New to Oil Central Heating - any tips?

7roland8

Hi -was on a multi fuel system but last weekend had it converted to an oil boiler outside (got it through the Welsh Assembly but had to pay a bit towards it.).

Have had timer installed and thermostat - plus all the radiators have valves.

I'm home all the time as is hubby (both unwell) but son off to uni and just needs water in morning.
At present I've just put water on for hr to heat the tank and have the heating on low (about 16 degrees) - not sure if its better to have it on low like this or blast the place with heat every so often and then turn it off?

Have got 500 ltrs in our tank but I want to be as economical at possible. Alos nt sure how much to budget for the next refill so will try and put away £20 a week for cover most of it.

Also electrician fitting stuff yesterday said he wasn't sure if the frost cut-in on the outside boiler was coming in at the right time and to 'keep an eye on it' - went over it a few times with him to see what I was supposed to watch - seems he thinks it mgiht be cutting in at a higher temp than the 5 degrees its supposed to.

Sorry for the waffle but its all new to me and I know hubby will go spare if he thinks we're wasting oil!

Ebe_Scrooge

In terms of how you use the boiler, the fact that it's oil fired is no different from any other boiler - if it's on for longer, it'll burn more fuel. So turning the thermostat down a degree or two will save fuel.

Being a relative newcomer to oil myself - have lived in an oil-fired house for 3 years now, never having come across it before - the main bit of advice I can give you is about filling up. In the time I've been here, I have paid from 32 pence per litre to 68 ppl, a huge difference.

Don't get tied into a single supplier by using a monthly direct debit, phone around every time time you need to fill up - you're doing the right thing by putting money aside each month. One supplier will be cheapest this time, another will be cheaper next time. Use the BoilerJuice website to give yourself a benchmark to start from, then phone round local companies. I have found BJ to be cheapest on one occasion, every other time they've been far more expensive ( see other threads on here about boilerjuice ! ).

Most suppliers will offer a cheaper ppl if you order more than 900 litres. With the price as it's been recently, we found we could only afford 500 at a time ( 500 is usually the minimum order ), but it's cheaper in the long run if you can order 900 or more.

The final piece of advice is don't wait until your tank is empty before ordering. The price changes daily, so give yourself a couple of weeks leeway. When you're about 2 or 3 weeks from needing a fill-up, phone around. Then phone around again in a couple of days to see what the prices are doing, and try and pick the right time to buy. It's a very inexact science, but even a difference of a penny a litre makes a fair saving on a 1000 litre order - well, £10 to be exact !


Hope this helps.

7roland8

Thanks very much - never heard of boilerjuice so will check them out. The tank came ready filled with 500lt so not had to source anyhting myself yet - but as you say I'd only top up with 500lts I think - but I will trya nd not leave it get low.
If its like petrol every time I pass our filling station its gone up a penny or two!

Ebe_Scrooge

Unfortunately the price is only going upwards at the moment - for the same reasons as petrol, ultimately the price of crude oil dictates all of our prices.

BoilerJuice - it was touted as a price comparison site, and aimed to negotiate discounts by arranging your delivery to coincide with when your neighbours ordered, so the delivery company saved on their costs and passed the savings on to you.

A brilliant idea in principal, however it turned out that BoilerJuice was not in fact independant, but was owned by an oil company.

That said, it costs nothing to get a quote from them - what I do is see what their price is, then phone around half a dozen local suppliers to see if they can beat it. More often than not they can, but BJ has been the cheapest very occasionally.

There's a useful thread here - quite long, but worth a browse :

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/27753

WhiteHorse

Be wary of Boilerjuice - their prices are often way over the top. Check out previous posts about them, particularly those made during the winter.