Stick with oil or not??

malc_b

Cardew wrote: »

No it is not a sweeping statement!

In case you haven't noticed I wrote "Incidentally personally I would never replace an old working boiler." So that would be my view.

Well any view expressed here is a personal view

Cardew wrote: »

Incidentally I think your advice is questionable, in that 90% plus efficiencies are not achievable in practice.

So Sedbuk are wrong then? I would agree that is easy to run a condensing boiler so it doesn't condense but it this case it is likely that the OP has oversized rads so can run condensing more than not.

Cardew wrote: »

That a 20 year old boiler will have a higher efficiency than 50% to 60%.

That £300pa(30%) is a high estimate for savings.

I explained my assumptions. The OP needs to see how much oil he uses in a year, the efficiency of his current boiler, then he can come up with a more accurate figure, but given what he has said about using £600 in the last 5 months when we are only just past mid winter my guess was £400 for the remaining winter/spring.

In my personal view, never replacing something just because it is still working can be false economy. You have to look at the estimated savings vs the cost of replacement.

Cardew wrote: »

That the loss of interest on £3,000 - even in these days of very low interest rates - is around £100 a year; far more if you have to borrow the money.

That a 10 year payback, even if achievable, would not justify replacement.

Just my opinion you understand;)

Actually money on deposit these days is decreasing because the interest rate is less than inflation. If you assume oil goes up with the rate of inflation then your fuel cost savings increase over time where as the £3000 in the bank is actually falling in value.

And, unless the job is tricky, £3000 would seem to be about double what a replacement would cost (noting that another post said they were quoted £1700 for a boiler replacement).

Just pointing out options for the OP you understand;)

G_M

No one has mentioned electricity. Yup, I know! £££

But a close neighbour has just installed a mains water electric boiler for both heating and water. We have no gas and he was reluctant to install oil (which I have).

He loves it, but admits it's too soon as yet to know what the running costs are........

reeac

ilikecookies wrote: »

Hi florrie,



1) Replacing your old oil boiler with a modern condensing boiler. Conceivably if your old boiler is 20 years old it may be in the 50-60% efficiency range whilst a new one will be in the 85-95% range. This will save you a fair bit.

My 16 year old boiler always shows efficiencies of around 85% gross and 91-92% nett when it's serviced. When I had our place built I considered a condensing boiler but chose conventional instead as I thought that the claimed efficiency gain didn't justify the additional capital cost.

ilikecookies

G_M wrote: »

No one has mentioned electricity. Yup, I know! £££

But a close neighbour has just installed a mains water electric boiler for both heating and water. We have no gas and he was reluctant to install oil (which I have).

He loves it, but admits it's too soon as yet to know what the running costs are........

Yikes - I suspect he'll love it less when the bills come rolling in and he'll soon be round your place seeking refuge from the cold. Even if he had E7 the running costs will be close to double! I see the merit of using electric heaters to heat one room as and when needed but to heat your entire house with it by choice seems like madness!

gc_bus

ilikecookies wrote: »

Yikes - I suspect he'll love it less when the bills come rolling in and he'll soon be round your place seeking refuge from the cold. Even if he had E7 the running costs will be close to double! I see the merit of using electric heaters to heat one room as and when needed but to heat your entire house with it by choice seems like madness!

Our electric boiler central heating plus all other usage in our electric only 2/3 bed modern mid-terrace works out at an average £20 per week and no servicing costs either so for us it's a very good and safe (no fumes/tanks/CO2 etc etc) option. I can't stress enough though that insulation MUST be excellent.

bernithebiker

G_M wrote: »

No one has mentioned electricity. Yup, I know! £££

But a close neighbour has just installed a mains water electric boiler for both heating and water. We have no gas and he was reluctant to install oil (which I have).

He loves it, but admits it's too soon as yet to know what the running costs are........

Ouch. Above all, do NOT do this.

[Deleted User]

for water and heating last year (1/1 to 31?12) for a 2 bedroom home bottled lpg cost us £500 and the leccy was £300