House with no central heating

[Deleted User]

Hi everyone

Me and my partner are about to rent a lovely little house that is ideal size for us and a nice cheap rent.

Only downfall is that the house has no central heating, there is an electric fire in the living room so we should be OK in there.

We are after ways of best heating the bedroom upstairs, my parents are avid campers and so have experimented with a lot of different electric heaters in there caravan and we are looking at oil filled radiators being the most cost effective at the moment, as any one got any advice on what the best electric heaters are best to buy?

Many thanks in advance

david29dpo

ALL electric heaters are 100% efficient (and expensive to run)
Just chose the ones you prefer.

Owain_Moneysaver

It would have to be a cheap rent, without a fixed heating installation to all habitable rooms the house falls below the tolerable housing standards.

bob2

Would recommend oil filled radiators - with thermostat and built in timer.

Thermostat means you don't have to keep turning the thing on and off to maintain the temperature you want (as with some fan heaters). It will take care of that itself. Timer so you can preheat rooms as needed.

squinz

I have a oil filled electric radiator. It is very effective but also expensive to run. I would personally rather pay more rent than have no central heating. I would imagine your bills will be very high.

McKneff

Rent somewhere else:D

Annisele

Plus "no central heating" can sometimes go along with "no maintenance at all for the last 20 years".

Not always - but often enough for me to be worried about it.

Is the rent still cheap once you take extra heating costs into account?

YORKSHIRELASS

We use oil filled radiators to supplement our open fire and multifuel stove. We do have central heating but its oil fired and very expensive.

Oil filled radiators are slow to heat up but we find that once they are up to temperature they are very effective. They are safe too and can be used with a plug in timer or have their own built in timer. The thermostats work well on ours too and once it is switched off it will still give off a small amount of heat until it has completely cooled down.

As a general rule if a heater is 2kw and is on full blast it will use 2 units of electric per hour. So if your electric is 13p per kwh that will cost you 26p an hour. OK doesnt sound much but multiply that by say 4 hours a day x 7 days a week and you could be up to £7 a week for one heater.

Of course whether thats expensive or not depends on your circumstances and I suppose you need to weigh it up against the cost of the rent.

For the bedroom you might be better off having a fan heater for a quick blast of heat while getting dressed or before getting into bed.

thegirlintheattic

I lived in a house for 21 years without central heating - it really is not as bad as people make out. You get used to it. We had a gas fire in the living room, two electric (non-fan) heaters in the bedrooms that were put on before bed and turned off when you went to bed, and a color gas heater for the corridor.

lincroft1710

You can survive, as those of us who were around in the 1940s/50s/60s can testify. Invest in warm clothing.

Tiddlywinks

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

It would have to be a cheap rent, without a fixed heating installation to all habitable rooms the house falls below the tolerable housing standards.

I bought a 2 bed Costain house in the mid 80s that had no central heating - just a gas heater in the lounge.

We didn't freeze, it wasn't intolerable... it just took sensible planning.

If you leave the doors open upstairs then the heat will rise into them. If it's terraced and well insulated in the loft then the bills shouldn't be outrageous.

Gas filled radiators are great and you can leave them on during the day on a low setting just to keep the frost at bay.