£180 a year pilot light !!

Leon_W

This board has been very informative about what appliances consume in energy so thought you'd like to hear my horror story !

We have a 1985 Gas Rayburn Nouvelle range which does the cooking, hot water and heating in a 3 bed detached house. We do love it, but it has really outstayed its welcome and it has to go !

I've worked everything out at the Oct gas price cap of 15p and monitored consumption via my smartmeter.

The cooker pilot light stays on all the time and would cost £180 per year just to keep lit !  If I were to run it as Rayburn intended the burner would be set to "low" all year round, 365 days a year, enough to cook a casserole over a long period of time, and heat a small gravity fed hot water tank enough for the day. This alone would now cost £3600 per year to do. Cooking anything like a roast would require turning up to "medium" or "high" many more ££££££ !!!!! Now, I don't have to tell you we haven't run it like this recently !  The pilot light would stay on, but we'd turn the burner off when we could in the summer and heat water with an immersion enough for a few showers a day and only turn it up when cooking. The kitchen would also get too hot in the summer...........but that's not all......

........it also does the heating !  Which means lighting the other pilot light ( say £70 as it's only lit in the winter) plus requirements for heating the house. This would roughly work out to an additional £4800 . To say it is inefficient is an understatement !   

It's a bit like losing a member of the family, but enough is enough. We have a new condensing combi and a conventional cooker coming next week !

victor2

That's something like 3kWh per day. Our old gas boiler was using 4.6 kWh per day for its pilot light. Replaced it last year and immediately saw a saving. It does put things that we've always taken for granted into a new light!

Not sure where your "This would roughly work out to an additional £4800" comes from though.

sandy700

That is like my old gas warm air heating, it had 2 pilot lights one for heating and the other for hot water, 5kWh and 3kWh.a day

Now I'm glad I installed a combi and radiators 5 years ago.

QrizB

My parents had a solid-fuel Rayburn in their previous house. A lovely kitchen feature and the only heat source in winter but not exactly hands-off.

Their new house has a gas combi and they appreciate the change.

PennineAcute

sandy700 said:

That is like my old gas warm air heating, it had 2 pilot lights one for heating and the other for hot water, 5kWh and 3kWh.

Now I'm glad I installed a combi and radiators 5 years ago.

As a child, we had warm air heating.  I always remember going to my friends' houses and looking at their radiators and thinking what are these?

I have never been in a position to buy a house, and so have always rented.  I never remember being cold as a child (maybe my parents spoilt me and my two brothers) and the heating was on around 18 - 20.  I do not feel the same warmth at this temperature with radiators - but that could just mean I am getting older and feel the cold more.

Leon_W

Yes Victor, I worked out the pilot light was 3kwh per day. Ridiculous !

Not sure where your "This would roughly work out to an additional £4800" comes from though.

It also runs 6 radiators so this was my estimate of the additional cost of gas for heating requirements during the winter months over and above cooking and hot water requirements. 

It has been costing us an arm and a leg for years to be honest but recent price rises have given us the kick up the bum needed to actively do something.  I've just actually just come back from Toolstation as i've replaced 8 x 60w kitchen bulbs with 8 x 6w LED equivalents, so i'm on a mission !

Ahhh, warm air heating !  As a child i'd lie on the floor with my feet on the grille just to keep them warm, the rest of the house was freezing !
, 

victor2

Ah, I see. But there'll still be a (much lower) heating cost with the combi.
I remember the good old days when I slept in the attic with a hot water bottle and heavy blankets that prevented you moving! Only heat source was the coal fire two floors down. Did enjoy getting coal from the cellar though! 

Leon_W

Yes Victor, I'm looking forward to the combi !   With the Rayburn on we were heating tanks of water we wouldn't use as all the kids have left home and we only took a shower a day. What a waste !

At Christmas, when cooking all day, I had to drain the hot water tank down the sink as the water was practically at boiling point ! Another great waste.

Hot water, just on demand, sounds like a much better option 

michaels

PennineAcute said:

sandy700 said:

That is like my old gas warm air heating, it had 2 pilot lights one for heating and the other for hot water, 5kWh and 3kWh.

Now I'm glad I installed a combi and radiators 5 years ago.

As a child, we had warm air heating.  I always remember going to my friends' houses and looking at their radiators and thinking what are these?

I have never been in a position to buy a house, and so have always rented.  I never remember being cold as a child (maybe my parents spoilt me and my two brothers) and the heating was on around 18 - 20.  I do not feel the same warmth at this temperature with radiators - but that could just mean I am getting older and feel the cold more.

Only house I have spent much time in with warm air heating, you always felt like you were sitting in a draught even if it was not a cold one, it still felt colder.