They're good for what they're good for, if that makes any sense. One won't heat a room quickly, nor warm your toes in a hurry like the blower-heaters will, but for warming up a small room like a bathroom, or taking the edge off the chill in a large bedroom on a continuing basis, they do what they're supposed to. Better or worse than a convection heater probably depends on room geometry. They seem (at least) to be less of a fire risk than other types.
Ideally I'd have the radiator or a convection heater keeping the bathroom at a "don't freeze the wobbly-bits off when I use the toilet" temperature and have one of the coils-and-fan ones to bring it up to "can stand to step out of the shower" temperature while I'm showering ... but the forced-air heater I was using for that has also died. Wheee.
I think heating oil usually costs about the same as diesel. (IIRC, the difference between the two is a tax, and a dye indicating whether the tax has been paid.) It's delivered by any one of a bunch of companies that send small tanker-trucks around -- it works pretty well when one can afford it, and worked even better when I had a delivery contract where they'd come and fill the tank when their calculations predicted I'd probably be running low (I could call them if I needed more ahead of schedule, but that never happened) -- they'd slide a delivery receipt through the mail slot and send me a bill later -- and just before heating season they'd send a tech out to PM the furnace ... but then I wasn't able to pay the bill for the final tankful the winter-before-last and I owe that oil company between $500 and $600, so I'm thinking I'll need to pay cash up front at some other oil company this winter. (Last winter a friend bought me most of a tank of oil as a gift, which I managed to stretch to spring by not running the furnace every day.)
Cost-wise, it's a problem. Effectiveness-wise, OTOH ... when I do turn on the furnace, the house heats up right quickly. It's a hot-water radiator system.
Re: Trepanation........ick.
Ideally I'd have the radiator or a convection heater keeping the bathroom at a "don't freeze the wobbly-bits off when I use the toilet" temperature and have one of the coils-and-fan ones to bring it up to "can stand to step out of the shower" temperature while I'm showering ... but the forced-air heater I was using for that has also died. Wheee.
I think heating oil usually costs about the same as diesel. (IIRC, the difference between the two is a tax, and a dye indicating whether the tax has been paid.) It's delivered by any one of a bunch of companies that send small tanker-trucks around -- it works pretty well when one can afford it, and worked even better when I had a delivery contract where they'd come and fill the tank when their calculations predicted I'd probably be running low (I could call them if I needed more ahead of schedule, but that never happened) -- they'd slide a delivery receipt through the mail slot and send me a bill later -- and just before heating season they'd send a tech out to PM the furnace ... but then I wasn't able to pay the bill for the final tankful the winter-before-last and I owe that oil company between $500 and $600, so I'm thinking I'll need to pay cash up front at some other oil company this winter. (Last winter a friend bought me most of a tank of oil as a gift, which I managed to stretch to spring by not running the furnace every day.)
Cost-wise, it's a problem. Effectiveness-wise, OTOH ... when I do turn on the furnace, the house heats up right quickly. It's a hot-water radiator system.