| If you have oil filled radiators in your home or | | | | consumed by the oil filled radiator. This is |
| you're about to buy one, please take a look at | | | | surprisingly easy to achieve, because many |
| these important safety tips. It's better to be safe | | | | electric radiators consume 2.5 or even three |
| than sorry. It's very easy to think these days | | | | kilowatts, and there are a lot of really cheap |
| that all appliances are fool-proof and completely | | | | extension cables out there that are not rated to |
| safe. After all, there's a whole swathe of national | | | | handle this level of power. The danger is that the |
| and EU regulations that govern everything sold in | | | | thinner strands of wire in a lower-rated extension |
| the UK from rubber ducks to bananas, let alone | | | | cable will overheat, causing a real risk of fire. |
| the subject of this article, oil filled radiators. | | | | - Using an External Timer: If you need an oil filled |
| It's certainly true that heating appliances in the | | | | radiator to come on and go off at a certain time, |
| home are much safer than in the"old days". My | | | | my advice is to get one with a built-in timer that's |
| grandmother used to warm her cold old house | | | | designed to do just that. These radiators come |
| with an upright paraffin heater that scared the | | | | with built-in safety circuitry to switch them off, |
| living daylights out of me as a child. It stood on | | | | for example to prevent over-heating. Controlling |
| the carpet, about three feet tall, a great cylinder | | | | them by plugging them into an external timer can, |
| with a veritable lake of flaming paraffin in the | | | | in some circumstances, cause the safety circuit to |
| base. Often in those days there would be stories | | | | become disabled. Ultimately, this could cause |
| of so-and-so in the next street "knocking the | | | | overheating of the unit to remain unchecked. |
| heater over"; the paraffin creating an instant | | | | - Placing wheeled models where they can roll or |
| burning lake that in some cases caused severe | | | | be pushed by children: If a child pushes the |
| damage to the house and even injury to the | | | | radiator, or it rolls because it is not on a flat |
| occupants. | | | | surface, the flex can become taut and this is |
| These days, we are, it is true to say, all looked | | | | clearly dangerous. As well as being a trip hazard, a |
| after by the "powers that be" to a much greater | | | | taut cable can also loosen the connection in the |
| extent that in yesteryear, and oil filled radiators | | | | plug or in the appliance causing a possible |
| have certainly not slipped under the radar in this | | | | short-circuit or an exposed live wire. Then of |
| respect. There are complex regulations not just | | | | course the radiator itself could go careering down |
| for electric radiators but for all types of heating | | | | a staircase for example. Not only is this a heavy |
| appliances. However, people will be people and it is | | | | object on the move, but it is also one filled with |
| still possible to turn an oil filled radiator into | | | | very hot oil that you really don't want to unleash |
| something rather dangerous. Here are a few | | | | on an unsuspecting public. So, make sure your |
| things that will make your radiator a veritable | | | | oil-filled radiator is in a secure location, firmly in |
| hazard - please do not try any of this at home: | | | | place on a level floor. |
| - Running an extension cable from the electricity | | | | It has to be said that oil filled radiators are, as a |
| socket to the radiator: In itself, this is not | | | | class of appliance, not especially dangerous, and if |
| dangerous, but the problem comes when the | | | | you avoid the above pitfalls, your unit should give |
| rating of the extension cable, i.e. the maximum | | | | you many years of safe heating. |
| wattage that it can handle, is less than the power | | | | |