Cheapest ph to run oil radiator?

[ArrowNorth]

Does anyone know what the cheapest p/h to run oil filled radiator is please?

Have tried to Google it but can't find a comparison list using up to date energy prices.

Our house is currently 13 without central heating on. Running the heating for an hour gets it to 15 but it drops as soon as it's off.

I'm wearing thermals, 3 jumpers, hat inside etc.

Now kids are home all day for next 3 weeks I need a solution to keep the living room warm, and heard oil filled radiators are good for heating a single room.

Thanks in advance.

You can enter your cost per kwh (in "enter tariff") and how many Watts the heater you are checking is consuming per hour to calculate your cost.

www.sust-it.net/energy-calculator.php

Generally speaking the lower the kwh the lower the usage/cost

A 500watt heater will cost less than a 2000watt heater to run but will output less heat. Energy in = heat out.

Once a 2000watt heater reaches the set temperature it then turns off. A 500watt heater may never reach the set temperature so never turns off.

If you know how much heat loss the room had then you could get a heater that is higher than the loss, so could make the room warm and keep it warm. You don't know though how much heat loss the room has. So I would get as powerful a heater as you can afford, making sure it has a thermostat and a timer can be useful.

Thank you both, really helpful.

So I should get a heater which uses MORE kwph as then it will definitely be able to heat up the room, and then make sure it's got a thermostat so it shuts off once it reaches the temp required?

Sorry just checking I understood correctly!! Thank you

Yes, a variable temperature one would be best. Most oil radiators big enough to heat a room would be between 1000-2000W and often with settings in between. In other words 34-78p/hour - but they won’t run at that for the whole time as they cut off once up to heat so in practice less than that. 500W will struggle to heat a room (fine for under a desk or for a small corner).

Great thank you v much.

I've just found two on Amazon, one is 2000kw for £72.19 and the other is 2300kw for £79.99

Does this price range sound about right? They seem costlier than this in Argos, which is my usual benchmark!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zanussi-ZOFR5005-Adjustable-Thermostat-Integrated/dp/B09FTLX149/ref=mpssa115?crid=317DKWYH08IU5&keywords=oil%2Bfilled%2Bradiator&qid=1671206392&refinements=p_76%3A419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&sprefix=oil%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-5&th=1&psc=1

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belaco-Adjustable-Thermostat-Protection-Heavy-Duty/dp/B09MZDW551/ref=mpssa114?crid=317DKWYH08IU5&keywords=oil+filled+radiator&qid=1671206392&refinements=p_76%3A419158031&rnid=419157031&rps=1&sprefix=oil%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-4

I prefer a fan heater, especially if you're sitting still, and you can have the heat blowing directly at you. 500w will take the chill off a room for about 17p an hour.

Just checking that you're aware that oil filled heaters run on electricity as their fuel source and the oil inside is just to retain the heat, not run the heater. I've seen a couple of threads where it seems the OPs think oil filled heaters somehow have magical properties different to other types of electric heaters.

You can work out the cost by seeing how much your electricity tariff is per kilowatt per hour. As PPs have said, most heaters have different settings, so a 2kW heater switched on at maximum power for 1 hour would use 2kWs of electricity (with the caveat as outlined above, that it probably won't be on full power for the whole hour because it will switch off/on when it gets to a certain temperature). If you have it on a lower setting it will consume less electricity but produce less heat.

Electricity is more expensive than gas, so be careful you don't dramatically increase your electricity costs when using gas central heating might be cheaper.

Those prices look fine and similar to Argos for a 2kW heater.

Some practicalities to bear in mind:

The higher the wattage the bigger (and heavier) the heater. They have castors so are easy to move between rooms but I wouldn't fancy carrying it up and down stairs.

They get hot! Obviously the whole point but if the children are young you need to be careful they give it a wide berth and don't burn themselves.

Placement: the lead is usually about 1.5 metres long so therefore needs to be fairly close to an electrical socket. Keep it away from anything flammable and don't trip over the electrical lead.

Switch off and unplug when not in use. Avoids accidentally leaving it on and running up a big bill, and also reduces the risk of starting a fire.

Thank you @Plexie , the consideration re it getting v hot is helpful as my kids both have additional needs and one of them moves around fast with lots of jumping etc, so I need to think about this. We have a mini trampoline in the lounge which they use throughout the day to regulate themselves, and whilst they would both be able to follow a rule about never jumping off the trampoline near to the oil radiator, my youngest has explosive meltdowns when she loses control and things get thrown around the room at speed.

I wonder if I could buy and fit a wooden radiator cover to protect them from accidentally touching it or anything landing on it??

I don't think a blow heater would do the job, because I'm needing to heat a living room that is 18ft x 15ft, with one whole side of the room being windows and patio door. And I need the room at 18 for most of the day.

To get the living room up to 18 requires the heating to be on almost constantly, and I feel is not efficient because we just need one warm room to be in.

Part of the difficulty is that both children have a sensory aversion to clothes, so they refuse flat out to wear more than one layer and they cannot tolerate socks or slippers on inside the house. (I realise to non-SEN families this must sound nuts and you're probably thinking "just tell them to wear an extra jumper" but despite a lot of different strategies tried to help them past their aversion, it is what it is, so I need to focus on heating the room.)

I did actually buy lots of fleece blankets in charity shops in the autumn, meaning to line the lounge curtains with them to try and retain heat. But I couldn't figure out how to sew the blankets together and then sew them into the curtains, as there are 4 max-width full length curtains.

@ArrowNorth Do you not have controls on your individual radiators? The oil filled heater won't get any hotter than your normal central heating radiator turned up full but it will be more expensive to run.

If you're just wanting one room heated then it will be far cheaper to save the £80 (plus extra running costs of electricity) and turn off/down the radiators in the rooms you're not using during the day.

It will be much cheaper to run your gas central heating than a portable electric oil filled heater. Gas is far cheaper than electric. Just turn of the radiators in the other rooms

Op I bought a 1.5kw from argos and it's really good in small rooms but it takes a while to heat a big room. It has different settings and was about £50.
Leaving this plugged in all day costs me about £2.50. The central heating over £10.
You can't cover them with anything though and the highest setting gets really hot.

I tried that and it was no cheaper I don't know why.

@ditalini and @Usee8789754 thank you, that is helpful re turning down radiators.

Currently we have all radiators in the house turned to number 5 on their individual dials, and we have the central heating on for 1hr at 6.30am and then 1hr at 4pm.

But in between those times, if I turn all radiators to 0 except the lounge, and then have the central heating on, that's cheaper than using an oil radiator?

Thank you

Wow £2.50 for a whole day is amazing!

As long as your radiators have thermostatic radiator valves so they'll turn off when the room gets to temperature, then yes it should be cheaper to turn down the other radiators to zero and only heat that room with gas.

If the central heating is all controlled from a central thermostat in another room that's unheated then it might not turn off and could be potentially more expensive than a thermostatically controlled oil filled electric heater that only came on when the temperature dropped.

I don't have central heating in my current property (sob!) and I promise you, it's way more expensive to heat with electric!

I don't think it's really possible to calculate the cost of an electric heater vs gas central heating in just one room unless you have a smart meter and experiment with each (and even then the outside temperature would have to be the same on both days to result in an equal comparison).

But if you compare costs per kWh (mine is 34p for electricity and 10p for gas) I don't imagine it would take 3 times as much gas to heat one room via central heating than using an electric heater within the room. But I may be misunderstanding how much gas a central system uses. You also have to factor in the initial cost of the heater, which could cover the cost of a few days of central heating instead.

@ArrowNorth sorry I should have said that's if I have it plugged in in the bedroom. It's good for a double bedroom but it takes ages to heat downstairs it's a living/dining room.
If the rooms cold I put it on full then turn it down and it keeps the room lovely and warm.

Currently sitting with my electric throw and the plug in radiator is in the kitchen. My fridge freezer switched itself off twice because it was so cold! Had to throw all my food out!

Thanks ditalini the point re radiator thermostats is a good one. I don't think the radiators have them. There is one central thermostat linked to the separate heating control panel, but the whole system is pretty old and a hotchpotch of equipment installed at different times (we're in a council flat).

Sorry to hear you're heating your whole place by electric, that sounds painfully expensive!

I tried that and it was no cheaper I don't know why

Because an electric heater is 100% efficient and all the energy is used to heat the room it is in. Running a big gas boiler just to heat one room is comparatively inefficient. The boiler isn’t 100% efficient to start with and you will have heat losses from the pipework heating up parts of the house you don’t need heating.

That's an interesting thought, if I bought the oil radiator then I could do a running costs comparison on two days with similar outside temperatures. I'm quite interested to know! But of course that requires the initial outlay on the radiator just to do the comparison 🤦🏻‍♀️

Ah that makes sense oakbeam, and I can see the efficiency of the boiler system would factor in.

If I end up buying one, I'll come back and post a comparison!

Thanks for that. I'll stick to my plug in radiator for now then.

We use an oil filled radiator to heat our lounge during the day, and only use our gas heating for an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening when the kids are home.

We have a three setting oil filled radiator at 650w, 900w and 1.5kwh. The 900w setting keeps our lounge warm all day. The room is 27ft x 14ft so big ! I’m amazed at how well the little radiator does. It costs 30p an hour to run on the mid-setting, we have it on from 9am until 9pm so £3.60.

For reference although gas is cheaper, our boiler is 18kwH, so gas for an hour is £1.80. The oil filled radiator is fab for just one room - or linked rooms. Our model was £37 a couple of weeks ago, but now seems to be out of stock everywhere……