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Original poster

Cheapest ph to run oil radiator?

29 replies

ArrowNorth · 16/12/2022 15:23

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.

OP posts:
Ohtheweatheroutsideistoocold · 16/12/2022 20:15

ArrowNorth · 16/12/2022 17:52

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.

Just safety pin them in they way you can remove them in the summer if you want to

Original poster
ArrowNorth · 16/12/2022 20:26

Ohtheweather that is a genius suggestion re safety pins, thank you!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
ArrowNorth · 16/12/2022 20:27

Mumtofourandnomore · 16/12/2022 20:11

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……

This sounds like a similar set up would be good for us, thank you. Glad you are warm!

OP posts:
IntheSnowySnowyMountains · 17/12/2022 00:14

I can't tell you the cost as we're in France and the rates are different. But our boiler recently died and we had now heating or hot water for a month. We bought a 2kw oil-filled radiator for €64 and used it in our bedroom. Once it was down to freezing outside we left it on very low all the time and turned it up for a couple of hours at bedtime and a couple during the day. A friend lent us a couple more (a 2kw and a 1kw) which we used more intermittently.

Our consumption used to range between 10kwh per day on quiet days when I did nothing except boil the kettle a few times, and 21kwh per day when we did everything - kettle, hoover, oven, washing machine, dryer, charge electric car. With the heaters on it was 22kwh on quieter days up to 50kwh when it was really cold and we were using other appliances (don't forget the car, which is 22kwh for a full charge, but I usually do a half charge on overnight rates if I can). New boiler was fitted by the evening of 14 December. We used 37kwh that day and only 14kwh the next day!

So you can see the difference between heaters and no heaters is between 12 and 30kwh per day - quite a wide range!

I can see that the hours we had it on the lowest setting overnight were 0.3kwh, so hardly anything. So if you could warm the room up and leave them on low it might not cost too much.

In total for a month we will have spent and extra 100 on electricity but nothing on gas, which is paid by DD at 250 a month - obviously actual cost is more in winter. We use a wood fire as well but we easily saved €200. It wasn't fun though!

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