Infrared heating experience?

movilogo

I have an oil filled radiator. It seems the worst of all. It only get lukewarm and works best as a supplemental heating. 

Ebe_Scrooge

movilogo said:

I have an oil filled radiator. It seems the worst of all. It only get lukewarm and works best as a supplemental heating. 

What power output is it (KW)?  Given the limitations of plug-in heaters, no plug-in electric heater is going to kick out as much heat as as proper central heating.  As mentioned previously, if you want anything greater than 3KW then you'd be looking at a proper installation with dedicated wiring.

Honestly, from what you describe I really think the best option in the long term would be to add central heating radiators to those rooms that don't currently have them.  Given that you've already got the boiler, you're not looking at a huge amount of money to add a few more radiators, even taking into account the extra pipework that would be required.

The only caveat to that would be the output of the current boiler - will it be capable of powering an additional 6 radiators or whatever?  Any decent plumber/heating engineer should be able to advise you.  Of course, if it turns out that's you'd need a bigger boiler then that's going to be further expense.  But at least you can get some quotes and make a decision from there.

But hopefully you'll find that the existing boiler can cope, in which case I would have thought adding extra rads where needed would be the obvious choice.

grumbler

movilogo said:

I have an oil filled radiator. It seems the worst of all. It only get lukewarm and works best as a supplemental heating. 

Measure the power it consumes. Its thermostat can be faulty.

movilogo

Given the limitations of plug-in heaters, no plug-in electric heater is going to kick out as much heat as as proper central heating.

I think that's the main problem

The only caveat to that would be the output of the current boiler - will it be capable of powering an additional 6 radiators or whatever?

The boiler is new as fitted only few days back. The gas engineering who fitted I mentioned in future I'd would like to add extra radiators and he said he fitted a boiler which will cope with that - so no issue on that front. 

Ebe_Scrooge

movilogo said:

The only caveat to that would be the output of the current boiler - will it be capable of powering an additional 6 radiators or whatever?

The boiler is new as fitted only few days back. The gas engineering who fitted I mentioned in future I'd would like to add extra radiators and he said he fitted a boiler which will cope with that - so no issue on that front. 

Well in that case I really would be getting quotes for adding extra rads.  It will obviously involve some initial outlay, but in terms of both comfort and ongoing running costs it's a no-brainer.

movilogo

One thing I am really confused why electric heating feels not as warm as GCH. The GCH radiators also warms the room via convection, which is same mechanism as electric radiators.

Is it because electric radiators are typically 2-3 kW where as GCH boilers are 20-30 kW? or due to something else?

YoungBlueEyes

I had a halogen heater in my bedroom when I was growing up. It was warm to stand in front of to get undressed for bed, but nothing more than that iirc. 

I bought an oil filled rad after that, and that deffo got hot and properly heated the whole room. 

Ebe_Scrooge

movilogo said:

Is it because electric radiators are typically 2-3 kW where as GCH boilers are 20-30 kW? or due to something else?

That's about the size of it, yep.  The biggest "thing" you can plug into an ordinary 13-amp socket is 3KW, which is not much more than a decent kettle or iron.  A central heating boiler will, as you say, pump out far more than 3KW.  Although, bear in mind that the output from the boiler is distributed throughout the system.

Also, if the system has been installed properly, the radiators will be correctly sized for each room.  So you might have a small radiator in the bathroom but a big one (or possible more than one) in the living room, for instance.  So you should get a more "even" heat throughout the house.

grumbler

movilogo said:

Is it because electric radiators are typically 2-3 kW where as GCH boilers are 20-30 kW? or due to something else?

One boiler heats many radiators. I have 7 in my very small house. Now, divide 20-30kW by the number of radiators you need in your house...