Oil fin heaters in the bedroom
We currently run 6 fin oil heaters in the childrens bedrooms 24 hours a day. Is this the most efficient way to do it from a cost perspective? Turning the heaters on at night for a couple of hours warms the rooms but they are cool in the mornings.
August 11th, 2010 at 10:27 am
Well, first thing to know is that the longer the heaters are on, the more they will cost. A 6 fin, would be about 2kw and cost around 50c/hour to run. If the rooms are uninsulated then it’s likely they could be running a lot of the time. If they were actually on for 24 hours, you’re looking at $12/day/heater or $360/month/heater!!!
Heating a room, when you don’t need to is not efficient. Much better to only heat when needed. Some folks set the timers so that the room is preheated before bed. And then turn the heater right down to the frost setting at night.
We always recommend that you make sure your home is well insulated, and take care of any draughts, followed by investigation of efficient heating. Heatpumps, logburners, and flued gas fires (central heating too) have running costs that are 2-4 time less than an oil column heater. As an example if you were to install a heatpump in a living room (cost $3000), that you were previously heating with say 2 2kw oil column heaters ( cost $300), you might expect to recoup your capital outlay for the heatpump within 1 - 2 years, and then start saving. At the end of the day, portable heaters are only efficient for intermittent use in places that installing a heatpump or other fixed heater is likely to be overkill (i.e. the capital cost swamps any savings in energy costs). However, having said that, gas central heating, and log burners with heat transfer kits are also pretty good value (at a cost of $5000 - $7000) (3-5 years payback or even less if the firewood is free).