Best plug in heater?

[Dum-Dum]

Hi all, my big storage heater in my house is now proper f*cked and I cant afford to replace it and it's getting mighty cold in here with the current prevailing wind and temperature so I want a plug in electric heater so I can start to feel my fingers again. Problem is I don't know the first thing about which give off the best heat.

I need something that'll warm the downstairs of my 11ft by 20ft house quickly and be cheap to run.

Currently leaning towards an oil filled radiator.

[C.A.R.]

Electrical Heat and economy don't go hand in hand unfortunately, the prevailing reason why we moved out of the old place and somewhere with 'proper' heating (ie gas).

That said, an oil filled heater is probably your best bet for heat/money.

Consider this however, you probably arrive home in the evening and put the heater on when you get in the door. Its going to be a few hours before you feel any benefit I'm afraid (unless you sit on it)

[Toms306]

Plug in timers are cheap, have it come on half hour before you get up/get home.

We have oil filled heaters in the main rooms as the 80s storage heaters were shit. Expensive to run though (compared to wearing 3 jumpers) and not over efficient, you wont heat the whole ground floor with even a large 2kW one.

[Iceman299]

We have a couple of oil filled radiators in our apartment for £40 each. They warm the rooms up really well but take about 45mins to get from 15•c to 20. They're only 1.5kw iirc, can get a more powerful one but they cost more, obviously. A built in thermostat is handy to not have them running constantly

[THE_Liam]

Do you own the house Chris? If so get gas central heating fitted. Cost me 3 grand in my 3 bed semi but it's added double that to the value.

[306carter]

Oil filled heaters are on offer on CPC. Think they are around £30.

As said though proper central heating would be a sound investment

[silverzx]

Log burner ftw yo.

[Dum-Dum]

Plug in timers are cheap, have it come on half hour before you get up/get home.

That was my plan.

Do you own the house Chris? If so get gas central heating fitted. Cost me 3 grand in my 3 bed semi but it's added double that to the value.

I do own my house and I have considered gas but I don't think there is gas anywhere on my estate (from speaking to people who live in other parts of it) which means the nearest main will be the main road about a third of a mile away and so the cost of running a main to my house is probably prohibitively expensive.

Oil filled heaters are on offer on CPC. Think they are around £30.

Whats CPC?

Log burner ftw yo.

Cant, clean fuel area and there's regs and shit.

[silverzx]

Cant, clean fuel area and there's regs and shit.

F**k the police!!

Oh wait...

[306carter]

It's basically RS

http://cpc.farnell.com

[lolsteve]

Converting electric to heat isn't going to be vastly different in terms of efficiencies between them all, provided the radiator isn't producing huge amounts of light or noise then it'll be doing a good job of making heat.
Housemates bedroom used to nto have heating so he bought a cheap electric convection(?) heater. Used to heat the room nice and quick and never noticed the electric bill take a hit.
Considered switching back to non energy efficient bulbs? our flat has old halogen style bulbs built into the roof in the bathroom/kitchen/living room and when they're on and you stand underneath you can feel the top of your head burning from the heat. Hence why we've now got a 6w Led standing lamp rather than 4 50w bulbs which provide the same level of light

[tigerstyle]

Plug in timers are cheap, have it come on half hour before you get up/get home.

That was my plan.

Careful with that, some timers won't have the rating to continually switch a high load oil radiator. Potential fire risk.
Better to buy one with a timer built in. 

[r3k1355]

Do you own the house Chris? If so get gas central heating fitted. Cost me 3 grand in my 3 bed semi but it's added double that to the value.

Houses still exist without central heating?!?!?

Cant, clean fuel area and there's regs and shit.

Doesn't that just mean you need to run smokeless fuel and shit??
If so sling in a multi-fuel burner and you're ok.

I assume no-one actually go's around checking you're burning the right stuff - I'm pretty sure we live in a clean fuel area and people burn owt.

---

Smoke control area rules:
https://www.gov.uk/smoke-control-area-rules

List of 'approved fuels'
http://smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk/fuels.php?country=e

List of 'exempt' appliances (can burn wood in a smoke control area)
http://smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk/applian...?country=e

I'll cut to the chase tho, you want to get yourself a Morso stove, they make about 30 approved stoves.

http://morso.co.uk/product-categories/al...ed-stoves/

The Squirrel is approved to burn (dry) wood in a smoke control zone, it's kicks out stupid amounts of heat
http://morso.co.uk/product/morso-1412/

[Seb_Ryan]

Any defra approved log burner can be used in smokeless zones, they basically re burn the smoke to clean it off

[Toms306]

Any defra approved log burner can be used in smokeless zones, they basically re burn the smoke to clean it off

Sounds like a DPF!  I hope they work better than DPFs lol...

[Eeyore]

definitely oil filled. Electric is so inefficient. At uni you could literally watch the meter and see the credit go down...

[Niall]

Central heating doesn't have to be gas powered. You could go oil. Boilers are slightly more expensive and obviously your hit with a big heating bill when the tank needs refilling rather than a monthly bill but it could be a good idea!

[Toms306]

My Nan has oil heating and even without boiler servicing and the fact it breaks down at least once a year it still costs more that her neighbours pay with storage heaters and economy 7. Plus one of her son in laws drives an oil tanker so she gets a better deal lol. It really didn't turn out to be the cost effective solution that it was made out to be.

[Poodle]

Don't get oil fired heating, it was outdated, inefficient and expensive a decade ago, these days i don't understand how the installation companies are surviving. Shame you can't get gas, i think oil-filled radiators are probably the way to go.

You're probably not so bothered about efficiency, so how about a halogen heater? Awesome for making you feel warm when it's pointed at you, go from minus something to f*cking toasty in about thirty seconds. Depends what you want the heating for i guess, drying washing or comfort.

[C.A.R.]

Look into the gas Chris, even if you just get a quotation (it shouldn't cost you to do this). Don't want to be kicking yourself in 5 years time when you're still shivering in the cold!

[THE_Liam]

Do you own the house Chris? If so get gas central heating fitted. Cost me 3 grand in my 3 bed semi but it's added double that to the value.

Houses still exist without central heating?!?!?

Council houses, yeah. First thing I did when I bought it.

[r3k1355]

Christ, I knew it was rough in Leeds like 

[THE_Liam]

Christ, I knew it was rough in Leeds like 

Plenty of people don't have central heating, not everyone's a soft southerner who cries because it gets below 10 degrees. Put a f*cking hoody on and crack on!

[lolsteve]

Aye, used to wake up and see my breath then spend 20 mins trying to fire up the old boiler and spend the day wearing a coat indoors with the heating on as it was stone walls with no insulation.

---

Also dont try what I did and light a camping gas cooker in your bedroom with door and windows closed. Realised just in time that something wasn't right and was getting a bit hazy so had to open all the windows and doors and undo all the work

[Matt-Rallye]

Christ, I knew it was rough in Leeds like 

Plenty of people don't have central heating, not everyone's a soft southerner who cries because it gets below 10 degrees. Put a f*cking hoody on and crack on!

This.

[Orta]

I don't do cold. We live in a new build so the place is like 22 degrees constantly and its super energy efficient!

That said the in laws have oil and their house is always warm as well so that might be the solution.

[Dum-Dum]

Considered switching back to non energy efficient bulbs?

Genuinely I was standing in the kitchen earlier because of the heat kicked out by the 4 halogen bulbs that are in there.

[cully]

biomas boilers and look into boiler grants
there are pots of money available to bring houses up to livable stds

[lolsteve]

Considered switching back to non energy efficient bulbs?

Genuinely I was standing in the kitchen earlier because of the heat kicked out by the 4 halogen bulbs that are in there.

Combine that with a big plasma tv and a xbox then you'll have yourself a rather toasty room in no time

[nominous]

The best electrical heater is an A/C unit that run run both heat and cooling.
Heat pumps are the most efficient form of electrical heating.

Doesn't have to be a full on cut holes in the wall affair. Some units come with ducts which go through windows or catflaps as a temporary solution.

Gas would always be the preferred choice.
If you're up on your insulation firstly, then take a look at solar panels coupled with heat pumps.
During the winter you are likely to be importing from the grid. During the summer exporting. So it will all balance out. With heat pumps approaching COP of 5 (really more like 3 in current weather) they are becoming on par with gas.

If you're doing whole house renovation at some point, underfloor heating which uses lower temperatures is potentially a wiser choice as it medium temps take less energy to produce than radiator temps.

But practicality of the house you have often makes choices for you over what technology you might install. And the bank balance.