Under-Floor Heating Questions

Aine5

Hi

Before I start I better say I know absolutely nothing about heating

We recently moved into a house with underfloor heating. This is the only mode of heating in the house and there is a Stanley Oil Range that controls the heating.
Heating goes to all rooms & bathrooms upstairs & down.
There are 3 Bedrooms, kitchen, living room.

We moved in beginning of Oct (3rd) & put €300 oil in the tank, on the 17th of Nov we had run out - we though the oil had been stolen, so on the 17th Nov we put in a further €300 only to run out last night. So its costing us €300 a month to heat the house.

It is set to come on at 3 in the afternoon and stays on right through to 11 at night. We are out of the house all day so when we come home in the evenings its nice & warm.
In the hall & bedroom that we don't use it is set very low and the 2 bedrooms is set at 16 with the kitchen & living room set at 24.

I called the landlady last night and she said this isn't right.
We know that the oil has not been stolen as we fitted a lock on the tank last month.

Is this normal?
Are we doing something wrong?
There is no way we can afford €300 a month on oil.

Outkast_IRE

A stanley oil range and underfloor ?

Who the **** though up of that combination............ unless the house is really well insulated and has good airtightness then underfloor shouldnt be the heating method of choice.

Is the house really well insulated ?

Oil ranges are known for eating through the oil anyway but any idea has your one been serviced recently to rule that out as a problem ?

Also 24 is very high for a room stat i would say drop it back to 21 and throw on a jumper.

Aine5

The range was serviced before we moved in the landlady said.

The living area & kitchen are open plan so its very hard to heat, as the living room a the high ceiling (full length) if that makes sense.

The range is a Stanley Brandon. The house is insulated well.

Outkast_IRE

Aine5 wrote: »

The range was serviced before we moved in the landlady said.

The living area & kitchen are open plan so its very hard to heat, as the living room a the high ceiling (full length) if that makes sense.

The range is a Stanley Brandon. The house is insulated well.

Is it a small house ? Large house ?
Underfloor heating working off a oil stove, high ceilings in some of the rooms its not a combination that will help your heating bills.


And by well insulated can i ask any idea of the dept of insulation in the attic? How the walls are insulated ?

Have a look here stanley brandon rated E for seasonal boiler efficiency which is bad http://www.seai.ie/Your_Building/BER/BER_Assessors/Technical/HARP_Database_old/Gas,_LPG_and_Oil_Cooker_Boilers/Oil_Boilers/?ID=3&p=3

If your renting consider moving next year if you can, because unless theres something obvious wrong these bills will just keep coming.

Were you provided with a BER rating for the house ?

TPM

€300 worth of oil per month
working out at €900 for 3 months, you would get a better price for a full fill, a full fill might push you out to nearly 4 months
which would work out at 3 fills for the year at your current usage, allowing for the periods you have been using it are winter and usage will drop for other seasons, you are probably looking at 2 to 2 1/2 fills for a full year.
Which isnt really too bad for the set up you have

jimjimt

Stanley and underfloor not a good combination. Efficiency of a stanley cooker is dyer to say the least.

Underfloor needs to be on 24/7. It is not like rads on and off. In order to do this you need to have setback room stats install with the underfloor. One per room and perhaps two in a big room.

Your best bet is to start looking for somewhere else to live. Unless land lady is going to install a high efficiency boiler along with insuring underfloor has full up to date controls installed for controlling it.

Kerosene Usage

Cost €300.00

Per Liter €0.90

Liters 333.33

Days 30

Per Day 11.11 Liters

Cost Per Day €10.00

Cost Per Week €70.00

Cost Per 30 Days €300.00

Cost Per 4 Weeks €280.00

TPM

€0.90 would be a good price for 1000l but at 300l it would be closer to €1.00 per/l so there could be a 10% saving if anyone was in a position to buy in 1000l fills.

but in relation to jimjimt's daily/weekly costs these are still correct as the calculations are based on the information given of the price of each fill not the amount

jimjimt

TPM is spot on.

1000l @ .89c

300l @ 1.00c

Just checked online kerosene prices for Kilkenny this delivery by a lorry.

Costs are more if buying at the pumps.

Costs are still the same you are using 10 Liters a day v 11.11 liters a day.

Kerosene Usage

Cost €300.00

Per Liter €1.00

Liters 300.00

Days 30

Liters Per Day 10.00

Cost Per Day €10.00

Cost Per Week €70.00

Cost Per 30 Days €300.00

Cost Per 4 Weeks €280.00

Days Of Use 30

Aine5

Thanks for all your replies.

I think we are going to turn down the settings in each of the rooms that we use to 16 and switch off the spare room & hall, and leave it on 24/7 for a few days to see if this will help - this is what the landlady has advised us to do.
We will dip the oil tank each day to check the usage. I assume this will have a knock-on effect on our Electricity bill.
We only received 1 bill since we moved in and it was an estimate - €35 as the house was empty for 3 months before we moved in.

The living room has a sun-room attached so its all very open plan which makes it harder to heat.

I've never heard of a BER rating before - I will ask the landlady if this is something that has been completed.
I think the house went up 2006/2007.

If things don't improve we will have to look for another place, as its just too costly.

Outkast_IRE

Aine5 wrote: »

Thanks for all your replies.

I think we are going to turn down the settings in each of the rooms that we use to 16 and switch off the spare room & hall, and leave it on 24/7 for a few days to see if this will help - this is what the landlady has advised us to do.
We will dip the oil tank each day to check the usage. I assume this will have a knock-on effect on our Electricity bill.
We only received 1 bill since we moved in and it was an estimate - €35 as the house was empty for 3 months before we moved in.

The living room has a sun-room attached so its all very open plan which makes it harder to heat.

I've never heard of a BER rating before - I will ask the landlady if this is something that has been completed.
I think the house went up 2006/2007.

If things don't improve we will have to look for another place, as its just too costly.

A BER rating should be provided with every rental but in practice it doesnt always happen

jimjimt

What ever about the spare room being turn off. The hall should not be turned off as this the core of the house and should also be left at 16.
However you should not turn any stat lower that 10. If you do you will create an icebox room.

It will not affect your electricity that much a very small variant that you will not notice unless all the heating was off.

If you decide to move do your home work first. No point in moving if you will be paying similar heating costs.

A BER is useful to a point. If you have two house with the same rating one is larger than the other. Which will cost more to heat ?
If you have 300m2 house at rating B. A 100m2 house at rating C which will cost more to heat ?

Aine5

jimjimt wrote: »

What ever about the spare room being turn off. The hall should not be turned off as this the core of the house and should also be left at 16.
However you should not turn any stat lower that 10. If you do you will create an icebox room.

It will not affect your electricity that much a very small variant that you will not notice unless all the heating was off.

If you decide to move do your home work first. No point in moving if you will be paying similar heating costs.

A BER is useful to a point. If you have two house with the same rating one is larger than the other. Which will cost more to heat ?
If you have 300m2 house at rating B. A 100m2 house at rating C which will cost more to heat ?

Thanks JimJimt

Its good to know these things.
As I said before I know absolutely nothing about under-floor heating but have picked up a little knowledge from all your posts

Aine5

I've got another question.

When I was leaving for work this morning I though the kitchen was cold - the heating has been switched on constantly since yesterday morning. I checked & the red lights were on showing that there were 3 rooms calling for heat downstairs.
What does this mean when the heat is turned on for at least 24hrs + & the rooms are still calling for heat?

jimjimt

Are the others rooms hot ?

If the other rooms are cold perhaps the boiler is not working.
You have run out of oil or other.

If the other rooms are hot it would seem that the problem would lay with the kitchen zone.
Faulty zone valve.
Mixed up in wiring perhaps the hall stat controls the kitchen.
Turn back on all the stats and see will it heat.

Dtp79

Aine5 wrote: »

I've got another question.

When I was leaving for work this morning I though the kitchen was cold - the heating has been switched on constantly since yesterday morning. I checked & the red lights were on showing that there were 3 rooms calling for heat downstairs.
What does this mean when the heat is turned on for at least 24hrs + & the rooms are still calling for heat?

The high usage of oil may well be a leak on your oil line from the tank to the house. Stranger things have happened!! Be no harm to get it pressure tested to eliminate it