Oil heating system

sandp_3

Hi, I am renting a house with an oil central heating system which provides heat for room and well as hot water for bath. As it is summer now, I do not need room heat, only hot water for shower in the evenings (no electic heater for shower provided). The burner is very old (30 years or more I think) and guzzles oil but I cannot ask for a more efficient new one to be put in.
In order to minimise oil usage, I have at first turned all room radiators off. Now I have taken to turning the whole system off and firing it up a couple of hours before I need hot water. I turn the system off again at night.
Please advise if this practice is OK? Does the daily turning on and off in any way harm the system?
Help appreciated. This is the first time I had to deal with heaters!

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

Most CH systems have separate circuits with a control that allows CH(ie flow to radiators) to be switched off and just hot water to be supplied to tank. This is the normal way most people have their system set.

Just turning off the radiators is not the same as turning off CH.

It won't hurt to turn the system on and off as that is, in effect, what happens with all CH systems i.e. the boiler fires when there is a demand for either HW or CH.

However I an sure you are missing something on the controls.

sandp_3

Thanks Cardew.

You are right that the controls are missing segregation of CH and HW (or maybe I cannot find it!). It is old - 50 years actually, not 30! So I resort to turning the radiators off for summer.

Earlier in summer, I had the boiler/heater thermostat set at the minimum, then turn it higher before showers. But this means it till fires up in the middle day when I do not need hot water. Thus, I just turn everything off which includes the pilot. I then turn the switches on and start the pilot (pressing the red button) each evening 2 hours prior to shower time. This reduces oil consumption by about 70-80%!

My concern is that this daily restarting may damage the system in any way. Would this be OK?

Cardew

I wouldn't have thought it would have damaged anything.

Is there not some sort of switch on the boiler itself to turn of CH?

If you know the boiler make/model you can normally find out information by a 'Google'. Even on a 50 year old boiler.

Have you got an Immersion heater? I know you are renting, but it may be an option to look at using that with Economy 7? or even just using it on normal electricity during the summer.

I suspect a oil boiler as old as yours will be exptremely inefficient.

sandp_3

I do not see any sort of switch on the boiler to turn the CH off but will look again. In the basement, there are piping valves bringing hot water to the radiator which I can manually turn off, but I hesitate to do that as they look so old and in case I cause the valves to leak!

Am contemplating an electric water heater for shower for summertime, but plumbing and electical connections in the tiny bathroom is something I need to work out first. I am only renting for 2 more years.

If I find anything useful I shall post back here again for the benefit of anyone who may run into the same problem as me.

Thanks again for your advice.

motherhubbard

Hi
have you approached the landlord. you maybe entitled to a home energy grant which will save you some £'s and add to the value of his pocket !!!!
Hate renting private (done it for years) but grants are avail.

Hope this helps a little