October 2023 Update:- Class C1 Premium paraffin is now available for purchase online in 20 Litre Quantities from Here
Smaller, 4 Litre Containers of Premium Paraffin are also available
If you use Paraffin in any heating device, I highly recommend also adding Dipetane Fuel Additive, at a dose of 10ml of fuel additive to every 4 Litres of Paraffin, as it results in a much cleaner burn, which produce less carbon.
If you are reading this blog page, then the chances are that you have recently purchased a Corona, Ruby or Zibro style Inverter Paraffin Heater, or some other kind of indoor paraffin heater whose instruction manual clearly instructs you to use Class C1 Paraffin or Premium Paraffin. I will also guarantee that if this is the case, then the chances are, that you are searching for Class C1 Paraffin because you are finding it difficult to source locally, or rather you have found it extremely expensive to buy, as Class C1 is often sold at ludicrously high prices through DIY and Hardware Stores in pre packaged format usually in 4 litre containers.
Class C1 Paraffin is also often referred to as Premium Paraffin. Odourless Paraffin or Premium Kerosene, and no matter what you may have heard, paraffin is from exactly the same family as Kerosene, 28 second domestic heating oil, and even Jet A1 fuel which is used to fuel turbine engines in small planes and helicopters, the only thing which changes is the level of refinement and filtering and what impurities have been removed or the package of additives added at the refinery. In fact the fuel which the American’s routinely refer to as Kerosene is exactly the same fuel as standard paraffin sold in the UK.
Class C1 Paraffin, is called Premium Paraffin because it has a reduced level of sulphur, this in turn reduces the traditional paraffin smell which is given off when burned – i.e when the heater is running, and this is why Class C1 Paraffin is marketed as ‘Odourless’ and is often the first choice for indoor heating and traditional paraffin lamps. Unfortunately Premium Paraffin also comes at a premium price in the UK and is difficult to source in bulk.
Other than demand and clever marketing greed, there is no reason for paraffin to be so expensive in the UK, in fact two decades ago, it was one of the cheapest forms of heating and many households still used it in bulk for heating or lighting, especially in outbuildings and remote buildings without Electricity. It is still often used by gardeners and market gardens for greenhouse heating, and of course due to the steady increase in Electricity costs, also make the new range of Japanese inverter heaters to be of growing interest for domestic home heating, and so demand for Kerosene based fuel is once again, on the rise, but still the price increases.
Paraffin is also a rebated duty fuel in the UK, which means it is essentially taxed at the lowest possible rate (5% VAT) and contains non of the duties usually levied on road fuels such as petrol and diesel, yet a 4 litre container of C1 Paraffin can cost anything upto £7 in some outlets, which is the equivalent of £1.75 a litre, more expensive than a litre of road diesel, which has 20% VAT and Duty added!. Yes, once again the fuel companies are taking us for a ride, so its time to look at all of the alternatives.
First of all, I have personally found that standard paraffin seems to burn no differently, and the smell is not much stronger than expensive C1 Paraffin!, yet it is sold much cheaper. Certainly the small increase in the strength of the fuel smell (generally only noticeable when the heater starts and stops) is a small price to pay in comparison to the large saving in the difference in cost, between Premium and Standard Paraffin, and when the heater is actually running there is no difference in my Corona heater between standard and premium fuels.
Standard Paraffin, can often be found in local allotment groups and societies, who may have a small shop on site in order to sell paraffin to allotment owners in order to fuel their portable paraffin heaters during the winter months. Often these societies buy in bulk from fuel brokers and the savings are passed on to members, many societies will sell fuel directly to the general public, although you may be required to pay a small annual membership fee in order to access their onsite facilities. (usually £2 – £5 per year) Check the Yellow Pages and Google for an allotment society close to you, some local Councils will also have a list of council owned allotments nearby.
An even cheaper fuel is available as a viable alternative to Class C1 Paraffin when used in Inverter Heaters, and this is 28 second kerosene which is sold as domestic heating oil to homes throughout the UK. Often this can be purchased directly from heating oil brokers locally. At the time of writing this blog post, 28 second heating oil varies in price between 56p and 63p a litre depending on the quantity purchased, and it is worth shopping around on price. Some brokers may have a self-service fuel pump on site, where you can go along with your own approved 10 or 25 litre container, and fill up from the pump. (Please note the disclaimer at the bottom of the page)
If you have friends or family who use domestic heating oil, then they may allow you to fill up from their garden tank, alternatively some fuel brokers may also be willing to fill a couple of containers for you, when they make the main delivery to fill up the garden tank and you can take advantage of the same bulk price. I find that a pack of beer often helps to cement these arrangements!.
Unfortunately, most fuel brokers in the Mainland UK will not make a dedicated tanker delivery of under 500 litres, to an address, and so this means that if the depot doesn’t have an onsite pump facility then buying some Kerosene from friends who have oil fired heating or arranging for your empty containers to be at your friends house to coincide with the bulk delivery to refill their tank will often be the only answer.
However domestic heating oil kerosene still remains the cheapest alternative to Class C1 paraffin, often costing upto £1 per litre less than expensive store bought 4 litre containers of Premium C1 Kerosene, and this makes these inverter heaters extremely cheap to run, often costing as little as 6p per KW/H which is around 50% cheaper than standard tariff electricity and 75% cheaper than peak rate electricity on an average Economy 7 tariff.
If you are lucky enough to live close to a Caldo Oils depot then you will be able to take your own containers and fill up from their site pump with either Paraffin or Kerosene. However please be aware that the price at their pumps, is significantly more expensive than a bulk delivery from the same company and depot, even if you buy a few hundred litres at the pump, no discount is offered.
If you work for, or know of a place which will sell Paraffin and heating oil direct to the public in small to medium quantities from a pump at a fair price, then please use the comment box and share this information. Rumor has it that there are still some petrol forecourts, Farming Suppliers and olde worlde style hardware stores who still selling paraffin and heating fuels in the old fashioned way – from a yard pump and we’d like to know where they are, in order to help existing and future owners of Inverter Heaters to get both a fair deal, and a regular local supply!.
Important Disclaimer:- Please note that running fuel other than Class C1 Paraffin in a heater recommending to run the appliance on this type of fuel may invalidate the warranty or cause problems, and you accept that in doing so, you would be doing it at entirely your own risk. This page covers my own personal experience of running a Corona Model 3016 inverter paraffin heater on kerosene heating oil and in doing so, I have experienced no running problems, faults or ill effects in the entire 3 years that i’ve been doing so. However, under no circumstances should 35 second heating oil, red diesel, Petrol, White Spirit or road diesel be burned in these inverter heaters as these are an entirely different standard of fuel and this will cause permanent damage and could be extremely dangerous!!.
I also recommend that if using heating oil (28 second Kerosene) in your inverter heater, that you invest in a ‘Mr funnel’ from ebay. Using this will ensure that any trapped water and dirt particles from within bulk purchased heating oil Kerosene is removed effectively removing the risk of damage to the delicate pump and burner from any water content.
Hello, thanks for the info. I am about to try adding Dipetane (http://www.dipehhttp://www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/boiler-stoves/victoria-contemporary-stovetp://www.stovhttp://www.stoveworlduk.co.uk/boiler-stoves/victoria-contemporary-stoveworlduk.co.uk/boiler-stoves/victoria-contemporary-stoveane.com/ ) to Kerosene, which already burns OK in my inverter…though, smells a bit more than I like, for a while after ignition and shutdown. There seem to be much evidence of it’s effectiveness on the net…and I’m wondering have you or anyone on here tried it yet…and what results were found…? I will post my own observations when I have tried for a week or two. Inverters are good heaters in the short-term…
But my long term heating/cooking/hot water will be done with this… :-) …….……………. Victoria Eco multi-fuel boiler stove – Stove world.co.UK…
Hi there
I was just wondering when you say use Exocet there appears to be 2 products available. One is known as XO1482TA or Exocet Cooker found here
http://fastexocet.co.uk/products/search/exocetcooker.html
the other called “Exocet Premium Heating Oil Additive” found here and apparently is added to regular kerosene to turn it into Premium Kerosene by all accounts
http://fastexocet.co.uk/products/search/exocetpremiumheatingoiladditivefragranced.html
I don’t know what to make of the two. I have been informed that both the products do the same thing although I do not know the truth of the matter
Which of the 2 is it that you mean in your article and do you have any knowledge about “Exocet Premium Heating Oil Additive”?
Thanks & I’ll keep you updated with whatever I manage to find out about using 28sec.kero
Tony November 2013
Tony, I’ve been using standard JET Brand home heating oil (Kerosene) in both of my inverter heaters (Corona and the cheaper SRE300 model bought from Italy via ebay) now for more than 2 years with no ill effects, either to me or either of the heaters. I did used to get some occasional “E4” errors with the Corona at first, which was quickly attributed to small amounts of water in the fuel. Interestingly the cheaper Italian heater was far more tolerable to this and never produced a single error even when used on the same batch of Kero.
Small amounts of water contamination isn’t surprising due to the fact that domestic heating oil is normally stored in underground tanks at bulk fuel depots, and so water from condensation on the inside of the tanks often drips into the fuel over the storage period especially as the fuel level in the tank reduces. I started using a “Mr Funnel” which not only filters out impurities such as dirt and flakes of tank rust from out of the fuel, but also separates any water from the fuel also, and since I began using that I have had no further “E4” shutdowns.
I stopped using the Exocet additive towards the end of last winter, my main concern for using it in the first place, being the risk of additional soot deposits forming inside the heater shortening the life of the burner as a result of using a less refined product. The additive which I used was the premium product which contained a light fragrance which also helped to combat the jet fuel styled whiff at switch on. A smell which is slightly stronger on standard heating oil, granted, but not painfully so, and is generally gone once the heater has started.
The reason why I stopped using the Exocet was two fold, the first was that my local heating oil broker stopped stocking it, and the second reason was that in Japan where these type of space heaters are the most popular, they are run on standard Kerosene which is actually the same specification as our own domestic heating oil. Paraffin or Premium Paraffin simply doesn’t exist out there, its just something which pre-packaged suppliers and DIY stores can sell in the UK at an inflated price in return for a slightly purer burn, a higher flash point and less odour. But put simply, these heaters are designed in Countries and often run in households where Premium paraffin products aren’t available anyway, which probably explains why they run fine on our 28 second heating oil, since most of the time it turns out that it is what they are designed to use anyway.
There is a lot of discussion on various American websites about how to Deodorise Kerosene using various additives which may be of interest to you, however its not something i’ve dabbled with and to be honest the short start up / run down whiff doesn’t bother me, and is still certainly a lot more tolerable than my previous Electricity bills!.
Hello again
Thanks fort he detailed reply. I thought I’d just let you know how I’m getting on.
So I’ve bought A Mr. Funnel – the orange one as the eBay seller said it would be sufficent for my use and I found this website that sells their own brand Exocet. It’s the same stiff they just repackage it.
http://www.homefuelsdirect.co.uk/Additives.html
I have also found a supplier of 28 second kerosene they called it paraffin sold from a pump right next to heating oil which was a different product
ADAMS BOTTLED GAS, 89 THE AVENUE, OFF FRIERN BARNET ROAD, NEW SOUTHGATE
N11 1NF
They way that i found them was to go to the Calor gas website and search for a stockist near me. I figured that suppliers of kerosene would also sell Calor gas bottles and I was right. The kerosene I bought was off white/light yellow and the same colour as the C1 from B&Q.
Now here’s my problem. I have not used any of the paraffin in my inverter heater yet. I thought I’d test it out on a Valor L210 wick burning heater that I also bought from eBay (we used to have one like this when I was a small boy so it was a bit of nostalgia for me)
I filtered 4 litres of paraffin then added a measured amount of the additive (I bought a 1ml syringe to do this but found that the rubber bung inside the syringe failed so I’ll be buying plastic adjustable measuring spoons instead.) Then added the fuel to the Valor heater. My problem is that I am not able to get a blue flame to burn. I don’t know if this is the wick but it was burning fine with the C1 paraffin I bought from B&Q just the day before. I have ordered a wick trimmer which should be on it’s way and I may change the wick if this doesn’t work but I am worried if the paraffin does not burn at sufficient temperature to burn blue as the inverter would need.
If you have any suggestions or thoughts I’d be very glad to hear them. Thanks
Tony
Tony,
I wouldn’t advise using anything but the recommended fuel in a wick burning heater, or the radiant versions of the Corona type heaters. Wick heaters need a very low sulphur level in order to burn cleanly with no soot and also to prolong the life of the wick before trimming / replacement, and so wick heaters will only work on low sulphur fuels.
Inverter Heaters are an entirely different type of technology – no wick, and use a direct injection principle for burning, which takes place in a pre-heated chamber. This is what the heater does for around 30 – 45 seconds before igniting, it preheats the burn chamber before injecting the fuel and igniting, (in a vaguely similar way to the glow plugs on a diesel engine). This, along with the fuel being constantly injected (rather than soaking a wick), makes for a better tolerance to a wider range of paraffin / kerosene based fuels.
Crown Oils in Bury, Greater Manchester have a heating oil (28 second kerosene) pump for the general public.
They charge just over 72p per litre, and just over 69p if you take more than 200 litres, from the pump.
Caldo Oils are a bit pricey on their pump in St Helens, at 84p per litre.
I aim to buy an Inverter ‘Paraffin’ Heater, but I am torn between getting a cheaper Italian marketed product off ebay (which all seem to be Chinese copies of the original Japanese products), or do I buy the ‘real thing’ which has been produced for the UK market, with correct plug, and all instructions, labelling etc in English – but much more expensive. I fancy the Corona Inverter 5096, which from my enquiries / looking at images, seems to be a better finished, and proper looking heater – compared to the Italian sourced ‘copies’. Best price I’ve found is £220, picking it up in person in Lancashire, new and boxed. As low as £170 from the Italians, and on the Italian bricobravo website, the same product (a Zibro copy SRE 301) is 159 euros +9.99 euros postage). Trouble is, the Italian website prices are for Italy only, and they sell the same stuff on ebay and Amazon, for a lot more.
Apologies for the epic length of this comment!
Mark
i use 28 sec kerosene in my inverter 5006 and it burns lovely,my lass has same but its burning a very yellow flame till it calms down,it started doing this on prem paraffin,trouble is we cant find any info on spares or servicing.our fourth year with them now and living in static caravans we couldnt do without them ,get our fuel in 20 litre drums,pound a litre,,south cumbria..any info on spare parts ? thanks. jon.
Hi Jon,
I’ve found that UK distributors seem very reluctant to supply any spare parts for these heaters beyond consumables such as fuel strainer filters and fuel tank caps, and there is little information available to be found on the internet, especially when it comes to servicing or repairing these heaters.
The spares network in Europe does seem to be a little more helpful however, especially in France where these inverter heaters seem to be far more common than they are in the UK. Even so you would still be very lucky to get a service manual or parts diagram for any of these heaters, but if you already know the part which you want to replace, then you would probably be better contacting the sole European Importer of Corona Inverter Heaters directly with the heater model and details or descriptions of the part(s) which you need, I have put .a link to their website below.
http://essege.com/
Incidentally, if you do decide to clean or service your heater and have the ability to take digital photos of the strip down / service routine, of this model, then I would be happy to put up a credited page on this site documenting what you did. Information such as this may prove invaluable to other owners who are also hitting the same brick wall when it comes to repairing and servicing their heaters.
My email address, should you need it is admin (at) electricheatingcosts.com – replace the (at) with @
@ Mark
Thanks for your comment. I also own one of those Italian imports from Brico, its model number is SRE301 and is badged & branded ‘Kero’ I find it works just as well as my original (more expensive) Corona 3016, and gives exactly the same 3kw heat output. The instruction manual is in a mufti-language booklet style printed in several languages (including English!), the top panel controls and LCD display on the heater itself are all in English too!.
If anything the SRE301 is a little more advanced as it has slightly better Eco controls with the addition of a manual ‘Save’ and ‘Min’ temperature option which is useful if you just want a background level of heat. The built in ‘deodorant’ function on the SRE301 which helps to mask the initial start up / shut down odours is also something not present on the Corona model.
When I purchased my SRE301 a couple of years ago, it was around £159 directly from Ebay.it (sold by Bricobravo) and I guess increased demand from UK customers has resulted in them increasing their price to its present £180 inc delivery on UK listings.
I also suspect that local competition in Italy / Europe (where the daily use of these type of heaters is far more common and widespread) keeps the price down. Perhaps Brico have seen the average UK price for similar products, laughed at us and decided they can hike their profit margin a little and still sell their products to us cheaper than our own UK distributors!. Either way, I can’t find any SRE301 clone on sale from a UK distributor cheaper than the £180 from Brico, which I think probably proves my assumption.
Incidentally these SRE series heaters are branded with various names, and are also known and sold as ‘Ruby SRE301’ throughout Europe, and I suspect they all originate from the same production line as an OEM product and just get re-branded and re-badged. I wouldn’t at all be surprised to find the internal parts to all be interchangeable – although i’ve never checked. Either way, whatever name is on the badge, they all seem to be imported by the same sole European distributor based in Belgium – http://essege.com/ and as you probably know, the EU often has far more stringent safety and product controls than the UK so I don’t have any concerns personally with purchasing and using any of these heaters in my own household when sourced from an EU supplier.
Ironically, you mention correct plugs in your comment. When I purchased my Corona 3016 (from a UK based retailer), it was supplied with a noticeably larger 3 pin UK plug, which actually turned out to be a 3 pin UK adapter into which the original moulded Euro Plug (fitted to the heater), was plugged into!. So the Uk distributor had simply bought a Euro to UK converter and fitted it to the end of the Euro style plug before selling it!.
Based on this, there is nothing to prove that the more expensive Corona heaters have been designed for “The UK Market” either since mine was supplied to me, complete with a factory fitted Euro plug!.
If you wanted to do the same, and buy the heater from Italy and keep the original plug, you can buy exactly the same adapter from here:- http://www.connevans.co.uk/product/5569541/MXF318EG/Black-13-A-Fused-Euro-Converter-Schuko-Earthed-Plug-to-3-Pin-UK-Plug
Thanks a lot for your reply,Im not to good with techno stuff ,an after thought though.when we bought these heaters both wouldnt work just error code coming on ,a very unhelpful nameless co were reluctant to accept this so i took the front panel off,2 screws and a rubber pipe which seemed to not sit right on the tank ,ipushed this back in it seemed to just sit over a hole,it fired up perfect,the other one was identical. check it tommorow it may have moved off with vibration etc ,ill let u know the outcome..thanks again
Thanks for reply,,not capable of servicing these as i dont know the problem ,will take the panels off to see if theres any noticeable problem,let u know if i fix it.thanks again.jon
Jon,
If you continue to have problems, then I know of a company who are based in the Northwest and who profess to service these heaters for around £45. They offer either a mobile service or if out of their Mobile area you can also send your heater to their Lancashire service center by Courier.
Please note that I have no connection with this company, nor should it be considered to be a personal recommendation as to the service which they offer because I have never used them myself, but the contact number for the Northwest Engineer is below should you decide to follow that route.
Alex – 07988774336
Sorry for multiple replies ,internet probs.problem solved,took cover off and the air hose had come off slightly ,probably never put it on properly in the first place,it pushes in like a grommet at the bottom,back burning lovely now.thanks for info on spares in europe and quick replies..all best jon.
No problem. The simple solutions are always the best!, glad that you have got it sorted.
I’ve just dismantled and cleaned the burner unit on one of the Italian Kero heaters today due to a contaminated fuel container and have just come across this article via a link from another article on this site. If I’d known there was sufficient interest, I could have done some pics.
The heater gave off strong paraffin odour, would fail within 15 mins and display error E2.
Having worked on industrial oil fired burners and knowing the warranty didn’t cover contaminated fuel, I decided to see if I could sort it myself.
They’re fairly simple to work on, with just one very fragile gasket to be aware of on top of the vaporization chamber.
The vaporization chamber itself was full of carbon and the pre-heater tray beneath was full of residue, once cleaned and put back together, it’s been up and running for 6+ hours.
IMPORTANT : Maintenance Engineers have superhuman powers and you should never attempt this if you have no clue what you’re doing.
For those individuals who wish to service their own inverter heaters (at their own risk), I have now uploaded a step by step guide complete with pictures of the strip down and cleaning procedure. Although the service guide covers a Corona brand inverter heater, the majority of inverter heaters should also have a similar construction and the cleaning procedure, once inside, should be the same.
Just found on you tube a one and a half hour vid of servicing carona inverter,mainly stripping and cleaning the burn chambers, pretty good detail..vid is e4 fault on inverter heater, by porky wizard. sorry dont know how to put up links.,jon.
Hi Jon,
Thanks for providing the information on the Youtube video, i’ve now included it on our servicing inverter heater page, which can be found on the following link
http://electricheatingcosts.com/how-to-service-a-corona-inverter-heater/
Hi.
Here’s my 2 cents worth:
I bought an Inverter 5006 about 4 years second hand from a chap who used regular 28sec kerosene in it to heat his workshop. I decided to have it serviced by the ONLY company in Ireland that services them. After being dressed down by the service manager for not using Tozaine (a brand of C1 which they alone sell) and a bill of €100 (80 stg) I thought it better to burn C1. I have never been completely convinced however that burning ordinary 28sec oil is harmful to either the heater or to people. I am going to buy a Mr Funnel and try ordinary fuel again and see how I get on.
I forgot to add that because ordinary kerosene (red colour in ireland) had been used in the heater previously, the service company decided that they would not service my heater any more! So thank you so much for the youtube video and step by step dismantling and service tutorial. It’s just what I needed to let me do my own service. They are a fantastic heater made all the better by the fact that you can burn the cheaper 28sec fuel after all.
Thank you so much.
Hi Owen,
I’ve used a Corona Heater for three years, and a Cheap Kero KRE-300 Heater for Two years on standard 28 second kerosene (Domestic Heating Oil) with no ill effects to either myself or the heaters – and they do get a lot of use as they are my sole form of household heating, and have been throughout the period.
I do routinely filter the fuel to both heaters via a “Mr Funnel” and at the end of every season, I routinely service the heaters to remove any soot / carbon deposits as per the guide and video. I must admit i’ve never noticed any worrying levels of build up, even after several months of use, and both of my heaters still have all of their original parts!. I certainly have never had the same problems as another reader who posted here the other day has had, who has been having major problems with rust and ‘gunk’ build up, in a heater which has been filled with nothing but pre-packaged Premium fuel (as per the manufacturers recommendations!). So, yes it does make you question exactly how much better off you are using the Premium Fuel, and whether it really is worth the huge premium in price over regular Kero.
Clearly if the previous owner had run your current heater on heating oil for Four years prior to you purchasing it, then I think we can take some re-assurance from that alone. That is several of us now on this blog alone who are using heating oil, plus many more who I came across on a popular consumer ‘Money Saving’ forum, as well as various Ex-Pat forums in France, Spain etc where these heaters are popular. I think those who service and sell them would be a little naive to believe that every heater they service or sell will be running on premium fuel (which now costs anything between £1.50 and £2.00 per litre), so perhaps cutting these customers out of the equation isn’t going to be good for business in the future, however those are their decisions and choices, but the Youtube video alone has now had over 3000 hits, so it clearly shows not only how popular these heaters are becoming but also the fact that people are researching their options online!.
The service company has probably actually done you a favour by refusing to service your heater, as I suspect that they were probably doing nothing more than what is covered in the Guide and Video, which is something that most competent DIY’ers can do themselves with basic tools and household cleaning agents. The 100 Euro’s which you are saving on servicing costs in the future will buy you quite a reasonable amount of fuel & heat, and even more so if you use domestic heating oil.
I’ve personally found these heaters to be extremely reliable, and at this time of year, mine are used for several hours after work every night and virtually all day at the weekends, they have done a lot of work, but still continue to pump out relatively cheap heat, from fuel which in some cases is less than half the price of the recommended stuff.
This heaters can be a bit of a double edged sword, running on standard Kerosene / Paraffin they produce one the cheapest forms of heat available – MUCH cheaper than producing the same amount of heat from using Electricity, LPG etc and certainly far more efficient than an average gas fire. However if I switched to Tozaine / Paraffin Extra / Barrettine / Homefire or any of the many other premium brands, then they would become one of the most expensive forms of producing heat.
The other advantage, is that unlike Gas Boilers and Fires, you can service these heaters yourself with nothing more than a little time and care (so there are no annual maintenance costs or waiting in all day for an engineer to turn up) – just remember to drain them down before storing them for the summer, and clean and service them regularly if they get used for prolonged periods.
In previous years, the office I work at only reached about 16C with the central heating during the winter, but with no luck getting my boss to install additional heating (stove, heat pump, etc.), I decided to fork out on a Calor 3 bar gas heater. While this initially helped, it went through a gas bottle every 2 weeks and most of the heat rose to the ceiling which I noticed when I stood up (I’m 6’2”). So after coming across Inverter heaters and this article, I decided to get the Kero SRE 300 and the small Mr. Funnel in January 2014. I know it sounds ridiculous forking out on heaters for my workplace, however, as I’m happy with my job besides the chilly office, I figure I’ll try this solution.
Despite the heater being rated at just 3kW, it distributes the heat better than the gas heater and brings the room temperature from 10C to between 18C and 20C with the central heating reduced to just 1 hour a day. The room size is roughly 50m2. As for the fuel, I use the normal red colour kerosene (here in Ireland) from the pump and my workplace pays for the fuel. Another big advantage over the gas heater is less humidity. With the gas heater running on full, the humidity reaches 70% to 80% going by my desk hygrometer. With the inverter heater, the humidity usually settles around 60%, which means less paper jams in the printer or copier.
I have run into a few minor issues that I would like to point out. The heater does not come with a syphon pump, so I had to buy one separately. The small orange Mr. Funnel does not fit in the top of the fuel container, making it awkward to hold and syphon fuel into. I contacted Mr. Funnel asking if they had a funnel with a narrower spot and they helpfully replied saying that the larger F3 funnel has a narrower spot and they make an optional flexible adapter to make it fit a narrow fuel tank opening. So I decided to order the F3 and indeed the very end of the funnel fits in and I can pour in the fuel without touching the funnel. I did not need the flexible adapter. I gave the smaller F1 funnel to my Dad as he has a petrol lawnmower and strimmer.
After a year of use, the heater has not had a single technical problem and the carbon monoxide alarm peaks around 16ppm after 8 hours of continuous use on high (50m2 room), which is well within the safe 50ppm limit and a little lower than running the gas heater. As for the gas heater, over the past year it broke down twice! The thermocouple went last March and recently the regulator went. The gas heater is also picky about being relit, such as returning after lunch, whereas the kerosene heater fires up every time.
The kerosene heater adds a kerosene odour to the room for about 5 minutes after lighting and a continuous faint machine oil smell which is noticeable when walking out and back into the room. I don’t notice any smell while sitting working on my PC. The strongest smell is when it’s switched off where room has a light burnt oil smell for roughly 10 minutes.
As for why we continue to use the gas heater, one work colleague who works 2 days a week gets a fierce headache while the kerosene heater is operating. As I have never tried the premium C1 kerosene, I am not sure whether the heating oil is the culprit as the gas heater does not give her a problem. I have never noticed a headache or any other problem develop while at work and neither has anyone else.
As others here pointed out, I never figured out what’s the point of buying an inverter heater to use premium C1 kerosene heater in. At €33 for 20 litres (cheapest I found), it costs roughly 16.5c/kWh, the same as the discount plans on most electricity providers here in Ireland. I can understand C1 kerosene being sold for oil lamps and wick type heaters for emergency situations such as extended power outages. The same cannot be said for inverter heaters which don’t work during power outages.
So even if C1 kerosene is odourless, so is an electric fan heater which is cheaper to buy than the 20 litre container, not to mention probably cheaper to run also!
Hi can some one help me please, I have bought 200ml of exocet kerosene additive which says it will be enough for 1000L can some one tell me how much to use for 5 liters of kerosene? Thanks
Chris, 200ml treats 1000 litre so 0.2 ml treats 1 litre and 5×0.2 ml treats 5 litre, that is 1 ml.
How do I place an order of paraffin in bulk from 20 000 . litres ,do you also supply tanks?
Sorry Dillo, i’m an individual, not a business and this is just a personal blog, I don’t have any business or commercial interests and I don’t supply hardware or fuel. I would suggest that you contact a bulk fuel distributor such as Caldo fuels Compass Fuels and Birmingham Fuels
Have you tried Archoil AR6200 as a fuel additive. It cleans and preserves fuel in storage. It treats all types of fuel. I always put a few drops in my fuel when I decant it into fuel storage. 4 litre to 20 litre containers. Paraffin from my hardware store costs £17.95 for 16 litres. One bottle of Ar6200 treats over 1000 litres and works great in your car too.
That’s interesting Andy, I’d be willing to give this a try, I presume that’s standard paraffin and not C1 that you are buying, where are you buying it from and what heater are you using it in.
All I can find is C1 from B&Q for my Tayosan, (there’s C1 on eBay but it’s no cheaper),
thanks!
Hi ken sorry it’s been so long for my reply but the paraffin I buy is either premium paraffin by caldo or barratine. Both are c1 clasification. The store I buy it from is a large hardware shop privately owned. Its hit or miss which one I get but I’d say the caldo smells less out of the two. Both cost the same for 4 x 4 litres at 5% vat. Mcsalvors in Pool near Redruth.
Oops forgot to say I have a Inverter 3.2 kW and now have a corona 2.4 kW wick heater. The ar6200 is primarily aimed at car use but they do say you can mix it with plenty of other fuels. Id say the wick heater is producing less carbon because less streaks have been observed in the combustion chamber, so total combustion? I’m no expert on this but the wick is slightly lower than when it was just running on untreated c1 paraffin and feels just as warm. I have two stove top fans on top of wick heater pushing warm air ino the room and it sure does warm the room better than unassisted. £29.95 from another local hardware store. Hope this helps you out. I have seen some suppliers that will sell barrels of 200litres and deliver but no prices posted on Web sites. If you have the space and the price is right that could be an option for your.
Thanks for your reply Andy, I’ve been using Barratine but from B&Q at almost £7 for 4 litres, I’m going to look for Caldo now and once I find a decent quantity at a decent price I’ll try the AR6200, I’ll try it in the car too!
Thanks for the tip regards McSalvors, I live in Norfolk, I’ll look at their website to see if they deliver….
I’ll report back once I’m sorted, stay warm!
Hi Ken just a quick update on things here. The wick heater is going fine as a room heater and feels lovely when up close warming hands. I took the plunge about a month ago and put C2 kerosene AKA 28 second oil with an addactive for cookers into my Inverter. I must say it’s not missed a beep so far. The heat output is the same and no difference in the smell by my nose. Kerosene bought for 55p a litre from Consol Oils which is half the price of paraffin. I still run the wick heater on C1 paraffin as I’m not sure if the capillary action will be affected by the less pure fuel. Any saving on fuel is good and goes towards something else. I’m now thinking of getting a second inverter if there are no problems in the future and try to heat the whole house. The woodburner I have is a clearview pioneer and only comes on at weekends now . Less time humping wood around now and tanks filled in 2 minutes for heaters. I decided to try the C2 because my warranty was out of date and that might be a thing for you to consider if you are at the end too. Nothing ventured nothing gained. It seems that a lot of people are doing it with no regrets. I will keep you updated as to how its going in a few weeks.
On the subject of Exocet additive for inverter heaters, is it the Kerosene Lubricity Additive I would need to try?
http://fastexocet.co.uk/product/kerosene-lubricity-additive/
Thanks in advance,
Iain
Barrettine paraffin 4l is £4.99 here:
https://www.maxwellsdiy.com/gardening-outdoors-c1/fuel-c116/barrettine-premium-paraffin-4-litre-p855
I regularly buy this from my local store and I was told by the staff that it has been this price for 3 years… You can also order online…
Paul, £4.99 for 4L is still £1.24 per litre or 12.4 per kw/h in relation to the cost of running an inverter heater on that fuel. That equation is just the cost of the fuel and won’t obviously include carriage, which will need to be added as it will actively increase that heater running cost figure. I’ve just done a sample order with the company for 40 litres (10x containers) and got a delivery charge at checkout of £9.99 which doesn’t seem much, but it essentially takes the order total to almost £60.00 which for 40 litres works out at £1.50 a litre or 15p per kw/h in relation to the cost of running an inverter heater on it. Making even a reasonable order quantity, prohibitively expensive compared to other options, such as Electricity.
I was also extremely disappointed to find that I could put 100 containers into the checkout, but the price still remained at £4.99 per container. No quantity discounts on 400 litres? – seriously?! they don’t seem to be encouraging bulk or quantity purchases. I’ll give that a miss I think, and stick with my friendly local fuel broker, who, now they have got to know me, gives me 2p a litre off the pump price just for being a regular customer.
Even with the latest round of utility price increases I can find standard Electricity tariffs well under 15p per kw/h – so in this equation, buy a £19 convector from Wilko and run it on a decent Electricity tariff for 12p or even 13p per KW/H – you’ll save money over buying and running an Inverter on premium paraffin, and not have the hassle of having to order, and then dispose of bulk quantities of empty containers etc.
As much as I love and actively promote Inverter heaters, I won’t do so in the event it actually costs money or in situations where it doesn’t make economical sense. I couldn’t justify ever paying 2p over the odds for every KW of heat for my household, so unless there was some other compelling reason to run an inverter heater instead of an Electric Heater or where saving money on heating costs wasn’t the main criteria, economically it would make absolutely no sense at all.
The Premium Paraffin, from the supplier you mentioned might work for you buying the fuel locally with no delivery charges, but even the container price works out at 12.4p per kw/h to run the heater, and even at that price then toe to toe you really aren’t saving much, and are probably just about breaking even compared to using a similar rated Electric Heater on a good fixed tariff. I would still see what your best local Electricity tariff would be, because you could still potentially save money by switching back to Electric Heating – an Electricity tariff below 12.4p per kw/h would start offering you a saving.
I only promote these heaters as a method of saving money on home heating when used as I do, on basic heating oil. Currently this costs me 52p per litre, which works out at 5.2 per KW/H when burned in an Inverter Heater, which is a huge saving over a 12p – 13p Electricity Tariff, better than 50% in fact and is exactly how I drastically reduced by own Winter heating bills. I appreciate and respect that many people don’t want to risk the warranty on their heater or stray off the path of using the recommended fuels, but this is where a very careful consideration needs to be given as to whether you are actually going to be saving any money by moving over to an Inverter Heater and running it on the expensive premium fuel.
So as far as the cost of Premium Paraffin is concerned this deal is reasonable, or at least it’s cheaper than the mainline DIY stores, but I still couldn’t make those figures work for running it in a heater, on a regular basis, or promote it as a fuel suitable for anybody actively wanting to reduce their heating costs by switching to an Inverter Heater. But thanks for sharing the link.
Iain, this is the Exocet additive that I used to use, the type with the green label and sold for Cookers and Boilers
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Exocet-heating-oil-additive-exocet-200ml-x-4-Genuine-Product-/271942833172?
I haven’t used it now for a couple of years though, and haven’t had to change the frequency that I clean and service the heaters (Both heaters are serviced once a year, in late spring after the Winter Season).
So I would place more importance on using a Mr Funnel to filter the fuel (If you use standard Kerosene) rather than on the Exocet additive.
Thanks, Mr Funnel has been my best friend for a while – I’m just fond of the “belt and braces” approach! But I’ll take your advice and give the heater a good service at the end of the season. I’ve got an old one that became a bit unreliable, presumably because I never did a full service on it, so I’ll use that to practise on first.
End of Winter Servicing is more important than anything, regardless of whether you use the recommended premium paraffin, or ordinary heating oil Kerosene, i’ve had no issues with either of my heaters (one cheap and from China and the other a moderately expensive brand name) after 4 & 5 years of daily Winter use and I attribute regular cleaning and servicing to have been the key to their reliability – rather than any additive. The Exocet additive obviously did no harm, but from my own experience it didn’t seem to do anything beneficial either, the amount of soot and carbon inside the combustion chamber seemed to be visibly the same in both heaters, at the end of the Winter where I wasn’t using the Exocet additive compared to the end of the previous Season, where Exocet was religiously added, fuel consumption remained the same too, and the heater didn’t seem to run any differently, so I stopped using it.
The problem with additives, is that there may be two or three good ones out there, but there is also a lot of expensive snake oil too, and whilst I am in no way saying that the Exocet Additive falls into that category, I make and share my conclusions purely upon my own findings, and if I add an expensive additive to a fuel, then I would expect it to at least pay its way with some kind of even subtle improvements, either in soot and carbon reduction, fuel consumption reduction or general overall running improvements, and although i’m no scientist I simply didn’t see any sign that the additive was doing anything in either of the two heaters, when run daily for an entire Autumn and Winter season. I left the reference to the Exocet Additive in the original article, so at least people can consider it, try it and then draw their own conclusions. Its entirely possible that their findings may be more positive than mine.
A visitor called Andy mentioned another additive which he used on a comment above. The AR6200 additive made by Archoil was intended as a fuel additive for diesel engines, but can also be used in other fuels including Kerosene. Whilst the Archoil AR6200 additive also falls into the expensive category you only add a small amount into each fill of fuel so a bottle will probably last for quite a while. I’ve not tried it myself, so I won’t be reviewing it as such, but clearly Andy professes to see the benefits of using it, so if you are considering using a Kero additive, then perhaps this should be higher on the list than the Exocet?.
Thanks again for the helpful information and sharing your valuable experience. I think I’ll shelve the additives and concentrate on learning how to carry out a service. I’ve seen the video links here and I’ll start there.
Iain
I was just wondering if the Corona Model 3016 inverter paraffin heater or something similar would be suitable for use in a greenhouse. Also does it need to be connected to an electric supply to start it?
Yes, a Corona inverter heater would heat a greenhouse, but yes it does require an Electricity supply. If power is an issue, then you might want to look at a wick heater, such as This Model
Following redundancy aged 58 I’m moving into a 1 bed garden accommodation (with grateful thanks to my niece) that has no heating. It had a wood burner previously, though that had to be removed (planning regs); the chimney remains in place, so there’s adequate ventilation. It is well insulated and has double glazing. I’m planning on getting a Tayosan SRE4600 4.6kW inverter paraffin heater which I’ll place under the chimney in the living space.
I feel that should heat the bedroom and shower room also as I normally have internal doors always open (I have a cat!). Just checking that those using 28 sec heating oil rather than paraffin are continuing to have trouble free running of their inverters before I shell out the £345 for the heater?
I’ll have a backup KERO 360 3.0kW wick heater using paraffin as emergency backup in case of a power cut!
Please let me know if I’m approaching this realistically.
Thanks.
just ordered 200 ltrs of c1 paraffin from compass fuels £241.50 delivered. will report back when it arrives. i am also trying 30ml IPA in 4 ltres of fuel as a odour reducer. seems to work. keep up the good work.
Found a local Garage – Medway, Kent that sells C1 paraffin (from RYE oil) at £ 1.15/litre from a pump on the forecourt….although that is still hideously expensive compared to what it should be, it is by FAR the cheapest price I have seen for Premium Paraffin.
I have a 3KW invertor heater and having read various stories bought a “Mr. Funnel” and some additive, and tried 28Sec (Heating) Oil /Kerosine. I am not sure if people are mistaking their types of paraffin/kerosine, or they are using it on vented/flued heaters….I tried it in mine with a sizeable window open and while there was no or very little soot (invertor heater) within 30 mins I was feeling queasy and just about avoided throwing up……..I took the Kerosine out and vowed never to use it indoors again…..I stick to the much more expensive C1 Paraffin now……Having my Mains Gas fire hopefully fitted soon……which means I will more than half my heating costs…..Anything other than mains gas for heating is daylight robbery…… :o(
@ Will. That is unfortunate, you must be overly sensitive or allergic to small amounts of kerosene fumes, which in my experience are only given out during the start / stop cycles – its worth noting that some people feel ill or suffer itchy / running eyes around portable Calor Gas fires for the same reason whilst many others are OK with them, and the same applies here. As per the theme of the blog, I’ve been using two heaters on 28 second domestic heating oil since 2010 without any ill effects to either the heaters or myself, and my experiences were so favourable that I even went to the expense of hosting and authoring a blog around the subject!, which rest assured I wouldn’t do if they had made me ill.
Unfortunately, the bad news in your situation is that unless you are intending to use these heaters for occasional use, or you are able to find a very cheap source of fuel for below 90p per litre, there really is no cost advantage of using these heaters as a daily source of domestic heating when running on the C1 premium fuel whilst it is so ludicrously priced, for example if you pay £1.15 per litre for the fuel, the real world running cost to you of using this method to produce heat is 11.5p kw/h – which isn’t that much cheaper than a KW/h on a decent Electricity Tariff – so ultimately you may as well just purchase a cheap 2kw – 3kw convector heater or oil filled radiator, find a competitive Electricity supplier and put the £140+ second hand price of selling on the heater towards the Electricity to run an Electric heater on until your Gas Fire is fitted. That is really the best unbiased advice I can give as I don’t think that this method of heating is going to work for you, it certainly isn’t going to save you any money.
Forecourt paraffin available at Bridge Garage Swadlincote Derbyshire and the Lobitos garage on the A548 coast road near the Talacre roundabout on the way to Prestatyn, both over a £1 a litre but nice to find it still at the pump. Thanks for all the useful info on heaters, not tried heating oil yet but will do on the injector heater when I can be bothered to siphon my oil tank!
Just bought a Zibro heater and am very pleased with it..started using Bartoline paraffin ( £11 for 4 litres ouch! ) Burns hot! So started looking about for cheaper paraffin, found a local supplier about £38 for 20 litres..so I started using this C1 paraffin and it produces a lot less heat than the Bartoline? I thought all paraffins produced the same amount of heat? Some were a little more smelly than others? As soon as I went back to the Bartoline I noticed the heater was much hotter! Has anyone else come across this?