Oil or immersion for hot water

Mountain Rescue

As above. Which is the best and most economical way of heating hot water. In the long run would it be worth installing solar panels. Are they really cost effective ??? Thanks in advance

Wearb

http://touch.boards.ie/thread/2056322802/1/#post73201459


I don't think solar panels pay for themselves, unless you have a need for lots of hot water in the summer. In the average home I would say no.

deandean

Oil.

Hopefully you have a three-zone system so that in Summer you turn off all the rads and the boiler only heats the copper cylinder. If your system is not zoned, just turn off all the rads individually.

I'm on gas but using the GFCH boiler it costs me (based on the meter reading) 55 cents to fully heat the DHW cylinder from cold.

Mountain Rescue

Thanks for the replies. I had been told oil was the cheapest. I just seem to be going through a lot of oil for the hot water. But guess that's just how it is. House is zoned so I'm as efficient as I can be. Have been looking into Diy solar and Pv panels. Lots of reading to do over the next few weeks to see if it's possible for the average Diyer to attempt.

Wearb

If you are using a lot of oil to just heat domestic hot water; how long each day does your boiler run for when heating the water?
It costs me about .40c per day for hot water, once I turn off rad zones.

Mountain Rescue

Boiler runs for a half hour. This is enough to heat the dhw. Probably only having about 2 to 3 showers a day. 3adults in the house. How do you work out what it's costing per day to heat the water??? Would love to be able to work that out

Wearb

If you post the oil pump pressure and nozzle size here, we can tell you how to work it out. Those details will be on your most recent service report.

What size is your cylinder ? Is your shower a power shower ? And lastly what make and model of oil boiler?

Mountain Rescue

Talking to my plummer. He thinks it's either a .6 at 2.3kg/h or .65 at 2.67kg/h sorry that means nothing to me. Showers are manual showers on a pumped system. Cylinder is a 300l. Boiler is a ronda estelle sime. Iv tried to take a pic of the info plate on the burner but I can't post it for some reason. Il keep trying. Is this info any good

Wearb

Do you not have a report and print out of last service? It would help us determine efficiency.
Anyway a ballpark figure of usage is about 2.7 litres per hour of burner running (making noise). With a cylinder that size, it will likely be running for all of the first half hour. So about 1.35 litres for that half hour of usage.
For your setup, that doesn't seem like heavy usage. €1 per day.

Just make sure it is running at best efficiency.