Heating the home, electric, oil, LPG, pros and cons and time of year.

[ericmark]

Oil is now over £1 a litre, still works out at around 10p per kWh, but also losses with boiler and the distribution system.

These are clearly an option, as to what gas now costs I have not looked at, but burn a hydrocarbon fuel and water is released, and although my living room is showing 42% humidity at the moment, not so keen on releasing water by using bottled gas.

Heat pumps are great I am sure, but this type which I have worked on have used simple heating elements to heat the room, the heat pump is only used to cool the room, and it would mean a window replacement to fit one.

So we have this the oil filled radiator which is reasonably safe, and so can be placed as seen here, right next to the chairs, so heating the area of the room where the heat is required.

But will it waste or safe money? And that's the big question?

So last cold day I ran out of battery, so electric costing £0.3074 per kWh around 3 times the cost of oil.

It would also have used some solar at 12p/kWh but more to the point, delivering heat direct to the point where it was required, so likely using far less energy to using the central heating, which has not been used at all this season.

No question heart of winter, want whole house heating using the oil.

But it is the Autumn and Spring I am looking at, and clearly if I don't run out of battery, the oil filled radiator is winning, but when battery runs out, what then?

The 10p/kWh for oil is if all the energy goes into the house, which clearly it does not. So AI tells me "Older Non-Condensing Oil Boilers (15–25+ years old): Ranges from 60% to 75% efficiency. Older models lose a significant portion of their heat (30% to 40%) straight out of the flue." so my 10p becomes more like 17p, so now looking for how much for the match as we put it at work.

How much for the central heating boiler to heat up all the pipe works etc, before it delivers any heat into the home?

I note in summer, when I used it to heat DHW, it would run for 20 minutes, before the return water was hot enough to turn the boiler off, and the cylinder was still not fully up to temperature.

So I have taken it that the first 20 minutes is likely used heating up the system, rather than any radiator, but this is pure guess work, but at 20 kW, it would seem if a thermostat was to fire the boiler, then at least 15 kWh is used, or £1.50 where the oil filled radiator has only use 2 kWh (60p) for the whole evening.

But at some point, the use of central heating must work out cheaper.

So this month, using the oil filled radiator makes good sense, but there must be a point when the central heating works out cheaper.

I would like the tank to last the winter, be it at start of season or end of season I have always played safe and had a top up. So just spent over £500 for the top up, I would like to be able next year to select when I refill the tank and not need a top up to ensure warm in late March and April.

So inviting thoughts on electric v oil. There is the bottled gas option, but would need to buy a heater, I don't already have one, where I have the oil filler radiator, and also the humidity problem.

I am using a smart socket adaptor for the oil filled radiator, so set to 90 minuets (using same setting as for the AC in summer, so did not forget to empty the condensate bottle) so when cold I turn it on for 90 minuets only so 1.5 kWh.

If 1 kW is not enough the radiator does have three outputs, but at the moment my thoughts are if 1 kW is not enough likely I need other rooms heating so time to turn central heating on.

But as it stands all guess work, so would appreciate what other people think. I realise grid gas is different, and I do not have that option. However the local and general heating of the home is still something to be considered.

I did talk to my son, but his house, one is open plan, so heating one room not really an option, two he has a gas fire central to the home, and three using gas not oil, and four has a modern condensing boiler which is far more efficient to my oil boiler. And the main difference is he is one of a family of four, so has children who use their bedrooms during the evenings. So for him, turning on the gas fire, no question it would save money, and it is down to if his children will stop in their bedrooms or join the family.

I have to admit, with just two of us, a five bedroom house is really too big. In real terms one bedroom is an office and one is a craft room, and the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room down steps is rarely used, and in winter the motorised valves means it is not heated.

So only front kitchen, living room, and two bedrooms used every day.

The top two floors have programmable TRV heads in every room, so we can decide what room is heated and when, unlike my son with open plan. We have those things called doors. But clearly internal walls are not as well insulated as external walls.

Also loads of insulation bottom to central floor, but little between central and upper floor, so my home is not in any way a standard house.

But still thoughts on oil filled radiator v oil fired central heating will be welcome.

 

[flameport]

Regardless of any pricing, oil is a stinking pollution pile, and LPG is a pressurised bomb in your garden.

 

[Stuart981]

Well it doesn't really matter what electric heater you use, they are all equally efficient. But yes, over the years, we turn down the oil fired heating when prices spike and use an electric heater in the lounge to top up the temperature or coal ovals if I had remembered to order some, when prices were more more sensible.

 

[ericmark]

@Stuart981 thanks, good to hear someone else does the same, I have never used the open grate, I have a temporary board over it, to stop draft, and to allow in summer to plug the AC hose into it, so no windows open to use the portable AC.

Regardless of any pricing, oil is a stinking pollution pile, and LPG is a pressurised bomb in your garden.

The option to not use oil or LPG does not exist, and I agree about the danger with LPG I remember the tanker in France killing a whole camping site, but electric does not have the security of supply to be an alternative, whole reason for solar panels and battery is so when we have a power cut the central heating and freezers continue to work, to move to all electric would mean all the money spent getting solar would have been a waste of time and money.

The problem is, winter there is not enough solar to run heating, only enough to run the boiler which is burning some other fuel, to have an oil filled radiator as stand-by so if the boiler fails we have some quick alternative means we also have it available when oil boiler is OK and can run.

The open grate can quickly be made serviceable by removing the AC connection spigot, but it is really not what I want to do, even if burning wood which is abundant in my garden would save money, and maybe the environment.

But I am old enough to remember both open and solid fuel with doors, and all the dusting involved as a result, so we must have also been breathing in all that dust, which does not seem a good idea when there is an alternative.

I do note how many homes today do have smoke curling out of their chimneys, mainly those who had heat pumps fitted, and now can't afford to run them.

I have considered a heat pump, very good in summer for cooling the house, but the fitting of all new radiators as to work to heat and cool they need to be fan assisted and have pipework for the condensate, means a massive expense, and it seems the help given in grants is not available for a full system, only for half a system which will heat only, which does seem a waste of time and money if fitting them because of global warming. As if that's correct, we will need cooling in the summer. So it would seem the push is just to get us to spend money.

 

[morqthana]

Talking of cons...

RapidHeat article

RapidHeat article

pages.melopure.com

 

[ericmark]

Talking of cons...

RapidHeat article

RapidHeat article

pages.melopure.com

I'm sold, it seems getting one means this and I see the ASA adverts so it must be true or it would not be allowed!

We all remember the open fire. The main problem was the fire caused drafts, the inferred heat output clearly worked, but we needed a high backed chair to protect us from the drafts, and so central heating worked far better due to in the main the balanced flue which stopped the drafts.

So with electric heating we have three options, inferred, convection, or heat pumps. And we have to consider which can heat us the best, not the home the best, but the people within the home.

So in the main, the heat pump needs some form of fan to move the heat around the room or home, it can't heat a area within the room, it has to heat the room as a whole, so even if it can work at 500% that does not mean it is better to inferred heating, which does not attempt to heat the air, but heats the body directly.

The standard convection heater, may not be as targeted as inferred, but is still more targeted at people near to the heater, so could still result in heating the person better than a heater using a fan, be that heater using a heat pump or a resistive heater.

So the idea that an electric heater is simply 100% efficient regardless of how it transfers the heat to the person, is flawed.

But my wife and I do not sit in the living room day and night without moving, we do move around, even if most of the time we sit in the same two seats, so there is a need for general heating as well as heating between the two seats we us most of the day.

So I look at the reports and it seems Nest has turned the heating on, as under 17.5°C at some point. Wiser, it seems likely it also turned on the heating. The result is, I really have no idea which system has turned on, just the desk thermometer is showing 21.5ºC so something has heated up my home.