Central gas heating or separate oil filled radiator to heat up one room?

ozner

Central gas heating or separate oil filled radiator to heat up one room?

I have an annex (1bedroom/1 shower room/ small hall / office/kitchenette) with its own combi boiler. 

During the day we use only one of those rooms (office).  What’s the cheapest way to keep it warm. 1) Using the boiler but turning off all radiators but the one in the office or 2) using a separate oil filled radiator like this ( https://www.appliancesdirect.co.uk/p/trns0505m/de-longhi-trns0505m-heater?refsource=apadwords&gclid=CjwKCAjw-eKpBhAbEiwAqFL0mmvACUW9IGOqFoFQbGyhhiDGHlIb6XF_XcSClK9izINbG4ZP3kDKphoCsS4QAvD_BwE )

ThisIsWeird

Gas. Pretty much every time.

When you turn off the other - unused - rads, also try and turn your boiler's output temp to as low as still effectively heats that remaining room. The boiler will hopefully be largely ticking-over, and be in near-full condensing mode too.

Also, you should ideally have the room stat in that room, and any TRVs fully open - on '5' (so they are not working).

If you turn the boiler down too low, you may find it doesn't heat the room effectively or quickly enough, and it'll be running almost constantly - clearly that's too low! Does the boiler have a CH flow temp readout?

If you do go leccy, then oil-filled are the nicest way, I think, to warm a room, but it's still using the same amount of electricity as any electrical heater, and that costs.

markin

If you need cooling in the summer anyway then a split A/C unit  that can heat can match Gas if its getting a cop of 3+

Albermarle

Not quite the same situation, but when I worked from home, the desk was in a cold corner of what had been a bedroom( older part of the house with only a solid wall) . Even with the CH on it still felt a bit cold, especially as you are not moving about. However with one of these small oil filled radiators jammed under the desk ( in fact the exact same one in the link) it kept me nice and warm.
Previously had used a fan heater, but they use more electricity and you tend to get too warm and then it switches itself off, and then you are soon cold again.
So probably a 0.5KW oil filed radiator will struggle to keep the whole room warm, but OK and safe to sit very close to one and they only use about 0.25KW per hour if you do not have the thermostat on full. 

factor29

I have an oil filled radiator. Costs between 8p-12p an hour to run and keep the living room warm while I work from home. Less once its warmer. 

Central heating costs me around £1.50 an hour. 

FreeBear

ThisIsWeird said:

Gas. Pretty much every time.

When you turn off the other - unused - rads, also try and turn your boiler's output temp to as low as still effectively heats that remaining room. The boiler will hopefully be largely ticking-over, and be in near-full condensing mode too.

...

If you turn the boiler down too low, you may find it doesn't heat the room effectively or quickly enough, and it'll be running almost constantly - clearly that's too low! Does the boiler have a CH flow temp readout?

If the boiler will modulate down low enough to tick over with just one radiator, this may work. If it doesn't modulate low enough, the boiler will "short cycle" - This is inefficient and can reduce the working life of the boiler.

Yorkie1

I have an ancient oil-filled panel radiator which has a built in thermostatic dial.

It sits immediately behind the chair I use in my draughty (former) dining room - now used as my office when WFH.

In previous years, I had it on a very low setting when needed, so it will cycle on and off while I'm sitting there. Essentially heating me rather than the rest of the room. Haven't needed to use it yet this year, but will adopt the same approach.

I think I did the maths when we all had to start WFH in the pandemic, and it was quite a bit cheaper to run the radiator than to heat a fairly draughty 3-bed semi. Not sure how the calculations would pan out now that electricity prices have gone up so much though.

sk2402005

In your circumstance with a small property, its probably about the same cost to heat your entire property with the central heating as one room with electric.

If it were a much bigger house (3 bed or bigger) then it would be cheaper just to heat one room.

Its basically because gas is 3 x cheaper then electic per kwh.

Albermarle

sk2402005 said:

In your circumstance with a small property, its probably about the same cost to heat your entire property with the central heating as one room with electric.

If it were a much bigger house (3 bed or bigger) then it would be cheaper just to heat one room.

Its basically because gas is 3 x cheaper then electic per kwh.

Also it probably depends on how cold it really is outside. If it is freezing or thereabouts, you would probably have the central heating on some of the time anyway. Even if you work in one room, you still have use the bathroom, kitchen etc and if the house gets too cold it can be difficult to heat up later.
Plus the colder the weather the more a 0.5Kw oil radiator will struggle as well.