Electric Heaters

kriss_boy

Anyone without central heating currently using plug in oil filled heaters?

Any ideas on the running costs and whether we would be cheaper and more efficient to plug one in each room rather than huddle around just one set to max.

The house is bitterly cold so even when a door from another room is open for a matter of seconds our living room temperature plumets!!!! Perhaps I should buy a couple more of them for the kitchen and hall?

Premier_2

Have a look at the rated value. Probably about 2kW I would expect.

If the are on permanently and don't cut out via a thermostat, then they'll cost about 25p per hour, so a couple would cost 50p per hour.

Carlsberg don't make electrical heaters, but if they did they'd probably brand them Stella Artois!

macman

Of course it's cheaper to heat one room rather than the whole house. Whether you would really want to do that from a comfort point of view is a diffferent matter.
The running cost on electric heaters are quite straightforward . A 3KW heater on full will cost 3 times per hour as much to run as a 3KW heater turned down to 1KW. The cost will be your unit tariff cost per KWh x the rating of the fire (or the setting you are running it at if less than full on).

factoryworker

kriss_boy wrote: »

The house is bitterly cold so even when a door from another room is open for a matter of seconds our living room temperature plumets!!!! Perhaps I should buy a couple more of them for the kitchen and hall?

You say no central heating; does that mean your electric only; whilst i generally wouldn't reccomend a gas fire (40% heat straight up the chimney), this is still preferable to electric heat if you have one

The fact that your temperature plummets when you open door of heated room suggests 2 things; the heated room temperature is excessive compared to rest of home, but more likely that you have extremely poor insulation; you need to address this, and pay any costs of doing this BEFORE you go and buy more radiators; if you have no cavity wall or loft insulation, check whether free from your supplier (free if over 70 or on most benefits) , or subsidised-about £180 thru most suppliers (also check Energy Savings Trust website for both Grants and energy efficiency advice generally); if you have insulation, the cost of things like draughtpoofing doors/heavy curtains drawn earlier in winter would be far outweighed by the energy/comfort savings; also invest in cheap £2 timers from Argos so that you are not heating the home if your not there; i.e. your out 8-6; it is pointless heating in this time but don't want to return to freezing house-set the timer to put rad on at say 5 p.m. then when you retunr your home will be warming up; set for 6 a.m. until 7.30 a.m for when you get up; heat when you need it but not when you don't; invest in a hot water bottle for the night; £2 save you about £30 over winter; if you cut out the unneccessary usage, that gives you more freedom to put the heat on when you are THERE AND NEED IT.

P.S the rating of the appliance will be on the base-follow instructions above; i always find for an electric heater if you put 20p in a jar for every hour in use, it helps when the bill comes but more importantly focuses you into not leaving on unneccassialy

incubus72

I have a Delonghi oil filled super panel heater and on the eco setting it costs me just over 4p an hour to run,on the maximim setting it costs 11p an hour to run. It costs me less than half the price to run 2 electric panel heaters for an hour to what it does to run my gas central heating so it is worth checking if the heater your looking at has an eco setting of 300-400 watts.

kriss_boy

I have about a 500mm of loft insulation up in the attic which is more than enough.

Insofar as cavity wall insulation then like many houses built in recent years I have little faith that the walls are sufficiently insulated.

With hyndsight I should have tested the walls and beefed them up with more wool but now the entire place is fully redecorated and we wont live here for many more years.

When I did the bathroom up and replaced some of the plasterboard I noticed there was virtually no insulation in the walls whatsoever!!

kriss_boy

Is there a stigma attached to electric heating?

I thought 'gas central heating' was more desirable however by dad said you can get electric boilers for electric heating? Isnt that like the old storage heaters that are less desirable?

factoryworker

kriss_boy wrote: »

Is there a stigma attached to electric heating?

I thought 'gas central heating' was more desirable however by dad said you can get electric boilers for electric heating? Isnt that like the old storage heaters that are less desirable?

No but there should be

if your thinking of getting an electric boiler go and see a priest first-you need help; never heat with electric where you have gas, and don't be deluded by cheap rate night elec for storage heaters; night rate elec is still dearer than all day gas rate

its simple economics realy 4 p a unit of gas - 14p a unit of elec; yes you can run elec cheaper for extremely small running times (less than an hour) in one room cmparitvely with gas-the trouble is i don't know a single household in the U.K. that ever puts on an elec fire for less than ahour aday in winter

factoryworker

kriss_boy;27887989]Insofar as cavity wall insulation then like many houses built in recent years I have little faith that the walls are sufficiently insulated.

With hyndsight I should have tested the walls and beefed them up with more wool but now the entire place is fully redecorated and we wont live here for many more years.:

I don't understand this apathy on the grounds of ascthetics/decoration; firstly, for cavity insulation, they'll drill about five holes in your exterior wall, betwen the bricks and rerender; takes about 3 hours no redocoration required. As for not being there that long; if your there more than a year it will pay for itslef-less when heating by electric

penrhyn

incubus72 wrote: »

I have a Delonghi oil filled super panel heater and on the eco setting it costs me just over 4p an hour to run,on the maximim setting it costs 11p an hour to run. It costs me less than half the price to run 2 electric panel heaters for an hour to what it does to run my gas central heating so it is worth checking if the heater your looking at has an eco setting of 300-400 watts.

300 -400 watts is roughly the power consumption of a 40 inch TV, or my Remoska.
Certainly not enough power to heat a room.

Cardew

incubus72 wrote: »

I have a Delonghi oil filled super panel heater and on the eco setting it costs me just over 4p an hour to run,on the maximim setting it costs 11p an hour to run. It costs me less than half the price to run 2 electric panel heaters for an hour to what it does to run my gas central heating so it is worth checking if the heater your looking at has an eco setting of 300-400 watts.

Any electrical heating is the most expensive way to heat available.

Your heater on eco setting of 300-400watts costing 4p and hour will give out very little heat.

Your gas central heating should produce three times as much heat for 4p(around 1kWh) Even with a really old inefficient boiler for 4p you will get 0.8kWh)