Oil radiator or fan heater? How to make the right choice

If you still want to heat rooms that are not connected to a central heating system, you can ask yourself whether an oil radiator or a fan heater is the better choice. This cannot be said in general terms, because it also depends on the type of use.

Oil radiator or fan heater: These are the advantages and disadvantages of a radiator

Both forms of heating are relatively power-hungry and therefore expensive affairs.

• It basically depends on the type of use. Because an oil radiator is not suitable for heating a room immediately.

• This is a small, portable radiator filled with oil and a filament. When this wire heats up, it gives off heat to the oil inside, which slowly absorbs and stores the heat.

• If the oil is warm enough, there is also a noticeable radiation into the room, albeit with some delay. One advantage of this is that this inertia is noticeable even after the radiator has been switched off, as it continues to radiate heat for another hour or so.

• Another advantage is the noise level of the operation. Because in itself, there is no noise when heating, apart from the heating element switching on and off. This is also a good thing, because this heater does not run continuously on the approximately 2 kilowatts (kW), but interrupts heating in the meantime after reaching operating temperature and thus consumes hardly any electricity.

• This is why the oil radiator is intended for heating up the room for a longer period of time rather than just for a short and strong heating.

The fan heater: not suitable for long operation

Heating fans are usually particularly cheap to buy, but the electricity costs afterwards can be immense.

• The only advantage the fan heater offers over the oil radiator is that the heat is available immediately without inertia and heats the room.

• The argument against this is the associated noise, which is not present with a radiator.

• But the fan heater also loses out in terms of power consumption. This is because the power of the two heating systems is usually of the same order of magnitude, but the fan heater has the same power throughout, whereas a radiator switches off when the desired temperature is reached.

• Accordingly, the air also cools down quickly as soon as the fan heater is switched off. The gain is therefore only present when rapid heating is required.