Thinking of buying an oil filled radiator for one room - few queries?

sunni

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Would an oil-filled radiator not hold its heat for longer?

In terms of the original question, why would you ever use it on 1100w rather than 2000w if it had a thermostat?

I thought that by using it on 1100w it would be cheaper on electric but obviously not lol

macman

It will certainly be cheaper to run per hour on 1100W, but producing about half the heat.

smudgesmum

A lot of the variables with stand alone heaters depend on who will have access to switching it on! If its just you or reliable people then a fan heater works more quickly but tends to make noise, but the good thing about that is you won't forget to switch it off if not on a timer. An oil filled rad is good for providing a background heat but not if someone else is likely to turn the dial up and forget they did it. I like oil filled rads because they are quiet and would buy the most powerful one and turn the thermostat down as long as I knew I would not be tempted to turn it up because I was feeling cold (put a jumper on). I'm sure thats confusing, sorry.

Martyn_H

I have a DeLonghi Vento 2kW model and it heats up very quickly.

YORKSHIRELASS

smudgesmum wrote: »

A lot of the variables with stand alone heaters depend on who will have access to switching it on! If its just you or reliable people then a fan heater works more quickly but tends to make noise, but the good thing about that is you won't forget to switch it off if not on a timer. An oil filled rad is good for providing a background heat but not if someone else is likely to turn the dial up and forget they did it. I like oil filled rads because they are quiet and would buy the most powerful one and turn the thermostat down as long as I knew I would not be tempted to turn it up because I was feeling cold (put a jumper on). I'm sure thats confusing, sorry.

No, not confusing, I agree with this! We have 3 oil radiators in our house as we use the oil fired central heating very sparingly. I would never have them on full though. I understand the logic of them taking longer to heat the room up and therefore needing to be on for longer but its the psychology of knowing the heater isnt on full that just keeps me happy!

I wouldnt buy a very expensive one though. One of ours is an Argos value model and does the job just the same.

One of the bonuses of oil heaters is that when you switch them off they take a while to cool down so are still giving off a small amount of heat. They are safe too but do get quite hot to touch if you have got small kids around.

andyrpsmith

As I have no gas and have disconnected my awful storage radiators, I use up to 5 Delongi Rapido 3KW oil filled radiators.

Using a consumption meter it shows that on my preferred setting of 3 on the thermostat and two main elements on (1.5 + 1.0KW) the heater is on for 56% of the time. This costs 13.6p per hour to run based on my current 9.69p per unit cost.

This one heater will hold the room (26ft x 15ft) temp at around 18C if the outside temp is 5C or warmer. Below 5C and the walls sap the heat (no cavity as house 300yrs old) I would turn on another Rapido at other end of room.

The trouble with cheap connectors is that they are cheap and flimsy, feet break off if you knock them, timer and thermostat are really cheap and do not work as reliable as the Rapido, some of which i have had for about 10 years and still work perfectly and look as good any any storage heater. Yes that can cost £130 but in my view worth it.

Main things which determine the running costs are:
Cost per unit of electricity
How warm you like the room
Heat loss from the room
How long you have the heater on (timer)
KW output of the heater (too little and heat loss may swamp output from heater)