Electric heater, cheap(ish) to run

patoffaly1971

Hello, the cold weather has inspired me to buy an electric heater rather than use storage heating. I figure an electric heater would be better, can anyone recommend one?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058270507/electric-heater-cheap-ish-to-run

All depends on the area to be heated, for how long, how warm you want the place, insulation, your activity level, draughts etc etc etc.

To give you an example, I've got a tiny halogen heater for under the desk on the worst winter days when my feet turn to blocks of ice, only use it for 15 mins at a time and am wrapped up to keep warm. I only use this as I can be sitting motionless at the desk for hours on end. Otherwise 3 x 30 min cycles of the gas heating is more than enough for the heating regardless of the weather.

If I was active the bit of gas would be plenty along with blankets if I'm chilling on the couch in the evening.

I've used the oil filled heaters, fan heaters, halogens, storage, oil, and gas all down through the years. The variables I mention in the first paragraph meant some were perfect, some were crap and some were overkill.

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058270507/electric-heater-cheap-ish-to-run

Not much difference in them, if a kw goes in a kw comes back out of them all afaik. I just recently purchased a couple of 700w and 600w infrared panel heaters to try them out because I have solar panels so if any good will be usable more when it starts getting brighter again from March to October for nearly free use.

It all depends on individual circumstances at the end of the day and what you expect them to heat. You can pick up old storage heaters very cheap these days if any use to you. Weigh up how much the energy you were using cost wise against your electricity unit rates to see which is cheapest. There are calculators online to break it down.

colm_mcm

All conventional electric heaters are pretty much 100% efficient, ie you get out (heat) what you put in (money)

Storage heaters aren’t in fashion anymore, but if you have a dual meter and they’re actually set up properly there’s nothing wrong with them. Night rate is just under half the price of day rate, you’ll lose some efficiency in that they’ll give out some heat at night when they’re charging up and you’re not in the room, but overall I reckon changing to regular convection, fan, or oil filled radiators will cost you more to run.

kirk.

Never understood storage heaters going out of fashion

Homes and the heaters themselves are better insulated , they should be making a comeback if anything

Only issue is the smart tariffs are not as good as the day/nite rates so that's going against them now