Heating advice

Infamous786 · 14 Sep 2013 at 23:56

Hello All, need some advice, as winter is near soon. I wanted to know if i would save some money if I bought a oil heater electric for my living room as its quite cold.

The reason being I have a quite old boiler 1991. I dont have the money to replace this yet, but wanted to use the electric oil heater for the living room, instead of turning the whole heating on all the time. Last year got a very large bill on gas. My house is a 5 bedroom. Which has cavity insulated and insulated in the loft.

Any advice would be great

Attu90 · 15 Sep 2013 at 00:11

Have you got TRV's fitted to your radiators ?, if not id spend the money fitting them and turn off or regulate the radiators in the other rooms instead of turning off the heating.

Id imagine it would be very uncomfortable in the house just having one room heated and I don't think an electric oil filled radiator is going to be that cheap to run to be honest.

Infamous786 · 15 Sep 2013 at 00:26

Yes they installed in all the rooms, we turned them off, just the heating in the living room is not to powerful. The house is quite big. we got a bit of like £700 for 3 months. Gas and elec, and it wasnt on all the time few hrs a day.

Nightglow · 15 Sep 2013 at 08:49

You look at boiler grants,might be eligible, a friend got one because she got
Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit.

http://www.boilergrants.co.uk/

Brozart · 15 Sep 2013 at 10:10

Nightglow said:
You look at boiler grants,might be eligible, a friend got one because she got
Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit.

http://www.boilergrants.co.uk/

Can confirm this.

Also you could bypass the old boiler and fit a gas fire?

HardwareGeek · 15 Sep 2013 at 10:46

Cheapest way to heat using elec would be a heat pump afaik, which aircon is the cheapest version to install, then a proper air source heat pump, then ground source heat pump or put a jumper on!

Ps. Might need to run the heating up sometimes anyway to stop pipes freezing depending on how cold it gets

pitchfork · 15 Sep 2013 at 11:08

Nightglow said:
You look at boiler grants,might be eligible, a friend got one because she got
Child Tax Credit or Working Tax Credit.

http://www.boilergrants.co.uk/

The guy lives in a 5 bed house though, surely earns over that sort of threshold? :confused:

I don't ever have the heating on except for company, I just bung on slippers and dressing gown when it gets properly cold. My advice to you OP, awesome slippers and massive fluffy dressing gown.

Infamous786 · 15 Sep 2013 at 13:57

Not on benefits, Just its hard to save up as i recently bought this house about 2 years. Just thinking ways to get the bills down. We were advised to get one of these, obviously the central heating will be turned on some points, just to have this on in the living room to heat it up. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=418450047&pf_rd_i=468294

newbiejim · 15 Sep 2013 at 14:16

Id get one of these, instant heat and you control the cost, PAYG heating imho. You can then be really comfortable in one room and keep others at not too bad.

Infamous786 · 15 Sep 2013 at 17:24

Thought about these, but don't they cause allot of condensation?

ci_newman · 15 Sep 2013 at 17:40

Yes and not ideal to use in low ventilation e.g.house with closed windows

newbiejim · 15 Sep 2013 at 18:25

Infamous786 said:
Thought about these, but don't they cause allot of condensation?

I used one for a while and didnt have problems, BUT I only used it for an hour or so at a time, anyway its ure lucky day..............just on HUKD bargain

Tinders · 15 Sep 2013 at 18:32

I would advise servicing your heating system, get it all cleaned out, theres no reason why a well maintained 1991 boiler couldn't heat a house well.

A service, not just the boiler, but the whole system can improve efficiency no end. That and a day of walking around all doors and windows, sealing up draughts with silicone is time well spent.

Infamous786 · 15 Sep 2013 at 20:23

Yes it might need flushing, the living room is the worst the other rooms are fine. we have bled the heater in there, but it still does not get that hot.

pitchfork · 16 Sep 2013 at 07:47

Infamous786 said:
Yes it might need flushing, the living room is the worst the other rooms are fine. we have bled the heater in there, but it still does not get that hot.

Have it powerflushed, it's supposed to be done every 2 years but most people ignore it and wonder why their heating bill is so high for such little heat.

Tesla · 16 Sep 2013 at 07:58

Infamous786 said:
Yes it might need flushing, the living room is the worst the other rooms are fine.

System unbalanced?

Watch a few Youtube videos on balancing a heating system.

Tinders · 16 Sep 2013 at 08:00

pitchfork said:
Have it powerflushed, it's supposed to be done every 2 years but most people ignore it and wonder why their heating bill is so high for such little heat.

Every 2 years? No you don't, once a system is clean, all you need is inhibitor that will stop the crud clogging up. At every service, you need to check the inhibitor and if its 'weak' you can do an ordinary flush and refill with new inhibitor.

Powerflush can cause problems if the system is really old, I've seen it knacker old weak pipes in the past.

Nightglow · 16 Sep 2013 at 08:40

Tinders said:
Powerflush can cause problems if the system is really old, I've seen it knacker old weak pipes in the past.

Seem that happen more than once over the years, radiators developing pin p rick leaks, pipes failing, etc, all after a powerflush. :eek:

Shimmyhill · 16 Sep 2013 at 10:11

Heating one room only has to be bad for the house, will have condensation issues in other rooms and horrible air quality due to this.

I would also suspect its a very inefficient way to heat a house, the fabric of the house will retain heat once its got it but is very costly to heat up - doing it one room only is going to be very inefficient to do if all other rooms and fabric of house is stone cold.

Gas is always cheaper way to heat than electricity, boiler more efficient than a gas fire.

pitchfork · 16 Sep 2013 at 12:28

Nightglow said:
Seem that happen more than once over the years, radiators developing pin p rick leaks, pipes failing, etc, all after a powerflush.

Only if the system was plumbed in by a cretin.