Does anyone have one of these in their house? If so, does it cause a lot of condensation and do you feel safe using it, ie, fire risk etc. Any advice and comments appreciated. Thank you.

The running costs of those portable heaters with the gas cylinder are not much different to an electric fire, to be honest. Problems are that the fumes from burning the gas stay in the room with you, so you need good ventilation - which kind of defeats the object of trying to stay warm in this weather! - also the burning produces moisture which will aggravate any damp/condensation problems that already exist. An electric fire/convector heater/oil-filled radiator will give you a dry heat and if you're rationing it you know exactly how much fuel you're using, as you can work it out from the rating on the back. Ball park figure, for example - 1kW for one hour = 20p-ish depending on your supplier.

Thank you for replying. Really need to know if condensation would be very bad and safety issues. It is for an old house with high ceilings and a large hall area with big windows which cause a cold area in the hall. Already get condensation on these and wondered if it will get much worse with a stove. I already use an oil filled radiator. Have you used one yourself at home?

I've got similar probs. House is just not warming up, and contrast in certain rooms and hall/landing is causing damp. I was thinking that a dehumidifier could be a better option to draw out the moistures, rather than putting more into the atmosphere.

I used to use a calor gas heater years ago, but stopped because of the smell and damp and lurking worries about cylinders misbehaving. A dehumidifier would certainly help with condensation, as long as there wasn't a pre-existing damp problem e.g. rain penetration, dodgy damp course, in which case it just keeps drawing it in. Sounds like a hard house to heat, Muzzy. A convector heater which circulates the air might take the chill off over a larger area than the oil-filled radiator, as that is just radiant heat.

Normal domestic activity puts moisture into the air - breathing, cooking, showering, drying clothes indoors - and all that moisture will find the coldest surface on which to condense. In old houses that tends to be the windows, or spaces behind wardrobes and other furniture on cold walls where air cannot circulate etc. If I remember rightly , keeping the background temperature up to 14C will help to limit the condensation, but that's easier said than done. Even my 2 bed semi with cavity and loft insulation has been down to 12C some mornings recently. Good luck!

An oil filled radiator is mostly convection because it is low temperature so not much radiation, the air cools down the metal surfaces and circulates, although they are slow to warm places up oil filled radiators are about the best electric heaters to use as they minimise the amount of drafts.

Totally agree of calor gas heaters, while they are a brilliant quick fix and not uneconomical, the amount of water they put into the house is bad and there is also the risk of carbon monoxide if its not working properly (though generally they do).

De-humidifiers are good but there are some naff models around, they can work out expensive if you try to dry out a whole house but for drying the odd room for a few days they aren't bad. It takes a number of days to draw the water out of walls, carpets, wood and furnishings, switching one on for a couple of hours is just a waste and pointless.

Don't switch a humidifier on when it is below freezing outside, the humidity drops to zero as soon as it is freezing and the de-humidifier won't be doing as much as the outside ventilation.

Had a thought! If it stood in a fireplace like a wood burning stove, would that help lessen the fumes and condensation, or would the heat be lost up the chimney?

unblocked chimneys lose a lot of heat although they increase ventilation. Open chimneys in unused rooms could be temporarily blocked for winter with newspapers crumpled inside a bin bag (or 'chimney balloon', available online). Just remember to remove it before you use the fireplace! With the gas heaters the heat is thrown forwards so most heat would remain but so would most fumes and risk of condensation, I reckon.

Are you talking about calor gas room heaters or calor gas cooking rings (camping gas stoves)?

Room heaters. However, I have looked at running costs which would be far too high anyway as a 15kg bottle would last 50 hrs so if I had the heater full on at 12hrs a day, that would cost roughly £10 per day, half heat on , £5, so that's £70 / £35 per week on top of my normal electric bill.
So think I'll just stay cold for a few more weeks until the weather warms up!
I did think of hiring one on a trial basis but the gas would cost the same.
Thanks to all for taking an interest and giving their views , Wiki usually comes up with an answer.

I'd stick with a convector heater or fan heater. If you use a calor gas heater, be sure you have a carbon monoxide detector too.

If you haven't done so already, look for a cheaper electricity supplier on a number of different price comparison sites and perhaps you can find a less expensive one.

I do this annually, but it occurs to me that perhaps it would be better to do it twice a year in spring and Autumn. For summer when consumption is low, you need a supplier who charges a low daily standing charge. In winter you need one that charges the least per kWh.

If we had a government that really believed in competition, they would abolish the standing charge. There is no good justification for it and it makes price comparison dependent on your consumption which you don't know as it depends on future weather. In other words, it is designed to confuse you. There's no chance of the tories ever abolishing it. of course, being financed by the utilities. Serves us right for voting for them I suppose.