What heater is best???

natzeh

Hi

I am moving house in 2 weeks to a house with central heating. I am currently living in a house with no central heating. It has one rubbish fan heater in the livingroom. i dont want to turn it on because I'm worried about how much it'll cost.

My questions.

Should I buy a heater or just use this fan heater? I might use it in my new large kitchen as well.

If yes what type of heater is the most cost effective? Can you recommend anything a I am freezing but know nothing about heaters! Thanks

Cardew

All heaters from a £10 fan heater to a £1000 radiator(they do exist) produce exactly the same amount of heat for the same running cost.

thefishdude

well techinically thats true and technicaly its not true really iosnt it.

a fan heater stops giving out heat soon as its turned off. a radiator or something that stores heat will still give some heat out after its off for a while.

but OP if you moving soon in 2 weeks to a place with central heating then if it was me i would not buy any heating appliacnes just for 2 weeks useage. i would use the fan heater if i needed it or wrap up warm for 2 weeks and think how nice teh central heating will be

ppersonally i have a cheap oil filed radiator if i need it. but if i allready had heater i would use it for 2 weeks and take the hit.

macman

It's completely irrelevant whether it's a fan heater or an oil filled heater. Yes, the latter continues to give off stored heat for a while after switch-off, but that heat is not 'free', it's just that part of the output has been stored, whereas the fan heater has released almost all of it's heat while running.
The only difference between the 2 is the rate of release, not the efficiency.

thefishdude

well i see what you saying but still techincally disagree lol

i can have a fan heater on for 1 hour and get heating for 1 hour or i can have an oil filled radiator turned on for 1 hour and use same amunt of power ( providing same kw rating ) how ever once turned off i could get another 10 mins of heat out with out power in it.


soo im using same kw but get 10% longer heat

macman

No. You are certainly getting 'longer' heat with oil, but you are getting less of released it during the 1 hour it's on. The total heat energy produced is the same over 1h 10m as with the fan heater over 1h, assuming that the rating is the same.
A 2kW heater is a 2 kW heater, be it fan or oil. In an hour it will produce exactly the same amount of heat-only the release rate is different.

thefishdude

i agree with what you saying, how ever i would still take the longer heat release yes it ould give out the same amount of heat ina measurable sence but in useable sense its different i want to heat a room for 1 hour 10 mins i can have fan on for 1 horu 10 mins or oil on for 1 hour.

on a plus note you using some power to run the fan wich isnt making heat

Neil_Jones

natzeh wrote: »

Hi
My questions.

Should I buy a heater or just use this fan heater? I might use it in my new large kitchen as well.

If yes what type of heater is the most cost effective? Can you recommend anything a I am freezing but know nothing about heaters! Thanks

Take the fan with you.

As and when your central heating packs up in the new house, you will be glad you took it.

Yes it might be expensive to run but if you have no central heating and it's freezing cold, you ain't exactly going to have a lot of choice.

All electric heaters cost exactly the same to run and push out the same amounf of heat no matter whether it's fan, convection, space, storage or underfloor. You get one kWh worth of heat for one kWh of electricity no matter what type of heating you go for.

macman

But the question was, which is more cost effective? Given that they both produce the same amount of heat for a given input of electricity, there is no difference.
You may well prefer an oil filled rad for the reasons given, (quieter, longer heat retention etc) and I would agree with you, but it isn't any more efficient.

Cardew

thefishdude wrote: »

i agree with what you saying, how ever i would still take the longer heat release yes it ould give out the same amount of heat ina measurable sence but in useable sense its different i want to heat a room for 1 hour 10 mins i can have fan on for 1 horu 10 mins or oil on for 1 hour.

on a plus note you using some power to run the fan wich isnt making heat

You have it wrong I am afraid on all accounts.

When you switch on a Fan Heater you get full heat output almost instantly, however when you switch it off, the heat output ceases almost immediately.

The oil filled radiator takes some time to reach full output as it is heating the oil, but when power is switched off you have residual heat.

The important point is that the total amount of heat/warmth(measured in any way you want - calories, BTu etc) is exactly the same for the same running cost.

On the second point, a fan motor running produces heat, so the very small amount of electricity used to turn the fan still produces heat.