Cheap but beware the big electricity bill.

​If you're living in a house where most of the occupants aren't home all the time it would be a better idea to have these instead of using central heating. It's a matter of efficiency.

Security guards essential boot item, use wherever you're cold and don't pay for the bill :smile:

Thanks, that's what I thought. Her solar panels do generate electricity rather than just heat water but there ain't been much sunlight recently LOL...

Unless her solar panels are used to generate electricity (thus lowering her electricity bill by an order of magnitude), something is amiss here.

Prime suspect is probably the boiler, if it's not too pricey I would get a second opinion. I would get them to look inside the body of the boiler, our oil bill kept rising for a few years and it turns out the baffles inside of the boiler (panels that trap the heat in so it can heat radiator water) had disintegrated and all the heat was escaping out the flue.

After that I'd look at the timings on the thermostat, double-check the house isn't getting too hot and she is just opening windows to let the excess heat out (I'm not being patronising here, this actually happened in our family :smirk: so I wouldn't leave any stone unturned).

Gas and electricity bills vary from household to household, but a difference of a factor of 10 is very exceptional and I'd be surprised if there wasn't a critical explanation at the heart of it.

efficiency is largely irrelevant. cost effectiveness is what counts. these arent cost effective as a primary source of heating. efficiency is hotly debated every time one of these gets posted.

Joule for joule of useful heat energy, even off-peak electricity is three times the price of gas. Even once you factor in various losses and inefficiencies in your gas central heating system you're better off using that.

For those unlucky enough to only have electric heating it's still best to use storage heaters to scoop up cheap energy at night.

I use my 2kW electric heater regularly, but only for short periods of acute cold (for instance when going to the bathroom at night before the heating has come on). On a standard tariff a 2kW heater costs between 30p-40p an hour to run during the day, so should definitely be used with caution.

Bought this heater from here about a month ago, works ok i suppose for the price but it has to be either on or off as it cant even regulate its self temperature wise at all. when it reaches the desired temperature it flickers on and off every second instead of turning off and coming back on when the temperature has dropped again, i dont know if my unit is faulty or thats what you get for £6 odd.

I don't have a lot of experience with storage heaters but I do know that the small portable rads I've used are only good for really small rooms (like 10'x10' tops - single bedroom territory for a 2Kw model)

Like storage heaters, they take forever to warm anywhere up tho - so they're both devices intended to 'keep a place at a certain temp' rather than 'heat up a room on demand' which is what fan/radiant heaters do best...

As with all things heating related, it all comes down to size/insulation/tariffs and you personal idea of 'warm' really.

got two from them both not working

they will refund when I send it back still not finding time to post it back

Security guards essential boot item, use wherever you're cold and don't pay for the bill :smile:

Do you think it's cheaper to use oil radiator than storage heater?

As cjs says it's very inefficient to use electricity to heat things. 1kw heater for 5 hours per night would cost about 80-90p whereas I heat my living room with much less than one gas unit per evening for about 40p.

Going to get hot ...

How noisy are these things?

All Electric heaters are almost 100% efficient - you put in 1Kw of electric (that's about 10-15p per hour depending on your tariff) and you get 1Kw of heat out (less a bit for powering the fan and a tiny bit of noise)

The problem with fan (and convection and halogen) heaters is that their heat is used to warm small amounts of air a LOT and then letting that heat disperse but houses (or even just single rooms) contain a lot of cold air and a lot of cold surfaces so you have to keep the fan on to keep things warm - e.g. they work best in small spaces with minimal heat loss.

Ceramic elements help here - they retain heat and disperse it over time better but they tend to cost more (and I doubt you'd get that back in energy savings until you'd run them for many, many hours - they can be quieter too tho, some people like that I guess)

I use a fan heater like this in the office when there's no-one else at home - no need to put the CH on for that.

If I want to keep a room warm when I'm away tho, I'd use a portable oil rad - less risk of fire (using a fan heater unattended is crazy tbh), uses less power to keep things just warm enough to prevent too much damp/condensation etc.

I got the upright one to use in a huge cupboard that's on an outside wall. It's perfect. Has a fan only setting as well as the 1 and 2 kilowatt settings. The anti tilt is super too. As soon as you touch the heater it turns off, so great if you have kids or animals.

Lx

So cold (The weather not deal) heat added

thanks just bought one for my shed x

I think they are right, central heating heats the boiler, pipes on the way to all the radiators even if the actual radiator isn't on, then heat the radiator you have on then the room.
This heats the filament then the room.
So probably more efficient

Thanks OP - just ordered! was about to spend 13.50 on one frm clas ohlson before i thought id do a quick search on hukd - then found this! saved me 6.50!!!

Why? You can just turn the rads down in the rooms you don't use at the time.

Cheap but beware the big electricity bill.

They also have an upright one see link below