Another first timer with heating oil advice please

albyota

The coil inside a standard hot water cylinder has a surface area of approximately (just under) 1 square metre, hot water (typically 70 -80 degrees) from the boiler flows around the coil, passing its heat across to the surrounding cooler water, the law of thermodynamics only allows heat to move to a cooler area, (if the thermostat on the hot water cylinder is set too high) and if the water in the cylinder is as hot as the water circulating through the coil there will be NO transfer....thus the hot water will flow back to the boiler...wasted journey. boiler stat notices the hot water, and shuts down the boiler, water in boiler cools, boiler stat notices cool water, boiler fires up again and sends more hot water to cylinder, if no water has been drawn off/or cooled down, water in cylinder is still hot, hot water flows from boiler through the coil again.....NO transfer.....Hot water goes back to boiler.....another wasted journey.......wasting money...lower the temperature on the cylinder to 60, set the time clock/programmer for the boiler to only heat the water when the cylinder has cooled sufficiently to accept the transfer. Only heat the amount of water you are likely to use in a day. 50-60 minutes is usually long enough to bring 180-200 Litres up to the temperature required for a family of four.

home-heating-oil

Hello..

Some good advice above. As you have radiator controls you should set these according to use. so the normal heat for a bedroom is around 18c which I guess will be between settings 3-4 on your rad. Occasional use rooms i.e. reception/dining rooms keep low and turn up before you plan to use it. Set these between 1-2 just enough to keep it dry and frost free.

Living room is where you will need most warmth so have that as high as you need it to be comfortable.

If you control room by room the main thermostat is pretty redundant so set it somewhere between 19 and 21. You may have to play around with it for a while to get the right balance. But let the radiator valves do the work.

The “always on” versus “off and on” for the heating system is a tricky one as logic would dictate that keeping a space warm is cheaper than heating it from cold. But the alternative argument is why burn fuel when no one needs it? I guess it comes down to life style. If you are at home all day you need the heat for circa 18 hours so you may as well leave it on. If you only needed for 1 hour in the morning and 6 hours in the evening you are probably better off programming the timer rather than leaving it on.

For me I have a semi detached, 3 bed, 3 reception rooms, grade 2 property.. single glazed!!! Kids under 3 so we keep the heating on all the time. We also have a wood burner in the sitting room. We go through around 2500ltr a year give or take. More last year though. We have to buy bottle gas as well for the oven another laborious task..

We have often thought about getting a multi fuel rayburn to help.. we have plenty of woods around us so logs would be free.. But life just gets in the way. The romantic idea of chopping wood bears no relation to the reality of it

Anyway compared to my mother who pays £97 per month to british gas, for gas prior to the 7% increase, we pay total butler £90 per month for a larger house. But buying oil is a shocker because you only pay 3 times a year so the amounts appear larger and it is all paid between Sept and March which again gives the impression of being more expensive.

We will probably save money when the kids are older as we can put them in thick wooly jumpers. But for now comfort versus discomfort is more important.

Wildpoppy40

Hi

We have a 1000 litre tank and live in a 4 bed detached. We only fill it around every 9 months. We have it on for hot water all year round for an hour in the morning and a couple in the evening and then for heating in winter for an hour in the morning and about 5 hours in the evening.

It cost us less than £450 a few weeks ago so we probably spend around £600 -£700 a year which I think is cheaper than gas.

thanks
Poppy

home-heating-oil

Don't get me started on Gas.. My Mother went back to BG based on their price promise... Previously I had moved her using that utility price compare site.. It makes me so cross they make promises for 10 months of the year and then stitch up their customer for the most important part of year.. Grrrrr

grey_lady

Thanks - I'll be checking the settings on the radiators later and cutting back on the amount of time hot water is heated. Not sure if it's possible to check/change the tempreture on the hot water cylinder but worth a look.

Hopefully the above will help us use less oil and keep the bills nearer the 2 fills a year than the 3.