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)
Oh man!!!
There are 3kw Inverters being sold in Italy for 150 euros. Thats incredible! Not from Brico bravo I might ad. Some other company that doesn’t seem to sell them on eBay uk or eu.
Hi Admin,
I understand your comments and I think my post was more to indicate that not all electricity suppliers charge three times their standard rate for on peak electricity. My example was found on Uswitch for East Anglia, the supplier is ExtraEnergy, my current supplier is Scottish Power who charge me 4.9p off peak and 11.2p on peak which compares quite well with the 9.3p from ExtraEnergy (in my location). I did also check prices for pre-payment meters and found E7 prices of 6p off peak and 15.6p on peak (The Energy Deal Ltd )
Also agree re. the use of tumble driers overnight, my circumstances allow me to use these appliances overnight but I would not advocate others doing the same unless the appliance is attended.
Electricity is an expensive way to heat a home so I appreciate your efforts to highlight alternatives, this is how I arrived at your site in the first place.
Hi JJM
The Inverter 5006 is indeed a Corona model, they don’t have a huge obvious badge on the front of them, but you will get a Corona branded manual with the heater, and my Corona 3016 also states “Corona” on the specification label. If you buy the heater by mail order then under distance selling regulations you have 7 days where you can send the heater back if its not satisfactory anyway, so if it arrives and it isn’t as described then you won’t be out of pocket, but I don’t think you will find anything wrong with the branding.
My concern, is that given the room size and poor insulation, that a 3kw or 3.2kw won’t give out enough heat, so you won’t be much further forward than you are at the moment with your 2.2kw oil filled radiator, and essentially on the coldest days you’ll be blasting out the heater on its 3.2kw output but still not really feel fully comfortable room temperature wise. In comparison, a 4kw heater should heat the room, then adjust its output once the temperature has been reached, saving fuel, whilst the 3.2kw continues to burn at its full power, using lots of fuel and you are still sat there feeling the cold. The good thing with buying a bigger heater than you (think) you need, is that if it gets too hot then you can always turn it down, whilst if the 3.2kw on full power isn’t enough, then you can’t turn it up!, so you’ll end up having to buy a second 3kw inverter heater, which will combine to cost more than if you’d just bought the 4kw in the first place.
I’ve put your room dimensions into a Room Size heat calculator, and the result was 4.4kw – so you are close to the knuckle even with a 4kw heater, and I really don’t think that 3.2kw will be enough for the room, let alone talk of leaving doors open to heat other areas of the flat, which you mentioned before!.
£285 sounds a lot of money and it is, but essentially its still far cheaper than the woodburner which you would fit (if you were able to), and several thousand cheaper than a Central Heating System. If you use the inverter heater as your main source of heat and use an Electric Blanket to heat the bed instead of an Electric Heater to heat the room, then you will recoup that cost back very quickly – perhaps not by the end of this Winter, but quite possibly by the end of next, I doubt any other form of portable heating will pay its outlay back so quickly.
So personally, I would go for the SRE4600, as its output is exactly the same as the heat calculator says your room size needs. At the end of the day, is the cost difference between that and the 3.2kw really a big enough difference to take a gamble on the 3.2kw and find that its not powerful enough?. I don’t have any experience of the SRE4600 myself but I do have the 3.2kw model which came from Brico and it still works fine.
Yes, these heaters are very popular in Europe, especially in Spain and France where Electric Heating isn’t popular due to load restrictions on the Electricity supply. Lots of ex-pats use them over there. I suspect their popularity reduces the price somewhat. There were a couple of European retailers selling to the UK, but I know of at least one retailer in the UK who threw a dummy spitting tantrum about it, and I assume that territories were then drawn up by the distributor / importer or agreements put in place so the European distributors couldn’t undercut the distributor(s) in the UK, but that isn’t exactly playing fair by the consumer, who of course can see how much these heaters are sold for, just a £10 DPD shipping charge away!.
In relation to your other question, I would avoid the cheaper Electric Blankets on the market and go with a Dreamland, ideally one with automatic heat controls.
I think on my own experience with thease heaters are as follows, 12 hours on at 21 deg costs 1 gallon a day aprox £2.50p per day, now the same wick heater runs for 24 hours on 1 gall and still produce the same heat, but there is no fan to spread the heat around, i tried a eco fan on one but did nothing, so they cost me 12 into aprox £2.40p equals 20p per hour to run at 21 deg, aprox 8p per kwh.
Hi again,
Well, I paid £285 for my 4.6kw SRE model from Italy and the same one is sold here for £345. I don’t know if I will get a duty or import bill when it arrives, but if i don’t, then its not a bad saving, even if I am still waiting for it to arrive… Grrrr. ETA is middle of next week.
I have a Mr.Funnel, but no heater yet. I was wondering… Does anyone have any tips on filling the tank in a clean and efficient way? I don’t want to take a smelly, oil covered tank back into the flat after topping up. I hope to adopt a good, tried and test refilling system.
As for fuel… I have found three different places to buy forecourt pumped heating oil locally and the prices range from 52p to 64ppl. Ill have to go with these prices for the time being until my friend swaps her system over to mains gas and I get to drain the tank. Other than that, Im going to have a long wait for 40ppl oil from when my neighbour gets his next delivery. The search continues…
Thanks for the tips on electric blankets.
I forgot to ask…
Has anyone tried running an inverter on Gasoil? I think its the same as 35 second????
Its red-ish in colour and I think its used in some home oil fired heating systems.
35 second heating oil is basically red diesel or agricultural diesel, often used in industrial heating systems, grain dryers and tractors, although some older domestic boilers may still use it too. It goes through a completely different refining process to Kerosene (28 second heating oil) and although still considered as a heating fuel it has completely different burn properties to Kero and Paraffin. At best, in using it you are likely to clog up the jet / burner, cause a sooty mess and probably fill your flat with black, acrid smoke, at worst you’ll damage the internal fuel pump in the heater, because Red Diesel doesn’t have the same lubricity properties as Kero, and so it will be a bit like putting petrol in a diesel car!.
These heaters will only work with certain fuels, the most obvious is class c1 or premium paraffin, which is the manufacturers’ recommended fuel, but is horrendously and prohibitively expensive for those using these heaters to save money on domestic heating.
The cheapest alternative, which is what I use myself, (as do many others here) is domestic heating oil (28 second) standard Kerosene – usually either straw yellow or blue in colour in the UK and is generally advertised as domestic heating oil. Ordinary paraffin will work too, as will Jet A1 (if you live to close to an airfield), Jet A1 is used in helicopters and small planes and is basically a high quality, better refined Kerosene, it runs fine in these heaters, but is beyond the reach of most people unless they have an airfield locally, where it can often be purchased from an automated pump. Jet A-1 is generally about 10p – 20p a litre more expensive than Heating Oil, so may not be the cheapest option, but it is still much cheaper than the recommended Premium fuel.
But I seriously wouldn’t recommended even considering 35 second heating oil / red diesel, as expensive damage to the heater is very likely to be the end result.
You won’t get charged VAT or Duty on purchases made within the EU, that was the point of the whole original European Free Trade thing, what happens when Brexit is finally sorted out still remains to be seen, and could change in the future but for the moment (and probably some time to come) EU purchases don’t qualify for import duty etc and its only purchases coming in from outside the EU such as the U.S, China, HK etc, which stand any risk of being stopped and having Duty and Vat charged, so the saving you have made on the heater purchase isn’t in any jeopardy.
You should get a manual siphon pump included with your heater, which looks something like this one
I buy my Kerosene from a fuel broker in 20 / 25 litre drums, and I simply put some plastic sheet / old newspapers down on the sink draining board, and pump the fuel from out of the larger 25 litre container into the removable heater fuel tank via the Mr Funnel using the siphon pump. If you take your time using this method then the whole operation is clean and spill free, and it takes less than a few minutes to fill the fuel tank in this manner. The heater fuel tank has a small glass window in the side, so you can see the fuel level rise as you fill it, so there is no risk of spillage through overfilling.
Incidentally, you can often get a quantity of 20 / 25 litre drums for free, if you have an automatic drive through car wash locally, then they buy their shampoo and wax concentrates in this type of container and since they have to pay for their waste to be collected and recycled, they are more than happy for you to take some of them away when asked. Another source of suitable Kero storage containers are Ad Blue containers, used as an emissions additive for Buses and HGV’s, and you’ll find that a lot of the big petrol stations, especially the ones at Motorway services, usually have a huge pile of empty 10 litre Ad-blue containers around the back, which they are generally more than happy to let you have.
52p – 64p for Kero isn’t the cheapest but it still isn’t too bad and you are still set to save quite a bit on your heating bill. Even at 64p a litre, 6.4p per KW/H for heat during the Day as you need it, is much cheaper than Electricity on a standard rate tariff, and more than 50% cheaper than Electricity on a peak time Economy 7 tariff, and if you can get the Kero for 52p, even better as that will be around 5.2p kw/h.
Kero prices vary considerably throughout the year, in response to supply and demand, and the oil price also plays a big part. If you have a friend / family with a shed or garage, ask if you can store several 25 litre drums of heating oil in there, and then just collect a drum as you need it. I buy my Kero in early August when the weather is warm, and demand for heating oil is low, and this combination usually attracts the lowest prices, and a purchase of several drums totaling 150 – 200 litres will last me for a big part of the Winter, during the period when Kero prices tend to be at their highest – so buy and stockpile your Heating Oil during the Summer if you can. If you are able to, ask the Fuel delivery guy if he would be happy to fill several containers at the same time as he delivers to your friends tank, this way you will get the same per litre price as his bulk delivery. I’ve had mixed results with this, some of the bigger national companies refuse to fill small containers on Health and Safety grounds or the fact that they don’t have a nozzle to fit, but the majority of small local Brokers are more than happy to sell another £100 worth of fuel as a part of a scheduled delivery to an existing customer. You have nothing to lose by asking.
Thats a shame about the Gasoil. There is a chap selling it in 200l metal drums for £50. He also sells old stock brick and other reclaimed items, so Im guessing he drained it from a tank on a salvage job.
Thanks for the tips on getting plastic containers… I already have four. I brought them for £3.50 each and they don’t need to be cleaned at all, because they previously contained deionised water. I like the idea of the ad-blue containers though as 10l is going to be much easier to handle than 25l. I guess they will need a good thorough cleaning though?
So if the heater comes with a pump, then when it arrives Im pretty much ready to go. Im excited to find out if these heaters really are the answer. When I tell people about them, their responses are always the same. “Doesn’t it smell?” So I guess Im the guinea pig. But I did come across something interesting on my quest for info. Cherry Fragranced Additive. I think its for people with Agas. It comes in two bottles and treats 2000 litres and costs £35. Has anyone tried this in an Inverter? I wonder if it works and instead of 20 seconds of kerosine smell on starting, you get 20 seconds of cherry? Or ‘Cherrysine’.
As for finding a good cheap supply of fuel for the future, I’m hoping that with all the people around here that use oil and get deliveries from tankers, I’ll have at least a couple of people I can either buy from at cost or get them to add extra to their delivery and fill my cans. Its very frustrating that directly below my bedroom window is a large tank thats almost full of the stuff, and it won’t be topped up for a very long time as its used so infrequently.
Well, many thanks again for your wonderful advise and informative site. It seems that a lot of people are really benefitting from it. My hat is off.
I will post something when the heater arrives and I’ve had a chance to test it.
All the best.
Well my heater has arrived and I have given it a good run and checked out its features.
The heat it puts out is impressive and once to room has warmed up, I switch it to “MIN’ and it keeps the temperature around my desired level for most of the evening.
I’m struggling with my MR FUNNEL though. It only just squeezes into the tank opening and doesn’t allow for air to escape from the tank as it fills. I will have to modify this in someway. Does filtering help reduce the odour??
My heater has a certain “wiff” to it while its running and reminds me of an Airport Runway on startup and shutdown.
I’m very tempted to try the Cherry fragranced additive, but the heaters instruction book says not to use fuel with additives. I’m not sure exactly what they mean by additives, maybe they mean impurities??
I thought the AGA additive was to help with a cleaner burn. That must be a good thing right??
As for consumption… A full tank will last a couple of evenings. At the moment I’m using a can I bought locally for 56ppl. I’m sure I’ll find a cheaper source before too long. So at 56ppl, and a tank holding 7 litres, Im using about 3.5l an evening, so just under £2.00?? If this turns out to be the average, then over a month, thats about £60.00. That less than one bottle of gas. Ok, if I used 3 gas bottles a month, I get heat in every room, but at £186, I really can’t justify it, not living alone. So all in all, I estimate that next winter, (one I have recouped the outlay for the heater and sundries this year), I should be about £400/£500 better off. I could buy two more heaters with that saving.
Really need to reduce the smell though. Has anyone tried running an Air Purifier in the same room? I think they are low consumption, and have got to make a difference to air quality, seeing that this thing is burning 3.5lts of oil a day.
There are four sizes of the “Mr Funnel” available, as they sell different diameters, in order to make them suitable for filling everything from Lawn Mowers and Motorcycles to Cars and Plant Equipment, which size did you buy?. http://www.mrfunnel.com/Mr._Funnel/Models.html
The Mr Funnel won’t remove Kerosene Odour, it is designed to remove dirt, grit and tiny particles of rust, as well as any water absorbed into the Kerosene which often happens when being stored in underground tanks or transported in metal tankers (common with Fuel Brokers), all of these can cause damage to the heater and in the case of water droplets, internal corrosion to the pump and burner, hence why I recommend anybody running on Heating Oil considers using a Mr Funnel as these contaminants are more likely to be found in Kero compared to the prepackaged, expensive premium stuff.
There are some tips for removing the odour of Kerosene on the internet, one is to run the Kerosene through a carbon filter before final filtering it with the Mr Funnel, another is to add a cup of Limestone Powder (Often known and sold as Calcium carbonate) to a Gallon container of Kerosene, let the powder settle to the bottom of the container for 3 – 5 days, and then filter out the powder before using. I have no idea how well this works, or even if it works at all as i’ve had no reason to do it myself, but there is no harm in giving it a try if you find the smell to be bad. Its a practice often used by those who use Indoor Kerosene lamps for camping, log cabins and on narrow boats, so there must be some advantage to doing it.
I have my doubts about how effective the Cherry Fragrance will be, certainly not enough confidence to buy 2000 litres of it just on description alone without trying, but again there is no harm in giving it a try if you want to make that committment, I can’t see how a tiny amount of what will probably be some kind of Fragranced Essential oil based product will damage a heater, will the supplier sell you a small sample of this to try before buying 2000 litres worth? – they should do, assuming they have any confidence in their product!.
I suspect that the heater manufacturers haven’t been able to try every single additive on the market or have any interest in doing so in order to approve them, so to keep on the side of Caution, its probably easier for them to just warn against using any additives so people won’t take the risk. I added the Exocet AGA type additive for a whole Winter without any problems or damage. I would try the other methods I suggested first though, as they won’t put the heater at any risk, however small that risk may be.
Was the Kerosene new fuel, or was it aged fuel drained from an Heating Oil tank?. I’ve never had a problem with either of my heaters in relation to a smell, apart from perhaps one minute either side of switching the heater on and off, where it would give out the Jet Fuel type smell. Like I said before, Kerosene is from the same family as Jet-A1 fuel, hence the very similar smell when they combust, it seems strange that you are getting the smell when its running though, i’ve never experienced that personally ( nor have any of my Visitors, unless they are just too polite to say anything!). I only get the smell during the start up and shut down procedure.
£1.96 for an Evenings worth of heat in a poorly insulated, reasonably large living area isn’t bad, compared to the fact that you mentioned previously paying roughly £2.20 to run a 2.2KW oil filled heater. Part of that period you are now getting 4.5kw instead of 2.2KW, so more than twice the heat for less cost, I’m assuming that in return for that £1.96 that you are actually warm now, compared to when you used the oil filled radiator?, so at least you are getting maximum benefit in return for a reduced cost. There is scope to reduce that further though, have you tried running the heater on Auto? so that it starts and stops itself, rather than running constantly on Minimum. Try it in that mode for an evening, and see if it makes a difference to your oil use. If you find cheaper oil, that will of course reduce the running cost as well, at 40p per litre, 3.5 litres would cost £1.40 per Evening, which is nearer to my original calculation, based on the same per litre cost.
Have you also moved over to using a thicker duvet / Electric Blanket in order to cut the use of the expensive, Electric oil filled radiator?. At £1.15 per night, there is the potential to save upto £34.50 per month, which works out at a £172.50 saving over a 5 month typical Autumn / Winter period – almost enough to buy a 3.2KW Inverter Heater from that saving alone, if you can get used to not using the Electric Heater during the night.
theres a new wick double burner heater made by qlima its a 2.7 kw heater, it burns first at 750c then burns the smoke fumes etc at over 1000c, its about 150pounds and uses no leccy but no fan,
bought a paraffin heater off amazon to replace the converter one as i sold it as always going wrong, This new one is like a american one and rated 2.5kw and cost 42 pounds, its very hot sends heat in 360 radius plus the top.it runs for about 10/12 hours on 1 fill of about 3 litres, fitted my eco fan on top and the heat is tremendouse , it uses a fibreglass wick and its in a catolitic convertor glass tube with a wire cage around it, it also go a anti tip over fuel cut off,its a bargain
I live in a retirement Static Home (Static Caravan) 40ft by 13ft 3 Bedroom and have been using a 3.2kw inverter heater for a few years. I find one is sufficient to heat the whole van in winter. for those who live in the North west I use N Booth & Sons http://www.heatingoilnorthwest.co.uk/ for my fuel using Kerosene 28 sec Second without problems. I pay £17.50 for 25Ltrs. Fill up is a normal style petrol pump. Up until last year I collected this myself. But now a very nice chap delivers it to me at no extra cost. Saves me the trip. They can also supply the 25ltr plastic drums. I run on 3 drums 75ltrs. so normally one delivery of two drums a month is suffient. During the winter months I keep the inverter heater set at 20 degrees which is sufficient to wander around the van in shorts. so it not only saves on heating but also the weekly wash. LOL Ensure you use the ECO switch and this will save fuel. During the winter the heater timer comes on at 0630 and off at 2300. If it is really cold (outside) I leave it on its lowest setting overnight. I give it a service every summer. Takes about an hour I came across a pdf on how to do this online. So to sum up Heating costs me about £35 a month in winter and I award an Inverter heater five stars.
Hello again. The inverter I bought back in november 2014 finally gave out. I was greeted with a puddle of kerosene when I filled it and it went on the skip as I can’t say I’d be able to trust it any more. It gave great service, although it was giving more and more error codes at the end if last winter. I dug out an old Valor radiant deluxe paraffin heater from the 70s and gave it a go.
I filtered the kerosene through a piece of activated carbon, bought from pets at home for £2.80 (intended for removing odour from cat litter trays!). I then put it through a Mr. Funnel, and tried it in the heater. a warm relatively odourless flame was achieved from the fire. I left a window open for safety, but in my opinion there was around the same level of odour as with premium paraffin which costs nearly £2.00 a litre. I’m getting a carbon monoxide detecter for safety before I try it again, but really pleased with the test. I’d prefer a heater with a lower level of technology than inverters as they look quite complex to repair. The other inverter I own is going well after nearly 2 years of use. (Ps. If you try this method of filtering kerosene it’s at your own risk!!).
Jerry, from your description it may just have been the ‘filler’ cap on the fuel tank which was faulty, these are spring loaded valve type affairs, which close when the tank is carried to stop the fuel leaking out, but are pushed open when inserted into the heater chamber, allowing the fuel to flow. These can go faulty, which loses the flow shut off control and just leak fuel through the heater, resulting in a puddle of heating oil. There is very little inside these heaters to leak, as beyond the tank, there are just a few, usually copper pipes between the tank, pump and injector within the combustion chamber.
After looking at this website many times a few months ago I bought a Tayosan 4.6kw Inverter Heater. It has been brilliant. It came with 16L of free paraffin but now I run it on kero – no difference at all. I am very very careful to filter the fuel – it goes through a 10 micron Racor type filter and then a water trap funnel.
I have been using it for 10 hours a day and it works hard.
The last few days I have noticed it is struggling to start – takes a bit longer and quite a puff of smoke. It then runs perfectly.
Any ideas?
Hi Vince
There are a couple of possibilities here. First of all it could simply be stale or contaminated fuel, and just like Diesel, Kerosene can be affected by bacteria growth in the fuel when stored for extended periods or in less than ideal conditions. Has the fuel that you are using currently been stored in the machine fuel tank over the summer?, Kerosene (Heating Oil) whether in the home or retail environment should be stored in an airtight container out of direct heat or sunlight, equally it could have been stored for several months in tanks at the Vendor in less than ideal conditions and I, myself, have had fuel from yards in the past which has been in tanks which previously were used for (and so contaminated with) small quantities of red diesel or other fuels which gave rise to running issues, which were corrected when a new batch of fuel was used. So my first piece of advice would be to start with the basics and try a new batch of fuel, ideally from another vendor if possible. These filters are excellent at filtering out water and dirt, but they won’t help at all in cases of stale or fuel which has been contaminated by other fuels or bacteria growth.
If this does not help then I would check that the heater is pre-heating the chamber correctly, if you have an energy monitor or even just watching the Electricity Meter itself when the heater is switched on from cold, you should observe a change in your Electricity usage of around 600 – 900 watts, or a change in speed of the wheel or LED indicator on the Electricity meter, which will indicate correct switching of the small preheating element used to pre-heat the chamber before the ignition sequence. I’ve never known this Element to fail, but it is worth doing the simple test and ruling out.
Finally, if non of these provide a resolution, then you may need to service the heater, which involves dismantling the heater and physically cleaning the igniter and burn chamber and I do this myself at the end of every Winter season on both of my heaters routinely. Although its probably unlikely that a heater which is not even several months old requires a thorough service, it could simply be that a tiny flake of carbon has formed on the igniter, injector or other component, especially if the heater does get used for long periods as even a tiny amount of carbon blocking a nozzle or igniter can create issues, even as a one-off when the rest of the heater is still relatively clean. Details on how to strip down and service this kind of heater can be found HERE. Although the service instructions and photos focus on one model of heater, the process and components are very similar on all types of this kind of heater.
Hopefully one of these will provide a resolution, however without an error code being displayed by the Heater, it really is a process of elimination.
Just wondering how to post comments on this site, as I’ve just purchased an inverter heater? I’m having difficulty in logging in!!
Peter. Well whatever you did seemed to have worked as we got that comment!. Please note that all comments are moderated and have to be manually approved before they appear, otherwise the blog would be taken over by spam bots and ads for certain pharmaceuticals. This is also a personal blog, run alongside a full time job and family commitments and so submitting a comment and it appearing may not be immediate as i’m not always sat in front of a PC. I am only able to approve and reply to comments as and when my free time allows.
I got a Qlima SRE3631TC-2 from Amazon Italy as the ebay offer on this page was out of stock when I ordered. A little more expensive. (£178) . A bit worried as the women in my family are very sensitive to ‘oily’ smells , we have an oil AGA & C/H boiler and they complain when either are serviced. So I was worried about any smell from the Qlima!
Ran it for a couple of weeks on C1 with some ‘essential oil’ , then 2 weeks 50:50 heating oil and C1 with ‘essential oil’. Now on to 100% Kerosene ( no ‘essential oil’) – no smell at all! I am using the Mr Funnel suggested on this page and a white plastic 4 litre ‘jerry can’ so I can visually inspect the Kerosene before filling the Qlima fuel container to make sure no ‘bits’ get transferred.
Great heater – thanks to the site owner and posters here for giving me the confidence to buy the heater and to run it on Kerosene.
Hi Don
Thanks for your feedback, good to know that the advice helped. I’m just about to start my eigth Winter heating my home using two (Corona and Kero branded) heaters – yes the same two that I wrote this page about several years back, and other than routine servicing and cleaning every spring they have worked flawlessly on heating oil, which was quite remarkable when you consider the cost of the Kero Chinese made heater was only around £150 and has probably saved me £1000’s in heating bills over the years.
I’ve actually just purchased a Qlima heater for myself, as they are back in stock, (but any Stock does tend to run out quickly at this time of year as you found), and I hope to write a full review on it, once it has covered a Winter season. However I do have a relative who already use a couple of these to heat a log cabin, and they are already proving to be a fantastic little heater, they’ve just replaced an IBC worth of Kero, so that is about 1000 litres worth of ordinary heating oil consumed between them without any issues.
Hi.
For some reason I can’t see any of the comments on this page.
Has anyone run standard paraffin in these Inverter’s OK?
My local fuel company that did yard sales of Premium have stopped due to Covid.
Hi James. I’ve been running both inverter heaters of mine on domestic heating oil since I started this blog in 2011. Now the comments are back (sorry, a wordpress issue) you will see comments by many others who are doing the same.
Thanks Admin, I thought it was an issue my end (comments).
Yes I’ve seen that, I’m just concerned about doing the annual servicing bit, I’m not very mechanically minded.
This heater might interest people if they are looking for something a little more powerful, 4.6kW heater, Plus it comes with some free fuel.
(I’m just about to order this now)
Hi James, I’m not mechanically minded either, but thanks to the video which I embedded on the servicing page, I found it relatively straightforward, as thankfully these heaters are not too complicated, and don’t really require any special tools. Suffice to say that it still took me an entire afternoon to complete the servicing, where it may take somebody more engineering minded, an hour or so, but it was do-able with a bit of patience and care. I found taking photos on a phone at each stage of the dismantling procedure to be a lot of help when re-assembling, I also didn’t end up with any ‘spare’ screws or parts at the end either, which is always a good sign!.
Its worth remembering, that these heaters will still need routine cleaning at some point even even when run on the recommended fuel, such is the combustion process of any fuel based heater, it will always leave carbon and soot residues, however I clean out my own heaters every spring when run on standard heating oil just for peace of mind. It might be worth using Dipetane additive to the fuel when you fill the heater (I use 10ml of Dipetane for each 4L – 5L fill added to the heater tank before the fuel), but there are other heating oil based additives as well, which profess to reduce the amount of soot when fuel is burned. These additives may well help to extend the time required between servicing.
Sorry for all the questions, Is Kerosene C2 the same as heating oil?
I’ve seen that it’s half the cost of Premium paraffin.
Hi – Great blog by the way, loads of fantastic information.
Looking at the inverter heaters and am torn between the Zibro LCSL530 and the Tayosan SRE-4600 for heating our conservatory.
Want to go for the Zibro as it has occupation sensors so will save on fuel but the Tayosan clearly states it can be used on normal Paraffin. Can source fuel locally at 70p a litre.
Your opinion would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
@ James, Kerosene C2 is Regular Heating Oil and Kerosene C1 is Premium Paraffin – the more expensive stuff.
@Kuljit – Either of those heaters will be fine for what you need. Both should run just fine on regular paraffin, although you may want to opt for the Tayosan to preserve your warranty when run on Paraffin.
I actually use (and have used since 2011) regular domestic heating oil in all of my heaters will no ill effects to either them or me, this is currently even cheaper (54p a litre in Staffordshire). But you will still make a saving running your heaters on Paraffin at 70p per litre, which works out at around 7p per KW/H when comparing Energy.
Hi everyone just an update for those with heaters who live in the North West
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, i am taking 2 x Zibro heaters to him for sevicing will update when i get them back
contact number for the Northwest Engineer is below should you decide to follow that route.
Alex – 07988774336
Inverter Zibro Corona service centre
33A Bonds Lane Banks PR9 8HG
Thank you for writing this page. This is a very helpful article with regard to the use and safety of these types of heaters; however, there is one point about their function I question. You say these produce “little, if any condensation, unlike earlier paraffin heaters and gas bottle calor heaters”. I don’t think this can be true as the production of water is an essential byproduct during the combustion of hydrocarbons, regardless of the method of combustion. The amount of water is significant and in conjunction with the oxygen consumed results in slightly more water vapour than the volume of fuel consumed. Unless the device has a flue to duct this away, or has some condensing mechanism to capture the moisture so that one can pour, or drain, it away; the combustion of paraffin/kerosene will always release water into the surrounding air as the laws of chemistry dictate it can do nothing else. Or am I missing something here?
No idea. I can only comment from experience of using these heaters for domestic room heating for over ten years now, first in a one bedroom flat and now in a three bedroom house, and I have had no problem with condensation or damp issues at any point in a decade. I also have a digital combined thermometer and humidity monitor in the living room, and i’ve been checking this randomly since your comment was made and it doesn’t go any higher than 56% RH even with the heater being on all Evening. Also in Japan, these heaters are generally the sole source of space heating for homes, in fact they are as popular over there as Central Heating is in the UK, which would be surprisingly if widespread damp issues resulted. So although I can’t give a scientific explanation to your question, I can give my practical experience and I have never experienced it in either of the properties i’ve owned, and the hundreds of other comments here are not filled with other users highlighting condensation as being a factor in their use.
Hi, Been following this blog but have eventually made the decision to go for it. I currently heat a greenhouse to 18 degrees with electricity for the growing and overwintering tropical plants in the UK. My question is what’s the minimum thermostat setting on these heaters? don’t think it will be an issue but wondered if they have a min setting below 15 Celcius? when using a lower setting does this cause more smell? Can these units be run overnight in a greenhouse without any intervention? fuel permitting). I read that some of these Japanese heaters require you to press a button every so often to keep the heater functioning, and this wouldn’t be feasible when using it over night in the manner I intend. Would be greatful for any help prior to making the purchase.
Hi. I have two of these heaters, a Japanese one made by Corona, and a Generic one branded ‘Kero’ KRE series origins unknown (but possibly China). The digital thermostat on the Kero goes right down to 2c whilst the lowest setting on the Corona is 12c so both brands would appear suitable for a 15c setting. Once set, the heaters can be set to cycle automatically on / off in relation to the thermostat setting. I’ve never had to keep pushing buttons to keep them running and in winter I often run them 12 hours a day at weekends. The only time they would need manually resetting would be if a built in safety protection mechanism tripped such as excess CO2 detected (these heaters are very safe) or if there was power outage. However running the heater via a UPS would most likely deal with short power outages if this was likely to cause issues. If running on normal heating oil most of the smells occur on ignition and shutdown, however running on odourless paraffin would give you little smell at all, albeit 2 or 3 times the cost per litre compared to domestic heating oil. But at this current time, even the expensive odourless paraffin works out a bit cheaper than Electricity.
could you please send me a email about a paraffin inverter heater thank you m maggs .
Hi. This is a personal blog page about the benefits of these heaters based on over ten years of my own experience. I don’t commercially sell these heaters nor have any connection with the manufacturers, so regretfully I have nothing to email you.
Hello.
With the rising costs in october, do you think an inverter would be cheaper to run than gas central heating? We live in a small semi bungalow, with a floor plan of less than 70 sq meters.
Unfortunately, the cost of Kerosene has also risen along with the cost of Petrol and Diesel. Currently (Sept 25th) it stands at around £1.05p per litre but it did rise as high as £1.40 a litre when the War broke out. Given these heaters produce around 10kw worth of heat from each litre of Kerosene, then to get the equivalent cost of running them, simply divide the cost of a litre of Kerosene locally by ten. In this case £1.05 a litre works out at 10.5p per KW/h.
You will need to compare your current cost of a Kw/h of Gas to see whether it would be worthwhile. From October 1st the Government have capped the price of Gas to around 10.4p per KW/H, so on a variable tariff its very marginally cheaper than Kero at £1.05 a litre, but then there is the efficiency to compare, as these Inverter Heaters are 100% efficient compared to 90 – 91% efficiency of a modern Gas boiler. But like I say, the cost differences between the two types of heating are marginal and you wouldn’t ever be saving the same amount of money as if you were using one instead of Electric Heating – which would be 34p / Kwh vs 10.5p / Kwh and the savings there speak for themselves.
There is also the cost of buying the Inverter Heater too, since the cost of living crisis began demand globally for these heaters has increased and I have seen about a £100 increase in the price of these heaters since last winter, and £250 – £300 is now the cheapest, assuming you can find one in stock. Whilst you would recoup the outlay on the heater quite quickly if replacing Electric Heating, I can’t advise the same with Gas, and I really don’t think you would get your money back on the investment, for several winters. Plus the cost of Kerosene may well increase again during the Winter months.
I honestly think your best bet is to continue to use your GCH, but only use it to heat the room(s) you spend the most time in, if you have thermostats on your radiators then turn these down in the rooms you don’t spend much time in. a hallway for example doesn’t need to be heated to 21c just to walk through – 16c or 17c should be ample for this area. Also consider using a simple summer desk fan on a low speed pointed at the front of the radiator in your main living area, this helps to circulate the heat from the radiator much faster and more equally, so you get a bit more benefit from the Gas you are paying for.
ive gone ahead and purchased one for this winter ..will see how it goes , getting fuel from the pump from browns of burwell , cambridgshire , would be great if everyone could update who and where theyre finding fuel at the pumps
admin , i wonder if you could respond , i have an inverter heater and it came with the odour free fuel, all good so far , on your advice ive gotten some 28 sec heating fuel, trouble is it stinks bad , not so much from the heat, just the fact i have a gallon of fuel stuck in the living room , im guessing its not sealed airtight so the smell gets out , honestly can you smell fuel around your heaters? im not too fussy about smells but it smells like a bus garage im not sure i can endure it , and ordourless fuel is so expensive i might as well use elec …thanks
Firstly I wouldn’t be storing fuel in a living area, that is basic common sense. Secondly if the smell is escaping then air is getting to the fuel and it will be stale in a relatively short space of time. My advice, store the fuel outside in an outbuilding even if it’s at a friend or relatives house, also buy the correct type of container which seals to store it in, a 20 ltr jerry can or even a washed out Adblue container or the old premium Paraffin containers will be better than what you have at the moment.
No, I don’t have a problem with the smell of the fuel, purely because I store it safely and correctly.
If non of this is possible, then I agree. Immediately sell the heater on Gumtree (they are in short supply at the moment) and go back to using Electricity it will be safer……..l
no you mis understand
my spare fuel is stored in the shed …im saying i can smell kero from it being in the fuel tank(gallon /5ltr) of the heater , id imagine yours is the same with the upside down metal tank , then a small bowl /resoviour in the bottom of the heater , im saying i can smell this fuel inside the heater as its not sealed that i can see
No, sorry. I don’t have this problem with either of my heaters, which are a Corona 3016 and Kero KRE-301 both now well over 10 years old. Both use the same method of fuel feed as you describe, an upside down 5 litre metal fuel tank, with a spring actuated valve in the cap which presses against a spigot in the plastic fuel tank insert to release the fuel into the small internal tank in the base of the heater.
In both of my heaters the cap is a snug fit into the filter recess (Although no gasket, I assume it has to be a relatively tight fit to stop fuel overflowing from the bottom internal tank into the heater tank aperture.
A metal flap covers the tank once it is inserted. I get no smell even when hovering directly above this heater fuel flap, the only time a smell appears is when I remove the 5 litre tank and I can see liquid fuel in the filter gauze.
I don’t recall anybody else ever mentioning the same problem in any of the comments sections either.
To me it’s no worse than the smell I get when I’m putting diesel in my car, or the oily rag smell in a local garage whilst I’m waiting to pay for my MOT, and the exposure time is about the same to fill the tank.
Beyond that, other than a whiff whilst the heater starts and stops it’s not an issue, and I do believe that I have a good sense of smell. No visitors to my home have ever mentioned the smell of fuel either.
You see, I’m now really struggling to replicate a problem which for me has never been a problem. After almost 12 years of running this blog it’s the first time it’s ever been mentioned in hundreds of comments across all of its pages. By default that puts the problem in something of a minority and I can live with that.
Either way whatever I say probably isn’t going to placate you and I have absolutely no interest in trying to change your mind because I gain nothing from giving my advice whatever you choose to do, and on that basis you should now do whatever is best for you.
So in my unbiased view you have an issue which is clearly a problem (to you) and now appear to have two choices with which to solve it.
Run the heater on premium fuel, go back to your vendor, haggle, barter, negotiate – do the deal on a discount for the bulk supply of a 205 litre barrel or an IBC. There is an energy crisis on, so they should be geared up and able to hook you up with a bulk supplier quickly it’s called “aftersales service”.
If you are paying the protected rate on Electricity which works out around 34p per kWh currently on the standard variable rate then you are potentially saving money on fuel upto paying around £3.30 a litre, beyond that it’s cheaper to just plug in a fan heater.
The second option is that you can sell the heater, and go back to using Electricity and that would be my closing piece of advice.
all i can think is i have a particularly smelly supply of fuel compared to you , shame is theres no other suppliers in the area
i agree ive not seen anyone else say too much about excess smells
I’ve taken the plunge and am trying kerosene rather than paraffin, eight hours in (early doors I know) it’s ok using inverter heater but I can say it’s not as warm as paraffin. Shame cus it’s cheaper, just can’t get hold of paraffin, all local places seam to have a problem with there pumps cus (maybe) of the cold whether, even though it doesn’t freeze.
Interesting article thank you. Obviously the costs quoted here are now quite different.
I bought a 205l barrel in February this year and it cost £250 plus VAT at 5% I believe so that is £1.28 per litre. It would be nice to see an update to this article with 2023 price comparisions.
I love my paraffin heaters which I use in an outdoor garden building and as others have said, the slight whiff of kerosene on start up and shut down is not a problem.
Hi Steve, this blog page was updated in October 2022 to reflect the change on the Government price cap to 33p per KW/H for Electricity (small regional differences will vary this figure). I currently buy my heating oil for £1.05 a litre from Stoddards Fuels in Cheadle Staffordshire collected from their Yard pump, this price is correct as of 20th December 2022 and is updated as often as Stoddards update their page!. Unfortunately this is a personal blog and not a business, so I can only make the comparison based on my own personal prices. Generally I update this page when I can around a full time job and family life, but its largely also reliant on the fuel brokers themselves to update their own business prices, and sadly many do not make their prices public, nor always offer the facility to buy small quantities.
At £1.28 a litre based on getting 10kwh of heat from a litre of heating oil (The actual scientific figure is quoted as 10.3kwh per litre but 10kw makes the maths easier) then your actual heating price is 12.8p per KWH. This is still more than 2 1/2 times cheaper than a KWH of Electricity, and only slightly above the current 10.3p KWH for mains gas based on the current price cap before boiler efficiency losses are also taken into account.
Don’t forget that these heaters are also close to 100% efficient having no external flue, whilst even the best & newest Gas Boilers are only 90 – 95% efficient, so that price void between a KWH of Mains Gas and A KWH of kero burned in this type of heater becomes even narrower.
Hello fello kerosene burning addicts! It’s a while since I’ve on this site and I’ve been using a Japanese made inverter heater for several years now using kerosene (heating oil) without any problems.
I did read an earlier post about the excessive smell! Whilst I’m aware of a particular kero type odor which hasn’t bothered me I’ve recently been using kerosene from a different supplier in Erdington B’ham and have definitely noticed it smelling alot more than usual when being burned in the heater.
Maybe some refineries/ bulk suppliers have been cutting costs by using cheaper methods! Anyone else noticed this in the last 3 months or so?
I’ve had error codes thrown up too and I’ve serviced the heater and it works ok appart from this significant smell.