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Anyone cutting back on the oil central heating usage?

13

Comments

  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,597 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    I’ve just picked up a pizza box from the same point. Anyone know any Paisleyites with a passion for pasta?
    Wow the Paisleyites really must really be out to get you to drive 30 miles just to dump pizza boxes.  :o

    Did they leave church flyers with it this time too?  Do you think thats like their calling card?

  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Maybe it’s some weird attempt to appeal
    for forgiveness.
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,597 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 16 April 2022 at 10:25AM
    Maybe it’s some weird attempt to appeal
    for forgiveness.
    Yes, i'd heard you were that important to them that they specifically needed your forgiveness.
  • Rodders53
    Rodders53 Posts: 2,538 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Though oil is no where as high a price as it was currently £416 for 500 litres at highest it was £669 for same,

    I also use a 1500 watt oil filled rad a lot to save on oil, that will work out about 30p an hour if I have both settings on, has to be cheaper than oil, usually then in evening we will treat ourselves to oil on.
    You get approximately 10 kWh out of a litre of kerosene ... So 8.32 p / kWh at the first price point, and 13.38 p/kWh at the peak price.

    As the same heat input is required to warm the room oil should be (is) cheaper. 

    Of course not quite that simple as oil CH will use some electric for pumps, flue fans and controls; plus they are only circa 90% efficient and there's some pipework heat losses.  But even allowing for that, kerosene is likely cheaper at current prices (provided you can get a refill when needed) and can heat the one room via your controls that you heat with the electric radiator (which isn't always that easy to do).

    I use an air to air heat pump in the shoulder season to heat a couple of rooms (or cool in the summer - comfort is worth the cost).  That can be as cheap as 7.5p/kWh heating {for 1kWh in you get 4kWh out), although 10p / kWh may be more realistic overall.  That means at current kerosene prices I'll be using them a lot more more (but I'm still burning kerosene from my tank bought at under 5p/kWh).
  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Some useful figures there, thank you. That observation about pipe work losses - I’ve often wondered about the waste involved in houses where the boiler is remote from the house. I know in many cases, the central heating was fitted long after the house was built, but often you’ll see quite new houses where  a fair proportion of the oil is effectively being used to heat a shed.
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,597 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Some useful figures there, thank you. That observation about pipe work losses - I’ve often wondered about the waste involved in houses where the boiler is remote from the house. I know in many cases, the central heating was fitted long after the house was built, but often you’ll see quite new houses where  a fair proportion of the oil is effectively being used to heat a shed.
    Modern boilers are well insulated so give off very little heat.

    The main loss in that instance would be between the boiler and the house, so someone could be heating their water to say 70 degrees for it maybe only to be 60 degrees when it hits their house.

    There are ways of mitigating this with different levels of thermal insulation pipes that could reduce that to a degree or two, but that would have been done at the time of install.  

    Its not unusual to be able to spot where the pipes are laid between a house and an outside boiler over the winter as the frost / snow is melted by the warmth along the track.


  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Surely a boiler is at least warm to touch, indicating a loss of heat to the environment which would be utilised were the boiler within the house? Heat loss via exhaust gases will be the same whether within or without the walls, but within, the flue will function as a kind of radiator. You’re right about the pipes, and you see the same effect on the roof of a boiler house.
    Similarly, back in the spectacular winters of 2010, my former neighbour’s garden shed roof never gathered any snow. I suspected specialized horticultural equipment as the cause.
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
  • RikM
    RikM Posts: 811 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts
    Surely a boiler is at least warm to touch, indicating a loss of heat to the environment which would be utilised were the boiler within the house? Heat loss via exhaust gases will be the same whether within or without the walls, but within, the flue will function as a kind of radiator. You’re right about the pipes, and you see the same effect on the roof of a boiler house.
    Similarly, back in the spectacular winters of 2010, my former neighbour’s garden shed roof never gathered any snow. I suspected specialized horticultural equipment as the cause.
    I'm told, that with a modern condensing boiler, the flue should be cool enough to touch. That certainly seems to be the case with ours.
  • motorguy
    motorguy Posts: 22,597 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Surely a boiler is at least warm to touch, indicating a loss of heat to the environment which would be utilised were the boiler within the house? Heat loss via exhaust gases will be the same whether within or without the walls, but within, the flue will function as a kind of radiator. You’re right about the pipes, and you see the same effect on the roof of a boiler house.
    Similarly, back in the spectacular winters of 2010, my former neighbour’s garden shed roof never gathered any snow. I suspected specialized horticultural equipment as the cause.
    As per Riks comment, no, they are usually quite cool to the touch.

    There would be a small element of heat comes out of them but not to the realms of "where  a fair proportion of the oil is effectively being used to heat a shed."

    A high efficicency condensing boiler is probably something like 99% efficient.  An older non condensing boiler would perhaps struggle to hit 90% - so thats where you'd see heat loss through the unit itself, etc.
  • qwert_yuiop
    qwert_yuiop Posts: 3,617 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts
    Wastage level of 10% plus pipe losses seems a fair proportion in terms of cost at today’s prices. As you said at the start, turn the thing off. As hard core money savers, most people
    on here have probably doing that for years.
    “What means that trump?” Timon of Athens by William Shakespeare
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