Cost of oil central heating

linlin_3 · 6 March 2006 at 4:31PM

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A property I may be interested in has oil fired central heating. I asked the estate agent some questions and was told the boiler is 7 to 8 yrs old, is a Camroy 2 and the current owners have had two oil deliveries in the past year costing approx £160 each. The EA forgot to ask about quantities, but I guess this has to be 2 x 500 litre deliveries

I estimate the house is approx. 1400 sq ft on one floor.

£320 pa for heating seems very low and I'm wondering if I've been told the truth or not.

Debt_Free_Chick · 6 March 2006 at 4:58PM

Well I've just spat my coffee all over the monitor :eek:

I live in a detached house, reasonably well insulated (could be improved) but without double glazing.

We paid £1500 for oil in the past 12 months. Oil fired boilers are notorious for burning oil like money going out of fashion. We have an Aga that provides all our cooking and hot water, but have been told that it's the boiler eating oil. We also have a Camry ... supposed to be a reliable and well respected make for an oil fired boiler.

£320 worth of oil is equivalent to about 900 litres over the past 12 months - a standard tank full. I can't see how it can be done .... I guess a single storey building might account for some difference in my oil consumption .... but they're using only one-fifth of the amount we use ......?

Hang around for others to chip in, but I'm staggered.

paul_h · 6 March 2006 at 8:37PM

Aga's do guzzle oil a bit.

However, £320 worth of oil is nowhere near the mark, unless they use the heating very sparingly... perhaps a few years ago when oil was 10-15p/litre, but not nowadays. Are they using any supplemental heating - coal fire maybe?

An average house requires about 15,000 kWh of energy per annum to heat, and a further 5000 kWh for hot water. Using 28 second grade oil with your boiler, which will be about 70% efficient, that equates to around 2800 litres.

About £900 at todays oil prices... :shocked:

This could be reduced by perhaps 25% if the house was 'super-insulated'.

Jillinoz · 10 March 2006 at 9:43PM

My response is of the coffee-spluttering variety, too!

I live in a 3,500 sq ft farmhouse in Yorkshire, with a reasonably new (and well serviced) oil-fired boiler (for hot water and CH) and oil-fired Aga (for cooking and frozen human de-thawing!). Even with minimum heating and maximum layers of clothing, the cheapest we've been able to reduce our fuel bill to is £100 a month.

Skiduck · 11 March 2006 at 11:29AM

as the boiler is a boulter camray 2, it is going to be about 70% efficient, so what you have been told is a crock of ....

just looked on http://www.sedbuk.com/ and camray 2 is too old to be defined there, so 70% is a max you will get out of it. I also know that it is more than 7 or 8 years old - try 15

littlereddevil · 11 March 2006 at 11:31AM

I have a tank holding 1100 litres and need to fill it 4 times a year.i find oil much more expensive than gas in my old house but then gas is now going up a lot. by the way there are only 2 of us!

paul_h · 11 March 2006 at 2:41PM

Skiduck wrote:

as the boiler is a boulter camray 2, it is going to be about 70% efficient, so what you have been told is a crock of ....

just looked on http://www.sedbuk.com/ and camray 2 is too old to be defined there, so 70% is a max you will get out of it. I also know that it is more than 7 or 8 years old - try 15

I think you're right, I reckon I was being generous at 70% - but even giving it the benefit of the doubt, it does demonstrate how expensive oil fired CH is to run.

If you are in a rural area, solid fuel CH boilers, although expensive to install, and not as convenient, is far cheaper to run now. The days of cheap oil are over - I struggle to understand why people are still installing oil boilers. The Trianco gravity fed boilers don't really need much attention...

littlereddevil wrote:

i find oil much more expensive than gas in my old house but then gas is now going up a lot.

Mains gas is still quite a bit cheaper than oil - it still works out about 30% cheaper - and oil boilers are never as efficient as gas boilers, particularly when heating water only in the summer.

For comparison, to work out the cost per kWh for oil, divide the price per litre by 10.2, but don't forget to bear in mind that oil boilers are almost always less efficient.

zar · 11 March 2006 at 3:26PM

I was feeling bad about our energy usuage but feel better after reading this thread! We have had 2x oil deliveries of 500l each that has lasted us one year, for 2 of us. For 3 weeks over Christmas when the boiler broke, we had to use electric heaters, so our electricity bill went from £65 for the previous quarter to well over £100 for the last quarter, although that can be acounted for by winter and recent price rises as well.

Our boiler is a stanley oil-fired range which is used for hot water (although we have an electric shower and dishwasher as well), central heating and some hob and oven cooking. I don't know what the sq footage is, it is a 2 bed barn conversion on one floor.

But - we generally only have the heating on once a day (in the evening). We have a couple of thermometers, and when the temperature gets to about 11oC we put the heating on to bring it up to about 15. If I'm working at home, I use an electric heater in the room I'm in rather than heating the whole house up. In the past couple of weeks I have discovered the delights of the hot water bottle! :coffee: Because of the electric shower and dishwasher, in the summer we only heat up water every few days when we need it.

So - the sellers probably weren't lying to you (unless the house is much bigger than ours). But perhaps you will using the heating more than them and so it will be more expensive, so budget for bigger costs. Also the price of oil has really gone up recently.

ginger_nuts · 11 March 2006 at 3:44PM

linlin wrote:

A property I may be interested in has oil fired central heating. I asked the estate agent some questions and was told the boiler is 7 to 8 yrs old, is a Camroy 2 and the current owners have had two oil deliveries in the past year costing approx £160 each. The EA forgot to ask about quantities, but I guess this has to be 2 x 500 litre deliveries

I estimate the house is approx. 1400 sq ft on one floor.

£320 pa for heating seems very low and I'm wondering if I've been told the truth or not.

My house is 900 sq ft .I live alone ,I dont have the heat on in the summer (unless it's really freezing ) ,I am out at work all day .I dont use the heating in the morning ,I never use the oil for just heating the water and have electric for cooking ,I used 1200 litres last year .

paul_h · 11 March 2006 at 3:44PM

zar wrote:

We have a couple of thermometers, and when the temperature gets to about 11oC we put the heating on to bring it up to about 15.

We have a thermometer in the living room too, it's now saying 20'C and I was thinking about stoking a fire up! I must be nesh! At 11'C I'm afraid I'd be sat here in a Duffel coat...

Standard temperature accounted for is 21'C for living areas when sizing CH system components.

The usage still sounds very low to me, but as I said earlier, it is possible that they could be using the heating sparingly. You have to consider that not everyone's usage will be the same, and much of it depends on your lifestyle and need for heating throughout the day.

ginger_nuts · 11 March 2006 at 3:54PM

at 11oC I think it could be warmer outside . I dont like a lot off heat but 11oC ..no thanks

Cost of oil central heating

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