fan heater by inadvertently knocking it so that it was pointing to the wall a few inches away.  This was enough air flow reduction to blow the thermal fuse.  I bought a new fuse (well 10) but not got around to replacing it, now I can't find the heater.