Portable paraffin heaters

scothun

Has anyone got any experience with these heaters?
I done quite a bit of research on them but I have stucked at choosing the brand. Zibro Vs. Corona Inverter.
basically they do the same but the Zibro one got twice as long guarantee on it. (4 years) however for some reason in the Uk most of the stockists are selling the Inverter while in Europe the Zibro one is more popular. (In Japan is just a matter of preference...)

Any advise or thought much appreciated

HappyMJ

Have you looked at the running costs? I have and it's cheaper using an electric heater.

scothun

HappyMJ wrote: »

Have you looked at the running costs? I have and it's cheaper using an electric heater.

Well yes. I have. the thing is that if you don't want/ cannot do obvious cheapest option with massive investment (e.g. central heating with full insulation upgrade of your house), the electric heating is the most expensive option available. There were quite a few threads about it on this forum as well.
The only option using electric heating which is competitive is to use storage heaters with economy 7 as this costs about the third/ unit than daytime electricity.
The problem with the paraffin heaters that although they are economical, they are quite pricey (almost twice the price than in Japan) and the "recommended" fuel cost nearly 2 times more than the regular C1 paraffin/ Kerosene which these machines are made for. (Again in Japan where these unit are the main form of heating, people just get that fuel from the petrol stations) That is because the vendors want to earn money, after you bought the unit instead of you going to your local heating fuel supplier. The main selling point of these very expensive fuels that apparently they are odourless. However most of the people says that the normal C1 fuel is not bad at all apart from the times when you start/ stop the machine. This however will turn out quite soon as I will test both. We have a wee baby so for us it is important.
I will look into the figures again but even with expensive fuel option it would work out cheaper than the electric. (I am planning to upgrade our very old storagehater to a modern one and using Economy 7. Fr the times when the storage heater goes cold we would use the paraffin heater)
Unfortunately there is no rocket science in electric heating regardless which cheap/ expensive option you go for. Electric heating is always 100% efficient whether is a 30 quid oil radiator or a "state of art" whatever for 600 quid. Daytime electricity is very expensive. The only reason while storage heaters are better is the idea that it tries to store the heat produced with the cheap electricity. Modern storage heaters are only better as now there are better insulation materials available and better heat release controls so it keeps the heat longer. However the effcinecy how they produce electricity is exactly the same than any other. In addition if your house is not properly insulated , storage heater are not making much sense as you loose the stored head extremely quick. In that case a cheap oil radiator/ panle heater is the best option to use while you have the economy 7 running during the night than switch to the alternative heating.
For me the best option would be to line my 100 years old chimney and convert my lovely, but absolutely inefficient open fire into a proper stove (maybe with a back boiler and a central heating) this however would require about 1500 pounds to start with (if I am doing it myself) which at the moment I don't have. This does not include proper the insulation of the house (we have loft insulation but cos the house is very old, the walls and the windows are screaming for better insulation)
So just for now I think I will go with the paraffin heater and I think I voted for the Zibro. Although it is slightly less powerful (3KW opposed to the 3.2KW of the Corona Inverter) given the size of the room it is unimportant and although most of the UK suppliers are selling the Corona one (for some reason) the Zibro has 4 years garantee instead of the 2 years which the Corona untis are offering.
(no I am not a representative of Zibro, but I am reading about these things in the last 4 days constantly and I have probably went mad on them by now...)
Apart form these two differences and a slightly different look, for me they appeared to be exactly the same. They even cost the same...

scothun

Now you put a bug into my ear. I will calculate everything again... :-)

HappyMJ

It's easy to calculate. How much can you get paraffin for? Divide the price per litre by 10 and that is the price per kWh. I have peak rate electric heating. On the right tariff it costs 10 pence per kWh. I have never seen any paraffin available for £1 a litre or less in handy 4 or 5 litre bottles. You could go to the allotment to get some but you need to take into account the cost of driving there and back to pick it up. Is that paraffin odour free/reduced odour?

Then there is the capital cost of the heater. The heater I have cost me £10. Over 10 years that's £1 per year. A parafiin heater costs £250. Over it's expected lifespan of 10 years that's £25 per year.

Now the servicing costs. An electric heater never requires servicing. If it dies and I've estimated 10 years you chuck it and buy another one. A paraffin heater requires annual servicing. You can do it yourself by cleaning it out before each heating season and replacing the wick. You could do that for under £10.

Then there is the time spent on doing all that. I turn my electric heater on/off and that's it no refilling nothing. At the end of the heating season I put it away and bring it back out in October/November.

Now safety.. Never ever use it in a room where anyone will be sleeping and that incudes your baby. Carbon Monoxide is poisonous and this heater does emit a very small amount of it. You need to ventilate your house to ensure these levels don't get too high. You also need an audible detector.

Next...Moisture in the air or humidity. The products of combustion when burning paraffin is Carbon Dioxide and Water. This is water vapour that will contribute to mold growth on your walls. Mold requires high humidity to grow. To keep humidity levels down you need to open the window or buy a dehumidifier. What's the point heating when the window has to be open.

scothun

First of all, you are right, but not 100%

The paraffin heater:
It does not uses a wick and it does not need cleaning. This is a fully electronic unit which cleans the burn chamber by itself. The airfilter needs cleaning only.

Carbon Monoxide: Yes I am aware of all that. We use Lpg heaters, an open fire and electric heating. We are still alive so I am aware of all that. The unit does not need a wide open window usually the times you going in/ out of the room is enough or very slightly opened windows. However I do admit that is more than it would be closed completely. But if everything fails all of them are fitted with a carbon monoxide alarm which shuts the unit off immediately if the carbon monoxide level increased to an unsafe level. We use storage heaters in the bedrooms...

Condensation: unlike the LPG heater this does not produce condensation.

Running costs:
I was calculating with an 800W unit as this is the minimum setting on a paraffin hater and I was using manufacturer's data for calculating the fuel consumption.
A Zibro heater takes 4 litres in 49 hours (the Corona is similar 5L/59H) That means you need approximately 2L/24h, if you running it constantly on minimum setting. The price therefore comes down to the price of paraffin (C1 grade kerosene) which is 1.6pounds from the very expensive one or (I have to verify that this but 70pence from the bulk supplier amed to greenhouse owners. I am not taking the cost of petrol used to pick it up, cos a. they deliver it b. We live in a rural location so if we go to work/ shop we would pop in to the supplier. So if I take the 70 pence/ litre price that would cost 1.40. If I take an average price of 1pound that is 2 pounds/ 24hours. Given the price of the unit (250) if I project that onto a year it gives an additional 60pence/ day (although the lifespan of these machines are much longer than a year.

Electricity:
We use economy 7. After a quick search I found that we pay far too much to start with but I will rectify that by switching our supplier.
So after the switch it would cost 12.1p/unit on day and 6p on nights. If I would run a 800W radiator for 24h that would cost 2pounds/ a day. Additional extra is a radiator. I was calculating with 50pounds but that will be possible cheaper. So that gives an additional 14p/ day in a one year period. (however similarly it will work for much longer than that.

If I am calculating with the cheapest 70p paraffin price and given that I use electricity during eco7 hours and use the paraffin heater during daytime, I would need 1,4L of paraffin for a 17 hours period. That would cost me 105p (70p/L) or 140p(100p/L) opposed to 165p for the daytime electricity. SO If I take the initial capital of 250pounds (this in generous as the radiator would cost as well) it would take 1000 days to regain the cost of the paraffin heater if I by the paraffin on 100p/L and 454 day if I buy it on 70p/L.

And of course we don't heat the house for the whole year (although we live in Scotland so we actually do heat most of the year) and bear in mind I was calculating with a 800W heat output and we definitely will need more therefore regaining the initial investment would be quicker. It is however not possible to take into account what is the saving on comfort such as - you are absolutely right - the electric heating is safer, not smelly at all and completely maintenance free....
So the quistion is does it worth the all the hassle to by the paraffin hater to save a few quid...
I also I did not mention the paraffin unit takes approx 15w/h which of course would cost a few pence more....

LittleVermin

scothun wrote: »

First of all, you are right, but not 100%

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Condensation: unlike the LPG heater this does not produce condensation.

<snip>

Thanks for all the detail and calculations, scothun and HappyMJ (and welcome to the forum, scothun!).


Paraffin IS a hydrocarbon - just like LPG, mains gas, heating oil, aviation fuel, ... so when it burns it produces water, and carbon dioxide. Hydrocarbons contain carbon and hydrogen atoms, and the hydrogen has to go somewhere when the fuel is burnt - it combines with some of the oxygen in the air to form water (hydrogen oxide, H2O).

Hydrocarbon + oxygen -> carbon dioxide + water.

The water vapour will condense when your house gets cold ... and use heat to evaporate when you next turn your heating on. So you really need to add this into your calculations (or the cost of running a dehumidifier, or the cost of opening doors and windows to get the water vapour out of the house, and letting more cold air in .....).

(If you burn hydrocarbons without enough oxygen you also produce carbon monoxide).
..

HappyMJ

I suppose it's 6 of one and half a dozen of the other. Remember if you do use the 70p/litre paraffin then the 4 year extended warranty is invalid. So don't buy it based on the warranty that is offered. Where do you get your paraffin for 70p a litre anyway. The cheapest I have seen is 60p a litre in 1000 litres lots...but then you need a very large tank to store it. I suppose if you have a neighbour that buys it in bulk you can always come to an agreement.

And a tip....don't use storage heaters in bedrooms. Pointless waste of money. What's the point having a warm bedroom during the day when you aren't using it. Put a radiator on a timer to come on in the last hour of E7 and that will be enough for the morning heat. Then just put the heater on for 15 minutes or so before you go to bed. It'll cost much less than using the storage heating.

bernithebiker

Have to agree with Little Vermin and HappyMJ.

Paraffin heaters DO produce water vapour, impossible not to, you just won't see it immediately.Enough to be an issue? Depends. If your house is always nice and warm, perhaps not, but if it has cool periods, then the vapour will condense and stay in the house rather than being naturally ventilated out.

Electric heaters are so cheap and simple to run, that I would be highly inclined to go down that route.

I would imagine a paraffin heater would be much more useful somewhere you have little or no electric supply like a caravan or boat, etc.

scothun

Thanks everyone for the advise. I have ruled out the paraffin heater... Even if it would work out cheaper the saving would not worth the hassle which would come with this type of heating.

I was into them too much as I like "alternative" solutions (even though I know it is not a new idea). Probably it would have been just an other gadget...

So I have searched for a better electricity deal than what we have at the moment and it turned out that I could not get it more expensive than it is just now so we will definately will save here

RE condensation: my bad, not thinking :embarasse yus are absolutely right... Living in semi rural Scotland already means high humidity I really do not nees more anyway...

So now I will look for some nice cheap electric heating and I will resist the temptation to get new storage heaters as till our house is not better insulated a bit, they are pointless.

Re storage heaters in bedrooms: khm. yep that makes sense...

Thanks again everyone :beer:

LittleVermin

scothun wrote: »

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Living in semi rural Scotland already means high humidity I really do not nees more anyway...

So now I will look for some nice cheap electric heating

<snip>

If you want cheapo electrical heaters you could look at the Rointe and the Economy Radiator Company threads* - NOT to buy these companies' very expensive products, which are in no way economical or energy saving, but to read advice about your options with cheap heaters, plug-in thermostats, etc. Cardew probably mentions a few - but so do others.

As for damp, how about deeply rural Cornwall, in a valley bottom to match where you live? Oh yes, the original builder dug out the hillside so ground level is just under the window sills on the north side!

*here and here
..