Oil Heaters or Convector Heaters

chris1973

ust a word of warming about using paraffin heating. They produce a great deal of moisture and in many modern homes that are almost hermetically sealed they can cause problems with damp and mould - so ensure you have plenty of ventilation.

I've never had any problems with any obvious condensation forming on windows / walls even on (the odd occasion) i've used both in the living area at the same time. This was unlike the portable gas bottle heater which I had before which was worse than an tumble dryer at producing condensation!.

Sometimes the heater will switch to a loading of 700w a couple for a minute or so, a couple of times an hour, so whether this is some kind of condenser which deals with any moisture produced (in a similar way to an unvented tumble dryer?) or whether the lack of it is just down to how well the room(s) are ventilated, I don't know, I don't have any idea of how they work. I just know that for me personally they haven't given me this problem in either of the properties i've used them in

toolmaker54

Chris1973 I was looking into these heaters that run on paraffin, but the paraffins too expensive around here, so do you have you Kerosene delivered and stored in a big tank or just collect it when you need it.

If I could get it for 53p/litre locally then I would definitely be buying one of these, in the good old days a paraffin heater was the main source of our heating as a kid and we survived the winter of 63 for all those old enough to remember.

good_advice

yangptangkipperbang wrote: »

Would disagree with that
A cheap convector or fan is about £12, a cheap oil filled rad is about £35. So you can have £23 worth of "free" heat out of the convector/fan for the same price as just buying the rad....................

yang, we were talking about running costs of a heater and not the price of buying one.

Well, I have had a cheap as chips day. 2 fleece throws and a hot water bottle. Ch on in total today 3 hours.

HappyMJ

If I could get paraffin for 53p a litre then I would strongly consider it too but to get it at that price I would need a 1000 litre bulk tank and get it delivered in one delivery. It's good that you can get it for 53 pence anyway as the lowest market price is currently 65 pence a litre.

If you are getting your paraffin from someone else are you taking into account the cost of getting the paraffin from them. Travelling in the car and collecting £20 paraffin costs money too. Paraffin at 53 pence a litre would be 38 litres which would also mean you would have ten 4 litre bottles of it stored in your property which is a fire danger especially considering the OP has a flat.

I would never recommend a fuel heater for anyone who has a flat.

chris1973

Chris1973 I was looking into these heaters that run on paraffin, but the paraffins too expensive around here, so do you have you Kerosene delivered and stored in a big tank or just collect it when you need it.

No, a lot of fuel brokers have a forecourt pump so you can turn up and fill your own 10, 20 or 25 litre jerry cans. Often people with oil fired central heating run short and need to emergency buy a small quantity such as over Xmas or during sudden bad weather when demand spikes and the delivery tankers are booked out and can't get to their properties to make deliveries. If you ring around the brokers in the Yellow pages, then you will probably find at least one within a reasonable distance, who has such a facility, but you do need to pick up the phone and actually ask.

Yes, like most things it takes some effort, but its effort which is actively saving me over £40 a month during the peak Winter months, and with respect i've read about people driving 15 miles to save 1p on a litre of fuel or drive to the next town to get 50p off a Furby, so I believe that its effort worth further investigation and just as worthy of forum space as those other 'bargains' for those not lucky enough to live in uber insulated buildings or with access to cheap(er) mains gas.

If you know anybody who has oil fired central heating, then you can possibly arrange to buy a small amount directly from their tank, or arrange for the broker to fill your containers if left there when they make a delivery. Prior to finding a local broker with a pump a friend of mine arranged for a 1050 litre delivery - 1000 litres for his tank, 50 litres into my 2x 25 litre containers. Some delivery agents may not do this due to HSE or their hose nozzles / flow rate being too great for small containers, but I had no trouble with either of the two brokers who delivered his oil.

Paraffin at 53 pence a litre would be 38 litres which would also mean you would have ten 4 litre bottles of it stored in your property which is a fire danger especially considering the OP has a flat.

Actually I have shared use of a workshop, where the paraffin is stored. Whilst the advice may be of little use to somebody in a flat, it may be of use to somebody who has a garage / shed or somebody with family and friends who have a garage or shed who would happily store 20, 40, 50 litres of paraffin on their behalf.

Forty Years ago, paraffin was still a popular source of domestic heating and so was stored in most households and handled properly and treated with respect its no different to that can of petrol that is stored and used by some to fill their lawn mowers or chainsaws.

Richie-from-the-Boro

chris1973 wrote: »

I've never had any problems with any obvious condensation forming on windows / walls even on (the odd occasion) I've used both in the living area at the same time. This was unlike the portable gas bottle heater which I had before which was worse than an tumble dryer at producing condensation!.

Sometimes the heater will switch to a loading of 700w a couple for a minute or so, a couple of times an hour, so whether this is some kind of condenser which deals with any moisture produced (in a similar way to an unventilated tumble dryer?) or whether the lack of it is just down to how well the room(s) are ventilated, I don't know, I don't have any idea of how they work. I just know that for me personally they haven't given me this problem in either of the properties I've used them in

"""I've never had any problems with any obvious condensation""" - Ditto - agreed !

- each to his own
- mine is emergency only in the house, but I do have one in the workshop
- its about as powerful and instant as heat gets in a domestic situation
- link that to a 'quiet [ish]' 10" commercial workshop fan in a domestic environment

So what you have, at whatever price you pay for JetA1 / kerosene / paraffin / ROLF Tozane / etc is instant heat, now now now, and its blown all through all of the dwelling not just the room it's in, and then the ECO kicks in via the stat - don't dismiss them they work for many people, entire 5 room houseboats are heated with these things instead of Erberspachers or Webasto at £1800 each.

HappyMJ

Richie-from-the-Boro wrote: »

"""I've never had any problems with any obvious condensation""" - Ditto - agreed !

- each to his own
- mine is emergency only in the house, but I do have one in the workshop
- its about as powerful and instant as heat gets in a domestic situation
- link that to a 'quiet [ish]' 10" commercial workshop fan in a domestic environment

So what you have, at whatever price you pay for JetA1 / kerosene / paraffin / ROLF Tozane / etc is instant heat, now now now, and its blown all through all of the dwelling not just the room it's in, and then the ECO kicks in via the stat - don't dismiss them they work for many people, entire 5 room houseboats are heated with these things instead of Erberspachers or Webasto at £1800 each.

Perfect for a houseboat as there is no mains electricity and installing an inverter on the boat to convert 12VDC into 230VAC big enough to handle several extra kW for heating would cost quite a bit and isn't really efficient.

Perfect for a workshop as the mains cable from the property would probably be rated at 13A and as an 3kW electric heater draws 13A then operating anything else in the workshop would overload the cable.

An electric heater is just as powerful and instant as a paraffin heater. I do believe they are both rated at 3kW.

Richie-from-the-Boro

HappyMJ wrote: »

Perfect for a houseboat as there is no mains electricity and installing an inverter on the boat to convert 12VDC into 230VAC big enough to handle several extra kW for heating would cost quite a bit and isn't really efficient.

Perfect for a workshop as the mains cable from the property would probably be rated at 13A and as an 3kW electric heater draws 13A then operating anything else in the workshop would overload the cable.

An electric heater is just as powerful and instant as a paraffin heater. I do believe they are both rated at 3kW.

- an irrelevant point, but I'll make it, my workshop runs on its own 220/20a ring
- another irrelevant point, they go to 5kW, 40% higher than a 13a domestic electric allows
- another irrelevant point, no domestic fan heater has one of these
- note the blade design as well as the sweep size
- another irrelevant point, no domestic fan heater would come within 20% of shifting the CFM

Another irrelevant point, I have two of these, and have had for years, and I speak from real world positive experience of using these products, not assumed negative hypothesis.

They should be considered by this group as part of the menu, the mix, of different options available to people for consideration.