best energy efficient heater

kz44

Hi we have storage heaters and are hoping to turn them off and replace with an efficient/inexpensive heater.
We have noted little electric stove heaters.
any idea which is the best and cheapest please.

antoinolachtnai

All electric heaters are the same efficiency-wise.

Storage heaters' advantage is that they benefit from electricity purchased at a lower rate overnight. But the efficiency is the same.

kz44

ok thanks its just they cool off when we arrive home after 6pm want heat later in day kinda dont need during day.
Thanks for replyin tho.

Cushie Butterfield

That's the (main) downside of storage heaters. Just make sure that you turn the output dial to the lowest setting possible last thing at night & turn it up when you arrive home in the evenings.

You may still want to invest in a plug-in oil filled radiator to use as a secondary heat source for a couple of hours before the storage heater kicks in at 11pm. The advantage of the oil filled rads are that the oil stays warm for a while after switching them off, so you could move it to your bedroom about 10 or 15 mins before going to bed (even without plugging it in) which would at least take the chill out of the bedroom for the short period that you'd need a bit of heat in there.

kz44

tanx yes that seems to be the plan im just wondering are those oil filled radiators hard on elec bill. 2 be honest i plan swichin off the other heaters wasted money.

antoinolachtnai

They are fairly expensive to run, but if you have no real choice, that's what you have to do.

The oil filled heater isn't any more efficient than the fan heater. The fan heater will heat the air, and heat up more quickly. The oil-filled heater will heat the surroundings a bit. It will take longer to heat the place, but the heat will be absorbed into walls and furnishings and will last a bit longer after the heater is turned off.

You can work out the cost by looking at the rating. If it is 2 kW, that means that it uses two electricity units every hour it is running (that's about 35 or 40 cents). If you use it for 4 hours a day for 90 days a year, that's 120 euros or so for the winter.

Cushie Butterfield

kz44 wrote: »

tanx yes that seems to be the plan im just wondering are those oil filled radiators hard on elec bill. 2 be honest i plan swichin off the other heaters wasted money.

You have to be careful if doing this (i.e. relying totally on portable electic heaters running for a few hours a day as your main heat source) as they are really only meant to be used as a secondary or top-up source of heat. I know you said that you feel the storage heating is wasted money, but this may not be the case.

I'm guessing that you live in an apartment? Some apartment dwellers that live in upper level units find that they don't need to use any heat at all due to heat rising from lower level units to heat theirs. It doesn't seem to be happening in your case, so using portables may not be adequate to heat the actual walls & prevent damp.

If you're renting you may not particularly care about this, but despite this, damp, apart from adverse health affects & musty smell could spread to your furniture e.g. a couch situated against a wall, or wardrobes containing your clothes resulting in mould on your clothes & overall troublesome living conditions that could have been avoided. So the use of your storage heating could help prevent all this even though it may seem that it's 'wasted' heat/money.

None of the above may be relevant in your particualr situation, but it's worthwhile bearing it in mind.

Wearb

Another thing that Cushie touched on, but didn't go into, is the cost of heating when damp conditions prevail. If you have dampness in a room that you are heating, it takes much more heating until the dampness has been removed. This is because the energy from your heat source is being used to turn the condensed water (dampness) back into water vapour. That is also one of the reasons why you need ventilation. It is to remove this water vapour and not having it condense again as soon as it cools. You could increase the ventilation by opening a window when the heating is off. When you have gotten rid of the dampness, less ventilation will be needed. You will only need enough to cater for the people living (and breathing) there along with cooking etc.

See if you can get someone in who knows exactly how to use your storage heaters, you may or may not be using them correctly. You may see them in some store and get the sales assistant to explain it. Good luck with it.