Optimum way to heat. Oil

from_atozinc

Hello.

I live in a 5 bedroomed 2 storey RENTED house. About 2500 square feet.
Its about 15 years old.
Does not have general room thermostats.
Does not have thermostats on the radiators.
Has 2 "zones" - just upstairs and downstairs. (just 2 basic light type switches in the hot press)
Does not have a dedicated water heating facility as such (however, I heat the water during the summer by oil, by simply turning off the 2 zones - this just solely heats the water and not the radiators)


The house uses an oil boiler, which is basic, has a pump switch, on/off switch and a timer switch.
There is a vey basic thermostat on the boiler itself, does not even show temps or gauges etc on it, just + and -

The house is a fecker to heat. We find it hard to get the temp up to 19 C in this weather. High 17's , early 18's is all we simply want.
We left the house last week for a night, did not turn on heat, came back and most rooms were 14/15 C.

I try to be diligent and only turn on rads in rooms we use, have sealed up draughts, try and utilize the sun, dont have the heating on when we are in bed etc.

As the house is rented, I am very limited as to what I can do with it, like install anything to improve the situation etc. So I just have to try and do as best I can with what I have now.

Sitting room has a gas fire. Kitchen has a pellet burner, BUT only heats kitchen itself. i.e. the house does not have a stove or back boiler etc. I dont like the heat either from the pellet burner, just gets too hot after 20 minutes (oxymoron!!) and a very "dry" type of heat.
Being honest, the whole setup is a bit strange 3 separate heat sources, oil, gas and then a bleedin pellet burner thrown in. no back boiler etc etc


Have 2 children, 2 and 4 years. Then probably the main issue here, wife and children at home essentially most of the day so house needs to be relatively warm a lot of the time. (i.e as opposed to houses where heat is only really needed from 3, 4, 5 PM onward - when people get home form work and school etc)

What is the best way to use the oil on a cold day without breaking the bank ?

1. Turn it on at a higher temperature and only put on for 30 minutes at a time a few times a day.

2. Medium temperature and turn on for 3 hour periods, then pause for 3 hours

3. leave it on for a long time at the lowest temperature.

from_atozinc

Any comments on this?

Wearb

First of all you have only given us 3 choices to pick from and none of them are very good. However, in the absence of good heating controls and picking from one of your options, I would suggest that for the current weather conditions (just above freezing) I would have the boiler stat turned to about 2/3rds way up (that depends on how well your rads are sized compared to heat loss. But lets go with my rule of thumb for now) I would then start by heating the house for an hour first time and have it come on before the house cools down too much for say a half hour and repeat this cycle, adjusting times until you get a comfort level that you can live with. You will find that as the day goes on and the fabric of the hose heats up, you will be able to leave greater times between the on times.

Only heat the areas that you are using at the time and keep internal doors closed.

As you alluded to, there are better options, but they seem not to be available to you as a renter.

from_atozinc

Wearb wrote: »

First of all you have only given us 3 choices to pick from and none of them are very good. However, in the absence of good heating controls and picking from one of your options, I would suggest that for the current weather conditions (just above freezing) I would have the boiler stat turned to about 2/3rds way up (that depends on how well your rads are sized compared to heat loss. But lets go with my rule of thumb for now) I would then start by heating the house for an hour first time and have it come on before the house cools down too much for say a half hour and repeat this cycle, adjusting times until you get a comfort level that you can live with. You will find that as the day goes on and the fabric of the hose heats up, you will be able to leave greater times between the on times.

Only heat the areas that you are using at the time and keep internal doors closed.

As you alluded to, there are better options, but they seem not to be available to you as a renter.

Thanks. I wasn’t limiting my options to 3 . They were just to get ball rolling. I am obviously open to any suggestions.

Fine Day

Hi There

Is there a good standard of insulation in the loft.
I live in a similar size house but its very well insulated and draft proofed. I have a very standard heating system using rads.
I have a heating controller with 3 zones. 2 zones for heating (upstairs & down stairs) and the other zone for hot water. i have a stat on the water tank (set between 65 and 70 deg) i have a room stat both up stairs and down stairs set to around 20 deg and also have thermo rad valve (not sure if there any benefit) I have the controller set downstairs (living area) to allow heating come on at 6:30 am and off at 10:00 pm and the upstairs (sleeping) set to come on at 7:00 pm and off at 7:30 am. I let the stat control the boiler. I have a nonboiler stove but have not lit it yet this year (not sure if i will either) The house is extremely comfortable and as the house is always warm the boiler is just maintaining the temperature. I use approx 1700 liters of heating oil per year this includes using boiler to heat hot water all year round. I am sure if i had a condenser boiler I would use less oil.

enricoh

Try getting the landlord to getting a bit of insulation into the attic. He can write it off against tax. Is the house in a sought after area? If not he might be more willing to keep ye. He'll be making the house more attractive to future renters

from_atozinc

enricoh wrote: »

Try getting the landlord to getting a bit of insulation into the attic. He can write it off against tax. Is the house in a sought after area? If not he might be more willing to keep ye. He'll be making the house more attractive to future renters

Mmm. Could be an option. Yeah, house is is in a good area, he would have no bother getting tenants.

from_atozinc

Theheff wrote: »

Hi There

Is there a good standard of insulation in the loft.
I live in a similar size house but its very well insulated and draft proofed. I have a very standard heating system using rads.
I have a heating controller with 3 zones. 2 zones for heating (upstairs & down stairs) and the other zone for hot water. i have a stat on the water tank (set between 65 and 70 deg) i have a room stat both up stairs and down stairs set to around 20 deg and also have thermo rad valve (not sure if there any benefit) I have the controller set downstairs (living area) to allow heating come on at 6:30 am and off at 10:00 pm and the upstairs (sleeping) set to come on at 7:00 pm and off at 7:30 am. I let the stat control the boiler. I have a nonboiler stove but have not lit it yet this year (not sure if i will either) The house is extremely comfortable and as the house is always warm the boiler is just maintaining the temperature. I use approx 1700 liters of heating oil per year this includes using boiler to heat hot water all year round. I am sure if i had a condenser boiler I would use less oil.

Hi. thanks for reply.

Regarding loft — Not really from what I can recall. Must check again.

So you have the heat on one way or another 24x7 in colder months.

I suppose I’m not looking for over technical stuff with stats and zones etc..........I am just looking for the best way to turn on an doff the heats and duration's etc................................ as in OP and open to any other suggestions about how often to turn on for etc.

from_atozinc

Hey all, OP here.

The suggestion I have got for cold conditions is roughly as follows: (I think)

Turn the boiler heat to roughly 70%
Turn on heat in morning say 7-8am
Then turn on again at 10-10:30am
Then turn on again at 12-12:30pm
Then turn on again at 2-2:30pm
Then turn on again at 4-4:30pm
Then turn on again at 6-6:30pm
Then turn on again at 8-8:30pm
Then turn on again at 10-10:30pm

Then off again until next day. 4.5 hours a day.

How does this sound?

Wearb

You might need to shorten or lengthen the off periods after you observe the effects of the above schedule or to allow for outside temperatures, but it’s a good starting point.
Just remember that your hot water will eventually get to 70° during periods of low usage also

Cordell

A wireless thermostat is cheap enough and a DIY job if you know some bare basics about electric stuff and most of the times you can install it without disturbing the existing controls. Move the transmitter in the room with the rad on.

I have this one, very happy with it: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Celect-Wireless-868MHz-Screen-Thermostat/dp/B00EKK8PT4/ref=sr_1_2?s=diy&ie=UTF8&qid=1510674050&sr=1-2&keywords=Celect

from_atozinc

Wearb wrote: »

You might need to shorten or lengthen the off periods after you observe the effects of the above schedule or to allow for outside temperatures, but it’s a good starting point.
Just remember that your hot water will eventually get to 70° during periods of low usage also

Thanks. And you reckon the way above will not piss through oil. My take on it is that in essence I am turning on the heating again before the house gets too cold all over again, therefore meaning the heating system does not have to work as hard and use as much oil to get the temp up again. Is this the idea behind it all?

Wearb

from_atozinc wrote: »

Thanks. And you reckon the way above will not piss through oil. My take on it is that in essence I am turning on the heating again before the house gets too cold all over again, therefore meaning the heating system does not have to work as hard and use as much oil to get the temp up again. Is this the idea behind it all?

The main idea is to create a level of comfort in the house without over heating. The amount of oil used will then depend on insulation and outside temperatures. If you find that you are using too much oil, you will have to pick fewer areas to heat or times when you let the House dip below comfort levels.