With winter coming up, I have two options for home heating.

Central unit

  • I can use the central unit and close/open vents throughout the house to heat up only the individual rooms I want. This would heat up rooms very quickly. However, to make this work, the living room with the thermostat will also need to be heated so that the thermostat reads the proper temperature. The living room is by far the largest space at about 2.5 times the size of the largest room.

Oil-filled radiator

  • I can use an oil-filled radiator to heat up an individual room. This would be much slower, but I wouldn’t have to heat up the entire living room. However, the oil-filled heater might not be as efficient as the central unit. I don’t know. I plan to rarely heat up the living, no more than once per month.

Edit: The central heating unit is actually a heating kit made up of a few coils that is added to the central a/c.

Edit 2: Where I live, it might freeze once per year over night for a few hours.

Which would be more efficient on the electrical bill, and would t be considerable or negligible?

  • @vxx
    9•2 months ago

    Get a cheap thermometer to place in the room you’re going to heat and look how much it is off the thermostat and regulate accordingly.

    Leaving one room cold while others are significantly warmer might raise the risk of mold, because the warm air might cool in the cold room and condensate on the walls and windows, creating conditions for mold growth.

    I look that every room is at least about 16°C as an absolute minimum in winter.

    I’m not familiar with mobile oil radiators, but it sounds kind of dangerous to me.

      • @vxx
        4•2 months ago

        I thought they burn oil or something, but they just use oil instead of water in a closed system.

        Sometimes I’m dumb. The CO buildup from my version of oil radiator would be deadly.

        • @AA5B
          1•2 months ago

          Right it’s just an electric resistive heater in a radiator shape filled with an oil to circulate heat.

          • no combustion
          • no hot surfaces
          • more consistent heat
          • generally more engineered for continuous use than other space heaters
          • generally have tip sensors (depending on country)

          When my ex wanted a space heater, I insisted that this be the only type, for safety. And of course not allowed to use a power strip or extension cord with it