Rented house no boiler and told no repair for two weeks

london21

The temporary heaters LL provided, when you have them on do close the doors to trap the heat.

Hopefully gets sorted soon.
Your landlord is making effort to get it sorted.

I find the warm home slippers and fluffy robe sometimes help.
Heating so expensive nowadays.

Silvertabby

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

Bluebell1000

In our own house, our boiler broke down March 2020. We have a very good working relationship with a nearby heating engineer, and he was able to look next day. It still took a further 2 weeks before he could fit us in for a new boiler (including ordering parts). So the speed your landlord has responded is great. I know it's unpleasant being without heating and hot water, and totally sympathise! Hope you don't have too much longer to wait.

chrisw

Silvertabby said:

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

Fan heaters are also fitted with thermostats to turn off once room temperature has been reached.

Silvertabby

chrisw said:

Silvertabby said:

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

Fan heaters are also fitted with thermostats to turn off once room temperature has been reached.

Then the temperature drops like a stone, because there is no longer a heat source - unlike the oiled filled rad.

Jumblebumble

GDB2222 said:

As a landlord, I've been prepared to pay towards the extra cost of running electric heaters in these circumstances. It just seems fair. 

Me too
I have just had the same issue whereby I could not sort out the central heating for 2 weeks
I gave the tenant 10% off the months rent to compensate for extra electricity etc
They gave me a bottle of wine to thank me which was nice

doodling

Hi,

Silvertabby said:

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

But you are forgetting that the oil filled radiator takes some time to warm up so you don't get any heat when you first turn it on.

Both an oil filled radiator and a fan heater are 100% efficient.  (In the case of a fan heater then 0.01% of the power might make it into another room in the form of noise but I don't think you'll notice that on your bill and it will warm the other room up as well).  They will both deliver the same amount of heat into a room for the same cost.

As you observe, they do have different characteristics in terms of how the heat is directed and how the amount of heat changes in response to a thermostatic control but that won't affect running cost for the same overall amount of heating.

Unless the OP has a good reason why fan heaters are inappropriate (they need to meditate in silence or have a dust allergy?) then replacing them with something else is pointless expense.

Silvertabby

doodling said:

Hi,

Silvertabby said:

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

But you are forgetting that the oil filled radiator takes some time to warm up so you don't get any heat when you first turn it on.

Both an oil filled radiator and a fan heater are 100% efficient.  (In the case of a fan heater then 0.01% of the power might make it into another room in the form of noise but I don't think you'll notice that on your bill and it will warm the other room up as well).  They will both deliver the same amount of heat into a room for the same cost.

As you observe, they do have different characteristics in terms of how the heat is directed and how the amount of heat changes in response to a thermostatic control but that won't affect running cost for the same overall amount of heating.

Unless the OP has a good reason why fan heaters are inappropriate (they need to meditate in silence or have a dust allergy?) then replacing them with something else is pointless expense.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one!  Our own experience is based on our used-all--year-round conservatory, so basically colder than a normal room.

Our Dyson hot/cold gives the initial blast while the oil filled rad heats up and takes over.  Our old oil-filled gave up the ghost last year, and we were a bit lazy in buying a replacement -  we certainly saw a hike in our leccy bill for that month.  

princeofpounds

Silvertabby said:

doodling said:

Hi,

Silvertabby said:

daveyjp said:

Silvertabby said:

2 weeks really isn't unreasonable for a new boiler.  As has already been said, oil filled radiators are much cheaper to run than fan heaters.  If your landlord can't supply one, then have a look in Argos.

This is incorrect advice.

All electric heaters of the same output cost the same to run whether it be fan, convector or oil filled.  OP shouldn't therefore waste money on new heaters.

You are forgetting that when an oil filled rad reaches temp, it switches itself off but keeps radiating heat for some time.  A fan heater, however, has to keep going.

But you are forgetting that the oil filled radiator takes some time to warm up so you don't get any heat when you first turn it on.

Both an oil filled radiator and a fan heater are 100% efficient.  (In the case of a fan heater then 0.01% of the power might make it into another room in the form of noise but I don't think you'll notice that on your bill and it will warm the other room up as well).  They will both deliver the same amount of heat into a room for the same cost.

As you observe, they do have different characteristics in terms of how the heat is directed and how the amount of heat changes in response to a thermostatic control but that won't affect running cost for the same overall amount of heating.

Unless the OP has a good reason why fan heaters are inappropriate (they need to meditate in silence or have a dust allergy?) then replacing them with something else is pointless expense.

I think we'll have to agree to disagree on this one! 

It's basic physics. When energy is transferred from one form (electricity) to most other forms (e.g. movement), then it is typically never a 100% efficient process, because there is always an increase in entropy. For practical purposes, that means there is some waste heat.

If you are converting electrical energy into heat, then waste energy is not an issue. So practically all the electrical power will be converted into heat. The exceptions, as cited, will be incredibly tiny amounts of energy in noise and air movement (as these require much less energy than heating an air mass), but those too will mostly dissipate into heat within the room.

Issues around how quickly and slowly heaters heat up and cool down are important, but they are control system issues. The fact that an oil heater has a high thermal mass in the oil simply means that there is some inertia in how it behaves - it will take longer to heat up, and will cool down more slowly.

Murphybear

You’ve been very lucky.  If you had owned the house and had to find a strange plumber online I suspect you would have ended up with a much longer wait.

Good letting agents often have “pet” plumbers who do a lot of work for them and as a result get priority for emergencies.  I am speaking from personal experience here