Some advice on oil central heating!

ReflexReaction

jeepjunkie wrote: »

Hi,

I'm being serious about x10 if you like a warm house and treat it like GCH.

A mate moved from a three bed modern detached with GSH apprx £50pm and moved to a large 4 bed modern detached which can cost up to £500pm on oil in the last bad winters...

Indeed when I had oil in a large detached 5 bed house near Bristol I could empty a tank in a month during a mild winter. I like a warm house @ say 20c.

I've also had LPG which is frankly worse due to unfair contracts and high prices.

With reneawables I have a warm house 24/7 without high bills or organising deliveries and all that nonsence...

All the best.

What renewables do you use and how much did they cost to fit? £500 is worrying - I'd rather move out!

lovesgshp

ReflexReaction wrote: »

About 200 sq mtrs.

I'd be more concerned about the electricity bill

You would probably be looking at a 11Kw output unit if insulation is good, max 14Kw. I have a 11Kw pump in a low insulation house 250 years old and stone built. Electric use for everything is circa 10000Kwh per year.

Cardew

ReflexReaction wrote: »

I’ve got to ask – what do you mean by “putting the stoves in”? Do you mean you put log burners into the living room? If so, are they stand alone or are they connected to the heating system? The house I’m moving to has a stand alone log burner in the living room – not connected to the heating system, however I guess there’s a possibility I could get it connected to the central heating so when it’s in use, there is no need for the oil boiler to be on.

I’m also interested in how you manage to control individual rooms temps as you suggest. Do you have multiple thermostats, one in each room? Does that mean the boiler is clever enough to pump hot water to only certain parts of the house? I doubt the house I’m buying will have the ability to do this, but I will find out. If it doesn’t, is this a system that relatively easy to install? I plan to turn off radiators in rooms not used, but it would certainly be nice to control the different temps in different rooms I do use – specially as heat rises so I doubt I’ll need to keep up stairs as hot!

You haven't mention your 'lifestyle' i.e. house occupied all day or occupants out at work/school.

I would have thought 30,000 to 40,000kWh would be a ballpark figure(3,000 to 4,000 litres)

Incorporating wood burning stoves into a CH system is not easy(or cheap) - unless done properly it is dangerous. Look up Dunsley Neutralizer. I have a similar system and I am having it removed - more trouble than it is worth for my property.

Larger modern properties can have heating systems zoned and thus the temperatures and timings in the zones individually controlled. Not an easy task to retrofit.

Using TRVs in the various rooms works well if people are diligent enough to turn off radiators in rooms not in use - amazing how many people on MSE think that is an arduous task.

Others think rooms must be heated to prevent damp - which is not true!

ReflexReaction

Cardew wrote: »

You haven't mention your 'lifestyle' i.e. house occupied all day or occupants out at work/school.

I would have thought 30,000 to 40,000kWh would be a ballpark figure(3,000 to 4,000 litres)

Incorporating wood burning stoves into a CH system is not easy(or cheap) - unless done properly it is dangerous. Look up Dunsley Neutralizer. I have a similar system and I am having it removed - more trouble than it is worth for my property.

Larger modern properties can have heating systems zoned and thus the temperatures and timings in the zones individually controlled. Not an easy task to retrofit.

Using TRVs in the various rooms works well if people are diligent enough to turn off radiators in rooms not in use - amazing how many people on MSE think that is an arduous task.

Others think rooms must be heated to prevent damp - which is not true!

A very fair point! We are both out from about 8am until 5pm Mon - Thursday, completely unoccupied (except for the cats hehe). It will be fully occupied all day 3 days a week (Fri-Sun).

I have TRVs on my current property and have found they leak - I suspect there are better TRVs out there but I've never really met someone who's had success, surely the rads heat up the area of the valve more quickly than the rest of the room

Your estimate of 3000-4000 litres I guess would be manageable for us, any more and I'd have to think about alternative sources, such as solar panels or GSHP...

DEREKALC

Hi. there,
I think I may be able to help you with info but it will be you to decide.

You say the boiler you have is a Worcester /Danemore I think you should call Worcester/Bosch on 08457-256206 or 01905-754624 and check when they changed their name, we purchased a Worcester/Bosch 20/25 the same size boiler as you state in 1994
It sounds like your house is a fair bit larger than ours but I would very much doubt the figure you quoted for oil used, we can quite easily go through 4/5000 ltrs per year with a temperature setting around 20/21c we have 14 radiators in total and none of them ever get turned off, the heating is either on or off, we also use it for domestic hot water as it is a Combi as I think you stated yours is. There are only two us in the house for the last 7 years and we mainly shower these days as against useing the bath.
We also have a wood burning stove, we used to have a Calor gas fire before that and before that we had an open fire, the gas fire was a laugh it you could manage to light it laying flat on your stomach on the lounge floor, so that came out at my wifes request and in went the wood burner for room heat only no central heating from it, we should have saved ourselves the money, £400 for the gas fire and £1400 for the wood burner, the open fire was the best and without a doubt the cheapest to run and I could toast my bread on it!

You memntion Septic tanks, we had that also before going on to the main sewer, no problem really if you maintain it i.e. get it emptied as required.

Hope this may be of use to you.

This is my first time also leaving a message here.

Regards

Derek

ReflexReaction

DEREKALC wrote: »

Hi. there,
I think I may be able to help you with info but it will be you to decide.

You say the boiler you have is a Worcester /Danemore I think you should call Worcester/Bosch on 08457-256206 or 01905-754624 and check when they changed their name, we purchased a Worcester/Bosch 20/25 the same size boiler as you state in 1994
It sounds like your house is a fair bit larger than ours but I would very much doubt the figure you quoted for oil used, we can quite easily go through 4/5000 ltrs per year with a temperature setting around 20/21c we have 14 radiators in total and none of them ever get turned off, the heating is either on or off, we also use it for domestic hot water as it is a Combi as I think you stated yours is. There are only two us in the house for the last 7 years and we mainly shower these days as against useing the bath.
We also have a wood burning stove, we used to have a Calor gas fire before that and before that we had an open fire, the gas fire was a laugh it you could manage to light it laying flat on your stomach on the lounge floor, so that came out at my wifes request and in went the wood burner for room heat only no central heating from it, we should have saved ourselves the money, £400 for the gas fire and £1400 for the wood burner, the open fire was the best and without a doubt the cheapest to run and I could toast my bread on it!

You memntion Septic tanks, we had that also before going on to the main sewer, no problem really if you maintain it i.e. get it emptied as required.

Hope this may be of use to you.

This is my first time also leaving a message here.

Regards

Derek

Hi Darek, thanks for your reply. I guess it's possible the owners have quoted the old model of boiler, the one that they had before they upgraded the house. The boiler was apparently discontinued in 2007, so it sounds like they were made for a very long time. I'll definitely give them a call to find out if that boiler is suitable for a 5 bed detached house, although the owners upgraded it BECAUSE the house was getting extended, so I would be very surprised if it wasn't sufficient!

bobthedambuilder

Our property is 300sqm, pretty well insulated (recent refurb), 14 rads + 3 rooms underfloor + hot water, 26/36 boiler and uses about 3000-4000 litres of oil per year. We use a woodburning stove in the living areas during really cold spells (the heating would deal with it, but it's just nice to have the stove on).

ReflexReaction

bobthedambuilder wrote: »

Our property is 300sqm, pretty well insulated (recent refurb), 14 rads + 3 rooms underfloor + hot water, 26/36 boiler and uses about 3000-4000 litres of oil per year. We use a woodburning stove in the living areas during really cold spells (the heating would deal with it, but it's just nice to have the stove on).

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I've worked out my place is about 200-250sq meters so I think 2500-3000 is probably quite likely.

When it's really cold, do you just turn the heating off and use the wood burning stove alone in the living area(s)? And where do you live? Rural remote scotland or someone more warm ? :beer:

bobthedambuilder

ReflexReaction wrote: »

That's interesting, thanks for sharing. I've worked out my place is about 200-250sq meters so I think 2500-3000 is probably quite likely.

When it's really cold, do you just turn the heating off and use the wood burning stove alone in the living area(s)? And where do you live? Rural remote scotland or someone more warm ? :beer:

We turn the heating off in the rooms where and when the stove is on - the rest of the house stays on. We live in rural Cheshire - a good bit colder than the cities, but not arctic. There's no heating at all needed, only hot water, between about mid-April and mid-October.

Berwynview

Hi
We live in a 5 bedroomed rambling old welsh farmhouse with an ancient oil-fired CH boiler. We used to use at least 4000l of oil a year but have now got that down to about 500l, as we've now got log burners in the living rooms and a wood-fired cooker (which is also linked into the CH & heats the HW & "airs" a few of the upstairs radiators). We tend to use the oil boiler for about an hour in the morning & 2 hours in the evening from about October to April, depending on the weather.