The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Buildings & planning => Topic started by: blades on November 18, 2011, 08:33:13 pm
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We have an oil fired boiler for our central heating and water and use a oil fired aga for cooking and as a radiator in the kitchen.
The boiler is close to 20 years so not very efficient, the aga is slightly older and converted to oil from solid fuel. Obviously both use a lot of oil... approx £200 - £250 per month in total. Can anyone tell me or have an opinion on what sort of improvement we may expect by changing to a new more efficient boiler and aga please??
Property is a 4 bedroomed Farmhouse built around 1850
Thanks in advance
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I can't give you precise figures for your situation, but when I built my house in 2005 I put in underfloor heating, with a modern efficient boiler and timings set to suit my lifestyle (at home all day) - then the price of oil doubled practically overnight. When I left to move down here I was paying £150 a month for a well insulated bungalow with 4 double bedrooms, lounge, dining room, and family room with large bathroom and two ensuites.
Hope that helps
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I can't really coment on the comparative costs but I can sympathise as our central heating boiler is also oil-fired. What I can say is that our price per litre has gone up substantially in the last couple of years.
I'm sure a lot of people don't realise the difficulties that those of us that are 'off the grid' face with regard to supplies of oil or gas, and lack of choice of supplier. The oil companies in particular appear to operate a pricing cartel, and if you dig deep enough you'll find that most of them are owned by the same people.
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We built our house in 2006 and installed a normal radiator heating system, albeit with a 95% efficient Grant condensing boiler, oil (kerosene) fired. Hot water from that system too. I was not allowed an AGA :(...., so we use bottled gas for cooking/electric oven. Our annual oil usage is at about 1500ltrs, but that needs to be taken in the context of modern insulation, double glazing and multifuel stove in the main living/kitchen area. So far central heating has not been switched on this winter.
A new boiler would decrease your oil usage somewhat, but maybe you could also look into grants for insulation, installing woodburning stove etc.
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My house is 5 bedroom, and old....around 1620. New boiler 2 1/2 years ago when we moved in.
Oil fired central heating and hot water, so not sure how much more your aga would take to run, but my DDR to the oil people is £150 and that just about covers the use over the year.
So I would think a newer boiler should bring down your oil usage.
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We put in a new boiler 2 years ago, and took out the existing Stanley range which we did not replace. The boiler was a expensive combi boiler one, which kicks in whenever it needs to heat more water. Our Oil bill went down by 2/3rds. The range used a HUGE amount of oil. 3 and a 1/2 bedroom bungalow- with some old bits and some new bits to the house.
Beth
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Get an A rated boiler, it is worth doing asap - you will start to re-coup immediately and insulate your house to the hilt including external walls (use Kingspan for insulated backed plasterboard - expensive but great), it will help keep the heat in your house, do the ususal roof insulation etc, look at replacing seals on doors and windows, and switch off the aga in the summer and find an alternative method of cooking. Paying up front for 'alternative' heating systems takes a long time to recoup and most methods aren't worth going for unless you have a new build, we've just spent months doing the research. Keep your oil, just be sparing, but get that new boiler. ;)
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Central Heating?? What's that all about then? We've got one log burner and two open fires for a five bed farmhouse. Luckily bumped into the forestry guy at the right time and got a few year's worth of wood at a steal.
But I do sympathise - we used to have oil Aga and boiler and it cost a fortune. I'm afraid I can't help other to echo the insulation comments. My next project is getting an Aga running on used engine oil...
The other idea if you have the time to tend it is to convert your Aga back to solid fuel. I believe it's the cheapest way to run them now oil has gone up.
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good luck with the used engine oil you will need it :farmer:
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You can't convert oil Agas to solid fuel as far as I am aware - best to use it as economically as poss - by that I mean dry your clothes on it and don't use a tumble drier, don't use a toaster every breakfast or boil a kettle 3 or 4 times a day making cups of tea - all of which are heat producing and expensive to do, you should be able to break even. Agas also keep everybody happy in the one room, and the pets love it too (and newborn lambs if you have any).
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good luck with the used engine oil you will need it :farmer:
Ha! Yes I think so. Do you have any tips?
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yes don't use it
you have to filter it through a series of filters down to 3 microns then the viscosity of the oil is wrong so you have to heat and mix with other fuels then change the nozzle on your burner which will never run clean
as i said before good luck :farmer:
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Has anyone ever considered purchasing solar panels or heat pumps to use for central heating? There definitely seems to be some sort of renewable energy bandwagon going around and I was wondering whether I was missing out. A family friend of ours suggested I check out this website: http://www.intelligentenergysolutions.com/heat-pumps---air-source_c124.aspx (http://www.intelligentenergysolutions.com/heat-pumps---air-source_c124.aspx) but I'm not too sure what to think, it's all quite pricey.
Any opinions welcome.
Anne
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ground/air source heat pumps can be good for central heating if used for underfloor heating as the constant warm rather requirement is well matched (rather than periodic requirements for very hot water, which solar/conventional sources might be better suited to). But obviously would only make sense if undertaking a renovation or new build because of the big job that fitting the UFH and ground heat pump would be.
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Just paid 80p per litre to top up the tank - up 30% since last year?
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o dear you have been shafted last week before the snow we were quoted 59 pence today it is 62 with others being 65 pence falkirk/bathgate area :farmer:
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Remember it really isn't easy being green, new builds are the way forward - easy to install all the bits and pieces you require. Some installations require a small plant room. Retro fits are always expensive and you may open up cans of worms on the way. Stuff insulation everywhere and re-fit seals on doors and windows if they're perishing. All the 'green' installations are expensive up front and you'll get your quickest retun out of insulating your walls and roof without a doubt. Take to your bed now and don't get up until April, nice and cheap ;D ;D ;D
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Has anyone ever considered purchasing solar panels or heat pumps to use for central heating? There definitely seems to be some sort of renewable energy bandwagon going around and I was wondering whether I was missing out. A family friend of ours suggested I check out this website: http://www.intelligentenergysolutions.com/heat-pumps---air-source_c124.aspx (http://www.intelligentenergysolutions.com/heat-pumps---air-source_c124.aspx) but I'm not too sure what to think, it's all quite pricey.
Any opinions welcome.
Anne
This stuff is still all being developed, so there's some danger that you install expensive kit which takes you down a blind alley. If you're doing a major chunk of building work then underfloor heating or even whole wall radiators can be part of the work. Otherwise installation is prohibitive. Ground source generates slightly warm water while conventional boilers use very hot water - so the distribution around the house is very different.
With ground source and air source the efficiency is measured as the ratio between the energy you have to put in against what comes out. Five to one is very good, but I suspect hard to achieve except in new builds.
A friend has just installed quite a complex system which has a number of heat sources feeding a very large, extremely well insulated hot water tank. He can use wood, solar, gas or electricity to heat the tank, and the tank then feeds the central heating with water at about 90C tho' I think there may be a heat exchanger between them. He said running cost were down by three quarters, but he also installed an astonishing amount of insulation into the place.
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It should also be noted that if you live in an area with significant Forestry Commission plantations you can usually purchase a permit that allows you to collect firewood within a designated area. Cost-wise it's virtually free fuel, and carbon-neutral to boot.
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can you not sigh up for a fixed price for oil for the year here where i live in Canada the oil company's fight over costumers and drop a few pennies off the price for sigh ups
but oil is not my problem i heat with wood it is collecting the windfalls and i never am able to gather them all up the windfalls there is just to much and maybe i am to old i have a 50 acre wood lot
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Last time I bought oil it was 17p! Doubt you can improve the AGA. If you get a new condensing combi oil unit you could save 20%. Efficiency claims made on condensing boilers assume a flow return temperature below the condensing point of 53 degrees. This only applies on heating startup and instantaneous hot water. Trouble is you have all your eggs in one basket with a combi.
Heat pumps are great for a new build. They MUST go into an extremely well insulated house because to get the performance claims the heating water must be at a low temperature, say 35 degrees. They will push 60 degrees with the new refridgerants but the COP drops from 4 to 2 and with the annual maintenance and capital cost they become more expensive than conventional heating. There is an awful lot of sales hype on these technologies. Air source is noisy and frosts up, ground source depends on the substrate. I'll stop there I think!