On Thu, 25 Mar 2010 07:27:42 +0000, (Steve Firth)
wrote:

MM wrote:

Of course, the price of oil has since increased (latest price I have 42.27
pence per litre 16/Mar/2010), whereas the electricity went down last year
from 12.74 to 11.51 pence a unit.

1 litre of 28 sec. Kerosene = 10 kWH = 43p
10 kWH electricity = 115p

That's an impressive saving you're making there, bub, paying about three
times more to heat your home using electricity than the cost of using CH
oil.

But with oil I would be heating parts of my home that I don't reach!
Therefore you are not comparing like with like. With CH you cannot
'dose' the heat like you can with a fan heater, whose heat is
instantaneous (no pipes to heat up, etc). With CH you don't feel any
benefit for at least 20 minutes, whereas with the fan heater you feel
the benefit within about 10 seconds. Meanwhile I would be paying for
the oil needed for those 20 minutes during which no benefit is
perceived.

The way that you are making savings is to heat less of your home.

Exactly! You finally understood.

You
could reduce your bills further by turning off all the CH rads in the
rooms you don't use and by restricting your CH to the same times that
you use your electric heater.

Oh, what a brilliant suggestion. So here I am in my workroom and it's
cold, so I run down to the annexe to switch the CH on for 30 minutes,
remembering to switch it off in good time so as not to build up too
much residual heat that I have to open a window. Then I run back
upstairs again and carry on working. Repeat as necessary.

Alternatively, I reach under my desk to the fan heater and press the
switch...

MM