Oil filled radiators

The 'occasional use' will be because of the expense of running ANY form of electrical heating on a 'normal'(i.e 24/7 and not Economy 7) tariff.


It is important that you appreciate the ALL electrical heating produces EXACTLY the same amount of heat for the same running cost. That applies to all heaters from a £10 fan heater to heaters filled with any substance known to man and costing well over £1,000.

As an oil filled radiator isn't all that expensive you could buy one and see if it keeps you warm and trialling it for how much energy it will be using at the peak rate - which is when you'll be using it.

Lots to choose from here - https://www.argos.co.uk/search/oil-filled-radiator/

Dont forget to completely turn off your storage heaters and only heat your hot water during the day so you can get a proper comparison. Dont cheat by leaving your hot water on over night during the off peak period.

If you do it properly then you won't have any off peak use at all during the trial period and you'll get a proper comparison.

Try it for a couple of weeks, one full week (including a weekend) the way you do it now with the storage heaters and then one (again with a weekend) with just using peak rate energy and heating with your oil filled radiator. Over Xmas with the oil filled rad would be a good test for when you are at home all day and you'll see if it keeps you warm enough.

Read the meters daily and see how much you use then multiply it by the best single rate deal you can get to see how it compares to what you use and how much it costs at the present. .

Please report back with your findings.

OwenPerkins wrote: »

Hi. I'm considering removing my old storage heaters, coming off economy 7, and installing oil filled radiators instead. Some, eg DeLonghi, say the heaters are for occasional use only while others do not. Obviously in the winter I would use the thermostat and timers to use as ;little electric as possible but would still need them to be on in the evenings and some during the day. Does anyone know why some are tagged for occasional use only? Thank you

Tariff v Type

You "live" in one room for 99% of you domestic waking life. The biggest cost in room / water is your tariff not the type of heating. going from E7 to a 'core' rate tariff will put an instant 30% addition cost on every kWh [water & body heat] you use in a 12 month cycle.

- change your living area NSH for a bigger / more storage of the cheap stuff
- close the [output] damper tight and set it to input to maximum
- switch off kitchen / bedroom / bathroom NSH
- install on-demand only panels in the kitchen / bedroom / bathroom

Panel heaters

Widely misused and misunderstood term.

Convection B]bad[/B heaters, heat rooms by warming by rising air. so - seagulls and ceilings.

Radiated B]good[/B heat warms the solid items, so like the sun - sideboard chairs and human bodies.

You decide my friend.

My thinking was my present day time rate is higher than it would be on a flat rate and my NSHs are only on for about 6 months of the year so the cheaper flat rate would go some way to off setting the running coats of the oil filled rads.

My personal SP Price Check

* Projected Energy Cost Check on 16/08/2018
* Help Beat Cancer Fixed Price Energy [ends 31st Jan 2018]

Current payment per month is :£50.00
Projection Electricity Only for the next 12 months is :£696.84pa

Actual usage in the last whole 12 months was :

- Day 2,455 kWh = 41.87% Day
- Night 5,864 kWh = 58.13% Night
- Total-pa 8,319 kWh
___________________________________________________

so (+) high number 5,864 58.13% Night (-) low number 2,455 41.87% Day (÷) by high number (x) by 100 (=) % saving

So if your average E7 was ≈ 50/50% over 12 months @ about 4k kWh of day rate and 4k kWh of night rate, a total annual mixed consumption of 8k kWh, and assuming 70+% of the total night rate being consumed in the winter period.

Clearly all homes and usage are going to be different but if you lived in a typical 80's regulation build, refurbished with typical insulation and current double glazed to a B-C EPC rating and using bog standard automatic model cheepo storage heaters @ today's E7 tariff rates it would cost in the region of £7-800 annually, my 2018-2019 personal projection [see above (29th 2017) was £712.96.

You want an average of 21°C in the winter period and you own one big 3.4kW and one middle sized 2.5kW NSH thats a total of 23.8 + 17.8kWh or 41.6kWh of stored heat. That 41.6kWh of stored heat is available for release over the next 17 day hours or the equivalent of a 2.44kW fire at full output for those 17 hours.

Of course there are always odd days when you need complimentary extra heat immediately, and days when your store of heat is never fully depleted, but its not wasted, it remains in the can as existing heat that does not need to be replaced the next night.