In order to heat a single room in a house, which would be the cheapest way to do this?
Using oil fired central heating and just heating the one room, or alternatively not using the central heating and using a portable gas bottle heater, similar to these...
Much cheaper than bottled gas. Hell of a lot lighter and easier to move around. I can't even lift a full gas cylinder. Much safer, IMHO - they may add to a fire but they aren't going to explode/ send a jet of flame into the ceiling.. Ask a fireman if he would rather going into a burning room containing a full gas cylinder or a burning room with a few litres of heating oil..
Depends if you have a two pipe feed from the tank or a single pipe feed.
If a single pipe, cut, inset T piece and short pipe to oil-rated stop valve.
If a twin pipe, then you have to go back to the tank and fit a new syphon tube with oil-rated stop valve into the tank, totally independent of the existing pipe-work. A two pipe system relies on the pump on the burner to draw fuel into and around the system. If you try to tap into that, the odds are you will let air in and you will need to get someone in to purge the system...
The heaters have a removable tank that you just refill.
All of the heat energy from the fuel goes into heating the room. Even with a high efficiency boiler, a central heating system is not going to achieve that. It heats a single room very quickly - much faster than a typical single radiator would manage.
A side effect is that all the combustion products are also deposited in the room.
These include:
Water. If your house already tends to be damp (eg nappies hanging in rows everywhere) then you probably don't wan't to add the water - basically litre for litre the same amount as the fuel used.
Carbon Dioxide/Monoxide. If your room is inadequately ventilated, you will get headaches and other symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning - but, hopefully, the CO detector built in to the heater will trip before it kills you.
Which is better really depends on your life style:
If you are mostly out and just need to heat a room very quickly when you come in and just stay there a few hours - then these heaters are great. Combined with an electric shower and a kettle in the kitchen, this is probably going to give you the lowest bills.
If you are mostly in and want the room heated most of the time and use hot water most of the day, then the radiator with a high efficiency boiler is probably better. But your fuel bills will be more.
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