If you want the cheapest way of eating your home then using air conditioning is the best cheapest way of making that happen. I hit my home with two air conditioning units and it cost me less than 50p a day in the 24-hour period keeping the whole property at 21 degrees Celsius. The only drawback is when it gets very cold outside they're not quite as efficient so much cheaper than oil filled radiators and fan heaters and you get 3 1/2 times more energy out than what you put in so efficient. Obviously not for everyone but air conditioning is fantastic the way to go and I've been doing this for the last 25 years.
Excellent video. I just bought a Dyson fan heater. It heats up quickly but wondered about keeping the room warm. Strangely yours is the only proper test I could find on here. Thank you
Thanks for the video. At steady state, both types of heater will use exactly the same amount of electrical energy to keep an equal amount of uniformly heated space at a certain temperature because both are turning all the electrical energy into heat energy. No energy is being stored anywhere when at steady state temperature; all the electrical energy has to go into thermal energy. Power consumption will be identical between the two heaters for the same amount you want to heat up a whole room if you are, indeed, heating the whole room. That is from the law of conservation of energy. The key difference is that the heaters do not heat everything in the room the same amount because the way the thermal energy is distributed differs. Generally, a fan heater will use more energy to heat a room because it is heating the room more thoroughly/uniformly with its forcing of air around the room (and possibly also through gaps/draughts e.g. bottoms of doors) due to the fan function. The oil filled rad (OFR) often feels nicer because it is more of a zone radiator and is quiet; the zone being concentrated around the heater. There is also convection, of course, but the OFR is better if you want to heat a zone in the room, rather than the whole room (you don't care about the sides, edges or corners). If you are sitting near to the heater and the purpose is to heat you, then this should be a bit cheaper on electricity because of this zone heating effect. The OFR takes longer to heat up because of the heat capacity of the oil and metal construction. Differences between the two types of heater include the speed they heat up, noise, the manner in which the heat is circulated and distributed in a room (fan more even distribution due to forced air movement), the amount of time of cool down once powered off and related practical matters such as being able to dry clothing on an oil filled rad but not a fan heater. Other matters include end of life disposal, ease of carrying/transport around a house, etc. OFR are more expensive to buy and take up more room to store. Things you didn't measure or mention are outside (and inside) humidity and wind speed. The higher these are outside, the quicker the room will be losing heat through the walls. You also did not compare temperature measurements in, say, the corners of the room, which would have been interesting to see. Imagine having a really massive room (e.g. outside) and doing the same tests again. Direct the fan heater away from you situated about 1m away from you. You will likely never feel any heat from it! Put the OFR in the same location and you will feel some radiated heat. The advantages and disadvantages all depend on your particular application. But, please, one is no more efficient at heating than the other, all else being equal. It's just that, usually, not everything is equal. P.S. kW is a unit of power. kWh is a unit of energy. (Power = energy/time.)
Hi Jam....Thanks for the thanks .I agree with your points but it was just a test in average conditions and my personal preference for the OFR I do show the outside humidity on the "weather station" bits at 07:45 an 11:39 etc ...unfortunately I don't have the gear to measure wind speed....I tried to pick as similar days as poss for the tests but the manshed is the only place I do these tests and not having access to lab conditions I realise results wont be 100% accurate like not measuring corner temperatures ...its a very small room though with the same insulation on all walls so can only say the corners "feel" the same temps. Hopefully it will be of some use to some.
Thank you so much for making this video I really appreciate it. It’s very informative and must have taken alot of time and effort. I purchased a Pelonis oil heater and it heats the bedroom (which since lockdown is used as an office) to a lovely cozy temperature.
Extremely useful video! Most of my doubts were solved here. I only wish you could do another test: with the heaters off at 21 degrees room temperature, how long the oil filled radiator maintains the temperature until the room goes down back to 8 degrees. Since the heat retention of the oil heater is one of its main "pros", it would be nice to see how it behaves once it is turned off completely.
Hi Kobe.. thanks for the kind words....I haven't done a full timed test on what you mention but can give you my observations When the heater shuts off on its thermostat yes it does retain heat for some minutes before it switches back on....however when it is finally turned off it's only them same few minutes before it's back to room temperature and then it's cooling down with the room In fact it will be cooling faster than the walls and ceiling of the shed as they are well insulated and the heater is just then basically a block of metal For it to retain heat on shut off would mean it would have to have its own internal insulation which would if course have a negative effect for a heater as it would trap heat in Of course storage heaters work like this by heating firebricks which retain heat but the idea with these is that they very slowly build up the heat on cheap rate elec over night then switch off during the day and dissipate that heat.....that makes them unpractical though as a general daily heater as the would take hours to heat the room That's my theory anyway :)
I was hoping to see how fast the room would cool down using both heat methods.. The ceramic heater would cool down in 5 min, the oil heater would cool down after 1 hour
Hi Dell..thanks for the comment....Yes there were other tests I could have done but I thought that after final turn off I would normally get in bed or leave the room so that test was less relevant. As you say the fan heater (it was a standard fan heater with wire heating coils not ceramic) cools down to room temp almost immediately but the oil filled radiator prob less than you think...not a full hour ...I would guess more like 20-30 mins. as the oil and metal retain some heat but not as much as say an old style storage heater with their heat retaining bricks and insulation that could stay warm for many hours
@@mirabi hi mirabi...thanks for that...yes 650w is really only suitable for the smallest of rooms like a small bathroom..in anything larger it will be on almost constantly as the rooms heat losses will be greater than it's output. .this actually makes it more expensive than say a 1.5kw heater that will shut off and on maintaining room temperature
Great review and testing session. I wonder if you put a smallish fan perpendicular to the oil filled radiators fins it would increase the efficiency, and decrease the time up to temp?
I always use a USB powered fan on high blowing on my oil heaters, and one aiming up to circulate the air around better. For taking the chill out of the air when it`s extremely cold I use a tiny 200w Lasko heater that has a fan. I love that little heater. It`s so useful!
Hi Billy....as "baneverything5580" has mentioned he does exactly that so it may be worth a try. Also I have often wondered if one of those "Stove/Log Burner" fans may help...they just sit on the hot stove (so a hot oil filled rad should work the same) and use the heat itself to create the rotary motion to circulate heat and don't use any power at all ....would be hard for a DIYer like myself to test properly though without exact lab conditions...might be worth considering though
When Texas had the bad winter weather in February, 2021 we got it too here in Louisiana. I was at my sister`s home and she had one gas heater in her living room. All I had then was little power bricks and folding solar panels with long extension cables to keep them charged inside. I used them to power USB fans to circulate heat through the house and into my room because ice knocked out the power. After so many bad storms I finally invested what little I had in a lot of various solar batteries, even a big 300ah system for a tiny air conditioner. And WOW has it been so great to have my own electricity! But I barely had enough to pull it off. Thank goodness I did!@@TomsManShed
Hi Tom love your videos and I have just watch this one about a fan heater v oil filled rad found it very interesting but may I ask where did you get the power meter from that you used in the video to show have many KWs each one used. Thank you for your time and keep up the great work. Les
In winter, I will camp in -30 degree cold weather with a 17 m2 tent. I am torn between an oil radiator and a fan heater to heat the tent. I even considered webasto. When I looked at the oil-filled radiator types, I saw that there were 4 options: 1500w, 2000w, 2300w and 2500w. Should I buy 2 units of 1500W or 2 units of 2000W, 2 units of 2300W or 2 units of 2500W in order to provide a comfortable warm-up without getting cold? Or is it 1 piece? This question applies to fan heaters. I am not considering a stove because burning it at night is risky due to carbon monoxide poisoning. I don't want to deal with smoke coming in and polluting everything, wood and coal. What are your suggestions for me?
Hi Hakan....I would get the maximum power units that I could so that they would heat the tent up quickest...the overall running costs wouldn't be much different as they would shut off on the thermostats when temperature is reached. I don't know whether you are running them off the V2L of your car (as mentioned in the vid I run my man-shed off the car) or if the campsite has a maximum load allowance ...if this was the case then the total 5kWh (of 2 2.5 kw units) would actually be too much as it has a max load allowance of about 3kw as do many campsites. Also the oil filled rads would be quite heavy and bulky for camping...I prefer them in my shed/house but that's because I don't need to transport them...maybe 2 fan heaters would be better in a tent due to their weight & size and may distribute the air better. Good luck....you are braver than me camping in -30 temperature :)
Hi Hakan....none of these heaters would really be suitable to run off a portable power unit....even some of the larger portable power packs are 2kw or so and cost many hundreds of pounds ....so a 2kWh one would only run a 2 kw heater for 1 hour...the solar panel (even a large one) would only charge the power pack VERY slowly and not be a able to keep up..... As mentioned I run my man-shed off my EV car's traction battery but of course that is 60kw capacity Portable power packs are more suitable really for stuff like running a TV or light or charging a phone. I would consider using a generator (run OUTSIDE of the tent of course) for powering any heating appliance.
Excellent informative video! What amperage do you get from an electrical wall outlet in the UK? I live in the USA and our outlets are 120 volts 15 amps. The reason I'm asking is because you said both heaters were 2Kw. In the USA, the most we can buy is a 1.5Kw heater for 120 volts. Great video.
Hi Chris ...thanks for the kind words. Here in the UK the max from a domestic socket is 13A ..so 13A x 240V would give a max wattage of 3120w 3Kw fan heaters are readily available here and the black oil filled rad I have that I mentioned in the vid is 2.5kw Anything above 3kw (like my 7kw EV charger point) has to have its own feed from the main consumer unit.
Thanks for the reply. I just bought a Delonghi oil filled radiator with digital temperature control. I am noticing that when it is on, heating, I can hear the 60 Hz line frequency very quietly. But!, Sometimes it makes the protective case resonate at 60 Hz until I rap on it with my hand. Have you ever experienced that with one of the oil filled radiators? In your case it would be 50 Hz. Keep the videos coming! I subscribed to your channel and hope you make it big time. I love the way you demonstrate things with the meters!
Hi Chris thanks for the nicew words and subscription.....yes funny you mention that as I have felt a slight high frequency vibration more obvious when I run the back of my fingers very gently over the top surface...its like a "buzzing" sensation...it doesn't always do it...I have the heater on behind me right now and have just tried it and its not doing it.....not tried rapping it with hand but will do next time I feel it....see if it stops....it's weird granted.
Mine is the Delonghi TRD40615E. It is definitely the line frequency causing the vibration. It is 60 Hz. To add insult to injury, the protective casing around the fins picks up the 60 Hz vibration when the heating element is on and amplifies it. Granted, it's intermittent, but it's annoying. A simple rap on the case stops it. Ugh.
Hi Paul...am not sure what you could run off your solar panels but the fan heater is no different to any other form of electrical appliance in that respect. You need to look at its consumption in watts and its voltage.....so if your solar panels were charging a battery and that battery had an inverter to change the say 12v from the panels to 240v then yes if that inverter was capable of powering a 2kw device then yes you could. 2kw is quite a high load though and would soon deplete any battery pretty quickly...you would need quite a fair array of panels to do such a thing as well
If you want the cheapest way of eating your home then using air conditioning is the best cheapest way of making that happen. I hit my home with two air conditioning units and it cost me less than 50p a day in the 24-hour period keeping the whole property at 21 degrees Celsius. The only drawback is when it gets very cold outside they're not quite as efficient so much cheaper than oil filled radiators and fan heaters and you get 3 1/2 times more energy out than what you put in so efficient. Obviously not for everyone but air conditioning is fantastic the way to go and I've been doing this for the last 25 years.
Cost maintenance
I dont want to eat my home
Excellent video. I just bought a Dyson fan heater. It heats up quickly but wondered about keeping the room warm. Strangely yours is the only proper test I could find on here. Thank you
That's great...thanks for the thanks ...much appreciated :)
Thanks for the video. At steady state, both types of heater will use exactly the same amount of electrical energy to keep an equal amount of uniformly heated space at a certain temperature because both are turning all the electrical energy into heat energy. No energy is being stored anywhere when at steady state temperature; all the electrical energy has to go into thermal energy. Power consumption will be identical between the two heaters for the same amount you want to heat up a whole room if you are, indeed, heating the whole room. That is from the law of conservation of energy. The key difference is that the heaters do not heat everything in the room the same amount because the way the thermal energy is distributed differs.
Generally, a fan heater will use more energy to heat a room because it is heating the room more thoroughly/uniformly with its forcing of air around the room (and possibly also through gaps/draughts e.g. bottoms of doors) due to the fan function. The oil filled rad (OFR) often feels nicer because it is more of a zone radiator and is quiet; the zone being concentrated around the heater. There is also convection, of course, but the OFR is better if you want to heat a zone in the room, rather than the whole room (you don't care about the sides, edges or corners). If you are sitting near to the heater and the purpose is to heat you, then this should be a bit cheaper on electricity because of this zone heating effect.
The OFR takes longer to heat up because of the heat capacity of the oil and metal construction. Differences between the two types of heater include the speed they heat up, noise, the manner in which the heat is circulated and distributed in a room (fan more even distribution due to forced air movement), the amount of time of cool down once powered off and related practical matters such as being able to dry clothing on an oil filled rad but not a fan heater. Other matters include end of life disposal, ease of carrying/transport around a house, etc. OFR are more expensive to buy and take up more room to store.
Things you didn't measure or mention are outside (and inside) humidity and wind speed. The higher these are outside, the quicker the room will be losing heat through the walls. You also did not compare temperature measurements in, say, the corners of the room, which would have been interesting to see.
Imagine having a really massive room (e.g. outside) and doing the same tests again. Direct the fan heater away from you situated about 1m away from you. You will likely never feel any heat from it! Put the OFR in the same location and you will feel some radiated heat.
The advantages and disadvantages all depend on your particular application. But, please, one is no more efficient at heating than the other, all else being equal. It's just that, usually, not everything is equal.
P.S. kW is a unit of power. kWh is a unit of energy. (Power = energy/time.)
Hi Jam....Thanks for the thanks .I agree with your points but it was just a test in average conditions and my personal preference for the OFR
I do show the outside humidity on the "weather station" bits at 07:45 an 11:39 etc ...unfortunately I don't have the gear to measure wind speed....I tried to pick as similar days as poss for the tests but the manshed is the only place I do these tests and not having access to lab conditions I realise results wont be 100% accurate like not measuring corner temperatures ...its a very small room though with the same insulation on all walls so can only say the corners "feel" the same temps.
Hopefully it will be of some use to some.
Thank you so much for making this video I really appreciate it. It’s very informative and must have taken alot of time and effort.
I purchased a Pelonis oil heater and it heats the bedroom (which since lockdown is used as an office) to a lovely cozy temperature.
Thanks for that Linda glad is was of some help ...stay cozy...roll on summer eh :)
Extremely useful video! Most of my doubts were solved here. I only wish you could do another test: with the heaters off at 21 degrees room temperature, how long the oil filled radiator maintains the temperature until the room goes down back to 8 degrees. Since the heat retention of the oil heater is one of its main "pros", it would be nice to see how it behaves once it is turned off completely.
Hi Kobe.. thanks for the kind words....I haven't done a full timed test on what you mention but can give you my observations
When the heater shuts off on its thermostat yes it does retain heat for some minutes before it switches back on....however when it is finally turned off it's only them same few minutes before it's back to room temperature and then it's cooling down with the room
In fact it will be cooling faster than the walls and ceiling of the shed as they are well insulated and the heater is just then basically a block of metal
For it to retain heat on shut off would mean it would have to have its own internal insulation which would if course have a negative effect for a heater as it would trap heat in
Of course storage heaters work like this by heating firebricks which retain heat but the idea with these is that they very slowly build up the heat on cheap rate elec over night then switch off during the day and dissipate that heat.....that makes them unpractical though as a general daily heater as the would take hours to heat the room
That's my theory anyway :)
Thank you just got one and testing it out now!
I was hoping to see how fast the room would cool down using both heat methods.. The ceramic heater would cool down in 5 min, the oil heater would cool down after 1 hour
Hi Dell..thanks for the comment....Yes there were other tests I could have done but I thought that after final turn off I would normally get in bed or leave the room so that test was less relevant.
As you say the fan heater (it was a standard fan heater with wire heating coils not ceramic) cools down to room temp almost immediately but the oil filled radiator prob less than you think...not a full hour ...I would guess more like 20-30 mins. as the oil and metal retain some heat but not as much as say an old style storage heater with their heat retaining bricks and insulation that could stay warm for many hours
I wish I saw this before I got blaupunkt 5 fin oil filled radiator 650W, I have to return it
@@mirabi hi mirabi...thanks for that...yes 650w is really only suitable for the smallest of rooms like a small bathroom..in anything larger it will be on almost constantly as the rooms heat losses will be greater than it's output. .this actually makes it more expensive than say a 1.5kw heater that will shut off and on maintaining room temperature
Great review and testing session. I wonder if you put a smallish fan perpendicular to the oil filled radiators fins it would increase the efficiency, and decrease the time up to temp?
I always use a USB powered fan on high blowing on my oil heaters, and one aiming up to circulate the air around better. For taking the chill out of the air when it`s extremely cold I use a tiny 200w Lasko heater that has a fan. I love that little heater. It`s so useful!
Hi Billy....as "baneverything5580" has mentioned he does exactly that so it may be worth a try. Also I have often wondered if one of those "Stove/Log Burner" fans may help...they just sit on the hot stove (so a hot oil filled rad should work the same) and use the heat itself to create the rotary motion to circulate heat and don't use any power at all ....would be hard for a DIYer like myself to test properly though without exact lab conditions...might be worth considering though
When Texas had the bad winter weather in February, 2021 we got it too here in Louisiana. I was at my sister`s home and she had one gas heater in her living room. All I had then was little power bricks and folding solar panels with long extension cables to keep them charged inside. I used them to power USB fans to circulate heat through the house and into my room because ice knocked out the power. After so many bad storms I finally invested what little I had in a lot of various solar batteries, even a big 300ah system for a tiny air conditioner. And WOW has it been so great to have my own electricity! But I barely had enough to pull it off. Thank goodness I did!@@TomsManShed
Hi Tom love your videos and I have just watch this one about a fan heater v oil filled rad found it very interesting but may I ask where did you get the power meter from that you used in the video to show have many KWs each one used.
Thank you for your time and keep up the great work.
Les
Hi Leslie ...Thanks for the kind words...much appreciated...yes I should have put a link to that power monitor so have now added it to the description
Thank you for that link
Les
Great video - clear, concise and informative - many thanks
Thanks very much for that John I appreciate it...roll on summer eh when we wont need them :)
Excellent breakdown, very informative video.
Many thanks…
Thanks for that Jewel I appreciate it
Excellent video, thank you for sharing
Thanks for that I appreciate it :)
In winter, I will camp in -30 degree cold weather with a 17 m2 tent. I am torn between an oil radiator and a fan heater to heat the tent. I even considered webasto. When I looked at the oil-filled radiator types, I saw that there were 4 options: 1500w, 2000w, 2300w and 2500w. Should I buy 2 units of 1500W or 2 units of 2000W, 2 units of 2300W or 2 units of 2500W in order to provide a comfortable warm-up without getting cold? Or is it 1 piece? This question applies to fan heaters. I am not considering a stove because burning it at night is risky due to carbon monoxide poisoning. I don't want to deal with smoke coming in and polluting everything, wood and coal. What are your suggestions for me?
Hi Hakan....I would get the maximum power units that I could so that they would heat the tent up quickest...the overall running costs wouldn't be much different as they would shut off on the thermostats when temperature is reached.
I don't know whether you are running them off the V2L of your car (as mentioned in the vid I run my man-shed off the car) or if the campsite has a maximum load allowance ...if this was the case then the total 5kWh (of 2 2.5 kw units) would actually be too much as it has a max load allowance of about 3kw as do many campsites.
Also the oil filled rads would be quite heavy and bulky for camping...I prefer them in my shed/house but that's because I don't need to transport them...maybe 2 fan heaters would be better in a tent due to their weight & size and may distribute the air better.
Good luck....you are braver than me camping in -30 temperature :)
@@TomsManShed I understand, thank you very much. I aimed to use it by purchasing a power unit that works with a solar panel.
Hi Hakan....none of these heaters would really be suitable to run off a portable power unit....even some of the larger portable power packs are 2kw or so and cost many hundreds of pounds ....so a 2kWh one would only run a 2 kw heater for 1 hour...the solar panel (even a large one) would only charge the power pack VERY slowly and not be a able to keep up.....
As mentioned I run my man-shed off my EV car's traction battery but of course that is 60kw capacity
Portable power packs are more suitable really for stuff like running a TV or light or charging a phone.
I would consider using a generator (run OUTSIDE of the tent of course) for powering any heating appliance.
@@TomsManShed Thank you
Excellent informative video! What amperage do you get from an electrical wall outlet in the UK? I live in the USA and our outlets are 120 volts 15 amps. The reason I'm asking is because you said both heaters were 2Kw. In the USA, the most we can buy is a 1.5Kw heater for 120 volts.
Great video.
Hi Chris ...thanks for the kind words. Here in the UK the max from a domestic socket is 13A ..so 13A x 240V would give a max wattage of 3120w
3Kw fan heaters are readily available here and the black oil filled rad I have that I mentioned in the vid is 2.5kw
Anything above 3kw (like my 7kw EV charger point) has to have its own feed from the main consumer unit.
Thanks for the reply. I just bought a Delonghi oil filled radiator with digital temperature control. I am noticing that when it is on, heating, I can hear the 60 Hz line frequency very quietly. But!, Sometimes it makes the protective case resonate at 60 Hz until I rap on it with my hand. Have you ever experienced that with one of the oil filled radiators? In your case it would be 50 Hz.
Keep the videos coming! I subscribed to your channel and hope you make it big time. I love the way you demonstrate things with the meters!
Hi Chris thanks for the nicew words and subscription.....yes funny you mention that as I have felt a slight high frequency vibration more obvious when I run the back of my fingers very gently over the top surface...its like a "buzzing" sensation...it doesn't always do it...I have the heater on behind me right now and have just tried it and its not doing it.....not tried rapping it with hand but will do next time I feel it....see if it stops....it's weird granted.
Mine is the Delonghi TRD40615E.
It is definitely the line frequency causing the vibration. It is 60 Hz. To add insult to injury, the protective casing around the fins picks up the 60 Hz vibration when the heating element is on and amplifies it. Granted, it's intermittent, but it's annoying. A simple rap on the case stops it. Ugh.
Hi great video. Could I run the fan heater from a solar panels? I'm planning on drying clothes with it in a highly insulated room. Thanks
Hi Paul...am not sure what you could run off your solar panels but the fan heater is no different to any other form of electrical appliance in that respect.
You need to look at its consumption in watts and its voltage.....so if your solar panels were charging a battery and that battery had an inverter to change the say 12v from the panels to 240v then yes if that inverter was capable of powering a 2kw device then yes you could.
2kw is quite a high load though and would soon deplete any battery pretty quickly...you would need quite a fair array of panels to do such a thing as well
Oil Filled Radiator Heater the best for me safe silent
I totally agree
Brilliant review Tom
Thanks for that Russell...much appreciated...
A really helpful video, thank you very much!!!
Thanks Evette I appreciate that
Very Helpful thanks!
Hi Masssch...Thanks for that I appreciate it
Can I sleep with it on
Depends how easily you get to sleep noise wise...one type is totally silent and the other type makes the usual noise of a fan heater