Oil Heating Conservation

jelfs

Hi there, just wondering if anyone knows about conserving the oil in my tank.
I have been told that instead of putting the heating on at two separate times during the day, I should put in on once and leave it on all day, as this would be a longer period but lower usage, is this true?
Also I was told that by leaving the windows open slightly all the time, the house would be warmer when heating is on????
Does this make sense to anyone, it was a plumber who gave me this information, thanks in aevance:)

Prenderb

No.

Does your house have a thermostat? If so, your heating will come on periodically whilst it's "on" to keep the temperature as set at the thermostat.

There is, in my view, no point in having the heating on whilst the house is unoccupied. My heating for example, is set to come on for about half an hour in the morning, just before we come in from work in the evening for about an hour or so and again later on in the evening. Use your timer switch to achieve this.

I have the upstairs thermostat a couple of degrees lower than downstairs.

Don't open the windows whilst the heating is on (unless the cat has farted), because you're wasting your money on heating the air that's gone out the window.

The best way to conserve oil is to have the heating on only when you need it, and your thermostat set realistically, maybe 18-19 degrees.

antiskeptic

jelfs wrote: »

Hi there, just wondering if anyone knows about conserving the oil in my tank.
I have been told that instead of putting the heating on at two separate times during the day, I should put in on once and leave it on all day, as this would be a longer period but lower usage, is this true?

No

Also I was told that by leaving the windows open slightly all the time, the house would be warmer when heating is on????

What does your gut tell you?

Does this make sense to anyone, it was a plumber who gave me this information, thanks in aevance:)

I wouldn't allow that plumber to do my plumbing if I was you

A good way to conserve oil is to only use the "boost" button on your control system. The boost button is the one that, when pressed, turns on the heating for an hour then switches the heating off again . If you find one hour isn't warm enough then press the boost button again to get another hour. You'll find that you'll forget about turning on the heating unless you've good reason to remember to do so - which will mean the heating is only on when you really need it.

We don't bother heating the bedrooms - warmth drifts up from downstairs anyway and it's not worth heating rooms that spend the day unoccupied.

bbam

From what I can tell there are three areas where you can save on oil consumption...

1, Controls have a good timer with a boost function. This will allow you to have the oil on when you want it and boost is a handy extra. Have a thermostat fitted, this will prevent the oil running once the house is up to the desired temperature, anything above this is waste. TRV's thermostatic radiator valves allow you to control each radiator and they will turn off when each room reaches temperature, spare rooms etc can be set low to keep damp away but not warm to waste heat...

2, Ensure your burner is running efficiently, at least have it serviced, a worn jet will allow more oil to be burned than can be turned into heat by the burner - wasted oil. If the boiler is knackered consider a new condensing burner - much more efficient than the standard...

3, Lastly but just as important is to maximise on insulation and draft prevention, there is no point producing heat for it to be lost to the big bad outdoors... A well insulated, draught proofed house will be easier to heat and hold onto its heat for much much longer than a poorly insulated house..

argosy2006

Myth Busted

jelfs

Thank you all for replies. I do have a timer but not a thermostat. We live in a bungalow which is very hard to heat so if I did have a thermostat I would still need it at top degree of heat but I will stick to shutting windows and using oil for an hour in morn and 4 hours in the evening.
:rolleyes:

MicktheMan

I am going to stick my neck out here and argue the contrary.

@antiskeptic, Prenderb
Firstly, as every house is different (air tightness, thermal mass, insulation detail , workmanship..), control designs differ (zoned, load compensation, boiler interlock..) and boilers (age, service history, type ..) differ somewhat so saying "no" is, imo, wrong. Do you have data or can you refer me to a study that has proved this? If not then what do you base your statement on?

@Jelfs
If your bungalow is very hard to heat then try to find out why and fix what can be done (how well insulated / airtight?).
If you do turn on your heating for an hour in the morning and 4 hrs later in the day then this is very wasteful of oil. I contend that you will burn more oil this way than if you were leave your heating on between these two periods. This contension is based on reasonably good levels of workmanship (insulation, airtightness) in the house, a zoned ch system with boiler interlock and a standard serviced oil boiler.

I'm probably going to be blown out of the water for this assertion but I have never seen hard data to prove the contrary.

Ok then ...shoot

antiskeptic

MicktheMan wrote: »

I am going to stick my neck out here and argue the contrary.

You the man!

@antiskeptic, Prenderb
Firstly, as every house is different (air tightness, thermal mass, insulation detail , workmanship..), control designs differ (zoned, load compensation, boiler interlock..) and boilers (age, service history, type ..) differ somewhat so saying "no" is, imo, wrong. Do you have data or can you refer me to a study that has proved this? If not then what do you base your statement on?

I'm not sure about Prenderb but I'd base it on the information given. Consider:

the OP wrote:

I have been told that instead of putting the heating on at two separate times during the day, I should put in on once and leave it on all day, as this would be a longer period but lower usage, is this true?

Let's say that the heating is put on during each of those two times for two hours and lets assume a day means 16 hours.

If there is no temp control the house will reach whatever temperature it can in two hours and cool from there. And it will do that twice in the day. In this case you've used four hours of heating oil in total. If there is temp control then the heating will switch in/out during each two hour span (the frequency will depend on air tightness/thermal mass/etc) and the total usage will be some fraction of 4 hours.

Now lets consider the heating left on all day. If there is no temp control then the total oil usage per day is 16 hours. If there is temp control then the heating will switch in/out all day depending on air tightness/thermal mass/etc. The total usage will be some portion of 16 hours.

4 hours is clearly less than 16 hours in the case of no temperature control. And some portion of 4 hours will be clearly less than some portion of 16 hours in the case of temperature control.

MicktheMan

antiskeptic wrote: »

You the man!

:D

antiskeptic wrote: »

I'm not sure about Prenderb but I'd base it on the information given.

Exactly. The OP gave no information on their heating system, construction type, controls etc so, imo, giving a definitive answer based on assumptions alone is incorrect.

As the OP hasn't said how long their heating periods are let's assume it follows the BER standard of 7am to 9am & 5pm to 11pm, thus eight hours in total per day. Lets also assume that the controls are simple i.e 1 heating zone (+seperate dhw zone), a timer and room stat. So, as you say, the boiler stat controls the boiler until the room stat is satisfied and then the room-stat & boiler-stat control of the boiler until the end of the heating period. Let's also assume that the house is thermally massive (i.e. not drylined but filled cavity wall construction), is reasonably airtight (5 m3/hr/m2) and attic is reasonably well insulated (>200mm fibre). Finally lets assume that the boiler is recently serviced, less than 10 years old, and is capable of heating the house in a reasonable timeframe.

Now lets look at the actual boiler firing time per hour of each of the two heating periods.

Morning heating period
1st hour boiler burns for 55 minutes
2nd hour boiler burns for 45 minutes

Evening heating period
1st hour boiler burns for 55 minutes
2nd hour boiler burns for 45 minutes
3rd hour boiler burns for 35
4th hour boiler burns for 25
5th hour boiler burns for 15
6th hour boiler burns for 10 mins

So in total the boiler is burning oil for 285 mins or 4 hrs 45mins.

Now the question is what is the oil consumption if the heating was put on at 7am and turned off at 11pm (16 hrs). based on above numbers the boiler burns for 305 mins (5 hrs 5 mins). Ok, so I havent shown that less oil is burned but it came close and you will have a very warm house all day!

Much more interestingly, imo, suppose for sake of argument the heating was left on 24/7 and was controlled by the boiler & room stat only then the amount of boiler burn time would be 24x10mins = 240 mins = 4 hours ... less than turning on the heating twice a day.:)

MicktheMan

Just realised that OP has given their heating period durations even so the basis of my argument stills holds water (I think )

Prenderb

I'm curious as to what calculation basis you are use for the firing time?

Edit: I don't have a counter, necessarily, I am just curious! Just in case above sounded argumentative!

This is an interesting thread!

MicktheMan

Prenderb wrote: »

I'm curious as to what calculation basis you are use for the firing time?

Edit: I don't have a counter, necessarily, I am just curious! Just in case above sounded argumentative!

This is an interesting thread!

Numbers are not calculated.

They are loosely based on my experience of measuring actual firing times over time (normally hourly) of different oil boilers, with different control arrangements in different houses in order to give clients the choice of how to run their ch systems based on their lifestyles, budgets, other preferences etc. This is not a one size fit all scenario and I find it is not well understood by the majority of people (including installers). In fact, I find most people do not have a basic understanding of their system and how to get the best out of it never mind what we are talking about here.

Because so many factors affect the outcome, I find that each house is different and therefore statements like (normally heard in the pub) "the most efficient way of running an oil ch heating system is ..." are rubbish. It's like saying that because a set of clothes looks good on one person, it will look equally good on everyone.

jelfs

Whew, this is all very mathematical:D I will check what type of burner I have and I think we might need to insulate the attic. It has insulation but I wouldn't say it is a good job, the house is about 12yrs old but the builders scrimped on a lot of stuff as far as I can make out :mad:
Maybe we need to service the boiler as it's about two years since it was done. Does this make much difference?
Thanks again all of you, you're brave Mick!

MicktheMan

jelfs wrote: »

Whew, this is all very mathematical:D I will check what type of burner I have and I think we might need to insulate the attic. It has insulation but I wouldn't say it is a good job, the house is about 12yrs old but the builders scrimped on a lot of stuff as far as I can make out :mad:
Maybe we need to service the boiler as it's about two years since it was done. Does this make much difference?
Thanks again all of you, you're brave Mick!

Not mathematical, just experience & common sense!
You are right to upgrade your insulation levels. This is by far the best way of conserving fuel. Remember, the reason for needing heating is not to heat the house but to replace the heat lost from the house. If there was no heat loss then no need for heating. So yes do your insulation upgrade first.

Oil boilers should be serviced and efficiency checked annually.

Remember also that the oil boiler is just one piece of a ch system and in order to get the best out of the oil burnt, the system should be optimised for the house and lifestyle of the household. The best analogy is a car's mpg. The figure in the sales brochure is got from tests carried out with a car that is setup perfectly for the test. It's not just the engine that influences this result. Everything from aerodynamics, gear box, tyre pressure and type, driver behaviour, loading, road inclination, engine service history etc has an effect on the actual mgp achieved. The actual efficiency of a ch system of a house also has several features that can be fine tuned to get the best out of the system. It is well worth it though as savings can be easily achieved in the 30 to 40% region!

MicktheMan

Thought I would update this thread.

Just completed an audit & optimisation of a client's ch system.

Over previous 3 years the client burned 1950 liters of oil on ch & hot water with heating timed for 6 hrs/day (2 in morning and 4 in evening) with room stat set at 20degC.

After audit and system optimisation modifications, the heating has been on for the last week for 24 hrs and room stat set to 20. Giving that the weather has been brutal, the client was well pleased that her oil consumption was on average 0.45 liters/hr over this last week and the house was warm all the time. Extrapolated over the heating season this will be approx 2080 liters (incl hw). I would expect the actual figure to be less given the extreme weather during the monitored period.