Thinking of buying an oil filled radiator.

[ericmark]

I heat my domestic hot water with oil in the Summer, using simple time, no thermostat, ½ hour every other day, plus Sunday so 4 days a week which works out cheaper than electric, really 20 minutes as boiler always cuts out after 20 minutes.

So likely also cheaper to heat a room with oil, I can select which rooms heat up, 9 electronic TRV heads in the house.

However pain lighting the wood burner so do have an oil filler radiator as stand-by should the oil central heating not work for some reason. We use flat under house as storage, and at some point each year the oil heater goes down, and AC comes up.

Only problem with oil heaters is the way the thermostat is bolted on the end, again and again when PAT testing found the main body not earthed as poor connection, I have lost count of times I have unbolted the control at end, cleaned and put on petroleum jelly to stop a repeat and reassembled it.

 

[tony7]

How big is the kitchen and what heat loss do you have?

Our kitchen is 5.5M X 3M and heat loss, just a kitchen wondow and door to utility and a door to hall. Is that what you mean by heat loss?

Thanks.

 

[BlueLoo]

Our kitchen is 5.5M X 3M and heat loss, just a kitchen wondow and door to utility and a door to hall. Is that what you mean by heat loss?

Thanks.

Well, kinda, yea.

http://starsapp.co.uk/basic-heat-loss-calculator/

Put your info in here and see what it farts out.

You can then buy a heater which is better suited.

As a test, i did this for my office and got 600w which is the exact size of radiator i have

Give it a go. I found it interesting tbh.

 

[aptsys]

You may want to consider a convector heater if the fan in a fan heater is too noisy, you can also get some with a boost fan should you need to use it. Certainly it will probably be more economical than an oil heater - that is, the the room will heat quicker but will also cool quicker the moment you turn off the heater. (very little stored heat in a convector or fan heater)

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Don't like the fan heaters, the advantage of the oil filled radiators is you can put them on timer and control temperature,

I have a wall mount thermostatic fan heater, which includes a timer, stuffed away on a garage shelf. A plug in timer can easily be added to a normal fan heater.

For instant heat, without noise, which is efficient - the IR radiant heaters take some beating. They warm surfaces (you), rather than the general air.

 

[tony7]

Well, kinda, yea.

http://starsapp.co.uk/basic-heat-loss-calculator/

Put your info in here and see what it farts out.

You can then buy a heater which is better suited.

As a test, i did this for my office and got 600w which is the exact size of radiator i have

Give it a go. I found it interesting tbh.

Thanks. I got stuck at Radiator Ranges and Premium Panel

 

[tony7]

Certainly it will probably be more economical than an oil heater

So, if I was to use a a convector heater say for 30mins or even an hour at a time, it would be cheaper to use a convector heater than oil filled rad?

Thanks.

 

[BlueLoo]

Thanks. I got stuck at Radiator Ranges and Premium Panel

What was the whatage it quoted?

 

[BlueLoo]

I have a wall mount thermostatic fan heater, which includes a timer, stuffed away on a garage shelf. A plug in timer can easily be added to a normal fan heater.

For instant heat, without noise, which is efficient - the IR radiant heaters take some beating. They warm surfaces (you), rather than the general air.

Good point on the IR.
Very good if you have a draughty space.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

So, if I was to use a a convector heater say for 30mins or even an hour at a time, it would be cheaper to use a convector heater than oil filled rad?

Thanks.

The would both, if the same rating, cost the same to run and produce the same heat output. The difference being the convector would produce the heat quicker and it would stop producing heat quicker. The oil filled will lag, because it needs to heat the oil mass first.

 

[big-all]

if you are going in for short times off say an hour then fan is best as you get instant heat
an oil filled will take perhaps 15 mins before it gives out any useful heat as its wasting energy warming oil

 

[BS3036]

Anything except a fan or IR will heat the room from the ceiling downwards. So you won't feel much within the first hour.

 

[tony7]

Hi all, I was looking at maybe buying this, VonHaus Oil Filled Radiator.

I'm just thinking, it might be cheaper to switch this on for a few bursts during the day instead of using the oil heating to warm up the kitchen and the rest of the house, when its only the kitchen we use during the day.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B016C04Z3E/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

Thoughts please and thanks in advance.

Hi, I bought that rad and its great, I feel the heat in our kitchen after 10 mins, saves on the oil a bit.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

 

[aptsys]

The would both, if the same rating, cost the same to run and produce the same heat output. The difference being the convector would produce the heat quicker and it would stop producing heat quicker. The oil filled will lag, because it needs to heat the oil mass first.

That's not true for the intermittent use the OP is enquiring about. Oil filled radiator would use more energy because of the latency.

 

[ericmark]

That's not true for the intermittent use the OP is enquiring about. Oil filled radiator would use more energy because of the latency.

Yes an oil filled radiator will need switching on before a fan heater to get the room to temperature, it seems simple maths, if the radiator takes 10 minutes to get warm then it will need to switch on 10 minutes earlier, for UFH looking at an hour earlier, and for a storage radiator maybe 2 hours earlier.

However it is really not that simple, if the panel heater turned on/off enough times to have the same hysteresis as the oil filled radiator switching every 20 minutes, then the contacts would soon burn out, only way would be a solid state relay. So in general the panel heater has a larger hysteresis so at the peaks greater losses.

As to the fan heater, my first house had hot air central heating, which produces a dry atmosphere and also circulates air past cold areas, so normally next to the window is cooler than centre of the room, but circulating the air this is not the case so bigger loses.

Also a panel heater is normally screwed to the wall, for safety don't what it knocked over, but the heavier oil filled radiator is often on its own wheels and further from the wall, so heats the room more and wall less.

So in real terms impossible to measure the efficiency, same with a lot of so called efficiency claims, my vented tumble drier is sitting in an unheated room with the window open, it is likely far more efficient to when the same tumble drier was in my kitchen in the last house drawing in damper air which had been pre-heated by the central heating, and the replacement air also needed heating by the central heating.

I like the idea of fan kick space heaters in the kitchen, but both this house and last house where the radiator was there was no room to fit cupboards, so not needed that much.

Every home is different and need to select what suits your home, not anyone else's.