Oil filled radiators

[forwhatitsworth22]

I'm looking at buying a oil filled radiator, would you recommend them? Are they fairly cheap to run? It would be to warm a small kitchen / dining room for a couple hours. Thanks

I've loved them for heating a small room/area and would definitely recommend. We had ours on a timer as they take a while to warm up, so had it come on about 30 minutes before we wanted to use the room.

Thank you, didn't realise they have a timer, that's good to know; what about the cost?

They're incredibly effective but IME no, not cheap to run at all (although perhaps less so if your house is better insulated than ours!!)

I put them in the dc bedroom overnight to keep the chill out it does make a difference.

Also interested in this. I need to heat one room overnight and I've heard this is a good way but a general internet search gives mixed advice!

I use one for my youngest's bedroom as it's over the garage. It had a thermostat feature so only comes on when it gets proper cold.

Depends how big they are!

I have some 2kW ones I keep for emergencies (boiler breakdown).

I recently bought a little 500W one which is surprisingly brilliant for background heat. That is getting regular use.

2 kilowatt radiator will cost 68p an hour to run if on full blast, based on the EPG rate of 34p a unit.

I have a small delonghi one that I use on the landing and it works well. Tiny 2 bed house though. No heating in bedrooms.

I have used these for years. I have on in the bedroom with a thermostat control. I rate it. The room is a lovely temperature all night.

I ran a small 2kw in my kitchen for a month, set to a medium temperature, and it doubled my electricity bill that month. Having the gas central heating on 24/7 would have been cheaper.

A small 500W on under the desk is great for keeping warm when working from home (along with woolly hat and fingerless gloves).

Dh WFH and uses one to heat. just the room he is working in. We have the central heating on for a couple of hours in the morning and then again for a bit longer in the evening. Dh usually has the electric oil rad on for 2-3 hours in the afternoon, until the central heating switches on again. He's done the maths (engineer) and says it's definitely cheaper than heating the whole house, even were he to go around turning down all the radiator valves in each room. Which would be a massive faff. But we already had this heater - bought it 4-5 years ago when we had no gas for a week. I don't know whether it would still be economical if you had to factor in the cost of buying the rad now.

I find them to work well, but it costs about 55p ph, while my whole house with central heating is £1 ph. The house feels much warmer with the CH on for an hour than that on for two, so I don't actually use it very often.

Remember that electricity is more than three times the cost of gas per kWh so if you have gas central heating you may well be cheaper to use it.

If you don't then an oil filled radiator or a panel heater is probably the safest way to heat the space. Look for one with a built in thermostat, and either a timer or a plug that can be operated via nest/Alexa etc so that you can turn it on before you need the room to be warm.

Remember to be careful about water and never to cover them.

I use a delonghi one to heat ds bedroom for an hour in the morning and same in evening. When its turned off still gives out heat for ages after. I think it's around 70p an hour.

As others have said, if you need an electric heater, then an oil filled radiator is the best option.

BUT gas heating is always going to be cheaper.

All electric heaters cost the same to run for the same amount of heat output.

Oil-filled radiators heat up slowly and release their heat slowly, so they spread the heat over time for the amount of electricity they use.

Thank you all, the room I want to heat has no heating in at all, it was a oil filled one or a fan heater

how economical is a fan heater?

There’s an episode of Sliced Bread which covers this

All electric heaters cost the same to run for the same amount of heat output. You can't beat physics.

But if you want to warm yourself rather than the room, then you can use less energy to do it by using something like an electric blanket that delivers the heat to you directly without having to heat the whole room.

thank you @Dotcheck

and thanks @DogInATent

A 2kW oil-filled electric radiator
and a 2kW fan heater will cost the same to run for 2h. They use the same amount of energy. However the fan heater will stop emitting heat when you switch it off, whereas the oil-filled rad will continue emitting heat for another hour or more. So you get 3h off heat for 2h of electricity.