Electric Oil filled radiators

SQ2

Hi all, have a question on a product namely this one It has been offered to me as an efficient alternative to the current 2 x 2000w (depending on how cold it is 1 or 2 heaters would have be used) electric heaters I'm using to heat a 4 x 4 meter room with an almost 3 meter roof.
The electricity bill for the last 2 years was unpleasant to say the least, so I've a budget of about €400 to heat the room, or at least take the bite off the cold!

Has anyone experience of these sun ray heaters, or can you suggest a better alternative? The amount of different products and methods available seems a bit bewildering at this stage!
Thanks!

John T Carroll

SQ2 wrote: »

Hi all, have a question on a product namely this one It has been offered to me as an efficient alternative to the current 2 x 2000w (depending on how cold it is 1 or 2 heaters would have be used) electric heaters I'm using to heat a 4 x 4 meter room with an almost 3 meter roof.
The electricity bill for the last 2 years was unpleasant to say the least, so I've a budget of about €400 to heat the room, or at least take the bite off the cold!

Has anyone experience of these sun ray heaters, or can you suggest a better alternative? The amount of different products and methods available seems a bit bewildering at this stage!
Thanks!

Controllability in my opinion, is the only real difference between these heaters and the oil filled ones, all these manufacturers claim that they have superior thermostatic control of the (Room) temperature, the only way this could be achieved is by having the temperature sensor remote from the heater to read a true room temperature, as far as I know the thermostat is attached to the rad, the same as on the Oil filled ones. The Oil filled rads can also be wheeled to where ever is the most desirable location in the room.
I would invest in a plug-in Energy Monitor and a household thermometer, and set the Energy Monitor to read Kwh. (You can pick up a very neat one in Maplins for €15.50 but no doubt there are plenty other stockists)
Re your budget of €400 per annum, a few assumptions will have to be made, assume that it takes 1 hour to get your room to say 20C (thats what the household thermometer is for) then you will have used 2 kwh to reach this temperature and assume that it needs 1 kw/hour to maintain this temperature then the €400 should cover a heating period of almost 4.5 hours per day (this includes the 1 hour heating up period) for 365 days/year at an energy cost of €0.20 per Kwh. If it only requires 0.5 KW/hour to maintain the temperature then your €400 should cover a heating period of almost 8 hours/day, including the warm up period. I would advise that one element of the rad is switched off once the room is up to temperature and set the thermostatic control wheel to some intermediate position and see how you get on, its vital that you dont exceed whatever comfort temperature level that you require (use that thermometer, initially, constantly)
My daughter uses an oil filled rad most weekends as she likes to read for three or four hours after the oil fired central heating times off at midnight, a 16X12 foot (4.9X3.7 Meters) room only takes 0.45 KW/hour to maintain 20C with an ambient of three or four deg.C. so €400 would cover the running costs for almost 9 hours/day/365 days/year.

If one assumes a 242 (8 month) heating season, then the above numbers, in your case become 7.3 hrs/day and/or 13.5 hrs/day for the €400 budget....John

SQ2

John T Carroll wrote: »

Controllability in my opinion, is the only real difference between these heaters and the oil filled ones, all these manufacturers claim that they have superior thermostatic control of the (Room) temperature, the only way this could be achieved is by having the temperature sensor remote from the heater to read a true room temperature, as far as I know the thermostat is attached to the rad, the same as on the Oil filled ones. The Oil filled rads can also be wheeled to where ever is the most desirable location in the room.
I would invest in a plug-in Energy Monitor and a household thermometer, and set the Energy Monitor to read Kwh. (You can pick up a very neat one in Maplins for €15.50 but no doubt there are plenty other stockists)
Re your budget of €400 per annum, a few assumptions will have to be made, assume that it takes 1 hour to get your room to say 20C (thats what the household thermometer is for) then you will have used 2 kwh to reach this temperature and assume that it needs 1 kw/hour to maintain this temperature then the €400 should cover a heating period of almost 4.5 hours per day (this includes the 1 hour heating up period) for 365 days/year at an energy cost of €0.20 per Kwh. If it only requires 0.5 KW/hour to maintain the temperature then your €400 should cover a heating period of almost 8 hours/day, including the warm up period. I would advise that one element of the rad is switched off once the room is up to temperature and set the thermostatic control wheel to some intermediate position and see how you get on, its vital that you dont exceed whatever comfort temperature level that you require (use that thermometer, initially, constantly)
My daughter uses an oil filled rad most weekends as she likes to read for three or four hours after the oil fired central heating times off at midnight, a 16X12 foot (4.9X3.7 Meters) room only takes 0.45 KW/hour to maintain 20C with an ambient of three or four deg.C. so €400 would cover the running costs for almost 9 hours/day/365 days/year.

If one assumes a 242 (8 month) heating season, then the above numbers, in your case become 7.3 hrs/day and/or 13.5 hrs/day for the €400 budget....John

Brilliant concise reply. thanks!