Can you recommend an Oil Filled Radiator?

cosmicflood

Hi,

I live in a 1 bedroom house with Night Storage and an Electric Fan Fire. I want to try to save a little money and only use the heating when I am in the house so was thinking of getting an Oil Filled Radiator.

Can anyone:

1. Tell me if this is a good idea?
2. Recommend me an Oil Filled Radiator that has been tried and tested (prefer with a timer)?

Thanks.:money:

ormus

dimplex is the best known brand. make sure you get one with the thermostat. you can get a timer to fit your plug sockets, for peanuts these days. (itll do for other jobs too).

27col

Surely night storage is always going to be cheaper than any sort of radiator. Night storage uses cheaper electricity, a rad will use full price electricity. My idea of heaven is to have a warm house to come home to. Anyone who willingly wants to come into a cold house must be a bit of a masochist. If you are only using spot heating the fabric of the house will never warm up, as it will with central heating, of which night storage is a type. You need a warm room, not a warm spot in a room.

lynzpower

i agree that oil filled radiators do not give out as instant a heat as say a good quality blow heater. They are also rather inefficient.

I would recommend getting a flat oil filled rad not the deeper ones on casters, I have lots of experinece of these, and definately think they are more effiecient.

Doozergirl

www.easy-heat.co.uk

Beautiful, inconspicuous water filled radiators that plug in (or wire in with help from your friendly electrician) and hang on the wall like GCH radiators. Expensive but apparantly cost effective - you can actually set them on a thermostat or timed. You can run them separately with a gadget on the radiator or you can run run seven very cleverly off one remote control thingy

vivatifosi

I moved from a one bedroom house where I had electric radiators to a three bedroom semi with good, efficient storage heaters (as opposed to older kn*ckered ones). In spite of the extra space in the second house, the heating bills were lower. Please look carefully at the running costs before changing as you may not get the bargain that you are hoping for.

Vibrant

I have fairly modern storage heaters, which work okay, but they do have some drawbacks.
The heat has more, or less run out by 6pm and they are slow to alter, so if there is a warm spell, the room can become stiflingly warm.
I run my storage heaters on a very low setting, which keeps the chill off the room and is adequate if I'm moving about and I use a electric radiator in the lounge, for when I'm sitting in the evening, which works well as a compromise. My monthly electric bill (no gas) is £33.

My electric radiator is one of the deep chunky ones, with a thermostat and three heat settings, 466, 932 and 1400. It works well, but does take half an hour to warm up.
The make of mine is Winterwarm and I think I got it from Argos, about 10-12 years ago, so it's reliable (still looks as good as new).

Although electric heating is dearer than gas per unit, I find that most people fail to take into account the much higher servicing and repair costs of gas, which probably makes the overall costs very close.
The only servicing my storage heaters get, is to have the cover removed each year and the control compartment brushed free of dust.

amtrakuk

I am trying out Dimplex OFR MK1 oil filled radiators. I used the OFX type (thermostat built into the heater) but found these took an age to do anything. I have later found out it is because the measure the temperature of the "oil" in the heater where the MK1 OFR type have a little box on the side that switches the thermostat depending on the air temperature. I didn't think that would make a difference but it seems to. I have bought a 2kw 54 inch one off ebay, just need to get it back home

If you are interested there is a 750 watt version labelled "challenge" that works on the same principle that is also wall mountable and looks like a regular 77.5cm radiator that is available from Argos 415/9201 (Page 566 in the cat). Oddly enough does not appearing on the Argos Website.

amandada

I used to have a freeeezing flat (I'm talking ice on the INSIDE of the windows!) and rather than use the antiquated council issue warm air central heating, I borrowed an old Dimplex oil filled radiator, and it was FAB!
I had it on a timer so it was on maybe about half an hour before I came in from work, and that one heater warmed up my whole flat (ok so it was only 1 bedroom!)

amtrakuk

Yes, when I first moved to leeds I had a Glen oil filled panel heater. The studio flat was above a row of shops, built I guess in the 60s so there was glass skylights so whatever heat the supplied convection heater went straight up to the ceiling and out through the glass skylights he oil filled radiator kept the air in the room warm. Keeping it on medium during the day to keep the chill off and turning it up if needed during the night.

Duncan101

I bought this oil filled radiator recently. My storage heaters were costing me a fortune to heat my emtpy flat all day. The 24 hour timer feature is great as I programme it to come on only when I need it. I bought a large 2.5kW unit as it was on sale but normally only use it on low power, which is more than enough for my room. Think it costs me less than a pound a day to heat my bedroom.