Comparing yourself with the 'average'

reeac

I often wonder about these low efficiency figures quoted for old boilers. Our oil boiler is 19 years old and still returns efficiency figures in excess of 80 to 85 percent (depends whether you're talking gross or net) just as the manufacturers quoted when it was new. No doubt quoting low figures for old boilers boosts the sale of new boilers

CashStrapped

reeac wrote: »

Our oil boiler is 19 years old and still returns efficiency figures in excess of 80 to 85 percent (depends whether you're talking gross or net)

How are you calculating the current efficiency of the boiler?

Is it a condensing or non-condensing boiler?

SailorSam

I think i've had that type of thing and i'm a below average user. The house is well insulated, not just the loft & windows but i have cavity wall filling, and i'm here by myself. So some rooms the doors get closed and never used.

silverwhistle

Ha! Absolutely pointless as there are so many variables. If I told you my annual gas bill was £36 it wouldn't really help you. I get ever so slightly irritated about all the 'save £240 [or whatever] a year' adverts.

I should explain that I've got PV solar panels where the surplus heats the water for the summer 6/7 months. My last bill was nil, the previous £1.73, and I've almost done the first month of the next bill without using gas apart from a test of the system. There's a stove in the lounge too, and I had a small early season burn tonight: bits of kindling, pallet blocks, a few small sticks and one large block of chestnut from a batch which I wanted to test. (All scrounged incidentally.)

So use any average as an indicator that perhaps you can do better and start thinking about how you can do so. You'll know your own house and habits and it might be quite fun to see what you can achieve. Then you can spend the money saved on, in no particular order, paying down the mortgage, drinking better wine and a week's skiing holiday!

merchcon55

Re: one radiator only getting luke warm. As suggested, perhaps an issue with balancing. However, it is possible that you have an old one-pipe system. When you look at your radiator - is the hot water entering the radiator from the bottom or from the top?

If from the top, then it is a one pipe system, and it would indicate that the radiator in your lounge is the "last in the line".

If however you do have a two pipe system (one for hot water going into the radiator, the other for cooler water exiting the radiator, returning to the boiler) then it could be some pipe work is not quite right.

When we did an extension a few years ago and they added a radiator to the new room, it was getting warm, but not HOT. It turned out they needed to direct the pipework somewhat different, and viola - nice and hot !!

Good luck