Oil V Fan Heaters

[yartin]

Hi
I find fan heaters to work faster than oil heaters. The heat from a fan heater is instant once power turned on.
An oil heater takes around 15 mins to heat the rads, hence need to turn the power on in advance.

Which one is more cost efficient, for same rated power, 2KW? They both have setting to turn off and on as required, assume they are some sort of thermostatic controls.

I believe they must be the same, fan heater is slightly cheaper in the long run because there is no waiting time. Does this make sense?

 

[flameport]

Which one is more cost efficient, for same rated power, 2KW?

Neither. They are exactly the same.

Fan heater provides instant heat, which also stops instantly when switched off.
Oil radiator takes many minutes to heat up, but also remains hot for many minutes after it's switched off.
Actual energy delivered is the same.

This also applies to those grossly overpriced heaters available from certain places for £100s which claim special ceramic cores, gels, magic efficiency and so on. It's all 100% lies.
A 2kW heater is a 2kW heater. Doesn't matter if it's £20 or £2000, the running costs are identical.

 

[ericmark]

My first house had hot air central heating, cost a lot to run, and I believe one reason is whole room needed to be heated.

Get four thermometers and place them around a room and one realises there can be 10ºC variation, be it due to sun shine or the way thermals move the air.

Location of the radiator, natural drafts, furniture will all cause the variation in the thermals and the variation can help or hinder, so there is no way to have a general comparison. It needs to be room by room.

My mothers house main room had a bay window, which caught the sun, in that room circulating air north - south was bad, but east - west was good. Put heater against wrong wall would cause over heating.

 

[ericmark]

Where I use to work they used oil instead of water for the heating system. With small fans built into the boxes containing the radiators, the hotter the transfer fluid the smaller the radiator can be. But had to be in boxes with forced air cooling to stop anyone getting burnt.

Main reason for oil was it also heated the candle wax, but one can have oil, water, steam to transfer heat, and also store heat, where I work now, we use steam, mainly for the ambiance, the problem is when we use a diesel loco, and there is no steam.

If we used diesel more we would fit oil heaters, with a small tank of 28 sec or 35 sec oil to power them, either direct or using water to distribute the heat.

Caravan used a large metal lump, and fans, it allowed the elements to switch on/off (mark/space) to adjust output without the fan stopping, and same metal lump could also be heated with gas, in other words multi-fuel.

The problem with boat, caravan, and lorry cab heaters is no one forces the manufacture to keep to a efficiency percentage, that's only applies to buildings.

 

[JohnW2]

Fan heater provides instant heat, which also stops instantly when switched off. Oil radiator takes many minutes to heat up, but also remains hot for many minutes after it's switched off. Actual energy delivered is the same.

Indeed - and to my mind that means that, given that choice, the fan heater is probably preferable.

With an oil-filled radiator, one has to remember to switch it on a good while before one wants the space/room to be heated, and then somehow predict when one is going to stop needing it heated in order to know when to switch it off ('a good while' before the heating ceases to be needed).

Kind Regards, John

 

[ericmark]

It is an interesting question, should one circulate the air? In the main oil filled radiators are smaller than fan heaters in output, and using a bar heater we are using at least some inferred, so hard to really compare.

However I have really been surprised as temperature differences within a room. I remember out first house, single glazed, with picture windows front and rear, closing the curtains made a huge difference, but the hot air central heating moved the air around the room, so all the room at same temperature, latter houses in same estate had hot water and you could feel it was colder standing by the windows.

Since I don't tend to stand by the window, having a cold area by the window does not worry me, and it means heating is costing me less. At the moment heating is not on, but the two TRV heads in the living room are still reporting at moment only 1ºC between them, but when heating is running seen 5ºC, both under windows, at 90º to each other, room above (this room) showing 22ºC at moment, next to PC, but 18ºC on windowsill, and 12ºC outside. Only fan in room is the one in the PC.

Last house we had a Myson fan assisted radiator, and the fan was thermostatically controlled, we would feel it getting cold before the fan kicked in, where in this house we don't know if radiator hot or cold, not some thing you go around feeling, and they store the energy to some extent so even when boiler not running they are still giving out heat, as although boiler is either zero or 19 kW output, the radiators damp that output so less hysteresis in the room.

If the fan heater continued to blow when up to temperature even if at a lower rate, it would detect the changes in room temperature quicker, but because the fan stops, it causes a higher hysteresis.

The new Myson iVector has a 5 speed fan, and the speed is changed depending on how far below target the incoming air is, but not seen this with electrically heated fan heaters.

Since the oil filled radiator is only around 750 watt and safe to use unattended one can use smart sockets adaptors to switch on and off, but having seen a fire caused by a fan heater which was knocked over so the thermal fuse was below the element so did not rupture, would not leave a fan heater running unattended.

 

[yartin]

Update:
After trying the cheap fan heater less than £15 but with current UK cold winter, the fan heater was ditched away and oil heater was back, is clear winner in such weather.
The fan heater is OK for summer as has fan function only and not in so cold weathers.
The fan heater is good for instant heat but once off freezing cold.
I have wall fan heater in the bathroom which is good because you don't stay there long and 1KW doesn't cost much for short periods.

I will update as to which is cost effective, I believe will be the oil heater.

 

[ericmark]

Your looking at control, the iVector fan heater has 6 output levels, OK this is for water central heating, but the same applies with electric fan heaters, had one in the caravan with from memory 500 watt, 1000 watt and 2000 watt, and the electric or gas heated a metal plate and a variable speed fan blows the air around the caravan in ducts, the metal plate like the oil in oil filled radiators gave off heat after last element turned off, or gas flame stopped.

There is no reason some one can't make an electric fan heater which has multi elements so it turns down rather than off, not looked into electric kick space heaters, the radiator in my kitchen is where nothing else could be fitted, so kick space heaters would not gain me room. But unlike the portable fan heater they are designed to last for many years, and are often far better made.

In a caravan years ago I converter a fan heater so elements in series or parallel so 500 watt and 1000 watt not 1000 watt and 2000 watt, the 500 watt mode worked well, less heat for longer. Also had it supplied from a wall thermostat. Simple idea, FCU supplied wall thermostat, and wall thermostat supplied a socket, so what ever heater plugged into socket was thermostatic controlled.

I will admit my problem was only a 10 amp supply to work all, and low power water heaters, spacing heating and cooking was only way to stop the 10 amp trip opening.

 

[JohnD]

AFAIK it is impossible to start a fire with an oil-filled radiator, even if you drop a newspaper on it.

The reverse is true of fan heaters. Not just paper, or a curtain blown on it, or a carelessly discarded sock or teddy, or bedding but furniture or something nearby in the line of fire.

 

[big-all]

AFAIK it is impossible to start a fire with an oil-filled radiator, even if you drop a newspaper on it.

The reverse is true of fan heaters. Not just paper, or a curtain blown on it, or a carelessly discarded sock or teddy, or bedding but furniture or something nearby in the line of fire.

Surely the thermostatic cutout would stop the heat rising iff the airflow is cut ??

At What Temperature Does Paper Burn/Ignite/Combust?

firefighterinsider.com

 

[JohnD]

A sock or curtain need not totally block airflow.

 

[big-all]

i 100% agree on safety grounds if you have pets or children, even thought the danger level is small, it's far more than oil filled, and you also have the attraction of noise and prodding with something, possibly metal

 

[ericmark]

There should be a temperature fuse, but I know of one fire when it did not blow.

 

[stem]

Cheap fan heaters are also generally made of plastic, I can't imagine how anyone ever thought that was a good idea.

Oil filled radiators of course are metal, so would be my choice every time.

 

[robinbanks]

Love the brand name there