I took on a part time job this past summer – basically paper work in a reasonably large room (like 12’ X 21’) in a concrete basement. The room has a couple of basement type windows, but no air conditioning at all, which turned out not to be a problem for me. I rather like temperatures in the 80s and even during the heat waves the basement never heated up all that much.
With the onset of fall, though… The ‘heating’ is a single strip of baseboard heating along one of the short walls, and it simply doesn’t do it even though the upper floors are fine. Today the temperature in the room is 62 degrees and I find that unbearable, even wearing a heavy sweater over my regular clothes. Yesterday I ended up wearing my outdoor jacket virtually the whole time, but still my hands are painfully cold.
My boss is somewhat amenable to buying a heater for me to use, but 1) doesn’t want to spend more than a hundred bucks or so and 2) wants the energy costs to be ‘reasonable’ and 3) is clueless as to what kind to get.
So am I. On a fast scan there are infrared heaters. ceramic heaters, oil-filled heaters, with wattages from about 500 up to 1500 commonly. What type should I be looking for?
Any electric resistance heater is going to be the same efficiency wise, but one that has a fan to help spread the heat may seem better than an oil filled radiator that relies on natural convection. I’d go with a 1500 watt unit, and look for one that had multiple levels of heat rather than just on and off. Note that if all outlets in the room are on a single breaker, a heater may trip the breaker if other appliances are in use.
In the interim, you may try to place a fan to blow over the existing baseboard heater. You don’t mention if that is electric or water/steam. But a fan may help extract more heat.
But the first step should be to talk with the union steward.
Yeah, a fan heater will get you warm much more quickly. Then again, oil-filled radiators are silent and give more “lasting” heat. So, fan on arrival and radiator thereafter? I’m guessing 100 bucks will easily cover both.
There are no switches or anything on the baseboard, so I’m guessing it’s hot water? But I’ll give the fan idea a try.
Heh. Union? Steward? Considering I’m the only employee… This is a little business started post covid out of the owner/manager/salesman/marketer/shipper/errand boy’s house. Up until he hired me, he did everything.
Except paperwork and record keeping and basic bookkeeping such as needed for taxes – for which his method consisted mainly of throwing all receipts and order forms and bills and such into a couple of cardboard boxes. Dealing with that mess is what he hired me to handle. Except sometimes I’m also ‘receptionist,’ ‘customer service,’ and auxiliary packager.
Then I’ll go with the fan heater – some days I’m only there a few hours, so waiting an hour or two for things to warm up is a new go. I’ve just skimmed Amazon. It looks like quartz heaters start way down at $25 or so for brands I never heard of, with no mention of warranty, and just $35 or so for a Black & Decker with a 1 year warranty and thousands of reviews with a 4.7 average rating so I guess I’ll recommend that to the Head Honcho.
Good idea! And I need some of those fingerless gloves maybe.
The fan ones tend to be on or off, so you cycle between feeling warm, then it cools down. The oil filled ones take longer to ‘heat up’ but they warm you more evenly and steadily, IME. One of each might serve you well. If I had to choose only one I would go with an oil-filled one.
Last year I gifted my always cold daughter with an electric foot warming mat, like a bath mat, for her home office when everyone started working from home. I think I got it from Home Depot.
I used to work somewhere so air conditioned that I wore fingerless gloves year around and they helped so much! I’m retired and all my fingerless gloves are taking up space, I’d be happy to send them to you.
This. If your computer, printer and desk lamp are plugged into the same circuit as a 1500-Watt heater, you may be in for hours of fun. (15 Amps * 120 Volts = 1800 Watts to trip the breaker, IIRC.) If you can’t be sure about the circuit, better spring for a model that gives a choice of power settings.
It may be worth it to shrink / partition the room somehow, to make it easier to heat.
Forget all the fancy fans, ceramics, etc. Just go for an oil-filled heater; most have a switch which can run one high watt element, one low watt element, or both elements at the same time.
I often have problems with cold hands. A great solution for that that I have found is a halogen desk lamp that you can direct at your keyboard or mouse. Incandescent would probably work to. LED of course won’t.
I’d suggest a fan unit, it’s just instant niceness blowing a warm breeze on you from the start. The oil one would need to first heat the room to warm you and that takes some time.
Also it may be possible to get more heat out of the baseboard. Make sure it has plenty of airflow space both below and above it, and you could add a fan to blow air over it.
Some of the oil-filled radiators have built-in timers. You can set it up so that it’s only on during the workday. They also have thermostats, so you can set them to be whatever temp you want. It would be a simple, set-and-forget solution. Here’s one example:
One reason to avoid a fan based heater is that it might be disturbing to have a fan turning on and off randomly if you’re in the room working all day. The oil-filled will be mostly silent. It’s going to be similar to the baseboard heating.
I worked in a 49-acre factory, and I knew an old guy who worked in the far, cold part of the place. For really chilly days, he kept a coffee can under his desk. Inside the can was a roll of toilet paper soaked in rubbing alcohol. It would burn with a low, clean flame to keep his feet warm. He just had to remember to top up the alcohol and put out the fire at the end of the shift.
I doubt his little heater would have passed OSHA or pleased the boss, but he never told them about it.
That’s a very kind offer! I’d already borrowed a couple of pairs from a
friend, though, so let me see if they help and let me do my work before I put you to any bother.
Wow, I really don’t think boss will be willing to go to that bother.
A ceramic heater style one is already on order from Amazon. They claim it’s in stock for immediate delivery though apparently delivery is slower and less reliable nowadays, so (cold) fingers crossed!
CrowManyClouds, thanks for the links, though that guy is one of the worse organized ramblers I’ve run across on Youtube, at least he did actual experiments. When he revealed that it took the oil heater a full hour to raise the temperature in his room by about four degrees…well, too slow for me! I’ll take getting hot air blown at me in less than 30 seconds, please! I don’t care if the heat lingers for longer after it’s turned off – I’ll be out of there.
AskNott, nope, no way am I going for an open flame in a can under my desk! Although I’d be plenty warm after my clothes caught on fire, and burning down the house would probably end any hassles with the job in a permanent way.
I didn’t necessarily mean putting up drywall, but maybe you could arrange some furniture or filing cabinets (or that inflatable raft lying in a corner of the basement ) in a row in the middle of the room to help retain the heat in one area.
) in a row in the middle of the room to help retain the heat in one area.