panel vs oil heater

pm13

I moved into my flat in April & it has electric only in it.

There are panel heaters throughout the flat - Dimplex ones - but I have no idea what wattage they are.

A lot of people have told me that buying portable oil heaters would save me money but I'm not sure. I don't have economy 7 or storage heaters, just a standard electricity meter.

Is there anyway of finding this out? For example the wattage of the heaters?

Ebe_Scrooge

Oil heaters won't actually save you money as such. A 1KW oil-filled heater will use the same amount of electricity as a 1KW panel heater and kick out the same amount of heat. A 2KW heater will kick out twice as much heat but use twice as much juice. The wattage of the existing heaters should be labelled on them somewhere.

The only potential saving would be in the portability. If you turn off the heating, shut all the doors and use a portable heater to heat just the room you're in, then you're not paying to heat the whole house. But you should be able to do this with the existing heaters anyway - in any rooms you're not using, switch off the heater in that room and keep the door shut.

Unfortunately, electricity is pretty much the most expensive form of heating unless you've got economy-7.

Cardew

Post above is absolutely correct.

All electrical heaters produce EXACTLY the same amount heat for the same running cost. The only difference is the manner of delivery; oil filled radiators retain heat after they are switched off, but they take longer to produce heat - the nett result is exactly the same as any other heater.

andyrpsmith

In your set up the most important elements affecting your costs will be:

The unit price of your electricity (check and consider changing to alternative supplier)

The heat setting (temp which you find comfortable)

The insulation (heat loss) of the room/house.

I saved £1000 per year by changing supplier, ditching storage radiators and economy 10 tariff, and using timers & thermostatically controlled radiators.

chris1973

Oil heaters won't actually save you money as such.

Depends on what is meant by 'oil' heater, we all assume the popular reference as in oil filled electrically heated radiators. However there are other forms of portable heating, such as modern high tech paraffin fueled heaters for instance, which may also be loosely termed in an old fashioned way as 'oil heaters'.

In which case, (depending on your Electricity tariff), then oil heaters, in the form of 'paraffin' heaters do have the potential to save you money.

I pay almost 19p / KWH to Npower for Daytime electricity (E7 Midlands Rates). In comparison Paraffin costs me 70p a litre from a local allotment society store, and I get 10 KW/H of heat from a litre of paraffin, so 7p / KWH in cost. A saving of almost 12p per KW/H over the cost of Electric heating on my tariff. These heaters are also similar in efficiency to Electric heating also, having no flue or external vent for heat to be wasted out of, as with Gas or heating oil fueled boilers.

Not practical for heating an entire house obviously, but certainly effective in heating one large room or a couple of smaller rooms (With the door open, I manage to heat both the living area and tiny bathroom using one 3KW paraffin heater). Running a 2KW convector (Living area) and a 750w heat and light unit (bathroom) for the same period of time at daytime rates would cost me a fortune in comparison.

Cardew

chris1973 wrote: »

I pay almost 19p / KWH to Npower for Daytime electricity (E7 Midlands Rates).

Why do you pay 19p/kWh when there are loads of E7 tariffs where the daytime rate is around 11p/kWh?

chris1973

Sadly its not under my control, the choice of supplier is controlled by the landlord and this is underwritten by the tenancy agreement. If I change or attempt to change suppliers, then technically i'm in breach of the agreement, simple as.

I've lost track of the number of printed tariff's i've politely handed to him, which are better than Npowers' (Which is nearly all of them!!), in an attempt to get him to change suppliers to one which is more competitive whilst still maintaining ownership and control of it, but it usually gets shake of the head or some excuse like he doesn't want to be stuck between top up keys between two suppliers with neither taking responsibility for transfering payment to the meter, which has, supposedly happened in the past. We reached a compromise where he would allow me to use other fueled portable heating.

Changing suppliers is easy, changing the ways of an Ex-Military 75 year old Gentleman who is my landlord is another matter entirely, then again its easy to be cavalier about other people's money, its not like he has to top it up.