Fact : heaters are 100% efficient as ALL power consumed is turned into heat (unless you have a fan assisted heater, then you could argue some energy is lost as sound! :stuck_out_tongue: )

@OP if you're objective is to heat up a room quicker, you are misguided in thinking that an oil filled radiator will do it any quicker. If anything, it will be slower as the oil within the radiator needs to heat up before it will start to radiate at maximum output. Electric convection heaters provide instant heating but do so through heating & circulation of the air. Radiators will need 'line of sight' in the first instance to provide heat.

Eventually both will heat the air and bring the room to the desired temperature. Unless you have a room with very high ceilings, an oil filled radiator shouldn't give that much added benefit.

Thats not actually true. If your heater draws 2.5KW then it will convert 2.5KW to heat (or as near as is not significant) - its easy to efficiently convert electricity to heat - heat is the normal waste product of electricity consumption!


With regards to which type of heater is better, if your goal is to take a room and get it up to a certain temperature then they are all much of a muchness. If the heater is consuming 2.5kw then that 2.5kw is going somewhere (heat) and unless it continually increases the temp of the radiator then its going to heat the air - radiators dont tend to melt so we can assume its going to air. Where oil radiators will be more efficient is when the room is up to temp, they will click in and out to keep the oil at the desired temp which will keep the room temp constant.

Surely these must give out 2.5KW of heat near as damn it or where else is the energy lost ? "Simple's enough said, you do the research and science !!!!!"

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Banyo has taken the idea traditional heating to a whole new dimension by bringing the latest designs of contemporary as well as classic radiators with the addition of uniqueness and bravura dash to all homes.designer vertical radiators With a massive assortment of designer radiators to select from, Banyo has incorporated designs which are magnificent and easily accessible to all.

We have a big house very expensive to heat.
This product is perfect for adding extra heat to the rooms we are using.
It produces heat very efficiently; heats a 4 square metre room with 3 metre ceiling in a short time.
At to days extortionate electricity costs circa 15P per KW/H this costs 30P per hour to run. Compare that with a bag of firewood at £4-5 for a few hours heat and it really is a NO BRAINER.....

[quote=JohnnnyBGoodley]We have a big house very expensive to heat.
This product is perfect for adding extra heat to the rooms we are using.
Lidl have them in again. Think I will pop down and get one. They accept returns up to 28 days, so can buy then try.

Lidl stuff is cheapishbecause you don't pay for the badge. Is there any evidence there is actually any difference?

I was a bit hesitant and went for a DeLonghi instead which was on clubcard exchange this time last year, I spent about £4 cash to get it from Tesco direct. I think if you're going to spend £40 on a cheap one you might as well spend a little more on a real one by someone you've heard of. The DeLonghi works well, has a timer and feels like a quality product. Some of the cheaper brands you see really are worth a lot less than their already cheap price.

I wouldn't buy this if I were you,cheap construction. Mine sparked & switched off after 14 months. Taking it back tomorrow.

I saw these today so still available.

The fan heater is 500W, the radiator is 800, 1200 and 2000W.

ok can anyone explain this:

or you could all just buy one of these instead...



No gas or electricty costs, doesnt need batteries or oil, can take it anywhere as its portable. Lasts a lot longer and you can adjust the heat by taking it off and on. Oh, and as a bonus, if you wait for the sales in a month or two, you can get them even cheaper. :wink:

Great stuff...much better than browsing WHICH on line...I feel fully informed, have a warm glow and I've had a good laugh; who'd have thought oil filled radiators could cause so much heat!!! I'm going to buy one, just hope mine is as opinionated as some of this debate that's sure to keep me warm

and also I'll add very good price!..HEAT ADDED!

As with everything, all in moderation. I got one of these, does the job brilliantly, if one wants to leave it on full power and rake up their bill, hey that's their perogative, when used wisely this gadget is worth it, by the way there's loads in the Greenford branch of Lidl, keep warm people, drink your porridge, when preparing dinner include chillies, y'all will breeze through many winters, lovely :-))

Why would anyone take the advice of someone who can't spell and can't control their anger?

So what else does it do with the energy then - make a lot of noise?, light up?

Air heaters suck and dry the air out, asthmatics and cystics like myself can't stand them if you have either in your life oil is the way forward. If they don't notice the differences there not ill enough which is a good thing but when they get worse its like hell!

It's a gimmick to fool people into thinking it must be better in some way. Doesn't mean that the radiator is less good, but some of the money you paid for it has gone into the pointless fan heater...
It may give out more heat per kilowatt (i.e. the rating) if it can transfer it to the air more efficiently so that the element doesn't have to keep switching off. What it CANNOT do is provide more heat per kilowatt-hour, i.e. unit of energy that you pay for - because they are all 100% efficient at converting electrical energy into heat energy, despite what one lone voice says. (Not disagreeing with you - just emphasising the point.)
Except it's only 500W so pretty much a gimmick.
Provide some evidence, please, rather than an unsubstantiated statement.

Yeah, most things are inefficient and lose energy in the form of heat.... oh wait.

Efficiency is defined as the ratio of energy you put in vs the energy lost as heat. If you lose all the energy as heat (as you would in a heater) then you are effectively 100% efficient (not counting losses as the electricity generation plant, etc).

100% efficient engines are not possible. 100% efficient heaters are totally possible, within a closed environment. In fact, heat pumps are often quoted as >100% efficient.

In your own word 'the heat is dissipated more quickly' or (just quicker). Then the room will heat up quicker thus switching of the thermostat on the heater cutting the supply of electricity thus saving money?? or is my science just a little to simple???

Like it or not the Delonghi ones work better full stop, if you are to invest in these then save your pennies and by the ones i recommended. I have had both types and these are better end of goodbye, and have your schoolboy debate with someone who gives a rats ****.

My boiler is really old & inefficient (60-65% i believe).
My economy 7 makes electric 5p/kwh & Gas costs me 3p/kwh (+VAT)

That makes it cheaper per KWH for me to heat my house before I wake up with electric than with gas.
Also, saves heating the whole house unnecessarily.
My AM heating comes from electric.

Only once economy 7 stops do i use gas.

Thats not actually true. If your heater draws 2.5KW then it will convert 2.5KW to heat (or as near as is not significant) - its easy to efficiently convert electricity to heat - heat is the normal waste product of electricity consumption!


With regards to which type of heater is better, if your goal is to take a room and get it up to a certain temperature then they are all much of a muchness. If the heater is consuming 2.5kw then that 2.5kw is going somewhere (heat) and unless it continually increases the temp of the radiator then its going to heat the air - radiators dont tend to melt so we can assume its going to air. Where oil radiators will be more efficient is when the room is up to temp, they will click in and out to keep the oil at the desired temp which will keep the room temp constant.

It's to do with surface area to volume ratio of the radiator that determines the rate of heat transfer. With less surface area of the radiator heat is transfered to its surroundings less efficienty therefore taking longer to warn up a room. The amount of total heat transfered is the same as you will get transfers by radiation and tiny amount by conduction.

Good old false facts.
100% efficiency is impossible.

The power consumption and the amount of heat given off are identical - you do the research and the science.

Having extra convectors (like modern radiators) means heat is dissipated more quickly - in the case of modern radiators, this means a higher specific power consumption. In the case of an OFR, it means the heat in the oil is lost more rapidly, so the power is on more often. Having a fan will replicate this effect - dissipating the heat more rapidly (a lot faster than the Delonghi) - but it will of course add noise. I wouldn't say one is necessarily better than the other - having a fan gives this radiator the option of dissipating heat quickly, to provide a rapid warmth to the room, whilst also allowing the slow gentle heating of a traditional OFR when needed. Without the fan, you don't have that option.

are they really pricey to run? is it cheaper to put the gch on for a bit?

It only consumes power while its heating the oil - when it's reached the required temperature the thermostat turns it off and the built up heat slowly radiates out. When the temperature eventually drops the heater kicks in again to re-heat the oil.

I've always found thsi type of heater to be quite cost-effective (especially compared to a fan heater) and the heat is much more ambient - not so "dry" - and more like a normal radiator.

i have one of these oil filled heaters..my stairs are in the living room and so we find it gets cold quickly...don't feel the need to put the heat on in whole house all the time so we use this....after 20mins i can feel the heat when i stand at the top of the landing....once it reaches the required temp it turns off automatically and even once i turn it off it stays hot for a while...the fan heaters are rubbish compared to this...they only heat up the surrounding area and as soon as you turn them off it gets cold again...i use the oil filled one in my conservatory as well...one of the best things i bought last winter..before that i just used to have heating on 24/7....

Hmm, what with rising (criminal greed) gas & elec costs, I had this oil heater earmarked and was waiting for Lidl to stock it.

I've got several slimline electric wall heaters, and thought this radiator might be a bit more economical to use more (given once the oil is heated, it needs relatively little elec to keep it outputting heat)

But after reading some past comments, I r not so sure nowz :disappointed:

Will keep reading.

connect to the mains outside your house and run a long extension cable in. saves a few pennies

Electricity is produced by burning coal/gas ... on a price per kwh, gas is always cheaper (unless you have a very old/inefficient boiler)

Fact : heaters are 100% efficient as ALL power consumed is turned into heat (unless you have a fan assisted heater, then you could argue some energy is lost as sound! :stuck_out_tongue: )

@OP if you're objective is to heat up a room quicker, you are misguided in thinking that an oil filled radiator will do it any quicker. If anything, it will be slower as the oil within the radiator needs to heat up before it will start to radiate at maximum output. Electric convection heaters provide instant heating but do so through heating & circulation of the air. Radiators will need 'line of sight' in the first instance to provide heat.

Eventually both will heat the air and bring the room to the desired temperature. Unless you have a room with very high ceilings, an oil filled radiator shouldn't give that much added benefit.

we got one from screwfix for when we are in the campervan, 32.99, 37.99 with a timer, cracking little thing.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/7-fin-oil-filled-radiator-1-5kw-240v/92239

So, £40 to buy and £2,378,467,283,467,823,468 to run for a winter???

Surely these must give out 2.5KW of heat near as damn it or where else is the energy lost ? "Simple's enough said, you do the research and science !!!!!"

I would save your money as invest in a DeLonghi Dragon series. There design with the boxed in sides funnels the heat like a chimney, you can feel it blowing out of the top with convection alone (not fan assisted).

Why would any decent oil filled radaitor need to have a built in fan heater, cant be much good IMO.

I have two so talking from experience,

I can honestly say that this heater is brilliant. We have several oil filled heaters and none of them are as effective as this one.
The fan heater is if you need a burst of instant heat, we never use that function.

I dont see your point ?

Its simple science, increased convection/air flow, compared to radiant heat. You may not be able to remember the old style radiators.



Similar design to Lidl Oil filled in post.



New Design Radiator Similar to Delonghi.

Simple's enough said, you do the research and science !!!!!

Oh the KW refer to the items power consumtion, not how much heat it gives off.

I corrected my GENUINE mistake.

I see, lol

That would be good, could even leave it all year at 2.5 watts lol

Original post had 2.5 watts!!

Good deal if you can afford the electric these things use.

May want to update the power rating to kw from watts!!

Ooops can you tell I know very little about this kind of thing! - thanks.