How much is your pilot light costing you?

WobblyDog

Is there some kind of anti-frost feature on your boiler that causes it to fire up periodically? Perhaps it is over-sensitive.

My elderly non-condensing gas boiler has been spontaneously starting and running for a few minutes during the recent very cold weather.

4legsbetter

That's a good theory Wobblydog.

So, I'm only wasting all this gas and money when it's really cold - I wish!

forgotmyname

My boiler has the pilot light on 24/7. In the summer the bill is barely into double figures, And thats with the hot water set to twice a day 6am-9am and 6pm-11pm.

So 24 hours of pilot light and 8 hours of heating the hotwater is barely into double figures the bill has never been above £12. Some of that maybe heating if it got cold or we put the heating on to make sure its working.

£15 a month for the light seems very excessive. Got a leak?

ollski

Sorry I missed the conventional system part, you won't have preheat.

macman

abakewelltart wrote: »

That's a good theory Wobblydog.

So, I'm only wasting all this gas and money when it's really cold - I wish!

This will only apply at about 5C (usually the default temp setting) and if your boiler or programmer has a frost 'stat fitted.

4legsbetter

I'm still waiting for plumber to contact me after leaving a message yesterday . . .

4legsbetter

Here's the update then.

When I examined the froststat, I found that it clicked on when I turned the dial, even though the temperature was about 12 degrees in the garage, as indicated by a digital device.

So, suspecting the frost thermostat to be faulty, I replaced it with one which happened to be fixed at 5 degrees, unlike the original, which was adjustable.

So, you can imagine my surprise when I again "caught" the boiler coming on again, for no good reason - the temperature would have been 12 degrees or so.

I'm now wondering whether to do away with a froststat altogether to see if that cures the problem - I'm too tight to have the boiler coming on, albeit, briefly, to guard against a non existent frost threat.

Can I therefore ask how I would do this - there is just a single cable to the thermostat.

ollski

A frost stat should always be linked into a pipe stat on the return pipe which cuts the frost stat out when the pipe reaches a set temperature. If not the system will run constantly when the frost stat cuts in (usually 5 deg). It's also quite easy to wire your frost stat the wrong way round so it cuts in when the temp exceeds what it's set to!

lithopsian

My pilot light on my previous boiler used to run about 0.25 cubic m a day. This works out to about 10p/day or three quid a month. My current boiler uses a big fat zero.

As others have said, replacing a boiler solely to save money is not a good investment. If you have a couple of grand burning a hole in your pocket then there are better ways to spend it, unless you have a large home you keep very warm, or perhaps a large family who all take long showers every day. Once a boiler starts to get cranky and needs regular money spending on it then you should consider replacing it. Expect to reduce your gas bill by around 30% by replacing a pilot-light-era boiler with a new one.