Accurately monitor boiler oil consumption
Discussion
having been previously baffled by my boilers unquenchable thirst for oil I decided to set up a monitoring system that, along with electronic thermometers on the return and water tank with the aim of reducing our use.
1). Buy a wireless energy monitor (we have an owl)
2) open your boiler and put the pickup around the live wire that goes between the controls and the actual burner. Turn the electricity off first just in case.
Turn the boiler on. When it's 'burning' it will read around 150 watts. Make a note.
Find out (from the manual) what nozzle consumption you have. Ours said 3 litres an hour.
As the boiler fires your watt meter will start counting up the power used. We now use about .6kw a day so 600w / 150 (watts per hour) X 3 litres an hour so 12 litres per day.
Our bungalow is open plan 175m2. Originally we used around 45 per day!
We checked and then re-insulated as we found no insulation around the 100 dowlights
Adjusted hot water tank to 65 degrees
I monitored the return temperature to the boiler and set this at just under 60 degrees so that it was in condensing mode as much as possible.
Also ensure the boiler isnot wired to keep hot 24/7 even wi no demand.
1). Buy a wireless energy monitor (we have an owl)
2) open your boiler and put the pickup around the live wire that goes between the controls and the actual burner. Turn the electricity off first just in case.
Turn the boiler on. When it's 'burning' it will read around 150 watts. Make a note.
Find out (from the manual) what nozzle consumption you have. Ours said 3 litres an hour.
As the boiler fires your watt meter will start counting up the power used. We now use about .6kw a day so 600w / 150 (watts per hour) X 3 litres an hour so 12 litres per day.
Our bungalow is open plan 175m2. Originally we used around 45 per day!
We checked and then re-insulated as we found no insulation around the 100 dowlights
Adjusted hot water tank to 65 degrees
I monitored the return temperature to the boiler and set this at just under 60 degrees so that it was in condensing mode as much as possible.
Also ensure the boiler isnot wired to keep hot 24/7 even wi no demand.
45 litres a day 
I just measure the level in the plastic pipe on the tank. I know it holds about 1200 litres, and the pipe is about 44" long. So about 28.5 litres/inch. I measure it occasionally and work out my consumption average over a week or month.
Just worked out our usage. We had 500 litres put in on Dec 29th, and the level is now about down to where it was when it was filled. So 500 litrers in 78 days - about 6.4 litres a day. A 4-bed detached 2-storey.
We also have a wood-burner that mean the CH doesn't come on in the evening unless is below about -3 outside.
I just measure the level in the plastic pipe on the tank. I know it holds about 1200 litres, and the pipe is about 44" long. So about 28.5 litres/inch. I measure it occasionally and work out my consumption average over a week or month.
Just worked out our usage. We had 500 litres put in on Dec 29th, and the level is now about down to where it was when it was filled. So 500 litrers in 78 days - about 6.4 litres a day. A 4-bed detached 2-storey.
We also have a wood-burner that mean the CH doesn't come on in the evening unless is below about -3 outside.
Edited by fatboy b on Friday 18th March 07:32
Glad to see that I'm not the only sad one out there!!
I measure the plastic pipe every Monday morning and as I measured the level both before or after a recent fill up I was able to work out that 1cm of oil in the pipe equals 22.5litres.
Currently using 67litres per week, over Christmas and New Year weeks we used 197lires per week to heat a 4 bedroom detached house. From last summer I know that hot water only uses 11Litres per week.
Have really throttled back the boiler now as we're moving house on the 20th April so trying to get away without having to get a top up... 4 weeks to go and 202Litres left in the tank (plus a reserve of about 150Litres).. this week reduced our boiler running times by about 30% so if I can get our usage to below 50Litres per week then I won't need the top up.. Monday will tell how the new timings has effected consumption..
I measure the plastic pipe every Monday morning and as I measured the level both before or after a recent fill up I was able to work out that 1cm of oil in the pipe equals 22.5litres.
Currently using 67litres per week, over Christmas and New Year weeks we used 197lires per week to heat a 4 bedroom detached house. From last summer I know that hot water only uses 11Litres per week.
Have really throttled back the boiler now as we're moving house on the 20th April so trying to get away without having to get a top up... 4 weeks to go and 202Litres left in the tank (plus a reserve of about 150Litres).. this week reduced our boiler running times by about 30% so if I can get our usage to below 50Litres per week then I won't need the top up.. Monday will tell how the new timings has effected consumption..
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