Cheapest way to run an Oil boiler?

liamsmum

I have an oil boiler to heat the radiators in my house and water. I wondered what the most economical way to run this was?

Should I have the water heating at the same time as it is running to heat the radiators?
If I turn off/down a few radiators in my house does this reduce the amount of oil I use or if the boiler is running does it use the same amount of oil no matter how many radiators it is heating?
Should I heat the water off the electric instead?

These are prob really stupid questions but any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

crazyguy

All I do is turn down the radiators in un used rooms and as for the water I would leave it on as you wont have to turn the imersion heater on as the water will be warm from the heating,

G_M

The fact that it uses oil as opposed to gas (or wood or whatever) makes no difference. It's just a different fuel.

Yes, the smaller the number of rads being heated, the less fuel needed. That's why Building Regulations now require most new rads to have individual termostats fitted, so you can turn down (effectively 'off' when they reach temperature) unused rooms. Manually turning off rads in rooms you don't need has the same effect.

If you heat up water from scratch it takes more fuel. If the boiler is already hot for the central heating, then heating the water uses less fuel. So do both at once.

Personally, in summer when the central heating is off I use the electric emmersion heater for hot water, rather than firing up the boiler. However it is very hard to calculate which is cheaper. Depends on your electric tariff. On the price you paid for oil. On the size of your hot water tank. How much hot water you use. Whether you need to heat it once a day? Twice a day?

Personally, I have treble insulated my hot water cylinder, I live alone and just use how water for showers, so I only heat the water every 2 or 3 days. Yes, it stays warm enough in summer for that long!

In winter I use the boiler for both heating and hot water.

farthing71

You can have both on at the same time but if you just have the hot water on for say 2 hours in the winter from say 6.00am to 8.00am and if you set the central heating to come on at the same time the hot water will take longer to heat up than if you did not have the central heating on but if you have them both on for longer periods it will not make any difference. Turning off the radiators does not always help as the boiler will work harder if house temp is set on a thermostat as the heat will spread out. It's always best to have all radiators on. Hope this helps

G_M

farthing71 wrote: »

You can have both on at the same time but if you just have the hot water on for say 2 hours in the winter from say 6.00am to 8.00am and if you set the central heating to come on at the same time the hot water will take longer to heat up than if you did not have the central heating on but if you have them both on for longer periods it will not make any difference. Turning off the radiators does not always help as the boiler will work harder if house temp is set on a thermostat as the heat will spread out. It's always best to have all radiators on. Hope this helps

Not if you close off those rooms so that the heat from elsewhere does not spread into them. A door sausage helps!

TiredGeek

Yes, shutting unused rooms and turning off the heat lowers your heating bills, a bit. But it also encourages damp which could lead to rot and structural damage. Those cold rooms will condense any water out of the air in the house. Spend your money a bit at a time heating rooms you're not using, or spend it in one big go fixing problems
I think it's best to run the heating for a couple of hours in the morning and a few in the evening in all the rooms, try turning the thermostat down a little, or the water temp setting on the boiler down a touch and see what that does to the bills.
Or you could turn the rads off in the unused rooms and open the doors while you're not in to let them breathe, but that has the effect of cooling the rest of the house down faster...