Gas -best use of boiler ??

Yorkie1

james2012 wrote: »

I went on holiday for a week and turned off the gas at the meter.

I normally use about 17 kWh of gas a day for hot water and cooking.

I turned my gas on at 8 pm and by 1pm the next day I had used 35 kWh of gas.

So I used 35 kWh of gas in 15 hours, whereas leaving the gas on all day I use 17 kWh.

So it depends.

Try it and see

So you saved 17kWh for each of the 7 days you were away, then used 35 kWh in the first 24h after return to get yourself back to the position you'd have been in if you'd spent the 17kWh (less cooking) per day. I make that a net decrease in gas useage over the week.

Muhasib

Maybe digressing but is it also better to have the boiler on low instead of switched off and on as it is less likely to breakdown when you need it most in winter ?

HappyMJ

muhasib wrote: »

Maybe digressing but is it also better to have the boiler on low instead of switched off and on as it is less likely to breakdown when you need it most in winter ?

No...it's no more likely to break down in winter. Why would it be?

Muhasib

I thought most boiler callouts occurred when they got turned up with the first of the winter weather having not been used much for a few months?

Ben84

muhasib wrote: »

I thought most boiler callouts occurred when they got turned up with the first of the winter weather having not been used much for a few months?

I think the main problem people have is when they go to light the pilot flame after being off for a long time, only to find dust from the house has settled inside it (often pilot flames are close to floor level) and it won't light. However, if you have a gas boiler which has a setting to heat hot water only, I wouldn't turn it off for summer, it's probably the cheapest way to make hot water at any time of year.

madpiano

I was always wondering about this. I work shifts, so the 4 days I am home, I prefer to leave the water on 24 hrs, as I may use it all day, but when I am working a 12-hour shift, it seems silly. On the other hand the insulation on my hot water tank isn't brilliant, so it would most likely cool down completely from 9am - 6pm. So which one would be better?

What difference does it make to turn the boiler down? Isn't it just less efficient? What is the point of this dial on the boiler?

How do I know, if my boiler has a hot water only setting? Something is wrong on our system anyway, as the bathroom radiator comes on every time we make hot water, even in summer. Makes for a pretty hot bathroom, when we do get a hot day.

GlynD

As long as your hot tank is insulated switch the flipping thing off when you don't need it. The water will stay warm all day.

Ben84

madpiano wrote: »

I was always wondering about this. I work shifts, so the 4 days I am home, I prefer to leave the water on 24 hrs, as I may use it all day, but when I am working a 12-hour shift, it seems silly. On the other hand the insulation on my hot water tank isn't brilliant, so it would most likely cool down completely from 9am - 6pm. So which one would be better?

If you're not there to use it, then it saves gas to turn it off Leaving the water heating all day doesn't make your tank insulation any better, so if the energy remaining in the unused hot water when you go out would be lost by the evening, it will be lost regardless if your boiler is reheating it or not. Only difference is when you leave the boiler on it will be adding more heat, some of which will also be lost.

If you wanted, you can probably use the time switch to have the boiler make more hot water ready for when you get home in the evening. Just remember it when the clocks change, this always seems to get forgotten in our house and I think something is wrong with the hot water for a few days every time.

madpiano wrote: »

What difference does it make to turn the boiler down? Isn't it just less efficient? What is the point of this dial on the boiler?

The boiler thermostat sets the temperature of the water leaving the boiler. Turning it up reduces efficiency as the hotter water becomes the less readily heat transfers from the gas burner in to it. However, people use higher settings for good reasons, for example if your radiators are small it will make them heat the rooms better as hotter water also transfers its heat to the rooms quicker.

madpiano wrote: »

How do I know, if my boiler has a hot water only setting? Something is wrong on our system anyway, as the bathroom radiator comes on every time we make hot water, even in summer. Makes for a pretty hot bathroom, when we do get a hot day.

It's not so much your boiler that has a hot water only setting as the plumbing and controls attached to it. Your controls may be different to mine, but generally there's a 24 hour clock with usually four movable toggles and some switches that should allow you to set the boiler to off, heating and hot water or just hot water. What happens is there's a valve that either sends the boiler water through the radiators, or the hot water cylinder or opens for both so you can heat the hot water and radiators at the same time. This valve may be damaged and leaking some hot water in to the bathroom radiator, or maybe your system has been plumbed in so this radiator is actually attached to the hot water cylinder so you can turn it on when you have a bath? You'll have to investigate it with a plumber really, but in the meantime if the radiator has a valve you can just turn that off.

madpiano

ok, so....if I see this right on work days:

I have a shower at 5:30am, daughter may or may not have one at 7:30am (depending if she over sleeps or not)

She gets home from school at 16:30-ish, I get back from work at 20:30h. I definitley will need hot water at 20:30h (dishes etc), daughter I am not sure. Warm water will probably do to have a quick wash before sneaking out again (teenagers....).

So we need hot water from 5:30 - 7:30 and from 20:30h - 22:00h. Does seem very silly to have the hot water on all day and night for that.

Will give it a try and see how we go. Just need to figure out how long it takes to get hot water. Will start with an hour and adjust it from there and see if we can get this gas bill down....

Ben84

madpiano wrote: »

ok, so....if I see this right on work days:

I have a shower at 5:30am, daughter may or may not have one at 7:30am (depending if she over sleeps or not)

She gets home from school at 16:30-ish, I get back from work at 20:30h. I definitley will need hot water at 20:30h (dishes etc), daughter I am not sure. Warm water will probably do to have a quick wash before sneaking out again (teenagers....).

So we need hot water from 5:30 - 7:30 and from 20:30h - 22:00h. Does seem very silly to have the hot water on all day and night for that.

Will give it a try and see how we go. Just need to figure out how long it takes to get hot water. Will start with an hour and adjust it from there and see if we can get this gas bill down....

I completely forgot to mention insulation jackets for the tank earlier. My tank has some foam insulation, the original bare copper cylinder has thankfully been replaced, but it was a few years back and the foam insulation isn't as thick as modern tanks. I put a £10 jacket from a hardware store over it and performance has improved a lot, my hot water stays hot until I next use it. I can easily heat up a tank of water in the morning and take a bath in it in the late evening now. I also insulated the pipes attached to the tank because they're basically heat conducting copper rods that go right through the insulation layers and constantly conduct heat out. The pipe in the top of my tank was constantly too hot to touch, so the heat loss was significant.