My goal is to keep central heating turned off as much as possible. I bundle up indoors, which works for the most part but I will struggle when temps drop low enough. And hands in cold air on a keyboard are still a problem regardless.
What about using an infrared heat lamp, which traditionally has these use cases:
- keeping pet reptiles warm
- farms: livestock and incubators
- physical therapy for humans (the claims: pain relief, skin healing/repair, blood circulation, anti-aging skin, …)
- (atypical) specifically to warm hands on keyboards (but the emitted light is white when red would be better so as to not disturb natural night vision)
The last bullet inspires some enthusiasm. But I am interested in a DiY project on-the-cheap, buying locally not online.
This array of IR LEDs will be hard to buy locally. But the question is, are LEDs even the way to go? That article has a complaint about the LEDs (ironically) having a short life. And a complaint that they do not produce heat anyway. Is that a failure of just that brand and model, or generally a gimick?
The temptation is to go cheap on the bulbs, but this ad for a heat lamp for lambs is convincing to the contrary. They sell bulbs for $21 that last ~4320 hours. These bulbs are claimed to last 6000 hours.
What about carbon heating lamps? They look like the basis of space heaters, which are notoriously ineffecient. Though I wonder if the problem is just that people use space heaters to heat a whole room… when perhaps it’s more sensible to have a quite low setting to just keep hands or feet warm.
If a typical red filiment bulb is used, is it fair to say a simple dimmer would be useful, such as that of this fixture?
there is another thing you should keep in mind: moisture.
if the room isn’t full of circulating, dried, heated air, the moisture humans expell may condense on the cold walls. then dust may stick on it and frugal organisms spreading via spores like fungus (eg. mold) or even moss may grow on it, digging into the walls. Some of those can become a health hazard.
Apart from an electric blanket, in my experience nothing really works when your house is cold. Latest gadget I tried was a 700w infrared panel in the bathroom since these have been hyped recently. It’s… fine, but far from the confort traditional heating offers. Mostly you feel warm on the side that radiates the heat and cold all over any other side. Also it takes so long for it to get warm, I’m done by the time it’s useful. I thought 700w will be overpowered, but nah. Not even close.
I’ve stopped believing in the heat the human not the house mantra. It just leads to perpetual uncomfortable state any time you’re transitioning from activity to activity, or you’re just freezing your butt off as you’re washing dishes or loading the washer or any other activity where your heart rate is not up.
A better approach I think is to insulate the house then live in confort.
Happy to see I’m not the only one. I tried many things for personal heating and they were only making discomfort a bit lower.
The best one I think was a 2 kW quartz “garden” heater, but it’s 2 kW, I could heat my whole home with a gas furnace for a similar price.
In the US the max a 110v outlet can pull is about 1500W so 700W is 50% or so for what’s available. I’m with you though, those heaters are a stopgap at best. Base layers and clothes/blankets can help a lot though.
These also exist they’re tables with an electric heater and a blanket attached (kotatsu). It won’t do much for your upper body but they do a good job keeping your legs and core warm.
edit: everyone says kotatsu, that’s great
In certain climates one has to be careful not to let the plumbing freeze. The pipes will crack if they don’t heat their house enough. Another thing to keep in mind is that if your home is well insulated, the heat generated to keep it warm will dissipate very slowly whereas warming your body in a drafty home will require a constant amount of power.
It’s not insulated. The thermostat it has a floor of 5°C/40°F, at which point it heats even in the off state to protect the pipes.
Regarding insulation, how are your windows? There’s a wide array of removable tape, caulk, putty, etc that can seal up the tiny cracks between the window and the frame. I’ve found this this helps a lot.
Seconding this - we made a set of rectangular wooden frames with a layer of clear plastic stretched over the front and back and a strip of foam attached to the outer edge. They pressure-fit into our old windows and do a solid job reducing the draft. Quilted curtains help too.
The downside is that the two layers of plastic make the windows hard to see through, but frankly that’s not a high priority where we are, especially when it’s cold.
I like that idea a lot. It would be perfect for the bedroom windows here. Usually I use the tape and plastic kits, but I like the idea of a permanent but removable solution much better. Next year!
Some of the windows are leaky. The frames and window sills are old and irregular. Some window frames are painted unsmooth wood and the sills are ceramic tile (some textured) which would also be quite difficult to seal off. So I think attempting that would be in vain.
I stay mainly in a windowless room with the doors shut.
Sorry, I don’t know much about infrared lamps so I can’t really help on that.
However I can give you some ideas on how to improve your thermal comfort for a very low budget. I don’t have any information about your situation, your home, the temperature you are reaching so it will be very vague but hopefully it can help.
Thermal Effusivity of the walls/floor
The thermal effusivity is a metric of how “cold” a material will feel. For example stone, ceramic or glass have a very high effusivity. It means that if you touch a ceramic tile at 10°C it will feel very cold, on the other hand wood, fabric, lime or earth plaster have a low effusivity, so if you touch a piece of wood at 10°C it will not feel as cold as the ceramic.
It will also impact how much the material radiates or absorbs heat, so a room covered in wood or tapestries will feel warmer than a room covered in tiles.
You can use that to your advantage by
- covering the floor with carpets
- covering the windows with thick curtains
- covering the walls with wood, wallpaper, lime/straw plaster or go very old school with tapestries.
Insulation
I’m stating the obvious but insulating your body is the most effective form of insulation. On material nothing beats wool, it will keep you warm in any condition.
Indoor you A thick wool sweater, wool gloves, wool socks, wool scarf and most importantly a wool hat ! Even if the head rarely feel cold most of the body heat is lost through the head.
All of these can be found cheaply in thrift stores, if you have a bit of money I highly recommend investing in merino wool underlayers too ! It can make a huge difference, it’s an investment but it will save money on the heating.
Then the house insulation is important, it is way more expensive but first making the house “air stream proof” will help.
Buy an electric blanket?
@activistPnk i suggest a hot water bottle under a blanket
https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2022/01/the-revenge-of-the-hot-water-bottle/also you may be interested in this guide for a diy electric heated table https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/12/how-to-build-an-electrically-heated-table/
edit: lol just noticed that @rob suggested the same :comfytea:
I don’t have many answers, but a couple more things to think about:
The fixture needs to handle the increased heat and wattage.
If you’re using something built in, the switch also needs to handle increased wattage.
Most of the above are probably not designed to handle “dimming” to control the heat.
Electric blankets might be a good starting place
Also, LEDs are generally about efficient production of light with less heat waste; I don’t think it’s likely to meet your needs.
I think it’s a cool idea, please let us know if you’re successful!
+1 on a heated blanket. Quite efficient. We use ours to pre-warm the sheets for a few minutes too!
What kind of indoor temperatures are you hitting for it to be that cold for you? You probably want to make sure you’re not running low enough temperatures to allow mold to set in, fwiw.
Regardless, if this is something you want to do, have you covered your bases, wearing a bae layer + wool sweater/socks/cap + maybe fingerless gloves?
@activistPnk Basically, this: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2024/12/how-to-build-an-electrically-heated-table/ and this: https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2023/12/thematic-book-series-heating-people-not-spaces/ with added hot water bottles.
Hey, I have never seen this site and it looks supremely interesting.
Thank you for sharing it.
Great article. I think there are some flaws but it gives lots of good ideas.
Possible flaws:
- Insulating the underside of the work surface would prevent the work surface itself from getting warm. Hands have the most need for warmth. So I would be tempted to insulate the underside of the work surface as suggested but cut out a deliberate thermal bridge around the keyboard and mouse area – or maybe supplement a heating pad on top of the desk. But taking care not to add heat to the laptop.
- Space heaters are discouraged by the article because they output too much power (as they are intended for heating a small room). But space heaters often have thermostats. I have an a/c powered oil radiator on wheels. It may be high wattage but I think it will know when to quit. And it would save me the effort of rigging up a thermostat.
- IIUC, they rely on the blanket to mitigate heat loss around the sides of the desk. That’s where I would be tempted to use insulating radiator foil, perhaps in addition to a blanket.
Thick insulation foam for roofing is often thrown out, like when a neighbor re-roofs and buys too much. I will be on the look out for scrap pieces to use under the desk.
I work from home and my office is in a basement with no heating or air conditioning. I use an electric radiating heater under the desk so that the heater is pretty close to my body. Yes, it does end up heating the room, but being close to it helps take the chill off. And it is only 700 watts max.
Of course I still have to wear warm clothes.
In previous years, I really struggled with my feet. But I recently bought a heated foot pocket thing, and I love it.
Now when it gets extremely cold outside I only have minor issues with my fingers and nose getting cold. Still not perfect, but close.
For the purpose of heating, LEDs won’t be more efficient than incandescent bulbs, so I’d say go for the cheaper bulbs. (They’ll also dim well, unlike LEDs). The carbon heat lamp should work as well, though you’ll need a reflector to focus the radiation on your hands.
Have you already considered a desktop heating pad? It might use less energy but would definitely be easier on the eyes
I tried this. It makes hot sweaty contact points without warming my hands.
That would help when my wrists rest on the cold desk (which is ergonomically bad anyway). It doesn’t seem like a solution for typing, though if I take frequent rests for hand warming maybe that’d be viable (which I do now by via many cups of hot tea).
About the eyes, I would not want to wear goggles. But I wonder if a good lamp shade could be sufficient. Or is the reflected light also retina deteriorating?
The only thing IR does is heat you up, so as long as you’re not shining the light directly in your eyes the reflected radiation should be nowhere near enough to cause eye damage.
I don’t know about the health effects of too much IR radiation but I would find it annoying. My office gets cold too but I’ve been getting by with just sitting on one hand at a time if it gets too bad. If it gets much worse I‘d consider a desktop heating pad with a small blanket over the entire area. That way both my keyboard and mouse areas are kept warm.
Yeah I do the hand sitting and some other tricks… but was looking for a slightly more productive level of comfort without heating the room or house.
Something like this?
https://www.amazon.com/Infrared-Space-Heater-wall-mounted-over-heating/dp/B0D9H7XN62
