best electrical heaters

eyeofthetiger999

Hi. I am looking at an electrical heater for my solar pv system to power in winter/spring. I have come across various types such as fan/convectors/halogen/oil based radiators. Halogen and oil based systems seem most attractive to me but i have heard mixed reports on the halogens, namely that the bulbs break down and that the bright lights can be a problem. They are much cheaper then oil based ones though.

Anyone have any personal experiences of any type?

Martyn1981

Hiya. I'm happy with my oil rad, been using it for 4 years. Have to pick and choose days based on weather, of course.

Mine is 400/700/1100W, but is only used as 400W.

Wish I'd bought a bigger one, just because it spends half the time off, as it gets (itself) warm). So the more fins the better.

Coincidence, I saw a 1500W model that looked good in Morrisions yesterday. Reduced from £29 to £22 which sounds excellent, and was 7 fins (I think). Tried to see what its options were, to make sure there was a low setting (presumably 2 elements 500W & 1000W) but it wasn't obvious on the box, and Fifi (guide dog puppy) decided she'd help by chewing the corner of the box, so ...... time to leave.

I'm reasonably convinced that running my rad on leccy is better than heating whole house on gas, when you just need the chill removed in one room. However, I'm far happier when there's 400W spare leccy, so do consider the lower outputs, and how often you'll have that available.

My E/W split means I have a much lower peak during the day than south(ish) systems will have, hence my need for low rating, but your options may be better.

Mart.

Crowmann

I have just fitted a 2.7kw storage heater in the hall to the second outlet on the iBoost.


Yesterday it was toasty warm and with the fan output it gave out a nice warm breeze until around 10pm.


My thinking was I wanted a heat store and one with sufficient capacity to take every thing off the array not otherwise used within the house. I believe it will achieve that - I reckon it probably can accept around 15kw of heat and then release over time.

HappyMJ

eyeofthetiger999 wrote: »

Hi. I am looking at an electrical heater for my solar pv system to power in winter/spring. I have come across various types such as fan/convectors/halogen/oil based radiators. Halogen and oil based systems seem most attractive to me but i have heard mixed reports on the halogens, namely that the bulbs break down and that the bright lights can be a problem. They are much cheaper then oil based ones though.

Anyone have any personal experiences of any type?

Solar PV isn't going to be generating much energy so I'd go with the oil filled radiator and leave it on the 400W setting. It'll keep the chill off one room. It won't be really warm but it also won't be freezing either.

Crowmann

Wrong.


Yesterday was mixed here generating 9KW of which the storage heater took 5.25Kw, the rest was used by the house.


That was an average day in January - the system will and has thrown off nearly 4kw of power since fitting in November. To want to use only a tenth of that system and divert the rest to the grid seems dumb.


Obviously you need a diversion switch but otherwise storage heaters are a no brainer in terms of heat and usage.

HappyMJ

Crowmann wrote: »

Wrong.


Yesterday was mixed here generating 9KW of which the storage heater took 5.25Kw, the rest was used by the house.


That was an average day in January - the system will and has thrown off nearly 4kw of power since fitting in November. To want to use only a tenth of that system and divert the rest to the grid seems dumb.


Obviously you need a diversion switch but otherwise storage heaters are a no brainer in terms of heat and usage.

400W times 8 hours is 3.2kWh.

The house as you say will use the rest.

When the output is highest in the middle of the day the heater could be turned up to 800W for a few hours.

Crowmann

My point is storage heaters can swallow whatever is coming off the system - perhaps as much as 2.7kw an hour (obviously size related - both heater and array). Over say 6 hours you could grab 15Kw just on that alone and fully automated.


That will make it one hot storage heater that will continue to release energy long after the array has gone off. Oil heaters go cold pretty quickly.


Any how for those reading the thread - storage heater attached to a diverter work well and for the cost (secondhand off the Bay) and some elementary wiring make financial sense.

eyeofthetiger999

Hi. Thanks for your replies. I agree with most people here. My gas boiler switched on fully uses 50p a gas per hour. A 1.5kw oil radiator will use approx 17p per hour. Therefore if I am home alone it does not make sense to heat up all house if I am in 1 room and hence why I looked in this. Now if I use during the day the cost will probably be zero as long as the setting matches the solar PV output. Yesterday on a cloudless day in Rochdale I generated 1.7kwh for approx 3-4 hours so could have had a 1.5kwh radiator on full power. I believe this could reduce gas bills significantly as even as Mart says, if its cloudy you could put it on a 400w or 500w lower power setting. I reckon the reduction in gas could fund the radiator in a year or so!


Mart thanks for heads up on Morrisons deal, I will look into this!


BTW can someone advise on how to put a signature on your posts( I want to put my solar PV info) .Thanks

Exiled_Tyke

Consistent with the suggestions above my views are:

1. Go with something cheap. Heat is heat and there is little difference in the products so don't spend unnecessarily too much when a cheaper solution works.
2. Control is key. Something with plenty of output settings (and not just thermostatic on/off0 that can be matched to excess PV output.
3. Personally I prefer a heater with a fan in it to blast the warm air into the room quickly when the PV output gets to a sufficient level. But to balance this there does seem to be more choice of radiators with variable (and relatively low) consumption settings.
4. I can't speak from experience about Halogens but wouldn't expect the elements to last as long as other heaters.

I had a quick look round and noticed that a famous hughstreet catalogue store offered lots of choice and had a fan heater that meets my personal criteria.

Exiled_Tyke

Yesterday on a cloudless day in Rochdale I generated 1.7kwh for approx 3-4 hours so could have had a 1.5kwh radiator on full power.

This would suggest 1.7kwh would have meant production at 425-570W over the 3 or 4 hour period.

ajbell

I have an iboost connected to my immersion.
Do they have a second output I can connect to a heater.
Some days I have a hot tank and start exporting after charging every device in my house.