Best standby electric heater?

Leblanc_2

We had a c.h. problem over Xmas and New Year holidays.

I resolved to obtain a back up electric heater just in case we have a repeat problem.

The room is a fairly large open plan lounge/kitchen.

We would like something that is efficient, reasonably economical and doesn't take up too much space when stored.

Any suggestions as to which heater?

teddysmum

We bought a Delonghi oil filled radiator when our gas heating failed. It did increase the electricity cost, when on full setting, but it is now there for use in the kitchen, which has no radiator and was the safest option over fan or halogen heater as we have dogs who could have been hurt by these.

molerat

I have 2 x 2Kw fan heaters. Not particularly cheap to run but small and cheap and did the job when the heating broke down a few years back. All electric heaters are "efficient" in as much as they put out just about the same as you put in.

HanTon

Did you consider an IR heaters?

stator

Oil filled radiators are similar to central heating, they will give a similar effect. They are safe to use and can be purchased with integrated timers and thermostat controls. You can stick them in the loft when not using them, but they are a bit heavy to lift. The downside is that like central heating, they are quite slow.
Fan heaters I don't like because they dry out the air and give a smell of burnt dust, but they are very fast at heating. You wouldn't leave one unattended
Halogen / Infrared heaters are quite good at heating individual spots/people but not good at heating whole rooms. You wouldn't leave one unattended

RebTech

stator wrote: »

Fan heaters I don't like because they dry out the air and give a smell of burnt dust, but they are very fast at heating.

Sorry but all electric heaters "dry out the air", because the warmer the air the lower its relative humidity, and unlike some others electric heaters don't contribute any humidity themselves. Fan heaters just have a more obvious effect because it happens faster.

And they only burn dust if they've been unused for a while. Granted, that's relevant in this context, but on the other hand it's only for a few minutes when they're first switched on. On the other (third) hand, they can be quite noisy.

r2015

Sorry but all electric heaters "dry out the air",

So do hot water filled radiators as my wife has found out.

Just because they are filled with water doesn't increase the humidity of the room.

RebTech

r2015 wrote: »

So do hot water filled radiators as my wife has found out.

Well in fact all forms of heating that don't actually give off water vapour dry out the air. I had a mandolin, a family heirloom, ruined (cracked) by central heating. I've heard that all kinds of musical instruments were damaged when central heating first became widespread.

teddysmum

Another advantage of an oil filled radiator is that it gives off heat after being switched off.

Nada666

teddysmum wrote: »

Another advantage of an oil filled radiator is that it gives off heat after being switched off.

But you've already paid for that heat - both in money and the time spent shivering at the start waiting to receive any warmth when it was too busy heating its own internals rather than you!

Richie-from-the-Boro

Effective and competitively economic in an emergency I reach for this because it works, is instant, will bring a large room to 22°C within only minutes and will bring a whole small house [door open] to temperature very very quickly. What more can I say? the power of the 10" fan to blow the whole house, flame failure sensors, CO2 detection and switches off if it falls over or is knocked over and more than adequate for most average sized living rooms or an entire small flat or house. Its the quickness of the move from 16°C to 21°C

Whole big house or flat - get the 4.5kW instead of this 3.2kW version.