Should I change to LPG from

Veteransaver

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

KeithLancashure

Thanks 
I have ordered a convector heater which will arrive tomorrow and already had some other electric heaters stored away and also borrowed one so I am reasonably covered  for just the basic rooms 

lohr500

Veteransaver said:

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

How can that be?
If you push say 1kWh into an oil filled radiator, where else can it go, but heat?

QrizB

lohr500 said:

Veteransaver said:

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

How can that be?
If you push say 1kWh into an oil filled radiator, where else can it go, but heat?

I think Veteransaver is saying that eg. a 2kw watt oil-filled heater won't generally output 2000 watts continuously. The surface area won't be great enough to dissipate that much power, so the internal oil thermostat will cause it to cycle.

This does depend on the heater, though. Some have more surface area than others.

lohr500

QrizB said:

lohr500 said:

Veteransaver said:

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

How can that be?
If you push say 1kWh into an oil filled radiator, where else can it go, but heat?

I think Veteransaver is saying that eg. a 2kw watt oil-filled heater won't generally output 2000 watts continuously. The surface area won't be great enough to dissipate that much power, so the internal oil thermostat will cause it to cycle.

This does depend on the heater, though. Some have more surface area than others.

I guess so, but won't it depend on the temperature differential between the room and the heater? 
If you sat the 2kW oil filled heater outside in th efreezing cold, would the thermostat cause it to cycle? 

Very happy with our 3kW DeLonghi oil filled heater on the 1kW setting used in a small office room. It keeps the room nice and warm without the noise associated with a fan heater. When we used a fan heater, it would also cycle on the thermostat.

Veteransaver

QrizB said:

lohr500 said:

Veteransaver said:

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

How can that be?
If you push say 1kWh into an oil filled radiator, where else can it go, but heat?

I think Veteransaver is saying that eg. a 2kw watt oil-filled heater won't generally output 2000 watts continuously. The surface area won't be great enough to dissipate that much power, so the internal oil thermostat will cause it to cycle.

This does depend on the heater, though. Some have more surface area than others.

Yes, exactly, if you consider the size of a standard radiator and how big that needs to be to push out 2000W, it's way way bigger than most oil filled radiators I know of, eg a 1600mm x 500mm high t21 (IE double panel) "ONLY" puts out about 2000W at 75C . And oil is not as good as water for heat transfer either, and they usually run at lower temperature than a central heating rad can run at, and generally they don't have as many convector fins.
You'll notice that oil radiator specifications never list the actual heat output either, only the consumption.
It's why people sometimes believe they are cheaper to run than convectors, it's just because they never actually draw 2kW for the same amount of time as a convector or fan heater.

Veteransaver

lohr500 said:

QrizB said:

lohr500 said:

Veteransaver said:

KeithLancashure said:

Anybody know a good small portable electric heater 
I have a couple of radiator type heaters 
one is a Drayton and the other is a De Lonhi 
just want something small for one of the smaller rooms 

A small fan heater or cheap convector heater. I wouldn't bother with oil based ones as they put out far less heat than their power rating and are generally much more expensive. You can get fan heaters for £10, or convectors for less than £20 if you shop about.

How can that be?
If you push say 1kWh into an oil filled radiator, where else can it go, but heat?

I think Veteransaver is saying that eg. a 2kw watt oil-filled heater won't generally output 2000 watts continuously. The surface area won't be great enough to dissipate that much power, so the internal oil thermostat will cause it to cycle.

This does depend on the heater, though. Some have more surface area than others.

I guess so, but won't it depend on the temperature differential between the room and the heater? 
If you sat the 2kW oil filled heater outside in th efreezing cold, would the thermostat cause it to cycle? 

Very happy with our 3kW DeLonghi oil filled heater on the 1kW setting used in a small office room. It keeps the room nice and warm without the noise associated with a fan heater. When we used a fan heater, it would also cycle on the thermostat.

You're more than welcome to waste your electricity trying that out! It probably will still cycle, only less. But yes theoretically there will be a temperature point where it will dissipate the full 2kW without cycling, Not really sure what relevance that has to the real world use case though.
You can always measure it as an experiment though.
Get a power measuring device, put rad in large coldish room, turn rad thermostat right up. Let oil get to temperature where it stops drawing current, then when it starts drawing current measure how many watts it takes in an hour. That will be a pretty good measurement of its actual heat output in a normal use scenario 

Cit6

All electric heaters are 100% efficient 

KittenChops

KeithLancashure said:

When we bought the house 42 years ago it was and still is an oil fired  boiler system 
Gas is not available as it’s a rural area 
The existing boiler a Firebird external  boiler about 8 years old 
Each time there is a problem with the boiler there is a problem getting an engineer 
Been without heating now for a week and struggling to get it fixed 
Am considering changing to LPG - are there any downsides ? 
 

Have you asked any of your neighbours (assuming they are on oil too) who they use to service their boilers?  

KeithLancashure

Rural only 2 neighbours nearby one is LPG  - will
have to ask the other.