Flex to oil filled radiator (with photos)

[ccam108]

I thought I would post this find up as I know we all love photos here

I was staying the night at my fiancé's house, sleeping in the attic. I went up to turn on the radiator as I do every time I'm over and I thought "this cable is really stretched, I wonder if it's damaged at all..."

Here's what I found:

So I opened it up to replace the flex. Check out the heat damage from loose connections on the live:

And the age of it? Well this lovely old MK plug with un-shrouded pins looks pretty old:

New flex fitted with plenty of slack. The old one was stretched from this socket:

Sorry for the rubbish quality. I took them on my iPhone, which doesn't like close-ups very well.

Colin C

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

I was staying the night at my fiancé's house,

got any more photos? please

 

[ColJack]

putting asside the obvious question of why you sleep in the attic at your fiance's house, why fix an old and quite likely ineficient freestanding oil filled radiator when there's a nice section of wall right there for a nice new panel heater to be fixed to?

 

[stem]

Why would an electric oil radiator be less efficient than a panel radiator? If they are the same size (1,000W for example) Wouldn't they both consume the same amount of energy and convert it into the same amount of heat?

 

[ColJack]

didn't mean the type, just the age of it..
surely the have found ways to make modern heaters more efficient..
perhaps in the way they are designed to give a more even heat distribution or the use of different oil formulas for better heat conductance etc..

and by panel heater I just meant slimline heater rather than a bulky storage heater etc..

 

[bernardgreen]

putting asside the obvious question of why you sleep in the attic at your fiance's house,?

Perhaps he is a true gentleman.

Or her parents also live there

Or he snores and she likes get a good nights sleep.

Or maybe the heater downstairs is totally useless.

 

[ccam108]

Coljack, why purchase a new heater when there is already one there that does a perfectly good job and is only used occassionally?

Colin C

 

[Steve]

didn't mean the type, just the age of it..
surely the have found ways to make modern heaters more efficient..

Not really. Look inside a standard convector heater, where you can see the heating filament. Theres no new technology in there. Its going way back to the theory of pushing electrons down a wire to make it hot. If it consumes 1000w, it will eventually, one way or another, put 1000w of heat into the room. An electric convector / oil heater is 100% efficient at the point of use.

An oil heater takes longer to warm up, but it also takes longer to cool down It still puts the heat into the room eventually. Though that heater pictured will take longer to dissipate its heat than a more modern "finned" heater that mock old radiators (depends on surface area)