How safe are oil filled radiators when left in an unoccupied house?
Rob Horton
burning fire in the lounge with a big plastic oil tank in the garden.
This has been turned off for about 6 months. I now think that I should
have a little bit of heating in the the house to prevent frost/ice
damage of the pipes. It's an insurance requirement.
Don't like the idea of lighting the the oil burner (very old probably
installed in the early 70's) since I only visit the house once a week.
Have been considering using a number of oil filled radiators on a timer
to provide a bit of background heat. Hopefully stop the internal
temperature from dropping below 10 Deg C.
Should I feel confident about leaving them unattended for a week?
Tim W
wibbled on Wednesday 16 December 2009 16:15
Yes. We used these at the last place I worked. Quite safe, providing the
heater is in good shape (ie you didn't find it on a skip and haven't checked
it).
--
Tim Watts
This space intentionally left blank...
d...@gglz.com
any issues (apart from your electricity bill).
Remember though, heating is a heavy electrical load (particularly
multiple electric rads!). If the wiring is questionable, I might be
concerned.
If possible, spread them over the different circuits for the sockets.
Or possibly spread the load further with timers to avoid them all
drawing a heavy current at the same time.
On a good installation in good condition that is unnecessary and
overcautious of course, but if the house has a 1970's oil stove - the
wiring may be a lot older.
NT
yes, very. Nothing on them gets hot enough to burn anything.
NT
Onetap
Turn off the mains water supply, drain the pipes; job jobbed. Also
better when the pikies break in and steal the pipes.
Onetap
> On 16 Dec, 16:15, Rob Horton <yahoo@mr_horton.com> wrote:
>
PS That assumes the main stop cock works. It probably doesn't.
It will probably start to leak after you use it. There might be a
shiney new one on the water meter the water suppliers have been
installing.
Roger Mills
Rob Horton <yahoo@mr_horton.com> wrote:
There's nothing intrinsically unsafe about this type of heater, so they
should be ok.
However, any form of heating which uses on-peak electricity is going to be
expensive to run. If this is a long term requirement, you might be better
off getting an off-peak supply put in, and then installing some storage
heaters[1].
[1] Under normal circumstances, I wouldn't give storage heaters house-room,
but they might just fit the bill in this particular case.
--
Cheers,
Roger
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Dave Osborne
You might want to consider using tubular heaters for frost protection.
e.g.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Heating_Index/Tubular_Heaters/index.html
Note that they are comparatively cheap to buy and low power to operate.
Put them on a frost stat, e.g.
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/HOHFT2.html
Note, that the setting is fixed at 4 deg C. The purpose here is only to
provide the minimal amount of heat required to stop the pipes freezing,
not in any way to bring the room up to habitable temperature.
Phil L
I'd follow 'onetap's recomendation to drain the system, it would take ten
minutes and empty pipes don't burst.
Also, why only a week? - surely they are going to be on for the remainder of
the winter? - this is going to cost a fortune in leccy bills!
--
Phil L
RSRL Tipster Of The Year 2008
Dave Liquorice
> Should I feel confident about leaving them unattended for a week?
Yes, of all the electric heaters they are probably the safest. Do the
obvious things like standing them away from furniture/curtains etc
and get ones with a thermostat that will go down to at least 10C
preferably lower. You can also get ones with time switches built in
if the fixed wiring/load is a problem.
Not sure tubular heaters would be up to keeping a house above
freezeing in a prolonged hard freeze, at least with an electric oil
filled radiator you have a up to 3kW of input available.
Have one with a thermostat and it's only going to use the energy it
needs to to maintain the set temp, it's not going to be gobbling 3kW
24/7...
--
Cheers
Dave.
dennis@home
"Dave Osborne" <Dave...@SPAMymail.com> wrote in message
news:7osrctF...@mid.individual.net...
>
> You might want to consider using tubular heaters for frost protection.
>
> e.g.
>
> http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Heating_Index/Tubular_Heaters/index.html
>
> Note that they are comparatively cheap to buy and low power to operate.
They cost exactly the same to operate as any other electric heater.
They are all 100% efficient.
You just need more of them to provide the same output as a 1kW heater.
ransley
Im in the US, here you winterize a vacant house where it gets cold.
You drain everything and add antifreeze to traps. Pipes are usualy run
near or at exterior walls, there is no way where I am I could protect
what is near an exterior wall which will be the coldest part of the
house. Insurance? here an unheated vacant house can be denied claim,
break a few radiators, pipes, the boiler and forget about that new car
you saved for. Draining a house and winterizing isnt hard, but here I
can go to -20f, i dont know what your lows are. I say heat it only
when you live there you are making a high risk sisuation heating with
electric, especialy on old wiring
Martin Bonner
> Im in the US, here you winterize a vacant house where it gets cold.
> You drain everything and add antifreeze to traps. Pipes are usualy run
> near or at exterior walls, there is no way where I am I could protect
> what is near an exterior wall which will be the coldest part of the
> house. Insurance? here an unheated vacant house can be denied claim,
> break a few radiators, pipes, the boiler and forget about that new car
> you saved for. Draining a house and winterizing isnt hard, but here I
> can go to -20f, i dont know what your lows are.
We're having a reallly cold snap right now. CNN think it will get
down as low as +20F tomorrow night here in Cambridge.
Appin
from Rob Horton <yahoo@mr_horton.com> contains these words:
Probably OK.
We face this problem with a caravan site toilet block with vulnerable
taps and various other things which make it exceedingly difficult to do
anything but keep the temperature above freezing.
Tried all sorts of things, but the answer has proved to be
http://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/products/prod107601
These things are simple, reliable and last for years and years. And
they ensure that the warm air is well circulated through the space in
question.
Owain
> Tried all sorts of things, but the answer has proved to be
> http://www.hygienesuppliesdirect.com/products/prod107601
> These things are simple, reliable and last for years and years. And
> they ensure that the warm air is well circulated through the space in
> question.
Circulating warm air would be beneficial but I wouldn't recommend a
domestic fan heater for continuous use - that look more suitable
Owain
ARWadsworth
"Rob Horton" <yahoo@mr_horton.com> wrote in message
news:LPOdnTbEVacGmrTW...@pipex.net...
Is there any water in the loft space?
A couple of electric heaters in the house may save any water freezing in the
house but will not save pipes from freezing in a loft.
Adam
geoff
<c8b8a6b3-ef68-4b2f...@b2g2000yqi.googlegroups.com>,
Martin Bonner <martin...@yahoo.co.uk> writes
>On Dec 17, 1:16�pm, ransley <Mark_Rans...@Yahoo.com> wrote:
>> Im in the US, here you winterize a vacant house where it gets cold.
>> You drain everything and add antifreeze to traps. Pipes are usualy run
>> near or at exterior walls, there is no way where I am I could protect
>> what is near an exterior wall which will be the coldest part of the
>> house. Insurance? here an unheated vacant house can be denied claim,
>> break a few radiators, pipes, the boiler and forget about that new car
>> you saved for. Draining a house and winterizing isnt hard, but here I
>> can go to -20f, i dont know what your lows are.
>
>We're having a reallly cold snap right now.
Really cold ?
REALLY COLD ?
ffs
and ...
We haven't had heating at work for two days
we're 'ard, we are
--
geoff
geoff
writes
Woopie
--
geoff
Tim W
wibbled on Thursday 17 December 2009 22:46
> Hey, just looked outside 10cm snow, and it's settling
>
> Woopie
>
>
Send some down here - we've 1/2 inch!
geoff
<t...@dionic.net> writes
>geoff <ra...@kateda.org>
> wibbled on Thursday 17 December 2009 22:46
>
>
>> Hey, just looked outside 10cm snow, and it's settling
>>
>> Woopie
>>
>>
>
>Send some down here - we've 1/2 inch!
>
--
geoff
js.b1
late Nov thro Dec then Jan. Of course if we are into declining solar
minimum's we might be in for a right stinker of a winter eventually a
la 1962/63.
Just Marmox'd an understairs larder.
You would not think 20mm makes a difference but it does on an
uninsulated cavity wall. Just need some window reveal beading and
remove the old wooden qtr-round. With the door closed instead of the
room being painfully cold it was actually comfortable, should solve
the condensation on the outer wall I noticed recently. The freezer
that lives in there is sufficient to keep the "larder" at a sensible
temperature, whilst the insulation will level out some of the summer
solar gain.
Not a heating or summer person myself. Bedrooms at 14oC & 3 Tog duvet
is fine, cool enough to get to sleep :-)
Tim W
wibbled on Friday 18 December 2009 01:46
The Marmox I put under the bedroom flooring is only 10mm but together with
the wood that's made a big difference to foot comfort.
Appin
<711356cd-a214-45ed...@r24g2000yqd.googlegroups.com>
from Owain <spuorg...@gowanhill.com> contains these words:
Agreed, for a whole lot of reasons
* Poor quality of most domestic fan heaters, especially those with
tangential fans
* Inaccurate thermostats on most doemstic fan heaters -- even those
with a "frost" settting
* Domestic fan heaters aren't really designed for prolonged use -- the
elements are usually short-lived and non-replaceable
We've had some of those greenhouse fan-heaters for years.