Home heating oil consumption

JohnnieK

When you get the boiler serviced again make sure he checks the fuel pump pressure on the burner. 8bar for Kerosine and 12bar for Oil. If the the pump pressure is too high it can use more fuel. Although it dose sound about right for the size of the dwelling.

cnocbui

fitzie79 wrote: »

hi - i came across this old post on oil consumption. i ran out of oil on thursday. i got 1300l put in in middle of october so was very surprised/shocked that it ran out so quickly. we have a new house about 2900sq ft. the house is well insulated and we don't have the heating on a lot. we also have 3 programmable heating zones (living areas, downstairs bedrooms and upstairs bedrooms) so no issues with bedrooms being on when they dont need to be etc.

my worry is that the oil pipe that feeds the boiler may have a leak in it and that the oil is draining away. what would be the best way to check out if this is the problem? turning off the valve at the oil tank and monitoring the oil level is one possibility but we'd have no heating then.

also what is the average consumption of oil in a condensor boiler per hour?

I would say the easiest way to see if you have a leak would be to pressure test the oil line. Any possibility someone could have relieved you of some of your oil when you weren't looking?

fitzie79

thanks for the replies.

i think (hope) that 1300l in 3 mths is very high. a neighbour who would have a similar size house but with a bit less insulation goes through 1200l a year.

i am going to do a level test tmw - have gotten some clear flexible pipe. will disconnect the supply line at the tank side and connect the clear pipe to it. by filling the pipe up and leaving it for a day with the boiler turned off i should be able to see the level dropping if there is a leak. i'm sure that the oil wasn't robbed - the tank is in a garage and also has a lock on the cap. the lock hasn't been broken and no sign of any holes in the tank either.

Stevie Dakota

We go through about 4000 liters a year, 2200sq ft and UFH. Having said that we never use the immersion, so that kero does all our hot water as well, and the hot press is big and warm, so no tumble drier bills either.

Not sure it it would be cheaper using more immersion and switching the boiler off for the summer months, any thoughts?

cnocbui

It would be a lot cheaper switching it off during the summer months I reckon. Use the immersion heater in summer for hot water.

Our house is 2500sq foot and we use 2700 litres of kerosene a year. We have the CH controlled by a thermostat so the heating only comes on when it is needed. I also have a wood burning stove.

lfp

We have a 2,500 sqft 1.5 year old house. Fairly well insulated, but no solar panels or air tightness. We got 1,000l in Dec 08 and the system was on all the time to dry the place. We then got 700l at the end of March 09 and we haven't filled since. I don't know how close to full the 1,100l tank was after the 700l delivery, but if it was full, 1,100l has lasted us for over 11 months.

Heres what I do to keep the heating bills down
1. Solid fuel stove with back boiler heats the house without the need for oil on most weekends and some of the week days that one of us is off work (me or wife are at home about 3 times during the week). Saying that most cold mornings the oil will be needed to kick the heating off in the house and then the stove will kick in later in the day.
2. Of the 5 bedroom, 2 of them have the rads turned off 95% of the time. The utility is small and has veg/fruit etc. stored so we keep that rad off and keep the door closed. The walk in wardrobe has a rad, but it is between the bedroom and the en-suite, so the walk in rad isn't needed.
3. The thermostats in the 3 zones are set at between 17.5 and 20 degrees, rarely higher. A lot of friends do seem to think that you need to be in t-shirt and shorts and feeling warm in a house. 20+ degrees at all times is not cosy - it's really warm!
4. I turn off the rads in the living room any time I light the stove as the stove is well able to heat the room on it's own. To good in fact after a good few hours of the stove going the room can get to 22/23 degrees
5. On cold nights I regulate the rads when the back boiler stove is in use. I go around to the kitchen and dining room rads and turn them off as the rooms arent really used from 8/9 o'clock on. That allows the rads in the hall and bedroom to really heat up and give enough heat for the night.
6. When the plumber was putting in the system he said 90% of people boost the heat for say 2 hours solid and get the house really warm, then for the next few hours the heat is off and the house gets cold and they need another boost of constant heat. Every boost needs a lot of oil to get the water from 5 degrees or 10 degrees to get up to 70 degrees+. He advised me to put the heat on for 6 or 8 hours on really cold days and set the thermostat at 19 degrees. It may burn for 45 mins or so to get the house up to 19 but after that the heating may only be needed every 15/30 mins to "top up the heat" for a few mins and get the rooms back up to 19. In a typical 8 hours you may only use 2.5 or 3 hours of oil, whereas boosting when it cools like a lot of people, may use 4/5 hours of oil in an 8 hour period - and the house gets cool at times even though you are using more oil.
7. I try to heat my hot water for bathing at the same time as the house is being heated as (seemingly) an economies of scale kicks in a little bit in this scenario. Not possible in summer obviously.
8. My wife was a divil for drying clothes on rads. We now set up a clothes rack in front of the stove when we go to bed. The hours of heat the stove gives off when we are in bed drys the clothes brilliantly and none of the rads in the house are covered and thus wasting heat (also no need to use the tumble drier).
9. If we have a short evening - both at work all day and time in the living area before bed is only 3 hours or so, we will turn off the rads in the livingroom and office and just live/watch tv/chill in the kitchen/dining area and only heat it those rooms.

I'm still learning and trying to find better ways of managing the stove. I'm still trying to find the best solid fuel in terms of heat output and value for money. It's all a learning experience.

I'd appreciate any advice from people who have other money saving tips on managing the heating.

suitseir

Can someone explain to me the average consumption of home heating oil (kerosene) in a stand alone oil stove. I don't understand the technical data and I am sure there is someone out there who would know all this stuff.

I usually leave this small stove running 24/7 although I have cut back these times. According to the booklet this is the technical data:

It has a setting 1 to 6. I have it at 3 or 4 most of the time:

Valve Setting Oil Consumption Burner input Heat output
l/h kW (Btu/h)
3 0.38 3.59 (12,500) 2.87 (9,800)
4 0.43 4.11 (14,000) 3.28 (11,200)
6 0.54 5.13 (17,500) 4.10 (14,000)

Basically, how many litres at day is it using going 24/7?


Thanks

suitseir

It is a week from Christmas and I am using a lot of kerosene. Now mind you, I don't light a fire so I guess I would be spending it on solid fuel. Only light a fire at Christmas.

Anybody else finding the consumption of home heating oil pretty high in this cold weather?