Replacing AGA - heating options?

grahamc2003

As an interim step, you could do what we did when our oil fired aga started costing more than the eu debt to fuel, and that was to trun the temperature down. Instead of the temp guage on the front reading close to it's 'normal' position (which is pretty hot imv), set the temp down so it just hovers around wher the black bit turns silver. Of course, the oven temps will drop, but the missus coped with that with a bit of trial and error. The hot oven and hot hob are still hot - it just means you'd no longer have enough stored heat to be able to cook a meal for about 50. You'd chop a lot off your gas consumption, probably around 30/40%.

laxeylady

Cheers again for the input. We are on mains gas jeepjunkie. Macman how could I find out how much electricity my washer/dishwasher uses? I could then read meter in morning and see how much its changed. Will it be in the instructions? Will look them out. Graham - I will tell hubby to try this. The roasting oven is usually too hot anyway. How will this affect my hot water - will it just take longer to get it hot? (I sound dumb I know!). Pincher - no way would we be undertaking anything like that! Back to the drawing board on that one!!

gratefulforhelp_2

grahamc2003 wrote: »

As an interim step, you could do what we did when our oil fired aga started costing more than the eu debt to fuel, and that was to trun the temperature down. Instead of the temp guage on the front reading close to it's 'normal' position (which is pretty hot imv), set the temp down so it just hovers around wher the black bit turns silver. Of course, the oven temps will drop, but the missus coped with that with a bit of trial and error. The hot oven and hot hob are still hot - it just means you'd no longer have enough stored heat to be able to cook a meal for about 50. You'd chop a lot off your gas consumption, probably around 30/40%.

We turn it down to 3 ish May-October and then up to 5 for Winter. You get used to cooking times, but you have to keep up service intervals as it gets coked up quicker (ours is oil).

Alternatively, could you convert your aga to solid fuel?

grahamc2003

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

We turn it down to 3 ish May-October and then up to 5 for Winter. You get used to cooking times, but you have to keep up service intervals as it gets coked up quicker (ours is oil).

Alternatively, could you convert your aga to solid fuel?

I looked into converting ours, but I don't think it's possible to go from oil to solid fuel - not sure why that is.

As to servicing - I got peed off when the last service took about 15 minutes in total and cost me £80 about 8 years ago. It really is a doddle to service, all you need is a new wick every year. You can either buy one 'ready made' online (or from aga shoips I suppose), or simply buy the wick material and make tour own. The 'ready made' ones are just cut to the right length - the oil channel semi-circles have to be cut out by yourself, so not so 'ready made' after all. Anyhow, just lift off the hot hotplate (after turning it off 24 hours before!), reach down to the set of wick holders and pull them out, then pull the base out, take out the old wick, scrape the grunged up oil channels witrh a scredriver then do the reverse. You can buy detailed instructions online for about £30, but the above should do (if there are no problems with anything else, but it seems bomb-proof to me).

undaunted

grahamc2003 wrote: »

I looked into converting ours, but I don't think it's possible to go from oil to solid fuel - not sure why that is.

I think it can be done on at least some models - try the link below for info. "Solid Fuel conversions from originally OIL or Gas or Electric Cookers.Yes for certain OIL and GAS Rayburns ( new out Aug 2011) Contact me for details"


http://www.tradcookers.com/fuel_conversions.htm