Best heating for draughty Victorian rooms?

[sniffle12]

We rent a flat in a big old Victorian house and find that when it's really cold the radiators doesn't even touch it. Last year we spent a fortune on an unefficient old electric heater and are looking for alternatives. We don't have a fire and can't get one as we rent. I know there are different types of portable heater including energy efficient ones but I don't really know much about them and am a bit lost after a bit of a google. Does anybody have a portable heater that works well for heating one room (or even just part of one room - it only needs to be warm where we are on the settee!) and doesn't cost the earth?

Wrap the whole house in bubble wrap or move!

I used to use a plug in oil filled radiator which worked well when I worked from home and didn't want to turn the heating on for the whole house. Think it said the kw on the box and Def cheaper than central heating.

I'm looking for oil filled plug in heaters at the moment- hopefully someone will tell me whether they are any good soon .
Make sure you have draught excluders and thick curtains too.

Ooh, thanks, heyMac

Blankets and large cats work quite well. I have even seen electrically heated throws (probably in a catalogue that fell out of a magazine) that I was tempted by. If you want local heat a radiant heater is better than one that makes hot air which will just disappear into the ceiling space, so a halogen type heater.
When I was a student in very cold Edinburgh flats with no heating we used to put special plastic over the windows, it was held on with tape then you used a hair dryer to tighten it up, it made a difference. If you have polished floors you need rugs to stop the draughts from below. Its very hard to heat large high ceilinged rooms.

I second chemenger's temporary double glazing: www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-Seasonal-Secondary-Glazing-Film-6m2/p/210014

Also lay down rugs if you can, since a lot of heat can be lost through cracks in the wooden floors (esp. if ground floor, with outdoor air coming through the airbricks and circulating under possibly through the floorboards.

See if you can find any radiator fans to make what heaters you've got more effective.

Front door curtain, put up with a tension rod if necessary.

what floor are you on?

Oil filled electric ones are so much better than fan heaters as they stay warm. But blankets, rugs, secondary glazing and curtain linings will all help too. Plus draft excluders, brushes on letter boxes etc.