Oil-heating bills and Rayburn

muellered_2000

At the moment my heating is costing me a fortune and I want to save money. I haven't even been using my expensive oil-fired Rayburns which i have just paid another king's ransom to have serviced. I have no gas supply to the property so that is not an option. I have access to a certain amount of free wood in and around my property which I could season and use. What is the price comparison of oil buring vs wood?

If it makes sense then I think I should replace my Rayburn with a more effficient woodburning range/water heater. What can you recommend? What costs will I incur over and above buying and installing a new appliance? How much would it cost to update my flues?

Thanks for your input.

mackangus

We've been in our new house a year. When we bought it, it had an oil fired Esse, that between Nov and April used £1,500 of oil (it's a big house, 400 yrs old).
We replaced it with a Rayburn 345W, which is a wood powered range cooker / boiler, rated to run up to 8 radiators. It cost about £700 to install, and £3,500 (5% VAT) to buy.

We have 11 radiators and a towel rail on it, and haven't seen any sign of it struggling yet.

We use (it's -2 degrees outside) a wheelbarrow full of logs a day, all of which I've had to buy commercially this year, the cost for the year will be about £1,100. But I've just had 8 tons of green wood delivered, (£140), which I'll saw, split & season, which will do half of next year. When I've done that, I'll get another load, and so on.

We had some teething problems getting used to it, but I reckon it will have paid for itself in 2 - 3 years, then I'll be running a 5 bedroom home, heating & cooking for about £300 per year.

Hope this helps, and if anyone considering a 345w wants tips, set up a thread (or a seperate forum), and pm me. Best thing we've done to our home, and it keeps me fit!! ;-)

itsnever2lateisit?

muellered_2000 wrote: »

At the moment my heating is costing me a fortune and I want to save money. I haven't even been using my expensive oil-fired Rayburns which i have just paid another king's ransom to have serviced. I have no gas supply to the property so that is not an option. I have access to a certain amount of free wood in and around my property which I could season and use. What is the price comparison of oil buring vs wood?
If it makes sense then I think I should replace my Rayburn with a more effficient woodburning range/water heater. What can you recommend? What costs will I incur over and above buying and installing a new appliance? How much would it cost to update my flues?

Thanks for your input.

Can I ask what model Rayburn you have?

FWIW I changed from a solid fuel to Oil 6 years ago, oil was much cheaper then, but even now I am only buying 2000litres a year, as I have made some adjustments to the way I use it.

Depending on model servicing is a DIY doddle, most of it involves using a vacuum cleaner