Oil filled radiators

We used them years ago when the children were small and we had no central heating. We found them good but only took the edge off bedrooms with them.

Beware what you buy though as they perform very differently brand by brand.

We had a couple in our old house to heat our conservatory. They were surprisingly effective and not really expensive to run as the oil retains the heat surprisingly well and they had a thermostat so once the desired heat was reached, they switched off.

Can't remember the brand but they were middle of the road in terms of price.

Bought one years ago for my "chilly" daughter's s bedroom (always cold that one) still going strong and handy as a back up.
Not expensive either.

We have had a De Longhi oil filled radiator for quite a few years. I wouldn’t say that we use it on a very regular basis, but I would certainly replace it if it gave up the ghost. Not sure about using it as a substitute for central heating on a regular basis as it does is quite a dry heat, although the temperature can obviously be regulated. If, say we were only going to be in just one room for an hour or so, and it turned chilly, we would use it, rather than heating our entire home.

Thank you everyone and I will do some brand research before I buy but I think I will get one at least not to actually replace using the ch all the time but in a measured way.

I will watch this thread because we are debating whether to invest in them for heating our conservatory during the winter. The underfloor heating is old, not very efficient and expensive to run (like me) and we have explored the possibility of running a radiator off the CH, but the plumber has uncovered myriad difficulties with that scenario.

We use one in our open plan upstairs sitting area. We have it placed between our chairs and find it works well.

We have one just in case we need a boost. It's a De Longhi and is excellent. Gives good heat fairly rapidly and economically. I bet they'll sell out quickly this winter.

We had a de Longhi in our conservatory so we could use it in winter (not connected to our central heating), had it on a timer and with the thermostat set. It finally packed in 18 months ago (after about 15 years) and I replaced with a cheaper brand.
I shall be investing in another De Longhi as this one is nowhere near as efficient (& one of the wheels has already broken!). I guess you get what you pay for!!!

Our De longhi must be at least 15 years old. OH spends a lot of time in cold garages and sheds ?

Another recommendation for De Longhi here. We don’t use it a lot, but it has come in handy, and gives out decent warmth. The heat level can be controlled.

When I moved I rather foolishly gave away two of my three De Longhi heaters as I wasn't sure I'd have space to store them. Glad people think they are good.

We have a De Longhi which we used all last winter in our living room as the wall heater had blown up and the HA wouldn’t come out to replace it because of Covid. It did a good job, although was slow to heat up the room. No more expensive than the wall heater - although I do find those expensive anyway.

We have one for our conservatory bought last year. We use it with the timer and it has made a big difference. Wish we had bought it years ago.

It will be cheaper to use your centraal heating than use oil-filled radiators.

For the last two winters we have been using just such a radiator in our kitchen as the CH radiator has been disconnected because of building work. Our electricity consumption went up 50% with just one radiator and CH in the rest of the house.

DO NOT DO IT.

We're the building contractors using your electricity? We found our consumption shot up when their tools and equipment etc were plugged in to our mains then plummeted after they left. Wish they'd amended their bill to reflect this!

Aveline No, they didn't start work until this spring. This was some pre-work DH organised, but then had a heart attack so the building work was delayed until he was out of hospital and fit.

Most builders seem to use battery powered tools these days.

We have a non-oiled filled radiator in our sunroom for occasional use in the winter, it’s excellent and warms the room really quickly. I had on oil filled one for years which unfortunately started to leak.

I have some oil-filled ones from when the heating didn't work, years ago. I'll bring one in from the garage - for when I start to feel chilly. It makes no sense, heating a large house, when I'm mainly in one room - especially with the hike in gas prices. I'll put up the thermal door curtain too (they are marvellous).

We have a couple of Dimplex radiators in the loft which we’ve had for years as emergency backup in case the boiler packs up, and while we are waiting for the heating engineer to come.

They are also handy when we have our baby grandson staying overnight in the winter.

It’s difficult to compare costs though isn’t it as we don’t know yet how expensive gas will be.

In the meantime thank goodness for having a fixed rate deal which will buy us a bit of time!

Those who are using electric heaters instead of CH because they just want to heat a couple of rooms. Don't your radiators have thermostatic radiator valves, or can you not just turn off the radiators in the rooms you do not use?

We have a large house and we just turn the radiators right down and shut the doors to rooms we do not need to heat.

Do not forget the dangers of damp and mould if you leave large parts of your home unheated, dangers not only to the house but also your health as mould can cause respiratory illnesses.

I had a relation, who didn't seem to feel the cold and rarely had the heating on. When he went into care, I opened a wardrobe and found all the clothes in it welded together by threads of mould. that filled the whole wardrobe. I had to wear a mask to take them out, put them in bin sacks and to scrub and clean the inside of the wardrobe. It took me months of heating and cleaning to dry the house out and remove all signs of mould.

Can someone advise on remote control electric heaters please ?