What's the best, cheapest, safest source of heating?

Brie

OK - so not talking about my boiler, radiators or having good insulation.  And I'm not talking about heating the person instead of the room.

What is the best type of heater to get? 

Tiddly fan heater?  (not impressed with ones we've had)
Oil filled heater?  
One of those magical sounding radiant things that heats a room in seconds?

Worried about something falling over and burning the carpet (or the house) as well as economy of use.  Obviously these would all be electric so price per hour would be great if known.

debitcardmayhem

Read this post https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6569611/oil-filled-rad-or-convection-heater#latest

theoretica

Heaters will have their (max) power quoted in W or kW.  A 1 kW heater (1000 W) will use 1 KWh in an hour.  And KWh is what you are billed for with electricity.  (around 25p, but you can use your actual number)  So a 2000 W heater can cost up to 50p an hour.  Turn it to a 900 W setting and expect 22.5p an hour.

Gerry1

All forms of plug in electric room heating are hideously expensive.  No escaping it, it's about four times as expensive as gas.

Brie

Gerry1 said:

All forms of plug in electric room heating are hideously expensive.  No escaping it, it's about four times as expensive as gas.

which is precisely the point of my post.  I can't increase the amount of heat my boiler is producing so I have to go for something that is electric.  Not happy about it but that's reality.  Hence me asking what's the most economical.

lohr500

I know you said you weren't talking about the boiler, radiators, etc but is the heat limitation on the boiler due to it's output, or other factors like flow rate, radiator sizing, air locks, etc?

I'm sure you have checked all of those things, but just wondering what the root cause is and if there is any way of solving it. 

It might be cheaper in the long run to increase the radiator sizes/designs in the problematical rooms, than spend lots of money on expensive electrical supplementary heating. 

Grumpy_chap

All types of electric heater of the type mentioned by the OP have a coefficient of efficiency of "1" so the running cost will be the same regardless.  Pay for 1 kWh or electricity and get 1 kWh of heating in the room.

All modern heaters have inbuilt tilt switches so should switch off if they fall over.

The "economy" then becomes how effective the heater is at heating the desired objective / space.  An oil filled radiator will gently heat the room.  A radiant heater is more directed (as is a fan heater), so can feel cold if moving out of the direct heat path.  However, the same rated heater switched on for the same period of time will get the same temperature in the same room.

Choosing the best heater for the application has to include an element of heat the person or the room consideration.

in some regards, heating has a psychological element to it as well.  Consider shops, it is difficult and expensive to heat the whole shop floor so they install "warm air curtains" at the entrance doors.  From a heating efficiency, these are crazy as the heat is all blown down and half flows straight out the door.  From a customer comfort perspective, they are wonderful as you walk in from the cold outside and say "ooh - it's lovely and warm in here"

matelodave

As said above, there is no economical way of heating with electricity using portable heaters - they are all 100% efficient and all will put out the same amount of heat for the the same amount of electricity. The only difference  being how it feels when its being delivered.

A fan heater will blast it at you so you feel warm pretty quickly, a convector heater warms the air which rises and circulates the room, usually a bit quicker than an oil filled rad which takes longer to warm up and to cool down (but theres no difference in the amount of leccy they take to do it).

A radiant heater looks warmer and feels warmer if you stand in front of it, but again doesn't generate anymore heat for the same amount of leccy and will take just as long and cost the same to warm up a room as any of the others.

born_again

This may help.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6569611/oil-filled-rad-or-convection-heater#latest

A oil filled should not burn anything if tipped over, unlike a fan with a heater element in front.

Personally & I know you said not heat person.
I would go the heat person route. Even down to usb heated clothing. Which would be pretty cheap to recharge battery. While upfront maybe high, return is better.

zxzxzx

It’s all said above, electric is expensive and the benefits are transient. There is another option but you need to invest £500 DIY or £1500 fitted.

An air to air HP will give you a scop of 4 so your 25p per hour becomes 6p ish, comparable with gas…also cools in the summer. 

I have one plus, bottled Calor central heating and a logburner I switch between them depending on how cold my wife is!

FreeBear

zxzxzx said: An air to air HP will give you a scop of 4 so your 25p per hour becomes 6p ish, comparable with gas…also cools in the summer.

Pick the right tariff, and you could be paying as little as ~7p per kWh. That would make a HP 4 times cheaper to run than a gas boiler. In reality, even with a cheap rate of 7p/kWh, daytime and peak rates are likely to be much higher. Looking at the Octopus Cosy tariff for East of England, currently at -

Day rate: 25.81p / kWh

Cosy rate (04:00 - 07:00, 13:00 - 16:00 & 22:00 - 00:00):12.65p / kWh

Peak rate (16:00 - 19:00): 37.42p / kWh