Am I better buying a 3kw or a 2kw rad?

aliasojo

Old rental property, poor condition, poorly insulated. Old (likely very inefficient) oil boiler in garage.

We've just seen that we've used 250l of oil in a smidgeon over 2 weeks and the cold weather hasn't even properly kicked in yet.We can't keep that up so are looking for an alternative heat source.
We have a calor gas heater but are not allowed to use it in the property.

Someone suggested oil filled radiators which we are considering but we had one in the past and the noise of the oil heating up always used to get on my nerves so we're thinking about trying the Dimplex oil free versions.

I have no idea whether I need to get a 2kw or a 3kw though? It's an old house so the rooms are reasonably sized, the living room is approx 6m x 4m.

Can anyone advise me please?

macman

Get a 3kW one and run it on a lower setting if necessary. A 3kW model will not cost 50% more than a 2kW one.
But bear in mind that heating by standard rate electricity is still much more expensive than oil.

undaunted

Have you also considered looking at loft / cavity wall insulation if applicable to the property? (Depending upon what your personal circumstances are there may even be grants available for this)

chris1973

A room 6m x 4m would require 4.28kw of heat to heat it to 21/22c with an outside temperature of 0c - assuming an average level of insulation and a 2.5M ceiling height.

If the property has a very poor level of insulation, then the heat input requirement will be higher, as will heating it when the outside temperature drops below 0c.

These figures were calculated by using this online calculator http://www.flickeringflame.co.uk/tech_detail/tech.htm - its for stoves but the calculation it carries out is the same for any form of heating. Other online calculators also exist if you want a second opinion .

Unlike central heating where there is normally more than one radiator in larger rooms, often positioned at opposite ends of the room, one single heater will struggle to heat a large room from a single location. Two average sized central heating radiators also have the potential to each output around 2.6kw in heat, making a potential of 5.2kw total heat input intoto the room, compared to the 2kw or 3kw from the solo electric heater.

This is often why people are disappointed in Electrically heated properties, if the room size vs KW input hasn't been worked out correctly. Often getting it wrong will result in high bills and little effectiveness in the form of feeling warm during the colder months, because if the physics of a room requires 4.2kw of heat to warm it up sufficiently, and you only supply it with 2 or 3kw of heat, then it will never get warm (or will take many hours to do so) meaning that the heater thermostat will never reach the selected temperature so the heater draws current continuously, and at 2 - 3 units per hour on daytime rates, this is not going to be cheap.

In respect of your oil central heating, first of all i'd make sure it has some kind of room thermostat fitted, and also make sure that the room with the thermostat has a radiator which is working / switched on!. You'd be amazed at how many properties have their thermostats still in a hallway, where the occupier has turned off the radiator 'to save money'. :eek:

Also make sure that you oil tank hasn't sprung a slow leak. In some rural properties it would be perfectly possible for a slow enough leak from the tank or a feed pipe joint to trickle away the oil down a hill into the field next door, without it being immediately obvious for some time.

Fit Thermosatic valves to the existing radiators if not already fitted. This will enable you to lower the heat in little used rooms, whilst still keeping a background level to protect against damp / freezing pipes etc

If the property has single glazing consider buying temporary polycarbonate secondary glazing to fit behind the existing frames. This is attached to the existing frame(s) using magnetic tape and are removeable for when you move, and often dont require the landlords permission as no structure change is carried out to fit them.

Fit draught excluder to all outer doors and windows. Consider putting a curtain across the back of poorly fitting or draughty doors, including the internal ones which lead to rooms with outside doors and access.

Cardew

aliasojo wrote: »

Old (likely very inefficient) oil boiler in garage.

We've just seen that we've used 250l of oil in a smidgeon over 2 weeks and the cold weather hasn't even properly kicked in yet.

250l of oil equates to approx 2,600kWh. Even with a boiler efficiency as low as 60% that means you have been using the equivalent of over 100kWh of electrical heating energy every day for the past 2 weeks - in a mild Autumn.

To provide the sort of heating level you have enjoyed in the last couple of weeks, you are going to need several 3kW electrical heaters in winter.

aliasojo

Thank you all for your help. Just to clarify - we are not allowed to do anything to the property so we are not able to implement some of the sensible suggestions above. We are not even able to change electricity supplier for some reason.

We are hopeful that this is just a short term stay so we don't really want to be doing anything to it anyway.

Also, the electric radiators I was thinking of buying were not meant as principle heating, just as an extra source for when things got really cold.

Cardrew, that seems an awful lot, even for a SAHM and adult son home all day. We don't even have the heating on all day.

John_3:16

Turn all your oil heating off and see if you have a leak in the system?

macman

aliasojo wrote: »

Thank you all for your help. Just to clarify - we are not allowed to do anything to the property so we are not able to implement some of the sensible suggestions above. We are not even able to change electricity supplier for some reason.

We are hopeful that this is just a short term stay so we don't really want to be doing anything to it anyway.

Also, the electric radiators I was thinking of buying were not meant as principle heating, just as an extra source for when things got really cold.

Cardrew, that seems an awful lot, even for a SAHM and adult son home all day. We don't even have the heating on all day.

You can use whichever utility supplier you wish, your landlord can no more determine that than dictate which bank you use.

chris1973

You can use whichever utility supplier you wish, your landlord can no more determine that than dictate which bank you use.

As the owner of the building, the landlord can adopt the agreement to include whatever 'reasonable' terms he / she wishes in relation to that building, provided its written into the tenancy agreement and the tenant signs to agree to it, and it doesn't remove any of the tenants 'basic' rights. Whilst some landlords allow the fleixibility of the tenant to change suppliers as and when they choose, i've yet to see a tenancy agreement which declares it as a legal right.

According to the estate agent I queried this with, many landlords have adopted / are adopting this policy, after any previous bad tenants had replaced any pre-existing prepayment meter with a credit one without the LL's knowledge, and then skipped town not only owing rent, but leaving a forcibly disconnected supply or one with a long term debt against it in their wake.

So if the landlord fits a prepayment meter and withholds all of the means for a tenant to a request a change from prepayment to credit meter, they largely prevent this situation from happening, ultimately meaning less hassle for the Landlord and also future tenants. Unfortunately at the same time it also means that by withholding account or billing information it also prevents the tenant from switching supplier as crucial stuff like the present account number etc is unknown, and the supply is not in the tenants name.

I'm in a similar situation as the OP myself in a short term agreement, and i'm unable to change my supplier either. In fact my landlords choice of supplier leaves a lot to be desired, as i'm on an E7 prepayment tariff with Npower, and I doubt he could have chosen a more expensive supplier if he tried!.

macman

Changing from or to a PPM meter is not the same as changing the supplier. Try to prevent just a change of supplier would probably be seen by a court as an unfair and unenforceable contract term.
A change of meter involves physical work at the property which it could be argued requires the LL's consent. A supplier change does not.

chris1973

Try to prevent just a change of supplier would probably be seen by a court as an unfair and unenforceable contract term.

Since I doubt any tenant wants to be a 'test case' can you point me in the direction of anything reliable where this is actually stated or declared?. Believe me, I'm more than happy to raise this 'unfair and unenforceable contract term' with my Landlord and Estate Agent, purely based on the fact that several other suppliers could be saving me large amounts of money, and only the landlords' whim prevents me from taking advantage of those savings, but I'd need a little more than talk on a public internet forum to convince me its strong enough to force the issue to the next level.

As I said before, I've raised this point with the LL and Estate Agent, only to be told "I can't" - I now need access to the information to produce for them which says 'Yes I can' - can you please point me in the direction of where it can be obtained./ found