This Electrolux 2kW Digital Oil-Free Radiator heated my whole office within minutes – and barely registered on my smart meter

Every winter, my home office is the last room in the house to warm up. I live in a period property with single glazing and stone walls, so I usually end up wrapped in a dozen or so layers, with a cup of tea to see me through.

This year, rather than heating the whole house to keep one room comfortable, I wanted to keep my central heating on low and top up my office with a portable heater that would warm the room, and keep me comfortable as I worked.

So I spent three weeks working beside the Electrolux 2kW Digital Eco Oil-Free Radiator to see if a sleek, plug-in heater could warm a chilly office, and do so cheaply enough to run it every day. Here's how I got on.

Specifications

Unboxing, set up and first impressions

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An electric heater is always going to look like an electric heater, but what drew me to the Electrolux 2kW digital eco oil-free radiator was that it looks smarter than most. It's slim, dark grey and digital, it sits on castors so it's easy to move, and it comes with a remote, so I wouldn't need to leave my desk to adjust it.

The price helped too. I've been eyeing up the Dyson Hot+Cool Jet Focus AM09 Fan Heater for a while, but I just can't justify the cost right now. At £149.99, the Electrolux promised quality without the eye-watering price tag.

When it arrived, the box was bigger than I'd expected, but the radiator itself was surprisingly light. At 8.2kg, it's far easier to carry than my old oil-filled model.

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Inside, I was pleased to find very little packaging, and almost no plastic. The radiator and its parts were held in place with moulded pulp inserts and cardboard, which all went straight into my recycling. Alongside the radiator, the box contained two castor feet, a side panel, the remote control and the user manual.

Set-up was refreshingly simple: you screw the castors onto the base, then fit the side panel, which doubles as tidy storage for the cable and remote. The only catch is that a screwdriver isn't included, so have one to hand before you start.

Once it was standing upright, I was struck again by how good it looks. It's slim and streamlined rather than bulky, and it doesn't dominate the room the way some portable heaters do.

How and where I used it

I tested the portable radiator in my home office for three weeks, using it for four to five hours each working day. The weather was a typical autumn mix of sunny, rainy and overcast days.

My office measures 3.7m x 3.4m, around 13m², so it's comfortably within the heater's 20m² limit. It's not an easy room to heat, though. As I said, I live in a period property with single glazing and uninsulated stone walls, and the room's one radiator is slow to warm up.

I kept the heater within a metre of wherever I was working, whether I was sitting at my desk or standing, and the castors made it easy to reposition when I moved around.

The heater has low, medium and high settings, plus an Eco mode. I used it almost exclusively in Eco mode with the thermostat set to 23°C, which I found the most economical setting.

I also came to rely on the timer. I'd set the heater to run for a couple of hours and then switch itself off, so I never had to worry about forgetting it at the end of the day.

How did it perform?

Heat-up time

It's a fast model. Within a minute of switching it on, I could feel the room noticeably warming up. That's a big step up from my old oil-filled heater, which took far longer to make any difference. Oil-free radiators use dry heating elements rather than oil, so they warm up much more quickly (find out more in our guide to how oil-filled radiators work).

Heating the whole room

This is where the Electrolux 2kW digital eco oil-free radiator won me over. Not only did it warm the area around my desk, but it heated the whole office and the corridor outside too. My partner came in with a cup of tea one afternoon and asked if I'd turned the hallway radiator on, because it was so warm out there.

Holding the heat

Oil-free radiators are known for losing heat faster than oil-filled ones once they're off, so I was pleasantly surprised here. When the timer switched it off, the office still felt warm for around 20 minutes afterwards. In a room with single glazing and stone walls, the chill does eventually creep back in. But that's down to my house more than the heater, and it's why I keep the central heating on low elsewhere.

Noise, smell and safety

The heater is virtually silent. The only sound is an occasional brief knocking as it heats up, which I soon stopped noticing. For the first couple of uses, there was a mild plastic smell – a bit like a hot glue gun – but this was faint and disappeared completely after that, which is more than I could say for my old oil-filled heater.

The casing gets warm but never uncomfortably hot to the touch. It also has overheat protection and a tip-over switch, which is reassuring with a heater on castors.

The downsides

My biggest frustration is the 1.5m cable. You shouldn't run a heater from an extension lead, so the cable length limits where it can go. This is a gripe I have with most portable heaters, but it's more noticeable here.

Because it's a tall, narrow radiator, you also can't direct the heat the way you can with a fan. It stays where you put it, which sometimes means closer to the wall than I'd like.

How much does it cost to buy and run?

The Electrolux 2kW Digital Eco Oil-Free Radiator costs £149.99 on Electrolux's website, though it's worth shopping around, as it may be on offer elsewhere.

Running costs depend on which setting you use. At full power, the heater draws 2kW. At its lowest output, that drops to 0.67kW, according to the energy data in the manual.

Based on Ofgem's October to December 2026 price-cap rates (around 26p per kWh), that works out as:

The manual doesn't spell out how Eco mode works, but in practice it held the room at my set temperature without running flat out, so my real costs should sit between these figures. My smart meter backed this up. On Eco at 23°C, it barely registered the heater and stayed on green, only tipping into amber when I turned the heater all the way up, which I never needed to do during testing. The heater also uses almost nothing on standby (0.17W), so there's no need to worry about leaving it plugged in.

For more on how this compares with running a boiler, see our guide to central heating costs per hour and the most economical way to use your central heating.

Do I recommend the Electrolux 2kW digital eco oil-free radiator?

Yes. After three weeks, the Electrolux has become part of my working day, and I'll keep using it through the winter. I'd recommend it too. It does the job well at a reasonable price, it looks smarter than most portable heaters, and it's even better value when it's on offer.

Who is it best for? It's ideal for anyone working from home in a small or medium-sized room up to 20m² who wants to heat that one room, rather than the whole house, during the day. It also suits renters, or anyone who can't easily change their heating controls.

Who should look elsewhere? If you need heat to linger long after switching off, an oil-filled radiator may suit you better. And if you want to point the heat at one spot, a fan heater such as this Dreo Smart Whole Room Heater gives you more control.

My plan for this winter is to keep the central heating on low throughout the house and use the Electrolux to top up my office. I'll also 'house burp' my home by opening a window for a few minutes each day, since keeping one room warm while the rest of the house stays cool can encourage condensation and mould.

If you're weighing up your options, our guides to types of radiator and choosing heat emitters explain the pros and cons of each. And before you switch your heating back on for the season, it's worth running through our autumn central heating checklist.