[irishproduce]

Back at work today.
Thanks for all the replies.
There is nothing boards people dont know!!

I will take a picture tonight of the setup behind the press door upstairs and report back!

[tipptom]

Originally Posted by mercenary2

it sounds like the return to the boiler from the rads is heating the the tank no way to stop this on your system and will not burn much xtra oil ,so little you would not notice the diff.,but as it is heating the water why not get a shower head connected to your bath taps and make use of the hot water in your tank as this would be alot cheaper than using that electric shower..

That sounds like a good idea,I think a plumber said that ours was a closed valve system so we could not fit a power shower easily.Does anyone have any ideas as to the best system for fitting to the taps of the bath as i think this way would save us a lot on energy bills seeing as we have hot water in the tank anyway.

[MicktheMan]

Originally Posted by irishproduce

Surely though the boiler has to heat the extra water in the tank thus burning more oil in the process to get that result?

Yes you are correct. Lets now try to work out how much.
What we know:
Boiler is old
Boiler is outside
House is rented

What to assume:
Boiler efficiency 65%
System efficiency 50%
Hot water cylinder 120l
Boiler set to 75 degC
Cylinder is poorly lagged (as house is rented)

What we don't know:
How long it would take for the hot water to cool to room temperature if not being heated by boiler.

So given the above if it takes 7 days for the cylinder to return to room temperature (20 degC), and the heating is used for 26 weeks it would use approx 40 liters of oil. If it took only a day for the cylinder temperature to loose its heat then oil consumed would be about 280 liters. I suspect the real oil use (wasted) is somewhere in between these two.

[irishproduce]

That is some answer Mick.
Thanks for the well thought response.
The boiler is in the back yes.
It is old and unserviced...
It is heavily insulated though.

I hate inserting pictures on boards as they come out huge so sorry about that.
The tank is not lagged now because the jacket is off, landlord is changing it.

If you need more, let me know

[DoneDL]

The cylinder and pipework should be insulated. irishproduce, in pic 2 the top pipe to the cylinder is shown but does the pipe below it have a red wheelhead like the one on the wall above the cylinder. If it does turn it clockwise to close off the flow to the cylinder and that will cut off the supply from the boiler.

[Billy Bunting]

Behind the cloth would be your primary return where you may find a valve.




sorry DoneDL.

[DoneDL]

My apologies Billy I didn`t realise you were actve

[maddragon]

Sweet Jesus, No lagging jacket, that alone is costing you about 150 litres in oil per year. Go out and buy one for €30 in Woodies tomorrow.

[irishproduce]

Thanks guys.
Ya, landlord is changing the lagging jacket.
Didn't realise it would be 150 litres a year!!

Gonna go with previous advise and utilise the hot water by putting a shower head in the bathroom and use that instead.

[CBYR1983]

I got some rads changed last year on an old system. The plumber informed me there was no balancing valve on the hot water cylinder. Obviously did this as was easily done. Could be the case that you don't have one.

When I originally moved into the house, the cylinder had been boarded over - couldn't even access it! Talk about ignorance back in the day.

There isn't a pipe lagged in the house with gun barrel sitting on muck below uninsulated suspended timber floor, wet patches from outside pipe runs in the snow, pipes buried in concrete with no lagging.

Not to mention the asbestos flue on the boiler!

Thankfully I'm moving out!

[creedp]

Originally Posted by maddragon

Sweet Jesus, No lagging jacket, that alone is costing you about 150 litres in oil per year. Go out and buy one for €30 in Woodies tomorrow.

A point to make here though is if not using the hot water in the taps then the heat loss goes into the house and reduces the need for space heating. Im assuming the cylinder is actually in the house. In my previous house there was no radiator in the hallway which contained the hotpress but it didn't matter becasue the heat loss from the poorly insulated cylinder heated this space.

[tipptom]

Got a shower head and rail and the suction taps from Argos yesterday(€21.99) and its not to bad,no leaking from the taps and you just lift the little handle and it switches back to a mixer tap for the bath.Tried it this morning and it done the job with all the hot water we had so seems to be a good result for the money.