Are the little halogen heaters very effective?

cherrykerry

Hi all

Me and hubby live in a 1 bedroom flat. At the moment we have no central heating, we have an electric fireplace in the living room and an oil filled radiator in the bedroom. Now both these heat the place lovely but are very expensive to run. In one of the local shops I saw a 900w hallogen heater for £10. I wondered if they are very effective at heating up the room and work out cheaper to run?. I don't want to spend out too much because we are getting electric storage heaters installed but this is unlikely to happen until the new year.

Swipe

They are no good for heating a room but very good at radiant heat i.e. directing heat at you. If you can get one of £10 I recommend one regardless. even if you just use it now and again for short bursts i.e. when getting dressed etc.

NeverInDebt

They do give instant heat but expect your electric bill to go through the roof

Swipe

NeverInDebt wrote: »

They do give instant heat but expect your electric bill to go through the roof

@900w, I doubt it would be any more expensive than the oil filled one currently in use

NowWhat_2

As I recall - I believe they cost between 4p and 7p per hour to use each - cant be quite sure I remembered figures okay. In other words they are cheap to use.

Cardew

A 900W halogen heater will cost 9p an hour - assuming you pay 10p/kWh for your electricity.

All plug in electrical heaters cost the same to run for the same amount of heat output.

So the running cost of these halogen heaters is no higher, or no lower, for the same amount of heat than any other electrical heater.

As said in post 2 above, the main advantage of these heaters is they direct heat toward a person; so for one person(or a couple sitting close together) they have advantages. Ideal for, say, someone sitting at a bench in an unheated garage.

ixwood

They are good as people heaters. The heat is radiant, so you can feel it.

And I expect there'll be 3 bulbs, meaning setting 1 is only 300W. Compare that to a typical small fan heater that will use 1kw+ (1kw heat and small bit for the fan) on low and 2 or 3 KW on high.

You do have to replace bulbs occasionally though.

I've got one and found it much cheaper/nicer than a fan heater. Definitely worth a tenner.

I_luv_cats

I succumb to one of these today! There is so much choice!!!!

£11.99 @ Poundstretecher. It has three 400 watt elements and it rotates. Has a safety tilt cut off!!!

Will be nice for a quick warm up, lovely glow.

jw8725

I'd like to know just what is the most economical heater (apart from chopping logs and setting them on fire)?

A._Badger

As Cardew says above (and I commend his patience in having to say it over and over again) all electric heaters cost eactly the same amount to run. The only difference between them is the type of heat they emit (covection or radiation) so choose whichever kind you prefer.

The sad fact is that all heating is expensive today.

Beyond electric heaters, portable gas stoves are expensive to run, as are paraffin heaters. Probably the cheapest heater, if you have mains gas, is a gas fire.

Hope that's some help.

sparkyjuls

Great help, thanks.