Most efficient electric heaters?

mark19851234

Hi

I am looking to replace our current electric radiators as they are really expensive to run and dont seem to put out much heat. The model we have is. heatstore HSDR1000T (1000W). Would an oil based electric heater be more efficient? We have an electric towl rail rated at only 400W which seems to heat the bathroom just as well.

Best Regards
Mark

mark19851234

I just realised i put heaters. I am talking about electric radiators. Thanks again!

Aylesbury_Duck

All electric heaters have the same efficiency, because they convert pretty much 100% of the input electricity into heat.  A 1kW radiator costs twice as much to run per hour as a 500W radiator, for example, but the 500W radiator would need to be on for twice as long to heat the same room to the same temperature.  It's more about whether you have access to a cheap night-time tariff, which would make storage heaters a cheaper solution than normal electric radiators, for example.  

coffeehound

How big is the room you need to heat?

mark19851234

Aylesbury_Duck said:

All electric heaters have the same efficiency, because they convert pretty much 100% of the input electricity into heat.  A 1kW radiator costs twice as much to run per hour as a 500W radiator, for example, but the 500W radiator would need to be on for twice as long to heat the same room to the same temperature.  It's more about whether you have access to a cheap night-time tariff, which would make storage heaters a cheaper solution than normal electric radiators, for example.  

Hi. Thanks for this. I do understand that but there are different types of electric heaters such as oil based electric heaters.

mark19851234

coffeehound said:

How big is the room you need to heat?

Hi. It is a a newly built single floor annex with a living room, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom. Probably 6m x 30m. Relatively small

doodling

Hi,

mark19851234 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

All electric heaters have the same efficiency, because they convert pretty much 100% of the input electricity into heat.  A 1kW radiator costs twice as much to run per hour as a 500W radiator, for example, but the 500W radiator would need to be on for twice as long to heat the same room to the same temperature.  It's more about whether you have access to a cheap night-time tariff, which would make storage heaters a cheaper solution than normal electric radiators, for example.  

Hi. Thanks for this. I do understand that but there are different types of electric heaters such as oil based electric heaters.

Yes there are different type of electric heaters and they all have the same efficiency.

Pick the type you like, but more expensive types will be exactly the same efficiency (and hence same running cost) as cheap ones.

Astria

mark19851234 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

All electric heaters have the same efficiency, because they convert pretty much 100% of the input electricity into heat.  A 1kW radiator costs twice as much to run per hour as a 500W radiator, for example, but the 500W radiator would need to be on for twice as long to heat the same room to the same temperature.  It's more about whether you have access to a cheap night-time tariff, which would make storage heaters a cheaper solution than normal electric radiators, for example.  

Hi. Thanks for this. I do understand that but there are different types of electric heaters such as oil based electric heaters.

But they all cost the same to run.

If you have access to a tariff such as E7 then you can use storage heaters which will be less as they'll warm up during the night and release the heat during the day.

ProDave

the only way you will get better "efficiency" from electric heating is with a heat pump. That extracts heat from the air (or the ground) and for heating gives you roughly 3kW of heat for every 1kW of electricity it consumes.

the only difference between an oil filled heater and a direct convector heater is the time they take to warm up and start delivering heat and that means they also cool down slower, but overall they give the same amount of heat for the same cost.

Gerry1

The only difference in efficiency of resistive heaters is that modern High Heat Retention Night Storage Heaters use less energy to keep you warm because they don't leak so much heat when it's not needed, e.g. overnight and if you're out during the day.  It's rather like the difference between a hot water bottle and a vacuum flask.

Running costs of correctly programmed NSHs are lower than with panel radiators because you can use the (relatively) cheap overnight rates on Economy 7.

But if you want lower bills you should make every effort to avoid electrical heating, and don't even think of an electric boiler with wet radiators.

Aylesbury_Duck

mark19851234 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

All electric heaters have the same efficiency, because they convert pretty much 100% of the input electricity into heat.  A 1kW radiator costs twice as much to run per hour as a 500W radiator, for example, but the 500W radiator would need to be on for twice as long to heat the same room to the same temperature.  It's more about whether you have access to a cheap night-time tariff, which would make storage heaters a cheaper solution than normal electric radiators, for example.  

Hi. Thanks for this. I do understand that but there are different types of electric heaters such as oil based electric heaters.

Which makes no difference to efficiency.  A 1kW electric heater costs the same to run per hour, whether it's filled with oil, water, custard or whatever you choose to fill it with.

If oil-filled heaters were somehow magically more efficient than other types, the other types would have been discontinued long before now.