heater,how much

rossireps

hi sorry if this is a stupid question
does anyone know how to work out how much it would cost to have a heater on. its oil filled rad i think and says its 1200kw. i pay 13p a unit electric. also how much a electric blanket a double that says 2x 150w
managed well without much heating but now its freezing and my flats so damp,if i dont have any on i get mould thanks

chris1973

A 1200w heater will consume a maximum of 1.2 units per hour, which on your current tariff would cost 1.2 x 0.13 = £0.156

So 15.6p per hour to run

If the heater has a built in thermostat then it will cycle on / off as the room reaches the desired temperature, although I suspect in the middle of winter with the minus temperatures and current snow cover most places have, a 1200w heater won't really be keeping the room very warm unless its a very small, well insulated room, so expect it to be on more than its off, so take the above 15.6p per hour as a worse case to budget against, and anything less than that, as a bonus.

A 2x 150w double blanket will consume a total of 300w so 0.3kw, and using the same equation as above

0.3 x 0.13 = £0.039 so 3.9p per hour to run. Again some blankets have built in thermostats or individual temperature controls, so if set at a low to medium setting, the actual cost may be lower than this in real time use, however again, use the calculation as a worst case running cost, based on the blanket heating continuously.

Incidentally i've lived in my share of damp flats, and found that the mould was caused by condensation, appearing on the cold walls of the unheated rooms, because the other rooms were warm. The only real way of stopping this was to background heat the 'cold' room to a similar temperature as any other heated rooms, in order to stop the condensation forming. However, whilst this is great for those with central heating, using Electricity to do this costs a damn fortune.

Another alternative is to keep the window open in the 'cold' room during the time that the rest of the house is heated (ie druing the day), but again at this time of year, you'll then need to heat the room from the outside temperature (-3 here at the moment) once you have closed the window, meaning a lot of heat from a large electric heater before the room can be occupied.

Unfortunately Electricity is one of the most expensive methods of heating, and the costs soon add up, especially when used several hours per day.

rogerblack

The oil filled rad will presumably be 1200W - this is 1.2kW (the k means thousand).

To run a 1000W (1kW) load for an hour uses 1kWh - one killowatt hour.
Or one thousand watt-hours.

This is a 'unit' of electricity, which costs you 13p.

Your 1.2kW oil filled heater will use 1.2kWh per hour, or about 16p, if it is on, and the thermostat isn't turning it on and off.

An electric blanket - it seems likely that it's in fact 2 halves at 75W, not 300W total - at a total of 150W (.15kW) - will use 0.15 units per hour - or about a unit a night, 13p/night.

sniggings

rossireps wrote: »

hi sorry if this is a stupid question
does anyone know how to work out how much it would cost to have a heater on. its oil filled rad i think and says its 1200kw. i pay 13p a unit electric. also how much a electric blanket a double that says 2x 150w
managed well without much heating but now its freezing and my flats so damp,if i dont have any on i get mould thanks

just to save on any confusion, it's most likely 1200 watts not Kw, as above a 1kw heater will struggle to heat a half decent size room, most likely you will need a 2kw or a 3kw or 2 or 3 of your 1kw heaters.

rossireps

thanks all very much
i can deal with the damp in bathroom but the other day woke up to find brown crap on my ceiling in the living room . so decided id try and warm it a bit. it has been better in last few days. it doesnt help that my letting agent is basically an !!!! and just does nothing. my hall is colder than outside. i have blanket by living room dr to help with draughts and under my duvet(heated) when i can.
so in really plain terms how much roughly would it cost per day to have the duvet(heated) on? if i use it say 4hrs.
i do have heaters on the wall but not sure what they are so not sure on cost but ill try and find out. thankyou very much.

sniggings

rossireps wrote: »

thanks all very much
i can deal with the damp in bathroom but the other day woke up to find brown crap on my ceiling in the living room . so decided id try and warm it a bit. it has been better in last few days. it doesnt help that my letting agent is basically an !!!! and just does nothing. my hall is colder than outside. i have blanket by living room dr to help with draughts and under my duvet(heated) when i can.
so in really plain terms how much roughly would it cost per day to have the duvet(heated) on? if i use it say 4hrs.
i do have heaters on the wall but not sure what they are so not sure on cost but ill try and find out. thankyou very much.

less than 10p a day.

and your 1200watt heat will cost about 15p an hour to run.

rossireps

thanks sniggings really apreciated