Heating

When we moved to Hackspace 2.0 we expected the space to get very cold in the winter, because it is a nineteenth century factory building with lots of windows. Although the building has a large integrated heater, it is too expensive to run due to a standing charge for the gas supply.

Instead we have a small propane space heater and a 2kw electric heater that we use to keep the studio and office spaces warm, and we do not heat the workshop.

Temperature monitoring

There are graphs of our temperatures powered by Cacti.

The space heater

We have a Clark Little Devil propane heater that we use to heat the studio and comfy areas of the hackspace. A 13kg gas tank for the burner was around £34. This was about £2/hr and lasted about 16 hours. We tried to use the gas just during our Wednesday open nights when there were lots of people about to feel the benefit.

Space heater specs

Heat output	35000 Btu/h
Heat output (EN1595)	10.80 kW
Air flow output	300 m3/h
Gas consumption	0.80 kg/h
Gas type	I38/P I3P (Propane Mix/LPG) 0.3bar

The cast-iron stove

Usually found in the comfy area, generates a useful warm glow and makes this corner of the Hackspace more pleasant during the winter.

Gas type - Butane (Calor gas BLUE)

Electric heaters

In the smaller members' room we have a 2kW electric heater. The blue room is too small to use the propane heater as the fumes build up too quickly. If there just 1 or 2 people in the space they would usually work in this smaller room.

The electric heater.

PVC curtain

We decided to heat small spaces of the hackspace and have designated warm areas (See minutes from the 16/06/11 meeting). We used PVC strips to break larger areas up.

Making a curtain from rolls of clear PVC

The insulating (abattoir) curtain