Oil heating or immersion heating for water

Thefunkygibbons

I have a large house with us plus 5 kids

We use oil for heating and water

However, I am wondering whether using the immersion for water heating would be cheaper than oil

Can hints on the maths of this or links to tools to help?

Gorgeous_George

There are lot of variables taht make the maths nigh on impossible. The length of piping from the oil burner to the tan is just one.

Why not set the immersion heater to heat the water every night for a week and measure the units used. Then do the same with the oil system for a week. Not exactly scientific but removes a lot of the variables (though introducing others such as thermostat settings, water temp in the tank at switch on, ambient temperature etc.

With a larger family it will be easier to justify special water saving showers, taps, baths etc or even solar panels to heat the water.



GG

Debt_Free_Chick

I agree that it's impossible to do a comparison. So much depends on the relative efficiency of your oil boiler vs the immersion heater.

You don't have an Aga or rayburn do you? It's just that, with the Aga, as it's "always on", it will provide hot water anyway (provided you have a water jacket in the Aga, which is common on post 1974 versions).

As for solar panels, for an initial outlay of more than £2,000 (typically) it will take forever to claw back the cost via typical weekly water usage

Thefunkygibbons

It was worth asking I guess

The boiler is less than a year old so should be efficient, it is also big enough to match the house size

The main issue with tracking oil use is that with such a large tank, the usage would be very diificult to gauge properly

If it is marginal, not worth the trouble unless there is a clear distinction either way

penrhyn

Do do do you have economy 7? If so then heating the water at night would probably be cheaper than using oil especially in the summer when the Ch is off.
I lagged my insulated tank with a secondary jacket to conserve the hot water during the day.

littlereddevil

i find I am cheaper using oil rather than the immersion although oil is getting very expensive

Cardew

Oil costs roughly 4 pence per kWh.

Your immersion heater will cost whatever the utility company charge for a unit of electricity. Certainly it will be cheaper if you have Economy 7 but on a normal tariff will cost about double that of oil.

However with a large family it is probable that you will quickly use all your 'cheap' water if you have E7.