Electric radiators

[Bluebootsgreenboots]

DM has recently moved and has realised that her new flat is cold. She's thinking of replacing the electric radiators as they are 20 years old (so probably inefficient) and most likely too small for the space.
I had a look online and came up with a few wall mounted electric heaters, then looked at our usual local electrical warehouse store and their stuff was all oil filled.
She definitely does not want storage heaters.
Any thoughts on what would be best / most efficient - convection or oil? Also, any recommendations? She won't want anything complicated to operate. Thanks!

Oil filled rads are more cost effective. Last time I needed an electric rad I bought Dimplex on the recommendation of my electrician, but it was just for one room. It had an easy to use timer and a little display, plus a boost function.
I think if I was needing to do several rooms I'd be tempted to look at infrared heaters. They heat objects and people rather than the air, so a bit more efficient. No direct experience of these though.
I assume she has carpet, not hard floors? Carpets are warmer. Check for drafts too.

Thanks @OttersAreMySpiritAnimal
Was your Dimplex oil filled? Did you use it on economy 7?
I'm my last flat we had brick filled Dimplex rads, but we didn't use the storage function.

There is no such thing as a "more efficient" electric heater.

They are all pretty much 100% efficient. 1kW of electrical energy in, 1kW of heat out.

There are some differences as to how they deliver heat. Oil filled radiators heat up slowly and cool down slowly (like storage heaters). Also the heat output tends to be more distributed over the entire radiator. Oil filled radiators are like storage heaters, only the heating up/delivery of the heat is even more delayed with a storage heater. For some weird reason people seem to like oil filled radiators and think they are great. Whereas they hate storage heaters.

Convention heaters normally have an element so the heat is very localised. Dust can fall onto the element and because it is hot it can smell a bit on starting up. You would not want to drop any fluids in a convection heater grill accidentally. Some are fan assisted to help distribute the heat better, but I don't like the fans because they make a noise.

Glass panel are a bit of a mix between the two. They have a large surface area to distribute the heat over and they also look pretty modern and are slimline so look good mounted on a wall and take up very little space. They often have wi fi controls built in so very easy to control remotely.

The only way to reduce your bills is via some sort of switched tariff like economy 7. To take best advantage of this you really need storage heaters and you probably want to make your entire home smart so you can take advantage of low night time tariffs.

I have some panel electric heaters that are Mylek brand. I find they give good output and are totally silent as well. They are sold on Amazon if you want to check reviews, or direct from their own site.

Amazing info @GasPanic, thank you for taking the time to put that down.
Thanks also @snotathing , I'll look those up.

Can’t you throw them out and get gas installed?

Electricity is 3x the cost of gas.

Storage heaters used properly are actually pretty good.

Having said that my current flat (modern, mid block) has simple scandinavian panel heaters. I only really need them to give the place boost when it gets very cold outside.

One of them broke recently and as the scandi brand has withdrawn from the UK I'm replacing it with this.
https://www.dimplex.co.uk/en-gb/alta-wi-fi-panel-heater-40cm#400001221

If she is cold it would suggest the heaters aren't big enough for the space. I'm sure I found an online calculator which suggested heater sizes.

I also run a dehumidifier a lot which chucks out a bit of heat and I think reduces my panel heater use. It's necessary as modern well insulted flat and internal bathroom is not a good combination especially as I don't like to tumble dry my clothes.

@farting - unfortunately not, new build flat, no gas
@EmmyPankhurst that's really helpful, thanks, I'll look those up!

I had an electric infrared heater installed.
Love it. Really heats the room up quickly.
Loved it so much I had one that combined with a mirror installed in the my bathroom.

Thank you @SpunkyCritic - that sounds like just what is needed, I'll look those up too!
@EmmyPankhurst yes, I think the size of radiator is key, I suspect someone looked at the stingy side of the calculation, which doesn't work at all for the elderly who spend a lot of time at home .
Thanks again for all your thoughts.

I live in an all electric flat and replaced the ancient monolithic storage heaters with Ecostrad ones and they are soooo much better as there is heat when I want. Yes, they are more expensive to run than gas but I didn't need the vast expense and disruption of getting gas central heating installed.

I got Dimplex ones and they were great - I didn’t want storage because I worked out they would mostly be on when I was out at work. Might not be an issue if your mum is retired, so home in the day more. I wanted the flexibility of being able to turn on / off / control temp myself. I wonder if more modern storage heaters offer best of both worlds? Boost / temporary on function as well as stored heat generated at lower cost times?

But I found the dimplex wall mounted ones worked really well and I didn’t need to run them much (end of block, middle floor).

I also worked out that the extra purchase cost of storage heaters would have taken several years to break even - might be different now energy prices are higher, but worth factoring in.

Thanks @Phonomnomnom
Do you know which Dimplex heaters you bought?

We have Rointe electric radiators in our home and also in a flat we rent out. I can’t tell you much about them, technically, but they work well and we are happy with them. They can be manually controlled and have timer settings but also have an app, which is useful for turning the heating on/up when you’re on the way home.

https://www.heatershop.co.uk/brands/rointe?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD_r4047JKEFYCnB7nw7MWNU9_BHq&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzOKh0bfoiQMVyphQBh1riCUzEAAYAiAAEgJ0ovD_BwE