Pilot light costing 4 a month, is this right?

matelodave

So you saved approx £30 a year. How much did the boiler replacement set you back.

Fair enough if the boiler was kaput and not repairable but even if it cost £1500 that's a 50 year pay-back - OK I might be exaggerating because you might save another £100 a year in increased efficiency that's still 11 years or so before you are in profit

victor2

jbuchanangb wrote: »

Last year when I had a boiler with a pilot light, the pilot light accounted for about 3kwh per day or 95 per month. That cost me about £2.50 exc VAT per month. Boiler was 24 years old and I replaced it this year. In August I used no gas at all.

What heats your water then?
Surely if you were replacing a boiler that did heating only, it would have been worth investing in one that also provided hot water?

jbuchanangb

Of course the change of boiler was not cheap, and the pay back period is probably quite long, but now the boiler is not in the kitchen, it is in the loft, and it is a new efficient boiler so I will be paying less for my energy consumption.

I think you are probably right in saying £100 per year, and the payback period may be 20 years, but that is not the only consideration in these decisions.

The OP on this thread wondered about how much a pilot light costs to run, and so I provided my information to assist.

jbuchanangb

In August my hot water was heated by solar panels, which is why no gas was consumed.

matelodave

I'd guess that stuff on standby, mobile phone chargers, computers etc and lights left on needlessly together with other wasteful practices like running the hot tap until it gets hot and rinsing in hot wate, running washing machines, tumble dyers and dishwashers with partial loads uses much more energy over a year than a pilot light

polymaff

Just how many boilers do have pilots nowadays? My 14-year old Potterton Kingfisher - and not a new design then - has a spark igniter.

BTW, the figures being quoted here make all those electrically powered items on "standby" look pretty trivial.

Except, perhaps, the boiler's own electronics?

ChaunceyGardiner

badmemory wrote: »

I find it interesting that they are always very keen to point out how much savings you will make by not having these pilot lights but neglect to warn that it will take about 10 years with the new boiler saving to install a new radiator etc to compensate for the loss of the heat from the boiler & by then the new boiler, which won't last anywhere near as long as the old, will need replacing.

Very true. However, if you rent, as I do, it's somewhat less clear cut. My landlord sweats his asset while I have to run a boiler that was only 65% efficient when new, circa 1988. Worse still, the system is gravity-fed; not even C Plan. Bah.

C_Mababejive

I have a pilot light on my CNB and i will not be changing it. All the energy from the pilot is not lost since the boiler lives in the house. The pilot helps to pre-heat the cast iron heat exchanger,any heat that exits goes up the conventional flue which travels inside the house. Its a small price to pay to avoid the expensive complexity of a modern high (combustion) efficiency boiler.

silverwhistle

victor2 wrote: »

The pilot light on my (ageing but reliable) boiler uses between 4 and 5 kWh of gas per day.

Really? Crikey! At 4kWh and my Ebico unit rate that would be more than twice what I pay in a _year_.

It does help having solar panels, a wood burner and a pilotless boiler. :-)

victor2

silverwhistle wrote: »

victor2 wrote: »

The pilot light on my (ageing but reliable) boiler uses between 4 and 5 kWh of gas per day.

Really? Crikey! At 4kWh and my Ebico unit rate that would be more than twice what I pay in a _year_.

It does help having solar panels, a wood burner and a pilotless boiler. :-)

Yes, but as others have commented, replacing the non-condensing boiler with a condensing one would mean the existing flue running up the middle of the house cannot be used, the boiler would have to be relocated, from its floor standing position in a utility room which has no outside walls, to a wall with easy access for a flue, new drainage would have to be plumbed in and we'd have to put a radiator in the utility room as the present boiler gives out enough heat for it to be used for drying clothes in.
Boiler is 20+ years old, costs me less than £50 for an annual service and as long as it keeps running, there's absolutely no value in replacing it.
On my existing tariff, the pilot light will cost me about £113 per year (ignoring the standing charge). Wouldn't pay for much of a new boiler installation.