Oil central heating and water

dennie31

Hi new to this but hope for some help for our friends.

At the start of Dec 2013 our friends rented a house in Norfolk, which they are happy with apart from the heating, which I don't understand as am on gas. They put in 1000ltrs which has gone in approx. 8 weeks. They are conservative with the use and also use a coal fire. The house is old, dble glazing but no insulation, detached, 4 bedrooms. A new boiler had been fitted by the owners which is just under a commercial size due to the amount of rads that had also been added.

Because of the difference in the EPD when they rented it they spoke to the agent, he's very helpful, who had an engineer sent to the property. His comments and report are as follows, the boiler was jet was 36kw and should be at 26kw, so changed it , also the thermostat is not registering correctly and has suggested it be changed.

I have no idea what the running cost of this house should be approx. say per month with 4 people living there or if there is any recourse via the landlords. Any help or advice anybody can offer would be greatly received.

suki1964

Tbh I got through 1000 litres in dec and jan, and that's only having the heating on for four to six hours a day, and that's in a well insulated house

StevenMarks

I have a large 4 bedroom house on oil range (Rayburn 480KB which is reputed to be very bad efficiency wise).

I put in 700litres of oil in October and figure I've used half of it; I have a woodburner in lounge which provides heat. I tend to only use the oil to take the edge off and then let woodburner provide the rest of the heat.

I do like temperatures somewhat lower than most.

reeac

dennie31 wrote: »

Hi new to this but hope for some help for our friends.

At the start of Dec 2013 our friends rented a house in Norfolk, which they are happy with apart from the heating, which I don't understand as am on gas. They put in 1000ltrs which has gone in approx. 8 weeks. They are conservative with the use and also use a coal fire. The house is old, dble glazing but no insulation, detached, 4 bedrooms. A new boiler had been fitted by the owners which is just under a commercial size due to the amount o Any help or advice anybody can offer would be greatly received.

A consumption of 500l./Winter month sounds high to me. We use around 2000l. p.a. for all heating plus hot water for a modern 3 brm. detached bungalow and I think that comprises 200-240 l./ Winter month plus maybe 50l./Summer month. Maybe it's down to the "no insulation" in your friends' house.

Cardew

dennie31 wrote: »

which I don't understand as am on gas. They put in 1000ltrs which has gone in approx. 8 weeks. They are conservative with the use and also use a coal fire. The house is old, dble glazing but no insulation, detached, 4 bedrooms. A new boiler had been fitted by the owners which is just under a commercial size due to the amount of rads that had also been added.

Welcome to the forum.


1,000 litres is approx. 10,000kWh and will cost around £600.


So £300 a month is high, especially with a new and efficient boiler. As oil costs about 50% more than gas, to put it in perspective, even with gas it would be costing around £200 a month - and this has been an exceptionally mild winter.


If they are conservative with their use and also have a coal fire, it will be the poor insulation that will be the culprit.

Robwiz

We have a four bedroom house, which was poorly insulated. Over the winter 2012 quarter we used 6000 kWh (of gas) per month with a 79% efficient boiler.

After fitting triple glazing and draughtproofing all doors we reduced our gas consumption to 4500 kWh per month, so I would say their oil burn is consistent with conservative heating in a poorly insulated house.

I have found (through an unfortunate system breakdown) that heating the bedrooms for one hour in the morning with central heating, using the immersion heater for hot water and heating downstairs with a wood burning stove (plus a small electric heater in the kitchen) is saving a net 40 kWh per day. (Gas usage only 20 kWh for one hour's heating, around 70-80 kWh of wood briquettes burnt per day and electricity consumption up 6-8 kWh per day). Wood briquettes cost about the same as gas at 5.2p/kWh (Verdo briquettes from Home Bargains).

My conclusion is that, for a larger house with long pipe runs, heating the hot water with gas may be more expensive than electricity (due to losses heating up the copper and water in the pipe runs) and heating empty upstairs rooms in the evenings is an unnecessary waste.