• PLEASE NOTE - the TEAS facebook page has been hacked, take extreme care when visiting the page, for further information visit here

Heaters And Heat Lamps?

Status
Not open for further replies.

Guineapigfeet

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
2,126
Reaction score
2,707
Points
1,025
Location
Surrey
Does any one have any experience or advice on electric heaters for a shed? The pigs are free range so it can not go on the floor - must be wall or ceiling mounted. Mains electric will be installed in the shed though there isn't any currently. I've been looking at thermostat controlled green house strip heaters rather than the more poultry style lamps?

The shed is partially, though not entirely, insulated at the moment

Any experience welcome!
 
I have an oil filled radiator in my shed, its raised off the ground using a pair of microwave oven brackets, the wheels sit in the grooves where the oven feet would go, its then fastened to the brackets using large heavy duty cable ties to make it secure. ;)

radiator.jpg
 
I'm worried for mine but no electricity supply in the shed.
They are in hutches with duvet over and waterproof cover but still worry they are too cold
 
I have an oil filled radiator in my shed, its raised off the ground using a pair of microwave oven brackets, the wheels sit in the grooves where the oven feet would go, its then fastened to the brackets using large heavy duty cable ties to make it secure. ;)

View attachment 54301
Wow, that looks quite big! (And impressively diy'ed!) I don't have that much wall space; Only the short back wall, which could be doable. What sort of temperature is it able to heat the space to? Is it expensive to run?

Mine currently have a bed room 'area' of the shed at the most sheltered end; corner wooden house - hay stuffed between the house and the shed walls, a step stool and a large wooden house - with hay stuffed between house and shed walls. All stuffed themselves with hay too and they get a snugglesafe in the big house. I just worry :-(
 
It costs about 10p a night. the radiator is only a small one, the photo makes it look bigger, it's about 15" wide, about 30" tall and 8" deep. It gets very warm indeed, I usually just have one switch on, tonight I have both switches on. It can be -10c outside the shed and plus 25c inside the shed when it's on full blast. It makes for a pleasant hutch change when the weather is horrendous outside. ;)
 
Wow; nice and small, not expensive to run and that's way hotter than my house!

Thank you for the link as well, I'll
defiantly look into those!

Just been to give them supper and whilst I was poop scooping, swapping out soiled hay, re stuffing crevasses (because tiny pigs get in tiny gaps) refreshing hay and swapping heat pads, they were quite happy pottering about and getting under my feet - they didn't look cold at all and the thermometer said it was 7 degrees in there. My car said it was 4 a minute before that and my OH said it was 'bloody freezing' (I was wearing a vest and shirt and it was fine!)
 
I have tubular greenhouse heaters in my bunny sheds. They are mounted about 6 inches from the floor and covered with a wire guard so nobody can actually touch it. Does a fab job of keeping water bowls from freezing and the sheds stay at several degrees above freezing on even the coldest of nights (bearing in mind mine have a bunny flap permanently open to a run so an enclosed shed would probably stay a little warmer). Cheap to buy, cheap to run (mine is an 80 watt tube) and easy to install.
 
Thank you - I have been looking at those type of heaters but nowhere (that I've found) has said what they are capable of in terms of max temperature, I suppose it is just so variable depending on weather, general temp, area to be heated etc. My shed has never gone below freezing anyway (it's been in use since last January) but it was a fairly mild winter.

I think I'm going to go for a BossHogg kind of arrangement and I have an electrician coming to quote for the work of installing the electric tomorrow afternoon. Once I have the heater we're going to look and see if it can just go on the shelf I already have, if not, we'll have to DIY it to the left-back wall!

Piggies have been moved inside temporarily (to give the electrician a piggy free shed incase he needs to go in there) and to relieve my stress slightly !
 
Tubular greenhouse heaters don't pump out loads of heat. They are designed to keep a greenhouse frost-free and they do that beautifully. So if you want something to really warm an area then a tubular heater isn't for you. I installed mine purely to stop the rabbit water bowls from freezing after we had that bad winter in 2010 and water was freezing during the day whilst I was at work! It does a brilliant job of keeping the shed at about 2-3 degrees on the coldest nights and a lovely liquid water bowl to boot!
 
I have taken delivery of a small oil filled radiator and an electrician has been round to quote getting electric from the garage to the shed.
Turns out the current set up from the garage to the garden (for lighting -previous house owners) is not entirely above board, particularly as we run a tumble dryer in the garage on the same 'thingy' as the outside power would be with the heater. So it's a bit more work to re wire and re route etc so that they'd be running separately, but I should have the quote through early next week.

@BossHogg do you leave your radiator on a certain power setting that you, by trial, know keeps your shed warm and just turn it on to that set up at night and it just runs at that heat output until you turn it off, or do you use the thermostat setting so it turns itself on and off depending on the room temp, keeping it at a temperature that you set?
 
When its cold, I put a single switch on full, when its really cold, I put both switches on full. When it reaches a certain temperature, it knocks itself off till it cools down, then switches back on again, you can regulate the temperature using the thermostat dial if your heater has one, mine does. ;)
 
Yes, it does have a thermostat dial, but setting it to a particular temperature sounds like a bit of a faff unless it's quite quick to heat up the shed! In any case, I'll be doing a few 'dry runs' of heating the shed overnight whilst the pigs are still inside.

image.jpeg
 
Just bought an oil filled rad. for the shed. It says not to leave it on overnight (it was just under twenty quid) really annoying.

Supposed to be having leccy put in today but so far no show from the electrician. Humph.
 
My oil filled radiator is on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week over winter. It's now 6 years old and still going strong. ;)
 
How much does that cost?

I'm having issues with mine as it's just not heating the shed very well - I think more insulation is needed and maybe leaving it on will help
 
It costs me no more than a fiver a week, worth every penny to keep them comfortable. ;) I actually had to knock it off today while I cleaned the hutches as it was too warm!
 
Well electrician turned up and i have been putting the oil filled rad on. It is great, really takes the chill off.

Very encouraging to hear how often yours is on bosshog!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top