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The thermal output per KW should be identical across any electrical heater. It's a stupidly simple process of heating up a wire by passing current through it.
The only benefits of oil or gel filled radiators is that they retain some heat longer when not having current passed through them. But the downside is they take longer to heat up.
The net result is that the actual thermal output should be identical (barring any other electrical consumption, such as having a WiFi enabled heater for example). It's only marketing speil that tries to sell them as more efficient or economical.
... All to my understanding at least, but happy to be corrected
Yeah they are all virtually 100% efficient, a cheap fan heater does the same job and heat etc Timers and thermostats are all you need to save energy, they now have a window open mode that shuts it down if it’s running flat out or cuts it down.
From what i’ve researched the gel is more thermally efficient than oil or water. so it radiates more of the energy faster.
Far Infrared Heaters are supposed to be the most energy efficient as they heat the objects in the room and dont rely on convection to circulate warmed up air around the room.
In terms of normal electric heaters I have found that a convection heater seems to work much better than an oil filled one running at the same wattage, but as mentioned above all of them are pretty much the same in efficiency of electric to heat conversion, with the little fan heaters being slightly less efficient due to the fan drawing power as well but they circulate the heat a lot quicker as they dont just rely on convection to circulate the air.
In terms of normal electric heaters I have found that a convection heater seems to work much better than an oil filled one running at the same wattage, but as mentioned above all of them are pretty much the same in efficiency of electric to heat conversion, with the little fan heaters being slightly less efficient due to the fan drawing power as well but they circulate the heat a lot quicker as they dont just rely on convection to circulate the air.
Feeling warm vs warm room appears to be the key message here. Then which device heats up quickest and then which one focuses the heat.
My oil heaters take a time to get up to temp, but they maintain the room temp better. My air convector blow hot air on me, which feels warmer quicker but it loses it when the door is open.
I plan to buy an infrared, to target me better.
But older folks, they usually have older stuff, and drafty houses, and less well insulation.
My oil heaters take a time to get up to temp, but they maintain the room temp better. My air convector blow hot air on me, which feels warmer quicker but it loses it when the door is open.
I plan to buy an infrared, to target me better.
But older folks, they usually have older stuff, and drafty houses, and less well insulation.
Half the country literally can’t afford that I don’t think it will ever get that bad
Had quite interesting email from octopus about some plan to freeze the cap where it is using some shared fund between the energy companies or something. Not sure if it will happen or not.
One thing ppl gotta remember is it’s not the reseller energy companies ie bulb, octopus etc… ripping us off (why the don’t pay your bill thing will never work) but the global market price they buy it for has just sky rocketed.
I’ll see if I can find the email it’s a really good read and scary as **** to see how this country has zero control over its energy even the **** it creates it self!!!
Only way to escape is create your own!
Sadly solar is pretty useless for a good part of the year
The hot tub is an absolute killer , just turned ours off until next spring.
It is hard for most homes to have a full seasons energy generating strategy. A small holding could have wind and hydro taking over when solar is weaker.
I have looked into wind turbines but you need clear air and they do make a noise. My possible space is very close to my house so the noise element would be an issue.
I have looked into wind turbines but you need clear air and they do make a noise. My possible space is very close to my house so the noise element would be an issue.
Iv only got 5.8kw battery which is great for evening / night but not sure if I’d be able to run all day / evening on it. Would need to be double like @Colywobbles to work I think. Would like to get a second 5.8kw slave battery but everywhere out of stock then got the installer wait etc..
Tbh those day rates will be better then the oct price cap rates lol? Prob cheaper just to be on this tariff anyway after oct?
Tbh those day rates will be better then the oct price cap rates lol? Prob cheaper just to be on this tariff anyway after oct?
Heated clothing is going to be popular. especially if you can power from your own waste. F-ARt power - yes believe it or not there is a group in china working on this right now 
I’ve never understood why new build properties haven’t had to have solar power installed by law. The additional costs would really be peanuts compared to the initial selling price (and stamp duty) and presumably if this had been done over the last 25 or so years as a country we would now have been in such a better position to withstand power shortages.
good idea. probably needs customers to demand it from their house builders. legislation runs too slow.
Quite a few do, iv seen quite a few new builds around Bristol all with panels (look like 3-4Kw systems) and even ev chargers on the garage.
This is one of those areas you have to legislate, like insulation levels, or most house builders will won’t change what already works.
They are already doing it for EV chargers being mandatory on new homes so if they had any sense (A bit of a stretch I know) they would include solar panels as well.
It shouldnt even add that much more onto the price for a new house as there would be considerable savings over a retrofit cost as you already would have the scaffolding in place for the roof, the electricians can install the cabling as part of the 1st fit and if they use the in roof mouting systems you save money on not needing a large area of roof tiles and also the trays possibly are installed in less time than tiling the same area.
It shouldnt even add that much more onto the price for a new house as there would be considerable savings over a retrofit cost as you already would have the scaffolding in place for the roof, the electricians can install the cabling as part of the 1st fit and if they use the in roof mouting systems you save money on not needing a large area of roof tiles and also the trays possibly are installed in less time than tiling the same area.
Thinking about this even if I can only get 5.8kw at 7.5p would be better then full price? Wonder what the octopus go tariff day price will be from oct?
At 40p that sounds like its 50% over the price cap rate which is currently about 27p, would be interested to see what Ocotber price is like as with a battery if you have gas/oil/wood heating it may not matter too much what the day rate is if you barely touch it.
Sadly my heating is electric so luckily managed to get a fix at 37p per KWh until July next year as I barely touch it at the moment so any amount I would pay extra up until October will more than pay itself if the price goes up to predicted amount in October, lots of calls for it to be fixed at the current amount for another 6 months though so will have to wait and see, there is zero fee on my fixed so can get out of it easily.
Sadly my heating is electric so luckily managed to get a fix at 37p per KWh until July next year as I barely touch it at the moment so any amount I would pay extra up until October will more than pay itself if the price goes up to predicted amount in October, lots of calls for it to be fixed at the current amount for another 6 months though so will have to wait and see, there is zero fee on my fixed so can get out of it easily.
You have done well to get 37p the cap will go far above that from what they are predicting.
Thats a bit pants. They also have a product called Agile that varies the price through the day depending on demand on the grid, not sure if they are still selling that.
They deffo have agile for export as I’m on that but not sure about import.
Not sure but I’m gonna tie myself in now as my current contract ending very soon.
Even if it’s 60p+ I think everyone will end up there shortly by the sounds of it.
Either way I’ll never get through 11KWh unless it’s a wash day like today!
Wife has done 2 Lots of washing and drying I’ve filled the battery and anything left over is trickling into my 77KW EVs battery (5.57KW so far)
I’m finally getting my head around to not letting anything at all being chucked into the grid at a pittance. The only annoyance is me getting a bit OCD about the whole thing
Snapshot at 1:50 Today
Yes, sadly missed out on fixing at the current price cap for a year, they had pulled the deal by the time I hear about it.
Also with that Agile plan I remember reading about it a while ago as people were setting raspberry Pi's to get the Agile data and control their inverters to charge up batteries when the rate was very cheaper.
Looks like octopus agile is still going