Is This Economical?

Iconic

I have got some elderly relatives who are feeling the cold but refuse to have central heating because they say it will cost to much! I have even found them a heating grant to get CH but they will not to take it up!

At the moment they use electric fan heaters and electric fires to keep the house warm.

I want to tell them how much each appliance costs to run per hour and try and work out a cheaper alternative for them. I know looking a the meter is easy way to work out how many units they are using but if I can tell them the two bar fire costs x an hour and the heater y per hour it will make more sense to them. Changing electricity supplier is a step to far at the moment!

This is available at Lidl next week. Will it be better than what they have got (how much an hour will it cost to run) or has anyone got any other cheaper alternatives?

2.5 KW Oil-filled Radiator with Built-in Fan Heater ONLY £29.99 .
* With 3 heat settings - (W): 800, 1200 & 2000
* With built-in fan heater - (W): 500
* With large surface area for optimum heat transfer
* Variable thermostat with frost protection
* On 4 smooth-running castors
* Integrated cable storage
* 2500 watt
* Size approx. (cm): 65 x 46 x 29
* 3 year manufacturer’s warranty

christabell

IF the relatives get the Warmfront grant, and get the gas central heating it would be much cheaper for them to run the boiler and use the TRV's to keep the rooms warm. And you could read Martin's post to get them an online tariff.

spiro

There current fires/heaters should have a plate on that states voltage and kwh or amps. You need to compare this with this heater which uses between 1300w and 2500w.

How much this will cost per hour depends on there tariff. Find an old bill and it should show a pence per kw price.

As an example if they are paying 10p then the 2500w (2.5kw) will cost 25p per hour.

Iconic

christabell wrote: »

IF the relatives get the Warmfront grant, and get the gas central heating it would be much cheaper for them to run the boiler and use the TRV's to keep the rooms warm. And you could read Martin's post to get them an online tariff.

Thanks. I think your suggestions are great but a step to far at this stage. I need to get them to easily understand how much they are using and how much more they could get if they had other alternatives. Apart from the cost they don't want the hassle of having CH fitted!

Iconic

spiro wrote: »

There current fires/heaters should have a plate on that states voltage and kwh or amps. You need to compare this with this heater which uses between 1300w and 2500w.

How much this will cost per hour depends on there tariff. Find an old bill and it should show a pence per kw price.

As an example if they are paying 10p then the 2500w (2.5kw) will cost 25p per hour.

Thanks. How do you work out how much the radiator will cost to run (assuming 10p per unit) from these figures?
With 3 heat settings - (W): 800, 1200 & 2000
* With built-in fan heater - (W): 500
* 2500 watt

notbritishgas

The maximum that heater will use is 2.5 kwh, so approx 25p per hour. That is with the fan heater on as well as the radiator.
The lower settings cost less, eg the 800w setting is 0.8kw so that costs 8p per hour.
However it is more complicated than that because that heater has a thermostat, so when the room reaches the required temperature the heater switches off. The time frequency it does that will depend on how cold the room is and how high they have the thermostat set.

HappyMJ

Iconic wrote: »

Thanks. I think your suggestions are great but a step to far at this stage. I need to get them to easily understand how much they are using and how much more they could get if they had other alternatives. Apart from the cost they don't want the hassle of having CH fitted!

Well if they don't want it installed then they don't want it installed. Get an energy monitor so they can easily understand how much they are using at the moment in pence per hour and tell them that is they had gas central heating then it would cost this much instead for the same heat. Then there are also standing charges for the gas, capital costs and maintenance costs to take into account in the calculation which may mean that in very small properties that electric heaters on the right tariff (i.e around 7.5p/hour) will be cheaper.

spiro

Iconic wrote: »

Thanks. How do you work out how much the radiator will cost to run (assuming 10p per unit) from these figures?
With 3 heat settings - (W): 800, 1200 & 2000
* With built-in fan heater - (W): 500
* 2500 watt

The 3 heat settings are quoted in watts so you need to divide by 1000 to get kw which is what you are billed in. So as an example 1200/1000 = 1.2 * 10p = 12p per hour then you add 500/1000 = 0.5 * 10p = 5p per hour if they have the fan switched on.

KimYeovil

Why are you wanting them to buy new heaters? Replacing the heaters with the same will not make a difference to the costs. What magical powers are you attributing to Lidl heaters???

Equaliser123

KimYeovil wrote: »

Why are you wanting them to buy new heaters?

Isn't that why the OP is asking the question?????

macman

Remind them that electric heating is costing them approx x 3 times as much as gas CH for the same output.