Oil central heating.

from_atozinc

Hi,

We have standard oil fired central heating.
We have it on timer in the morning and evening.

But sometimes during the day, we may need to turn it on too. for about half an hour.

Is it UN-economic to switch it on for half an hour ?

Or when it's on, should it be left on for at least an hour?

Or something else ?

Wearb

Half an hour is fine as long as you are seeing results in that period. A properly running boiler and good circulation in the heating system could do a lot if work in half an hour.

It's all a little complicated. My system would burn 100% of the time for the first half hour in these temperatures. Then about 50% for next half hour. Then right down to about 20% as house warms up and TRVs turn off.
So if there is someone in the house, an on/off regime might not save very much and give you an uncomfortable house. My regime is dependent on good controls, ie thermostats and TRVs.

from_atozinc

Wearb wrote: »

Half an hour is fine as long as you are seeing results in that period. A properly running boiler and good circulation in the heating system could do a lot if work in half an hour.

It's all a little complicated. My system would burn 100% of the time for the first half hour in these temperatures. Then about 50% for next half hour. Then right down to about 20% as house warms up and TRVs turn off.
So if there is someone in the house, an on/off regime might not save very much and give you an uncomfortable house. My regime is dependent on good controls, ie thermostats and TRVs.

Thanks.
Yeah. Tis tricky to know how to run it.
At the moment , I have for 90 mins in morning and then 90 months no at night.

But then it can get cold in between these times and might need 2 half hour blasts.

Wearb

from_atozinc wrote: »

Thanks.
Yeah. Tis tricky to know how to run it.
At the moment , I have for 90 mins in morning and then 90 months no at night.

But then it can get cold in between these times and might need 2 half hour blasts.

What I meant by burn is that during a short on period with a cold house the burner might run most of the time. As the house warms up and the heating still on, the burner will run for shorter periods during that on period. It all works even better if you have thermostatic controls.

from_atozinc

A part picture of my boiler is attached - which I can only presume is the thermostat.

Is this thermostat dial regulating the temperature of the water being passed through the radiators ?

Wearb

Very poor pic. But it probably is the one that does as you suggest.
However that is very poor control of your heating. At minimum you should have a room thermostat that turns off boiler when room reaches temperature.

from_atozinc

Wearb wrote: »

Very poor pic. But it probably is the one that does as you suggest.
However that is very poor control of your heating. At minimum you should have a room thermostat that turns off boiler when room reaches temperature.

Tis a basic setup really. No room thermostats. Rented house etc.

So, this dial controls the temp of the water flowing through the radiators. If the temp is set to the lowest, will the radiators only barely get hot.......or would setting the TRV to max make the radiators hotter (A couple of the radiators have trvs)

Wearb

Lowest will be still about 65C. I would recommend leaving that at about 75C or a little past half way to highest at this time of year. With the stop/start nature of your usage, TRV's are not going to play much of a part. Leave them on full and if you find the rooms they are fitted in getting too warm, turn them down a small bit and leave it a few days to see how the new adjustment goes.