Which electric radiator for my flat, oil, water or panel

HugsyMalone

Sorry if this is the wrong section for this particular question but I need help.

I only have electric running in my flat and currently running on standard tariff but have the option to change to eco7.

All the storage heaters had been ripped out by the previous owner and as you can guess it is pretty damn cold day and night.

What I want to know is the pros and cons of Oil, Water and Panel electric heaters. I need one 2kw heater for the living room/kitchen which has two external walls and one 1kw heater for the bedroom which has one external wall. All windows are double glazed.

Which is best at distributing heat?
Cheapest to run? (Approx 6 hours a day)
Quietest?
Safest? (In terms of likely to set on fire or scorch the wall)

People have warned me about oil filled ones with no real explanation as to why, apparently water (gel) are very expensive to purchase but not heard much else, and panel heaters apparently are noisy when the metal expands (not an issue with others?) and create a dry heat (which is less preferable). is this all true?

Been lied to by a couple of salesmen who over charged by about £2000 and obviously were trying to sell their product by slandering others.

Any help will be appreciated massively.

Thank you!

daveyjp

All heaters of equal output cost the same to run.

Which you would like is down to which your prefer.

Oil heaters take longer to heat up, but hold heat longer once turned off.

Panel heaters give instant heat, but go cold as soon as they are turned off.

No need to spend more than £100 and £40-50 will get you heaters which will do the job.

Dimplex, De Longhi are two long established manufacturers which don't sell by telling lies.

ComicGeek

Or use modern storage heaters which perform much better than the old types - but definitely not for everyone!

How is your hot water generated? Another question is whether it's more cost effective overall to use economy 7 for hot water cylinder and storage heaters, or standard tariff for cylinder and direct heaters - that will depend on your required heating hours, occupancy patterns, insulation standards of the flat, how patient you are, etc?

goodwithsaving

Can you get economy 10? Then you can get your washing done and have heating in the evening when you're in, warm the water tank overnight. It can be annoying being on restricted tariffs but you learn to live around it.
Storage heaters are inflexible. If you've renovated or it's a nice place, I'd go for electric radiators to be honest.
Oil filled take a while to heat but retain heat once switched off. Panel ones don't. Gel ones are a bit like oil ones and retain heat after switch off.
Personally, instant heat is more of a benefit but it depends what you are after.
Buy one to try out before committing to buying many. See if you are able to send it back to swap if it isn't suitable.

coffeehound

Oil-filled panels are the best in my humble since they produce more radiant heat than convected air. As you suggest, convectors and fan heaters do dry out the air more.

If you are staying there longer term then storage heaters on Economy 7 would be the way to go. But to get through this Winter and Spring, you could look for secondhand oil-filled heaters on Ebay, Gumtree etc. A DeLonghi heater I have here cost 99p on ebay.

Site heaters against an internal wall to reduce losses.

YORKSHIRELASS

Heaters differ in that anything like a fan heater will give powerful instant heat but you wouldnt want them to be left unattended. Others like oil heaters heat up and cool down slowly but are safe to be left unattended, we have one that has a timer on it.

As for cost - our electricity costs 12.5p per kwh. So any 2000w heater left on full for 1 hour would cost 25p. You can see how the costs could start to add up, however many oil heaters have a thermostat on them so you wouldnt need to leave it on full.

Oil heaters are an excellent choice in my opinion - silent and fairly cheap to buy, we use a Swan oil filled radiator in our home office - just be aware of how much electricity you are using.

macman

If you don't use NSH's, then you will need to switch away from E7 to a single rate tariff, which will usually require a meter change-check with your supplier.
Even after that, you will still be paying about 300% more than for E7, unless you are nocturnal.
As stated above, the costs per kW output are the same regardless of type, since all are 100% efficient.

DominicH

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

As for cost - our electricity costs 12.5p per kwh. So any 2000w heater left on full for 1 hour would cost 25p. You can see how the costs could start to add up, however many oil heaters have a thermostat on them so you wouldnt need to leave it on full.

When I was in this situation -- no functional central heating for several months, in winter -- I found that to maintain a comfortable temperature in a small house I needed a couple of 2kW heaters and when in use their thermostats had them running about one third of the time. So it would be about 8p per hour per heater, at times of peak usage. Total maybe £1.60 per day. I remember being surprised -- I thought it would be ruinously expensive. Given that that was in winter, I could have heated the house this way for maybe £350 per year.
The problem was that unlike central heating, it doesn't heat the fabric of the building very much. So when the heaters went off, or somebody had an external door open, the house got cold very quickly. Also, you need a water heater. I had an immersion heater, but it was a bit inconvenient.

HugsyMalone

Just to update and answer some questions;

First off I have a separate immersion heater for the hot water. Personally am staying away from storage and eco7 as my shifts vary and can be in during the day a lot of the time and the main feature is also to wall mount the heaters rather than go portable.

Spoke to the heatershop if anyone has any options on them and they also suggested Oil over anything else specifically the brands Rointe and Elnur. Does anyone have any options on these brands? Is there anything about oil that I should be concerned or aware of?

Also they informed me about ceramic / clay filled heaters are there any options on these.

Cheers for all the help!

Jackmydad

DominicH wrote: »

When I was in this situation -- no functional central heating for several months, in winter -- I found that to maintain a comfortable temperature in a small house I needed a couple of 2kW heaters and when in use their thermostats had them running about one third of the time. So it would be about 8p per hour per heater, at times of peak usage. Total maybe £1.60 per day. I remember being surprised -- I thought it would be ruinously expensive. Given that that was in winter, I could have heated the house this way for maybe £350 per year.
The problem was that unlike central heating, it doesn't heat the fabric of the building very much. So when the heaters went off, or somebody had an external door open, the house got cold very quickly. Also, you need a water heater. I had an immersion heater, but it was a bit inconvenient.

Had the heating off here last week for a couple of days waiting for spares for the boiler. An oil filled rad, and a convector at 2kW each kept us OK. As you say, not quite as good as the CH for the reasons you give.
I reckon it was costing us just a bit more than you, but I only checked roughly. Not disasterous in any case.

Scatty

I have 2 Rointe electric radiators, installed by my landlord. I have them running for a total of 3 hours upstairs (1 hour morning, 2 hours 8-10) and 6 downstairs (1 hour morning, 5 hours evening). When the weather is as it is now (10 degrees or so) they are good (they are set at 23 degrees). In the cold snap they were less efficient and my one bed quarter house was permanently about 12 degrees. I supplemented with an electric blanket and electric throw! I have the BG freetime tariff (no haters please, been there done that) and I average £2.90 a day with a gas cooker so both electric and gas standing charges. Not too bad but could be better. They are hellish to programme though!