Using heating oil more economically?

falko89

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We got 300 litres of oil delivered today and don't know when I'll be able to buy more so want this to last as long as possible so have a few questions.

Firstly, in the outside boiler there is a dial, it goes from 1 to 5, It was set at 1, I switched it up to 4, what exactly does this dial do? I think it heats up quicker? But not sure, what should this be set at to make things last longer?

Also what about the thermostat in the house, what should it be at for the house just to be comfortable and how long would you run the heating for each night?

Cardew

The dial on the boiler regulates the temperature of the water in the Central heating system '1' being the lowest temperature and '5' the highest.


As you say at 4 it will heat up the radiators faster, but the air temperature in the various rooms is regulated by the wall thermostat and the TRVs(thermostatic radiator valves) on the radiators - if you have them fitted.


The temperature set on the thermostat depends where it is situated, and what temperature you want in the house - the lower the setting, the less oil you will use.


Most people want their living room to be around 20C, but some hardy souls can live with it being much lower.

[Deleted User]

If you are trying to eek it out then lower the thermostat e.g. from 21c to 18c.

forgotmyname

Its all going to be a personal thing. How cold can you have the house and still be comfortable?

If its an older house it may lose heat fairly rapidly. A newer one may retain the heat for some time after its switched off.

Do you like it warmer or colder when your asleep?

Our heating goes off 1/2 - 1 hour before we goto bed and doesnt come on until 1/2 hour before we get up. But its less than 20 years old and fairly well insulated.

Lowering the thermostat and sorting drafts will help lower the heating costs.

G_M

If you set the dial on the boiler at 1, it will heat the water to 'warm', not 'hot' or 'very hot'.

This in turn will mean your radiators will fill with 'warm' water. Thus they will never heat the room properly. So the room thermostat will constantly tell the boiler to supply more heat, thus the boiler will keep working, and use more oil!

On the other hand, set it at 5, and the boiler will heat the water very hot, which...... uses more oil!

Only trial and error will help you keep the boiler dial high enough to get the radiators hot but low enough to prevent the boiler heating the water excessively.

Once you have established the best setting for the boiler dial, the way to minimise oil use is by adjusting the room stat down, so warm enough to be comfortable but as low as possible - put a sweater on !

Also adjust the timer esp if you are out all day. Indeed, if you tend to get up, grab a coffee, and go out to work, maybe skip the morning heating completely and just use the boiler in the evening. All depends on your life-style.

kkgree1

We have oil heating too. Even in the winter, we only have the heating on for an hour each morning and two hours in the evening. We use the hour booster if we're feeling the cold during the day but this week we've only probably used 5 hours total per day. The thermostat on our combi is set at just over 3.

I think we are pretty frugal with oil as we've managed on one tank of 750 litres for the whole of 2013!