Oil fired heating
Discussion
Either they have it on 24/7 to keep their tropical plants happy, or they've got a leaking oil tank/supply pipe/boiler/etc. Alternatively, they might only buy oil when it's at a peak price (it fluctuates regularly, more so than gas/electricity and can easily double in price per litre).
We're in a 4-bed house, rural location and we use somewhere around £600 a year although we also use a log fire in the winter. The heating is generally off from April-November and we use electric immersion for hot water over summer. When we first came here and left the oil boiler on for HW over summer, it did use a lot more.
We're in a 4-bed house, rural location and we use somewhere around £600 a year although we also use a log fire in the winter. The heating is generally off from April-November and we use electric immersion for hot water over summer. When we first came here and left the oil boiler on for HW over summer, it did use a lot more.
Edited by b2hbm on Thursday 10th June 07:12
Been using oil for about 7 years now.
No way is that bill correct.
One thing that can really affect these systems is a build up of lime-scale in hot water tanks.
Get too much in there and the immersion stops working, and water use depletes the tank and you end up with the burner firing constantly.
This situation is made worse in the winter if the system is set up (as mine was) to produce HW before heat. You end up having to change the parameters and push up the heat cycle just to get warm
My boilers control panel failed on this over Christmas and ran through 400 litres over Christmas and New Year.
At that level of buggered it would have burnt maybe £12,000 in a year.
I'd suggest an inspection. A new boiler isn't that expensive and most have a 20-25 year life span before they start to be beyond economic repair.
After Christmas we replaced with an Eco version that uses about 30% less fuel than the old system.
No way is that bill correct.
One thing that can really affect these systems is a build up of lime-scale in hot water tanks.
Get too much in there and the immersion stops working, and water use depletes the tank and you end up with the burner firing constantly.
This situation is made worse in the winter if the system is set up (as mine was) to produce HW before heat. You end up having to change the parameters and push up the heat cycle just to get warm
My boilers control panel failed on this over Christmas and ran through 400 litres over Christmas and New Year.
At that level of buggered it would have burnt maybe £12,000 in a year.
I'd suggest an inspection. A new boiler isn't that expensive and most have a 20-25 year life span before they start to be beyond economic repair.
After Christmas we replaced with an Eco version that uses about 30% less fuel than the old system.
Thanks for the replies. The house was completely refurbished three years ago and extended...the new extension presumably has decent insulation but part of it is also quite old and listed. Not sure it's quite right anyway but if we do proceed will have a proper look at insulation and the heating system..
Beardy10 said:
Looking to move and went to look at a house today that has oil fired central heating. The owners reckon they spend £8000 a year on oil! It's about 3200 sq ft. That seems like a shed load of money to me! Be interested to know if people think that's realistic/high etc?
That does sound very high , sure they didnt mean 8000 litres ?we have 4000ft including the mothers annexe and the heating is on 18 hours a day in the winter as we both work from home, at the coldest period we were using over 200 litres a week , so about £90
We have a 4 bed detached property in a rural location with oil fired heating/Water as well as an Aga which is on 12 months of the year and only spend £1300pa.
I would look at how big the tank is and purchase oil at a decent price or get into a syndicate and group purchase oil.
make sure the tank has a decent lock or is covered over so that the oil can't be nicked. That could be another reason they used that amount of oil in a year...
Beardy10 said:
Looking to move and went to look at a house today that has oil fired central heating. The owners reckon they spend £8000 a year on oil! It's about 3200 sq ft. That seems like a shed load of money to me! Be interested to know if people think that's realistic/high etc?
That is insane. Unless the house has no windows and no roof, there is something VERY wrong there. We were spending circa £350-400 a quarter on gas in our old place (about 3500sq ft) and are now going through about £900 of oil per year in our new one which is 4000 sq ft, which includes runnning an Aga 24/7.Just read the rest of the thread beyond your OP and concur - one other thought, what size is their oil tank? It wouldn't account for the massive discrepancy, but oil is cheaper bought in larger quantities.... I can't believe they'd have a 500 or 750l tank, but we get a couple of pennny or so extra off a litre for ordering over 2000l at a time...
Could concievably be 8000 litres a year, but at anywhere between 3-400 per 1kl, that's still way less than £8000..... unless they're running it on petrol
Could concievably be 8000 litres a year, but at anywhere between 3-400 per 1kl, that's still way less than £8000..... unless they're running it on petrol
Edited by RedLeicester on Thursday 10th June 20:13
RedLeicester said:
...Could concievably be 8000 litres a year...
Sounds more logical.However I spent 1,200 quid on heating oil in Jan and Feb. It would have been more but we ran out for 4 days because the delivery company couldn't reach us in the snow!
It was a joyous day in March when the whole lot was ripped out and replaced with a gas boiler.
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