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. There is a 4-year warranty on the Inverter 5086 Heater when the Fuel instructions are correctly followed (see below)

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!. These fires incorporate an electronic thermostat to control room temperature, also allowing a timer to be set so the fire will turn on at a desired time. I’ve been using domestic heating oil in my heaters since 2011, and other than a relatively cheap flame rod in the Corona heater when it was about 4 years old I’ve never needed to replace any parts.

HEATERS

The Inverter 5086 is the same as the Inverter 5096. The name has been updated for 2020, the product is identical otherwise.

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. 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. 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. Would I consider one for a Canal Boat Application myself? – Yes, provided the practical and safety measures I mentioned above were followed, and it was possible to open up most or all of the room space inside the boat to increase the heating (and ventilation) area. Both heaters are still running ten years later, which would be remarkable longevity even when used with the recommended fuel.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. The Electronic versions, being fan based have a greater degree of control and temperature accuracy, including a Digital Electronic Thermostat which modulates the heat from the burner, so the closer the heater gets to reaching the desired room temperature, the burner output is reduced automatically.