I know that when you read the title of this blog – Home Heating using paraffin Inverter heaters, the word ‘paraffin’ alone, will conjure up those childhood memories of Grandad’s ancient paraffin heater running during long cold winters in his greenhouse and the lingering smell of paraffin which always used to follow, however before you hit the back button and leave, the paraffin inverter heaters I will be referring to here, are top of the range, ultra modern safe paraffin heaters designed and manufactured in Japan and of which are even far more safer to use than portable gas heaters using calor gas bottles, and open fires.
 | Inverter 5086 3.2kw Heater | |
 | Tosai-241 Paraffin Radiant Heater. 2.2KW Output | |
| | Zibro LC-2230 Inverter Heater |
A Global Energy Crisis is here and according to Cornwall Insight is likely to result in record breaking energy costs for the rest of the decade, and as a result of increased demand these inverter heaters have seen an increase in price of around £100 since 2022 with the current ‘best buys’ listed in the table above.
However with Electricity now costing 30p per KW/H on a standard Tariff then assuming you can find one, they will save more money than ever for properties with Electric Heating and more than recoup their initial outlay in the money they save on energy.
Many of those who are reading “Home Heating using paraffin Inverter heaters”, may be here out of pure curiosity, but those open minded individuals and savvy consumers who want to save money on their energy bills and who continue to read, will probably find that it actually saves them considerable amounts of money by switching over to paraffin heating for their domestic requirements, especially those trying to heat poorly insulated old buildings and those who are suffering from Storage Heater blues or indeed, are looking to substitute any form of expensive electric heating with something much more affordable.
For those readers with Gas central heating, lucky you!. This article is unlikely to be of any interest to you as you already have one of the cheapest forms of heating known to man – Mains Gas. However even if you have central heating, you may need additional heating in an extension, conservatory, loft conversion, caravan, garage or outbuilding where the cost of extending the gas central heating may not be economically viable or possible, so stick around, as paraffin heating may still also be of interest to you, and will work out far cheaper than installing extra radiators or the huge expense of running an electric panel heater, fan heater or oil filled radiator.
Using a Paraffin Inverter Heater can also work out a lot cheaper than using a traditional gas fire to heat a room. Despite the low cost of natural gas a lot of Gas Fires, even modern ones, can be extremely inefficient, often consuming as much as 6.4kw worth of gas just to produce 4kw worth of heat into a room, and some of the “living flame” gas fires are even worse than this, as the majority of produced heat escapes from the flue or up the Chimney.
So whilst Gas is one of the cheapest forms of heat, this usually only applies to very high efficiency Central Heating system boilers built in the last five years or so, and when compared to a Gas Fire, the increased efficiency of 99% offered by an Inverter Heater, compared to the 50% – 60% offered by an older gas fire, the small extra cost of paraffin or heating oil is more than offset by the wasteful, inefficient nature of the gas fire, making the Inverter Heater the cheaper form of heating one living room or an open plan area.
Home Heating using paraffin Inverter heaters will be of interest to those in rural or remote locations who don’t have access to mains gas, or households who currently use oil fired or LPG based heating systems, but the biggest savings by switching over to heating a home with a paraffin inverter heater will be to those using Economy 7 storage heating, Electric Central Heating or any form of electric heating appliances for their main heating, and this is where 30% – 70% savings can easily be made.
Home Heating using paraffin Inverter heaters
This is where my own experiences begin, I have a rural property which is outside of the mains gas area and doesn’t have any form of central heating, the property is insulated and has double glazing, however it suffers from one handicap, the fact that it has electric storage heaters. Those who have storage heaters will already know, that come winter they are extremely inflexible, increasingly expensive to run and by around 5pm or 6pm they have exhausted all of their useful heat and once night falls, the room rapidly becomes cold. Electricity is supplied on Economy 7 or Economy 10 tariffs, and although these tariff’s give you seven to ten hours of cheap overnight electricity, the cost of the Electricity during the normal day (peak) periods is significantly more expensive than on a standard non economy 7 tariff. Up to three or four times higher per unit in fact!.
This means, that when the Economy 7 storage heaters inevitably run out of heat, by around late afternoon or early evening, or the weather turns unexpectedly chilly some other form of ‘top up’ heating is required which is often also electrically powered, such as a convector heater, panel heater, fan heater or oil filled radiator.
These types of heating appliance use extremely large amounts of Electricity and after several hours of use can soon work out to be prohibitively expensive, which then largely negates all of the savings made the previous night during the E7 / E10 period.
Consuming electricity outside of the overnight off peak period rapidly becomes expensive. This is because E7 customers with storage heaters are openly penalised for their cheaper overnight rates and will pay double or even treble the cost for their daytime Electricity compared to non E7 electricity customers enjoying standard single rate tariffs.
The electricity companies know all about the limited effectiveness of storage heaters and because of these limitations know that there is a very real possibility that the majority of their E7 customers will require some form of top up heating at some point during the evening especially during the coldest mid winter months, at the times when the most expensive ‘peak rate’ periods will apply, and so are laughing all of the way to the bank.
In other words they give a discounted overnight during E7 / E10 off peak period which looks very generous on the surface, but they then quickly snatch most of that generosity back by charging very expensive daytime ‘peak’ rates at double or treble the unit cost compared to non E7 customers on standard single rates. In addition, the discounted Off Peak rate of the Economy 7 period is also rapidly increasing, back in 2011 I was paying less than 5p per kw/h, in 2023 I would be paying 17p per kw/h (and some customers are paying as much as 24p per kw/h) – all far more expensive than mains Gas customers who pay 10.4p per kw/h all day long (Capped Tariff 1st October 2022)
Electricity prices will continue to rise due to UK reliance on expensive Gas for power generation, as do oil prices and LPG, minimum deliveries for both heating oil and LPG may also make fitting central heating boilers powered by these fuels unattractive. Fitting a wood burner is an ideal way of mitigating the ever increasing cost of Electricity, however this is not always suitable in some properties, and also for those living in flats, smoke free zones or who are renting their property from a landlord. Besides, demand for these (September 2023) is now so great, that you will be very lucky to get one fitted before this Winter.
During winter 2010, I was often paying over £100 a month in Electricity costs to heat a 1 bedroom flat, based on running 3 large storage heaters, which was around double the cost of heating a Three or Four Bedroom house with Gas Central Heating. When I arrived home from work late in the evenings I wasn’t feeling any real benefit from it either as the Storage Heaters had exhausted most of their stored heat, and during the coldest winter months I still needed to plug in additional heating for several hours in the Evening just to be warm when reading or watching the TV.
Move forward to Autumn 2023, and I don’t doubt that the £100, I was paying for running Storage Heaters 12 years ago, would now be £300 – £400 a month, which is the reality that many are facing.
A quick calculation soon revealed the painful truth, in that for every hour I was running a 2.4 kw Convector Heater for top up heat during the Evenings, I was mitigating around 3 hours worth of Economy 7 cheaper rate electricity!!, because my Electricity cost during the peak period was 3 times the cost of off peak, so it didn’t take long for the Electricity company to claw back, nearly all of saving I had made on the discounted electricity which it had sold to me overnight, whenever I needed to run additional heating during the following Evening, which in Winter means this was happening almost 7 days a week.
Additional energy price hikes had also been announced for the second time in a year, and I could see the day when paying £700 a month in Electricity would become a reality. I began looking for alternatives to Electric heating, and stumbled across a forum for Boat Owners and static caravan dwellers, who had seemed to have found a solution.
I was introduced to a modern day, Japanese manufactured indoor Paraffin heater. This was no ordinary basic old fashioned paraffin heater like the ones my grandparents had once had heating their outside toilet , but a sleek, safe and odourless fan assisted paraffin heater, with a kw heat output exceeding that of most standard Electric heaters and being fan assisted it was also capable of heating a living area very quickly, and at a fraction of the cost of an Electric equivalent!.
I researched these paraffin inverter heaters further and traced their roots back to Japan, where central heating systems are rare, and where most Japanese families still heat their homes using these clever, safe and portable Paraffin / Kerosene fueled modern space heaters. They are also used routinely in Southern France & Italy, where they are so popular that dedicated pre-packaged containers of kero fuel are sold in most hypermarkets and DIY Stores.
At first my prejudice about paraffin heaters and memories of the lingering small of paraffin came back to haunt me, but I decided that the Japanese were a clever race, and had developed many modern designs as far as appliances and domestic equipment was concerned and as a Country they certainly wouldn’t be using Paraffin Heaters as their preferred, daily form of heating if it was dangerous or ineffective. Npower had also just written to me, announcing their latest price rises (for the fourth year running), I decided that anything to save me money over Npower’s E7 overpriced daytime rates was worth a go.
The manufacturer claimed that because their heaters had no external flue there was no heat to escape which meant that their paraffin heater was 99% efficient in turning fuel into heat, which was actually much more efficient than even a Gas Powered ‘A’ rated central heating boiler, and virtually the same 100% efficiency offered by direct Electric Heating. Unlike earlier paraffin heaters and Gas Calor heaters, this paraffin heater produced no obvious room condensation and had many electronic safety features which made it safe to use an everyday household form of heating, I was now convinced, so I ordered one.
The £250 that I paid for the Corona Inverter Paraffin Heater back in 2010, seemed a lot to pay for a portable space heater, especially one powered by paraffin, but it turned out to be an astute decision which in turn, eventually paid for itself over just one average winter, recouped entirely from the savings on Electricity.
The Paraffin Inverter Heater really gave me the best of both worlds, I could reduce my reliance on (and use of) the expensive to run storage heaters, and then instead of using the Convector Heaters on an overly expensive peak rate electricity tariff to top up the heat when I got in from work, I simply fired up the Corona Inverter Heater to quickly and efficiently deliver heat whenever I was at home, at around a third of the cost of peak rate Electricity.
I read that standard Paraffin / Kerosene fuel burning at almost 100% efficiency will produce at least 10kw of heat from every litre of Paraffin / Kerosene it consumes with all of that heat going into the room (its actually 10.3kw of heat per litre but lets not quibble). So lets do the maths, and let me actually prove the savings to you from my own personal experiences.
I currently buy Electricity during the ‘peak’ periods from Npower, at around 21 pence per KW/H (Edit: This would now be around 40p / Kwh in October 2023)
I originally bought Paraffin from a local allotment society for 70p a litre. I get 10kw worth of heat from each litre burned which brings down the price for heating to 7p per KW/H. (I now pay 5.3p per KW using standard home heating oil kerosene @ 53p a litre but i’ll get to that later)
My Corona Paraffin Inverter heater produces 3200 watts of heat, or 3.2kw so on its full setting, for one hours worth of use it costs 3.2 x 0.07p to run = 22.4 pence per hour to give out 3.2kw worth of heat at almost 100% efficiency, enough to heat a fairly large living room or open plan lounge-diner very quickly.
To run an Electric Convector Heater rated at 3000 watts (3.0KW) it would consume 3 electricity units every hour, which (back in 2010) would cost 3 x £0.21 units per hour to run – so £0.63 per hour to run a single 3kw heater when using peak rate electricity. By using a 3.2kw Corona Paraffin Inverter heater instead of a 3KW convector heater, actually saves me £0.406 per hour in real terms – cold hard cash!, plus I get an extra 200 watt worth of heat from the 3.2kw Paraffin heater over the 3kw convector, which isn’t a lot, but does add up over a period of running during a typical evening (an extra 1kw worth of heat for every 5 hours it runs to be exact)
So by using the Corona Paraffin Heater during the Evenings for an average of just six hours at a time, saves me £2.43 in heating costs per night, just by changing the way that I heat the room and the fuel that I use to do it, and trading Peak Rate Electricity back to good old fashioned Paraffin, burned in a state of the art heater.
Couple this with an average of 10 hours worth of use per day (when home at the weekends) and that saving adds up to £4.06 per weekend day, so the potential saving by using paraffin adds upto £20.27 per week (£2.43 x 5 nights + 2x £4.06 per day at the weekends) – that’s an amazing £81.08 per MONTH in savings from my own usage pattern, just by turning the convector heater off and the paraffin heater on, and avoiding the use of expensive Electric heating.
The figures speak volumes, and in just three winter of average use during the Winter, i’ve effectively recouped the cost of purchasing the inverter heater and beyond that point, the savings are in my pocket for many winters to come!, and the money is far better in my pocket than those pockets belonging to the shareholders of the expensive utility companies!.
So there you go – what more can I say? other than that I paid off the original outlay for my paraffin heater during the first half of its first winter, meaning that the savings that I am getting at the moment – upto £81.08 a MONTH are now mine to keep as the paraffin inverter heater is still going strong, and still saving me money, and the room is lovely and warm, I have made no other sacrifices to do it nor had to turn down any thermostats or put on extra layers of clothing or huddle under throws!. As a result of switching to an Inverter Heater my £100+ monthly winter E7 Electricity bill is a nightmare from the past and has dropped to a more manageable, summer-like £25 – £30 a month, now i’m no longer using it for heating. In fact so sudden was my drop off in usage during the first few months that they sent out somebody to check my meter!!.
It is even possible to obtain paraffin far cheaper than the initial 70p / litre example I gave and so stretch those savings further, but i’ll move onto that shortly. Also bear in mind that the savings and comparisons I made are for one heater in a small flat, if you have the requirement for more than one electric heater, and replace it with paraffin the total savings will increase even further by using a Paraffin Inverter Heater, in place of each Electric Heater, noting that the heaters are also portable and easily carried by one person, so it is possible to move it from room to room, living room to bedroom or even to the shed or caravan, and these heaters are also ideal for heating a conservatory, where Electricity has previously been the only option.
These heaters are also ideal for Tenants, as they are portable appliances and require no expensive installation or landlord permission, simply unplug them and take them with you to your next property, just the same as you would with any portable Fan or Convector heater.
Lets examine the features of the Corona Paraffin Inverter heater.
Safe and Reliable, being 99% efficient and having no external flue or chimney means 99% of the heat produced from the fuel actually goes into the room, not out of the flue. Far more efficient than portable gas heaters, LPG fired central heating, older gas fires and virtually just as efficient as more expensive electric heating, but at 50% – 75% of the cost – FACT.
Portable – requires no installation or outside flue, just fill with paraffin / kerosene and plug it in to a standard mains socket
Has flame failure sensors, CO2 detection and switches off if it falls over or is knocked, making it far more safer to use in the house, shop, workshop or office than conventional Gas Bottle heaters, open fires or newer Bio Ethanol fires.
Produces little, if any condensation, unlike earlier paraffin heaters and gas bottle calor heaters
Little servicing or annual maintenance, and no service contracts, safety checks or repair bills – just an occasional fuel filter clean.
No wicks to replace or trim (Inverter model)
Fan assisted for rapid room warm up (Electric Fan requires 22 watts of Electricity, about the same as an energy saving light bulb)
Digitally Thermostatically controlled, which switches to a paraffin saving eco mode (800w) when the room reaches the selected temperature. In Eco Mode the heater will run for an amazing 45 – 48 hours on one fill of fuel.
Has a digital timer, set it to come on after work or before you get up in the morning.
Virtually odourless in normal operation. Just a quick whiff when starting / stopping.
Fan Assisted and Radiant Versions (which require no Electricity) available
The Paraffin Inverter heater is ideal for use in Conservatories, Porches, Outbuildings, Garages, Shed’s or any location where extending central heating is too costly, its also a very viable and cheaper alternative to very expensive normal indoor Electric room heating in bedrooms, living rooms, kitchens, loft conversions etc and in these applications it does stand to save the average household anything upto 40% – 50% off the cost of standard tariff electricity and a massive 75% off the most expensive E7 peak rate electricity tariff. In short if you are plugging in any form of Electric Heater on a regular or semi-regular basis, then replacing it with one of these inverter heaters WILL save you money – between 40% and 70% depending on your current Electricity tariff.
Finally, lets see how the cost of running the Corona Paraffin Inverter heater compares with other fuels (This update takes into account current prices in October 2023)
Paraffin Inverter Heater – 9.5p per KW (based on 95p / litre for small quantities of Heating Oil or Paraffin from a pump)
Corona Paraffin Heater – 8.3p per KW (based on 83p / litre for bulk purchased 28 second domestic home heating kerosene)
Average Economy 7 Daytime Rate – 40p per KW
Average Economy 7 Off Peak Rate – 17p per KW
Standard Single Electricity Rate – 30p per KW
LPG Central Heating (tank) – 16.5p per KW
LPG Central Heating / Gas Fire (bottle) – 19p per KW
Oil Fired Central Heating – 9.9p per KW (factoring in boiler efficiency / Flue losses)
Mains Gas – 6.9p per KW
Wood Burner – 8p per KW
Also compare the £2500 – £6000 installation cost of installing Oil or LPG fired central heating, or the average £3000 cost of a Wood Burning Stove with the low cost of the cheapest Paraffin inverter heater. Even if you bought four Paraffin Inverter heaters for use in a four bedroom house, it would still cost well under £1000, that’s almost a sixth of the £6000 average cost of fitting a LPG based central heating system, and the savings made on the outlay will buy a lot of Fuel.
As you can see, the Corona Paraffin Heater is worth considering as a portable, money saving room heating alternative to either Economy 7 or Standard Electric Heating, as well as LPG heating. Its also ideal as temporary heating for outbuildings or for using on Boats and Static Caravans where LPG may prove very costly. It is also ideal for supplementary heating in short term rented accommodation as no flue or building modification is required and being portable you can take it with you when you move.
First, let me state clearly that the Manufacturer of these heaters advise using only expensive prepackaged Class C1 Paraffin in these heaters, however outside of the UK, Paraffin is also routinely known as Kerosene and the fuels are virtually identical. Thus it would seem to be acceptable to burn cheaper 28 second domestic heating oil Kerosene instead of Paraffin, and stretch the savings and make it easier to obtain (Heating oil is also generally more readily available than C1 Paraffin).
In the UK, “Kerosene” is known and sold as 28 second heating oil, the same heating oil that home central heating oil fired boilers use. I have been buying and using standard 28 second heating oil in my heater frequently for over 10 years since my first purchase when this blog page was created in 2010, with no accidents, no fires, no spillage and more importantly no obvious adverse effects to either the heater or to myself from excessive fumes / odours as have many people leaving comments on this page, however you do this in your own heater at your own risk.
By buying heating oil kerosene from a local depot reduces my cost of the fuel from 70p per litre to 53p per litre, this means that the real cost of running my Inverter heater falls even further, from 7p per KW to 5.3p per KW – making it almost as cheap as mains gas, and even less than the cost of Economy 7 overnight electricity which my (useless) storage heaters use. You could probably reduce this to below 5p if you shopped around, and had the space to store a bulk heating oil delivery.
However, once again I must stress that if you choose to use domestic heating oil in your own heater instead of premium paraffin you do so at your own risk!. If you wish to stick with the manufacturers recommendations on fuel, it is still possible to buy the recommended C1 paraffin at 70p per litre, try contacting your local allotment society, and looking in the yellow pages for local oil and fuel brokers, or if you are happy with Heating Oil instead of paraffin, simply buy it in bulk from a heating oil supplier or from a friend / relative who uses heating oil fired central heating and a growing number of heating oil brokers have a self service pump available for small quantities.
For those who aren’t able to purchase small quantities of Domestic Heating Oil locally, we now have a growing list of Vendors who sell Heating Oil Online and offer delivery of small to medium sized containers directly to your door, with no large minimum order quantity.
For those who wish to continue to use the manufacturer approved premium paraffin in their heaters, Premium Paraffin can be purchased online using the vendors listed on our C1 Premium Paraffin Page, who offer a saving over buying the small 4 litre pre-packed containers from DIY Stores!.
If you do decide to use standard heating oil in your inverter heater, then I do strongly advise filtering the kerosene into the heater tank using a“Mr Funnel”. The Mr Funnel filter will ensure that any dirt and rust particles are removed from the fuel and that any trapped water caused by bulk tank storage is filtered out which ensures longer periods between cleaning of the heater filter and also prevents the heater from showing an “E4” error warning (which indicates water contamination in the fuel). You can buy a Mr Funnel water and dirt filter from Here
During the 2018 / 2019 Winter period I trialed a fuel additive product called Dipetane (which was mentioned by a few people over the years in my comments), with an open mind, I began adding 10ml of the additive to every 4L tank fill of Heating Oil. Despite my tendency to routinely consider all additives as snake oil, I actually noticed a significant reduction in carbon around the combustion chamber in all of my heaters when I did my service of them during the spring. So, Dipetane is the only additive which I would actively recommend for those burning standard heating oil in their heaters, and it can be purchased online from Here.
Finally, we all like to get a bargain and save money on the initial cost of buying a new heater and so I constantly search the UK and European inverter heater stockists in order to find the best deals every season. Obviously prices do change, as retailer stock levels and demand vary between the winter and summer months and to address this we now have a table below which is frequently updated with the current best offers.
| | Inverter 5086 3.2kw Heater | |
| | Tosai-241 Paraffin Radiant Heater. 2.2KW Output | |
| | Zibro LC-2230 Inverter Heater |
If you have any questions, comments or wish to share your own experiences in relation to using Paraffin / Kerosene for domestic home heating in these heaters, then please leave a comment. (You can also read hints and tips, as well as the experiences of hundreds of other Inverter Heater users in the comments below)
I bought my (cheaper) heater at the start of 2012 from Brico Bravo, and its a model SRE 300, this seems to be the same model that they are selling at the moment on their current listing. Yes, mine does have a digital 24 hour timer built into the control panel / display which can be set to come on before you return home. Looking at an Italian translation of the Ebay listing, this current heater also has the 24h timer feature, which again confirms that its still the identical heater to the one which I have.
I believe that there is a place in Edenbridge which sells Heating Oil from the Pump, I have no idea how close this is to you, or the name of the Supplier but it may be worth shortlisting for further enquiries, if its close enough
Just a note for London people. I now get my kerosene at the pump at New Era in Barking. The current price (Jan 15) is 68.3 p/L.
Barking Depot 0844 245 6661
New Era Fuels Uk Ltd,
Unit 14C, Fresh Wharf Estates,
Highbridge Road, Barking,
IG11 7BG
Monday to Friday: 7AM to 4PM
Saturday: 7AM to 11PM
At rye oils on the pump kerosene is 70p litre. It’s a long way from shepway. But if im visiting family it’s 16 miles. Anyone know anything as cheap but closer to the folkestone area. Thanks
Hi I just tried to order the brick bravo SRE 300 on ebey. It say it cannot be posted to my region or country. Am I doing something wrong?
Hi Paul
Yes, unfortunately it seems that Brico Bravo have very recently (the last week) pulled the plug on selling outside of Italy. I have heard a rumour that this is possibly because one or more vendors of this heater have complained that they are not happy at being undercut in their own territories by Brico Bravo and so Brico are now only selling to local customers in their own Country (Italy).
At the moment this is just a Rumour which I have to point out, hasn’t been confirmed by Brico or anybody else. However it does stand as an obvious fact (just by browsing through their other Auction listings), that Brico are happy to sell virtually everything else listed on their various auctions to the UK, except these Heaters, so clearly something has happened to single out this product, out of potentially hundreds which they sell!. Brico Sales, themselves are also giving conflicting reasons as to why they have decided to do this, at least, this was the case when another visitor here, contacted them.
All I can suggest is, that just like other potential customers, you first contact Brico via their Ebay listing simply to ask why they have suddenly decided to remove it from sale outside of Italy, and state that you are not happy with this decision as you were about to purchase 1 or 2 units from them. I’m currently in the process of contacting somebody Senior within Brico, in order to investigate exactly why they have decided to do this (rather than rely on third party rumours or the conflicting reasons given by their Sales Dept).
I’m of the belief that the more people who can individually contact them , the more likely it will be that my complaint will taken seriously, or at the very minimum, it will at least highlight exactly how many sales, and how much revenue they are actively losing, and turning away due to their decision, if a constant stream of potential customers are pointing it out!.
This is only a very recent u-turn in relation to Brico (which was only brought to my attention by another blog visitor just the other day), I bought my heater from them back in 2012, and have been promoting their auction page here ever since, so they have been selling them for at least the last Two years (possibly longer).
In the meantime, until a time where Brico reverse their decision and begin selling to the rest of Europe again, or I find an alternative supplier this currently remains the cheapest source for the SRE300
You can read the latest comments and news in relation to the Brico Bravo situation, on the comments section at the bottom of THIS PAGE
Are you still considering going ahead with replacing your prepayment meter with a credit one and Direct Debit?, I would still do this, even if you proceed with buying these heaters. As a word to the wise, I would still avoid the big six energy suppliers and concentrate on one of the smaller independent suppliers. Regional prices and Consumption do vary and what is cheap for one consumer may not be competitive for another in a different area with a different usage pattern. But two Energy companies who are getting good reviews for both low prices and customer services are Extra Energy and Isupply, and if you wanted a fixed tariff then Eon and Scottish power are offering some good tariffs fixed until 2016.
As usual, put your usage details into comparison sites to find the potential best deal for you, and try a few comparison sites, not just one!.
Even whilst you are stuck on Prepayment, its still worth checking to see if there is a better tariff for you, whilst you decide what to do. Again use the comparison sites.
Hello admin. I read the other thread just before I saw your reply on here. Thank you for a speedy response. Yes it’s rather disappointing things have got complicated at the last minute. I have sent bricobravo message. Simply stating my disappointment in not being able to by a quality product. I asked them if a multiple purchase would help them reconsider selling to the UK. I want two, Robert on here wants one, and who knows who else.
Anyway I will wait for a reply and move forward from there. Thanks again
Interesting that you mentioned multiple purchases, I’d posted already this on the Brico Bravo Heater review page, but i’ll also leave it here too….
Ok, just out of interest, would anybody be interested in a Group Buy for the SRE300 heater?. I know that this type of thing is done with success on various forums and it may well work as a solution here.
It seems that Brico Bravo have cited problems with delivery as the reason behind no longer shipping these heaters outside of Italy, on at least one occasion. I still don’t really swallow this, given they sell similar heating appliances, as well as more delicate products on their many other auctions, but for now, and in the absence of any official response (Yet) I’ll go with it.
I’m considering putting across a one-off offer to personally purchase, say Ten units, shrink wrapped on a pallet, I would then arrange the carriage from their Warehouse in Italy to the UK at my own expense using one of my own carriers – insured of course. Given the risk and liability, would be transferred to me and my carrier at the point of collection from Brico, there should be no reason for Brico to refuse the offer – (assuming of course shipping damage is the real reason behind the decision). All they need to do is to pack the order and have it ready for collection at the loading bay of their warehouse.
Once the 10 units have arrived, I could ship them to the various interested parties using a next day carrier for about £6. Because people are, quite rightly, concerned about buying Ad-Hoc from the internet, in order to protect everybody they would be listed as a dedicated auction on Ebay and linked to from this Blog – so we are all protected.
We probably don’t even need a firm order for all 10 pcs from here, as i’m sure that i’ll shift any remaining units on Ebay, given the current UK prices!.
The only drawback to this, is that I would have to register with HMRC, and file a self assessment at the end of the year, even if I sell these heaters at cost on a goodwill basis and report zero profit, but since I already have to do this for other purposes, i’m happy to do this in relation to this buy, if it solves a problem and there is enough interest.
Of course, if this idea doesn’t work there are various other options i’m working on. However I will await the reply which you get from Brico Bravo before putting any further ideas forward.
Hello admin. Just to add. Utility warehouse charge me 15.60 p kw per hour? ( the numbers are right but not sure if it stands for pence). It is just a standard charge. No evening rate. The daily standing charge is 23p. I switched to them when I moved in because it was slightly cheaper than EDF. Also with them I have my home phone, broadband £23.29 per mnth and mobile ( 600 mins talk, 500mb) £12.50 per mnth. A cash back card. ( haven’t used that yet). They paid early redemption costs for me to move from Three. Apparently I am not in any sort of a contract with the utility warehouse, which is a nice change.
Sorry back on topic. I have a double gold package with the utility ware house. If i change my energy provider this will not be affected. If I changed to a standard metre with them they would charge me £66 engineering costs and a deposit of £180. This they hold for year depending on my track record.
Im not pleased with this. Im going to see who wants me more and will charge less. I looked on a compare website. By estimating for a normal metre the smaller companies do come out better. You are right
Thanks again for advise.
I would definitely be interested for two! If all is secure and relatively straight forward. Can’t quite work out how individual payment would be made with a bulk buy on ebay yet. But I do only have basic knowledge of it.
Hi Paul,
15.6p per kw/h isn’t excessive, but i’m sure that you could get a better rate once you are on a credit meter – Prepayment tariffs are the highest around as they don’t qualify for any discounts. Generally the UK average Direct Debit tariff rate for Electricity is around 12p per kw/h but some of the smaller companies are now even dropping below this.
To put it into prospective, if you purchase Kerosene and use these Inverter Heaters for your room heating, then based on 70p per litre for the heating oil it will effectively cost you around 7p per kw/h to heat your rooms, which is less than half of the price of plugging in an Electric Heater – which would cost you 15.6p per kw/h on your current tariff.
I’ve done a test quote with Ecotricity (who I use) using a random Shepway postal code, and I was offered a tariff of 14.29p per Kw/H and a standing charge of 18.9p per day on prepayment, so there is currently potential for you to save money even without changing your meter.
I’ve also run a test comparison for you, using the UK Power comparison website, again using a Shepway postcode, and I was offered the following
Utilita – Smart Energy Plus – 14.16p per kw/h and 13.9p per day standing charge
British Gas (Fixed Price Until June 2016) – 13.32p per kw/h and 26p per day standing charge
These are all of the results which I got from my test comparison run on UK Power, using a CT19 postal code and an average use of 5000 units (KWH) per year
https://www.ukpower.co.uk/home_energy/compare/electricity/QTNCKBWT
(Hopefully this link will still work when you read it)
As you can see, there are several tariffs which are cheaper than your Utility Warehouse one, even based on Prepayment and all of which will save you money and some are quite reasonable in your region, bearing in mind that you wouldn’t have to pay to get the meter changed, nor have to leave the deposit. Plus, if you eventually changed over to Kerosene heating, and made some other small energy saving changes, then your Electricity usage during the Winter months, would reduce quite significantly anyway.
I believe that British Gas also offer a USB adaptor, which plugs into your PC and allows you to top up the Key over the internet using a credit / debit card – so you can top up at home, without having to go out to the Paypoint outlet to top it up, and although their prepayment tariff has a slightly higher standing charge than Utility Warehouse, its kw/h rate is lower, so you would quickly recoup that small difference through your daily usage, plus your prepayment tariff would be fixed until June 2016.
Hi I just ordered this heater in the UK http://www.energybulbs.co.uk/zibro+3.2kw+laser+paraffin+heater/1996031182
Seems pretty good value the price includes VAT and delivery. I have seen the same heater for £250+ so it seems very good value. I have ordered some C1 paraffin to start with , has anyone any thought about mixing C1 with 28 sec Kero . Sort of as a halfway house as I am a little cautious about running it on just kero . Thanks for a great web site by the way.
Hi Ian
Thanks for taking the time to post on the blog and share your find. Yes, I agree its a very good price for the heater, in fact its quite possibly the cheapest UK sourced heater that I have seen, and so i’m sure that it will be useful for others.
In relation to your comment regarding C1 and Domestic Kerosene, both come from exactly the same base fuels and are part of exactly the same family, however C1 / Odour Free Kerosene products are more refined in order to burn cleaner and so produce a reduced level of odour. Years ago this type of product used to be sold as ‘Aladdin Pink’ and ‘Aladdin Blue’, although back then, the cost wasn’t excessive its only recently its started attracting a £1+ litre price premium over its domestic counterparts.
By mixing a C1 Premium product with any quantity of standard Kerosene basically would remove any odour free qualities from the Premium fuel and doing so wouldn’t really carry any advantages or differences that I can see, other than making the Domestic Heating Oil cost more per litre, than using it neat!. Plus you would still invalidate your warranty by adding 50% content just the same as you would at 100%
I can’t speak for the Zibro model or say that it would be OK on other fuel, because I personally haven’t tried it, however I do use domestic kerosene in a more expensive (£250+) Corona model and also the cheaper SRE-300 Heater (previously sold by Brico Bravo) for over 3 years, with no problems whatsoever. In fact the SRE-300 has never even tasted C1 / Premium Kero but it still works flawlessly. These are also my main / only form of heating, so they do get used on a daily basis.
However, if you want to protect your warranty, or are concerned about using anything but the recommended fuel in your heater, then I fully respect and encourage that. However this blog is largely about saving money on heating costs, and once your fuel cost for these heaters goes over about £1.10 per litre, then it actually becomes more expensive to use them, than plugging in a £8 Argos Fan Heater. There are some quite good Electricity Tariffs around at the moment, and using one of those Tariffs to heat with, would generally work out cheaper than premium fuel burned in an Inverter Heater.
Of course it all depends on what you pay for your Premium fuel. But i’ve seen prices of £1.50 for bulk bought pre-packaged premium Fuel (Caldo) which equates to 15p per kw/h when burned in one of these heaters. If your kw/h price for Electricity is lower than your equiv fuel price, then buying an Inverter heater would work out prohibitively expensive. In comparison, 28 second Heating Oil Kerosene, only costs 6p – 7p per Kw/h (assuming an oil buy price of 60p – 70p per litre) – far cheaper than all Electricity Tariffs.
It may be that you have other reasons for using this heater, other than saving money or reducing your overall heating costs. However, to make Inverter Heaters a more attractive option than conventional forms of heating, it really can only be done by using the cheaper domestic fuel – albeit accepting the risks and loss of manufacturers warranty.
Hi i have been reading this blog and thought i would let you know the reply i got from bricobravo when i asked them about posting inverter heaters to England.
Basically the reply said that the postage charge would be 25 – 30 euros and that it was possible. I contacted them through their ebay listing in their own country. If they are willing to post to England they might consider using ebay UK again but get in touch with them anyway if you want one.
If anyone knows of a 28 sec oil supplier that has a pump for small quantities in the County Durham/North Yorkshire Border area i would be most grateful if you could post it on here please.
Hi Neil,
Thanks for adding weight to our cause by contacting Brico Bravo directly, the reply that you got, gives a glimmer of hope for those wanting to buy the original heater, certainly its better than the blunt “Sorry we are no longer shipping to the UK” which others have received from them earlier. Perhaps they are beginning to realise that they have cut off a huge chunk of business by not shipping outside of their native Italy, I know that several people in the UK who have previously bought from there, and that’s just visitors to this blog, there must be many more out there who bought from their UK Ebay listing directly.
In relation to your second question regarding Kerosene. I don’t know the area, and this is just second hand information gained from months trawling the internet for Kero suppliers for others, however I believe there is / was a Garden Centre on the Thinford Inn Roundabout which sells / used to sell from the Pump. I’m not sure whether its standard Paraffin or Kerosene (both will work fine in these heaters), but it may be worth a phone call, if you can trace the place from the description.
This place may also be able to help, as they advertise a “Cash and Carry Service” for customers who want to pick up their own Soild Fuel and Fuel-Oil products.
http://www.simpsonfuels.co.uk/
I believe that some Harvest Energy petrol stations also sell Kero too, it may be worth a call to any which are local, to see whether they can help.
Hello my two zibro lc-32 heaters arrived today. They are made by toyotomi. I got them online from energy bulbs. £171 each, free next day delivery.
I nipped up to homebase, got 4ltrs c1 parrafin. Worked out £1.90 per ltr!! But I just had to try them out until i get kerosene.
Fired them up. One down stairs and one up about an hour ago on “save” setting for 18c. The starting room temp when I got in was 7c. Now I am bathing in 18c. My upstairs room is quite large with a high ceiling.
With my very wasteful oil filled electric radiators I could still see my breath after 2 hours. Buy which time it was bed time.
The next step is kerosene. Has anyone tried it with this model or make? Thanks to all involved on this website. It’s been extremely useful and hopefully cost saving…so far so good.
Well it didn’t take long for Energy Bulbs to increase their prices, since we started promoting them here!. In just over a week the price of this heater has now increased from £171 to £190.99.
Please keep us informed if you find this, or a similar heater for Sale at a lower price and I will update the page and replace the link accordingly.
Hi,Nice to see blog going strong. I asked a local supplier about ibc containers and told no probs delivering to one as long as its in good nick and not plumbed in to any heating system . I see compass fuels advertise delivering in one , preston area i think, on another note a couple weeks ago being curious i dragged an old aladdin wick heater out the shed and cleaned it all up, and filled with kero and it burned exellent ,nice blue flame ,i was surprised,not recomended ?mm,keep up great blog ,jon.
Hi Jon,
Yes, the IBC idea often works if you have the space for one, it all depends on the discretion of the fuel delivery company, however fortunately most are happy to take the money for a 500L / 1000L delivery regardless of whether its a bunded fuel tank or an IBC. I think some of the refusals i’ve heard about in the past, are in relation to companies worried about the risk of rebated fuels being used illegally in diesel vehicles, hence why they chose to not deliver to a tank which isn’t fixed or plumbed and can be decanted from easily. Its a daft, yet at the same time, understandable philosophy, but again it depends on the individual delivery company and their policies. I found that Fuel distributors based around rural areas will be more inclined to deliver to IBC’s as this is often the method that farms take their onsite fuel deliveries.
I do stand by my original advice on not using Kero for Wick Heaters, although C1 Paraffin and Kero are from the exact same family, C1 is more refined, and causes less soot particles to form, compared to Kero. Although this is rarely a problem in the modern injection catalysts used in the Inverter Heaters, it will eventually cause premature wear and require more frequent replacement of the wick, and if used for long / regular periods, it may also cause a layer of soot to form on nearby objects.
The original indoor or greenhouse paraffin heaters were designed to run on a fuel which back then, was called ‘Aladdin Blue’ or ‘Aladdin Pink’ and was basically the same fuel that is now marketed as C1 or Premium Paraffin (albeit thirty years ago it was magically about ten times cheaper, than its re-marketed packaged version is sold at today!)
Individual experience in respect of Kero in wick type heaters will vary depending on the type of heater, how refined the Kero is, and how often its used, but again, its not something I personally promote due to problems encountered myself.
Totally agree with u there, dont think the wick would last long and probable health issues .jon
50p per litre this morning at a Rodgers top road brown edge staffs
Hello again! Just a quick update on the sre300 inverter heater i bought last year. I’ve been running it on kerosene since I bought it and it’s still going strong. All I’ve done is clean out the filter with a vacuum cleaner as recommended in the instructions, and that’s it. I’m still using the orange mr. Funnel to filter the fuel, but not putting in any additives etc. I found that there’s a weakness in the top of the fuel thank around the screw cap…I removed the cap to fill the tank and the retaining seal came loose, resulting in a leak. I managed to repair it with fuel tank repair compund however and it’s working fine again. Really pleased with the heater so far…although I ‘m probably tempting fate here and it’ll probably pack up this weekend! Thanks for the valued advice last year admin. Really appreciated.
@Peter, Thanks for the information, that isn’t too far away from me, and will save me the trip to Stoddards, at Cheadle, it should save a few ££’s to!.
@Jerry, thanks for the update, glad to hear that the heater is still going strong.
I use the 28sec oil in a corona wick heater, a fryside rippingales heater and a valor wick heater, slight smell on starting up but that’s all.thinking about buying a invertor.not had to change a wick yet only on the more modern corona with a fibreglass wick, the 50 yearold fryside heater although uses a fibrglass wick but its no problem with 28sec heating oil.the valor cloth wick no problem.
Hi Peter,
Let me just check that I have the correct place for the oil, is this A.E Rodgers, at the side of Top Road which looks like its also a garage for servicing and repairing vehicles?. I called tonight after work, but the place looked closed when I pulled in, perhaps i’d missed them as it was getting late. I just wanted to double check I had the right place before making a return journey.
yes that is it, its open mon afternoon from 2, and everyday including sat morning, it usually opened till 7 at night, , he repairs wagons and takes them for tests so he might not have been in but is wife is, sat morn he is always there, I sometimes go up and leave drums with his wife and then pick up, I go up every week , but sat morn he is always in, where are you comeing from.
if you are stuck I can always get you a container full, I live near brown edge if its not out of your way
I live just a few miles outside of Leek, so its very local to me, I work shifts so its just a matter of dropping in there on an Afternoon off, but thanks for the kind offer. It might be an idea for you to mention to the owner that they could do well to advertise their Heating Oil availability a bit more locally, as I was previously traveling over to Manchester for Kero before finding Stoddards, but finding out that there is a supplier who is just up the road is even better as I like to support local businesses. I wouldn’t have ever known about Rodgers’ selling heating oil if you hadn’t have mentioned them here, and I’ve driven past them many times.
he uses it himself for his central heating so not really bothered about selling loads,
if you use heating oil in a modern fibreglass wick heater,dont burn it dry like you would with ordinary paraffin/it ruins the wick so always keep wick wet.my corona wick as lasted 6 years now.before that 2 every year with burning dry
Oh ok, I thought they were doing fuel retailing. I use two of these Heaters as a sole form household heating, so I tend to pick up 100 – 125 litres at a time during the Winter months and I also have a couple of neighbours who have just started using these heaters on my advice and they too, are looking for a local supplier but I think we may overwhelm him if he is just siphoning the odd container from out of his own personal oil tank, perhaps people turning up for 100+ litres at a time isn’t the way that he wants to go, especially if he wants to keep it low key. But thanks for the information.
yes he only sells the odd 25litres its out of his tank ,did not know you wanted that amount,ill ask him though if he can get those 45 gallon drums of heating oil cheap.
Yes, running a couple of these heaters for domestic heating does tend to put me in a middle ground situation, in real terms 100-ish litres isn’t enough to get the attention or spark the interest of the large fuel brokers who are only interested in dumping 1000 litres into a tank in your back garden, but its a little bit too much in one go for somebody to sell on through decanting their own heating tank, and it would only take several people seeing it on the blog and being local enough, to visit him for a similar quantity and he would soon be running short for himself!.
Unfortunately I don’t have the means of transporting / handling or storing entire drums, so collecting in an estate car with several 25 litre containers is the only option, but thanks again for the offer.
do the inverters but out any more heat than my 3.2k corona wick heater or my favourite rippingales fryside heater which puts out 3kh. the fryside one uses about half the paraffin as well and you turn it down via a fuel restrict valve, can get 0ver 50hours on low setting,
3.2kw of heat is exactly the same, regardless of whether its produced by a radiant wick style heater, or a new inverter heater so on a like for like basis the heat output is exactly the same, its just the method of delivery which changes. I chose the inverter heater, due to the fact that its built in fan, warms an open plan room very quickly from cold, and the inverter heater is more like a paraffin fueled fan heater in that respect.
I live in an old cottage with stone walls and very little insulation, so in Winter the room temperature can be as low as 7c or 8c. Within about 25 minutes the Inverter Heater has warmed the room to about 18c, and it reaches 21c within about 45 minutes, so I just set the Electronic Timer to switch the heater on Automatically, around 30 minutes before I get in from work, and the room is nicely warm.
The Electronic Controls include a digital thermostat, so you can set the desired temperature, and once that temperature is reached the heater will automatically vary its heat output in real time, between 800w and 3200w according to the changes in room temperature, this is similar to the manual valve adjustment that you describe, but the heater changes the heat output and fan speed automatically based on its environment, so if you need 1600w to keep the room warm, then it will adjust itself to put out 1600w worth of heat, if a door is opened and the temperature drops suddenly, then the heater will switch back to 3200w until the room temperature is back up to the setting.
I find with my own heaters, that they will boost at full power up to about 19c – 20c, then reduce to about half power until 21c is reached, at which point they will switch down to their lowest setting (800w) in order to keep the room at a steady 21c. If you wish you can also select an ‘ECO’ setting which actually cycles the heater on / off in a similar way to an Electric Heater, so when the room temp is reached the heater switches itself off, but if the temperature drops then it will ignite and run until the temperature is reached.
I’ve not been able to get an hourly figure from a tank full because my own use is variable, however the manufacturers’ manual states 48 hours when run on its lowest setting. Monetary terms is where I do see the biggest reduction, around £40 a month in Oil spend, compared to £90 – £120 a month on Economy 7 with the Storage Heating, and with oil retailing at around 10p – 12p per litre cheaper this year, I hope those savings will reduce that £40 / month spend, a little bit further this Winter.
The biggest savings, are of course, for those switching to these types of heaters for the first time, as a replacement for more expensive Electric or LPG Heating. Whether the outlay required for an Inverter Heater purchase to replace an existing radiant or wick style heater(s) will be enough to justify changing to an inverter in your own circumstances depends on whether the features i’ve mentioned will be of any use to you, but the heat output won’t be any different, but thanks to the Fan it will deliver and circulate the heat a little bit quicker.
mine keep rooms at about 23 to 25/26 so so I turn it down, got a woodburner as well but that costs a lot if u buy wood and are at home 24/7, was thinking of a invertor as sometimes after running my paraffin for a couple of days I get a dry throat even with a window a bit open, thought of a water bowl, do u have that trouble with a invertor
No, i’ve never suffered any symptoms like that. You get a short whiff of a Kerosene type smell when the heater first ignites, and then again when it is shut down, but it only lasts about a minute. I have several air bricks in the living area, but when running in the smaller bedroom, I either open the trickle vents on the window, or open the window just a tiny bit, as this is standard advice when running any heater without an external flue, including portable calor types. I also have a battery operated CO2 detector for peace of mind, although in four years, this has never triggered and the Invertor heaters also have CO2 shutdown built in.
I only get the dry throat with the older style fryside heater so put that away today for emergencies, now using the modern corona one,never had any trouble with that one , ive had it about 10 yearsnow but if it needs a new wick soon instead of buying one for about 20 odd pounds will buy a invertor, which is the best model in your opinion. don’t forget if u get stuck ive usually got a spare 20 odd litres u can have,
Corona, Zibro, Ruby, Tayotomi are all good brands for Inverter Heaters and all offer a 3.0kw / 3.2kw model in their range, there are also quite a few unbranded models imported from China which in my opinion are just as good – “Kero” and “Tayosan” being two examples. I personally use a Corona 3016 Inverter Heater which I purchased in late 2010, which is still going strong, the following year I took a gamble and purchased a cheaper Chinese built Inverter Heater from an Italian vendor, branded ‘Kero SRE 300’, other than being a year newer, its had just as much use as the Corona and is still working 100% and at the time it was also £100 cheaper than the Corona, and in my personal opinion and experience, is just as good both in use and build quality as the more expensive heater.
The Corona 3016 doesn’t seem to be in production any longer, but the equiv model from the latest range is called the Corona 5006 Inverter Heater it is also the most expensive of the Inverter Heaters.
The Italian Vendor of the Cheaper Chinese ‘Kero’ model which I purchased – Brico Bravo is no longer willing / able to ship this heater to the UK (The rumour is that a UK vendor spat their dummy out over Brico Bravo undercutting them) and currently the UK vendors seem to be selling the same heater for about £80 more than Brico Bravo, so given I know what this heater still sells for elsewhere, I won’t promote them because my personal opinion is that its £80 overpriced over here.
However, this Evening I have managed to find another Italian Vendor who is selling a Zibro SRE 302 Inverter Heater for £136.34 + £30.38 Shipping making the total cost of the heater £166.72 delivered, at the time of typing this, they are also offering a £10 discount via a pop up to new customers, so it could be possible to get it for £156.72. Either way, £166.72 is the lowest price i’ve been able to find on any Inverter Heater available for delivery to the UK currently. (There is no import duty or vat to pay when buying goods from Italy)
You can also buy a Zibro LC-32 Inverter for £198.95 from a UK Vendor, currently they are also offering a 5% Discount for New Customers, so it will bring that price down a little bit. I’ve never used one of these LC-32 heaters myself and so i’m unable to write any review or give an opinion on it, however a few people who have commented above, have bought this model and seemed to be happy with it and its got a good reputation.
Note that you will invalidate the manufacturers’ warranty when running any new heater on cheap paraffin or heating oil. I will echo points that i’ve made previously, in that buying the premium fuel to run these inverter heaters on, will actually make them uneconomical, largely because using an Electric Heater or even a Calor LPG Fire will work out much cheaper to run on a per KW/H basis, than burning Premium Paraffin which sells for around £1.50 – £2.00 a litre
All I can say in respect of the whole warranty and premium fuel debate is that I have run my two heaters on nothing but domestic kerosene since they were new, and now 4 – 5 years later they still work just fine, and effectively I’ve saved probably the cost of replacing them twice over, with the money i’ve saved on using heating oil instead of the recommended premium paraffin, however I do have to point out clearly to anybody reading this, that if you do this, then you accept the risk and invalidate the warranty on the heater.
thank you that is just what I neaded to no
been looking.thinking about the zipro one from Italy, just wundered why there are different models of zipro, do they perform all the same
Generally there can just be subtle differences between the control layout and cosmetic appearance, or a company can produce two different tiers of product, one entry level product made out in China, and another premium product made in Japan, with a premium price to match. I’m not saying that this is what Zibro are doing, but it does seem that the current SRE302 model from the Italian Vendor is very similar to the Kero SRE 300 which I own, which is made in China (according to the label) not to mention sharing the “SRE” in the model numbers. The world of Electronic Appliances is very similar to Cars, i.e – VW & Audi sold at a premium price, but Skoda & Seat sold at a reduced price but essentially the same product just made to look differently and produced in a different Factory to a lower budget.
Just for comparison purposes (They still don’t ship to the UK) Here is the Brico Bravo SRE300 Inverter, i’m sure that you will agree that it looks very similar to the Zibro SRE302 available from the Italian Vendor, and my own suspicion is that the whole SRE range are all made in by the same Chinese factory, before being re-branded and used as Entry level products for several manufacturers.
ive found that by filtering the heating oil throgh some charcoal via a coffee filter to hold it, and place in a funnel any smell etc is greatly reduced, i then filter through a mr funnel, i use charcoal from pet shop, as i make a few terarriums i put it above gravel to filter the water for delicate plants,it recycles in a seeled terarrium removeing everything nastie, just useing it today in a rippingilles fryside heater from the 40,s i think, its glowing red hot as i type, no smell or fumes,
the italy zipro one you have to wait 2/3 weeks for them to get it in there warehouse then another 4/5 days for delivery, so if you order now might get it just before xmas, not bothering with that one although they offered 10pounds off,
Looks like Brico Bravo have seen sense (as well as the big gap in the market that they left last year), and started Shipping the Inverter Heaters to the UK again, £146.85 inc delivery here either way i’d get in there quick and get one ordered, as they didn’t last long last year!
there are 2 on ebay off this seller one 140 odd and one 150 odd are they the same heater,the cheap one says inverter and the other one a sre 300
They both look identical in the pictures and description, however the SRE300 is the one I bought a few years ago
i had a word with Allen who owns the garage on top road, he says if you call in with 4 drums he will let you have some once a month if that helps you, he just said when you come say peter sent you then he will no who you are,if you took 5 drums im sure it would be ok, On a other note a friend use to own a petrol station and sold parraffin a couple of years ago out of the pump next to his petrol, i asked him what it was and lo and behold it was 28 sec heating oil,
Really useful information from peter on the use of modern wick heaters with kerosene. Thanks! As i’ve said before, i’m really happy with the sre300 i bought kast year, but may now invest in a modern corona wick heater which don’t appear to be as technologically complex as the inverters so may be less prone to long term breakdown. As you’re effectively buying an inverter without a warranty it’s worth considering. I’m really surprised but relieved to learn that there’s no smell from the wicks burning kerosene. I recently read an article in an old ‘which’ magazine from 1980, examining heating costs. They found that around half of so called ‘premium paraffin’ being sold from the pump was in fact 28 sec. oil. I bet most people didn’t even notice
just bought the sre 300
Apologies, the ‘Which’ article was from 1969, and found that around a quarter of premium paraffin sampled was actually standard 28 sec, not half. Oops!
The inverter being sold on ebay by bricobravo appears to be a slightly different design from the one i bought last year…and only one sold so far!