Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Hi,

My nan has this vintage greenhouse heater that she's had for many years, and after looking, we can't find a brand, we think it might be Parwin, but are not sure, if you have any idea, please let me know, pictures below.

Tom

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Hi Tom,
Yes, I think you can be pretty sure it's Parwin.
I repaired one a couple of years ago for a friend, but I'm sure it had an identifying plate on it somewhere or I wouldn't have known the make.

The spiders had created so much web inside over the summer that the fan blades couldn't turn!

The one I did had a remote thermostat on an umbilical cord rather than a built in one.

I've just typed Parwin into Google and looked at 'images'. Several pictures of your heater are shown.

Hope that helps,
Cheers
Nick

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

It might be a silly comment but doesn't the second picture have the name printed on the label above the switch or am I dreaming again?
Dave

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

It does!

Nice heater, looks rather well built!

Regards
Lloyd

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Hi all, thanks for the replies, I believe the heater is made by parwin, but would like to know several other things please, they are:
The wattage.
The year.
The model number
It's built like a tank, it's been used for many years and has a nice vintage Eveready plug with unsleved pins on it.

Tom

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

The wattage can be found with a simple resistance check- the wirewound elements won't vary madly as they heat up. Or just plug it into one of the cheap plug in monitor boxes.

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

The fan motor must have very low starting torque for spider web buildup to prevent starting and coming up to speed. :-D
Dave, USradcoll1, just lurking.

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

having recently recieved a plug-in power meter for easter, I can say thatr the heater is a 3 killowatt unit!

Tom

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

I think....that may have had a 15A round pin plug as standard. I hope it doesn't now have a 13A plug as 3kW is pushing things and could also cause the plug to deteriorate (i know it's difficult to burn down a greenhouse, and for all i know the heater might not even get used..)

If it IS still in use..If you fitted a 15A fused plug (and a socket in the appropriate place) it would hopefully have the advantage that it couldn't be used indoors!

Dave

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Hi Dave,

Come to think of it, I think the heater was actually a 2.5Kw unit, th plug does not appear to have any burn marks on it.

Tom

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Hi.
Slightly off topic, sorry.
A friend of ours had an immersion heater fed from an MK switched 13 amp plug in her airing cupboard.
She asked me to fit a 'proper' switch instead. However, I noticed that the heater was rated at FOUR kilowatts, and had been used for many years.
Surpisingly, the plug showed little sign of stress, and I still have it in use in my workshop.
It's like this one, but in white.

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

Those MK switched plugs are very good for use with non switched 13 amp outlets. They are built like a battleship. I still have a couple in use since mid fifties.

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

3Kw is 13.636A at 220v, 13.04A at 230v and 12.5A at 240v, so a good quality mains plug and 13Amp fuse should be fine. The fuse will nuisance blow eventually when it gets tired but won't blow instantly unless it gets an overload.
Dave

Re: Unidentified electric greenhouse heater
 

And of course if the heater is rated at 240V 3kW, on a 230V supply it will only take 12A and on 220V, 11.5A approximately.

A 220V 3kW rated heater would be a problem at 240V, taking 14.9A at that voltage. (It wouldn't actually be a problem with the typical 220V mains connectors rated at 16A though.)