In our house we have a boost button on our heating control panel. By hitting this button the boiler will come on immediately for one hour only. This got me thinking, how much does this button cost me every time I push it, or putting it another way how much does your home oil boiler cost in fuel to run every hour? Well it is relatively easy to calculate; I worked it out to be €1.20 ($1.64) per hour or €1.20 every push of the boost button!
I calculated this as follows. The typical oil boiler used for home heating injects the fuel into the combustion chamber using a nozzle. Depending on the size of the house/ boiler, this nozzle will vary in size between 0.5 and 0.9 gallons per hour, (at a typical pressure of 10 bar). In an average three or four bed-roomed sub-urban house, the boiler nozzle size is typically 0.6. Converting this to metric, 0.6 gallons per hour is approx. equal to 2.27 Litres per hour. When the boiler is operating, it will burn until the water reaches a set temperature and then it will stop burning until the hot water cools sufficiently. The hot water cools as it is pumped around the house to the radiators which heat the house. The rate at which the water cools will depend on a large number of factors, i.e. whether the house is well insulated, the external temperature, radiator sizes, radiator settings etc. Therefore during cool weather in a well insulated house, the boiler may only actually be burning oil 50% of the time it is operating. But during very cold weather in a poorly insulated house the boiler may well burn oil continuously.
Therefore if we assume that the boiler, when operating, burns oil for 65% of the time, then the amount of oil used is 1.48 Litres per hour (= 2.27L X 0.65). As the current cost of oil, including taxes, is approx. €0.81 per Litre, the approximate average fuel cost of running an oil boiler is €1.20 per hour. This figure is an approximate guide and depends on your house conditions as detailed above as well boiler efficiency etc. The cost has increased in recent times as a result of higher oil prices and green energy taxes and will probably increase further.
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I don’t know that! I appreciate you giving us a view on what is happening when we push that button. I think people should know this detail so they will know if it’s really fair to have it in a higher cost or is it just a necessity for us to have one. Government should remove the tax since people needs this.
Still confused about this boost button – we have moved into a new build and have 3 boost buttons, 2 for different areas needing heating (living and bedrooms) and one for hot water. A few questions.
1. Is the boost button dearer in terms of energy consumption that using a timer switch.
2. If I hit the heat boost button for an hour – will that automatically heat up the water or do I have to hit the hot water boost as well?
Our bill for 2 months after Christmas came to 270 Euro – we nearly died! DO you know if the ESB nightsave is a good deal – we do use drier and dishwasher a lot!
Hi Meave.
You are lucky you have zone heating a lot of houses don’t . To answer your questions:
1. It depends how it’s set up. All a boost button does is turn the heating on for a set length of time. So if you are feeling a bit cool and press the boost button for only one zone that will be better than using your timer to heat all zones. You are saving oil and energy.
2. It is usually more efficient to heat the water in the tank with the boiler than via electricity. The night saver scheme does save people money as the electricity usage rate is half the day rate but there are extra charges with it for a new meter. Also you will have to run your appliances at night time which might not suit. In my experience it is only really worth it if you have electric storage heaters which you don’t seem to have. To finish normally hitting the boost button will heat your water as well. It does in my house but it depends how your system is set up. You can check this, next time you use the boost button simply feel the tank.
I hope the above helps.
Hi Help Engineer,
My query is as follows:
Situation:
I have 3 apartments (A,B,C) in a three storey building, all of which are heated by one Oil Fired Boiler located in an outhouse to the rear of the property. At present the heating system in each apartment is operated using an APT manually operated clock. The problem is that if the tenant in either A,B or C does not contribute to the purchase of fuel in the one tank used for all apartments, they can still avail of heat by operating the clock to put the heating system. Whatsmore, tenants who purchase oil for the tank were only purchasing a 15 or 20 litre drum of it as they were afraid of others using it. What was happening was they were constant burning out the boiler motor because there would be an insufficient level in the tank to cause the burner to ignite and cause the heating to come on.
Query:
I want to know what would be my most economic way of controlling the heating system in these apartments.
The electricity for apartment is operated via smart card- is this type of system via for my oil heating system ? I know Vitalenergi have a system but for to install it into my property i estimate it would be over £3000. Furthermore, if the current cost of filling my current oil tank were to now cost say £1000, and later in the year this was to rise to say £1500, this would have to be reflected in the charge / cost for the tenant/s who wish to avail of
the heating system. In addition to the smartcard system i would be interest to hearing your views and knowledge on this matter.
I look forward to your response.
Jom
I have PM’ed you directly.
Hello,
I need advice. I live in upstate NY and I was wondering how much does it cost a year to fill the tank? We are moving intoa home that is fuel oil and I am so scared we wont be able to afford it. My husband thinks it will be fine but I have a gut feeling it wont. How much will it make our electric go up?
Hi Sam. It might be different in New York but here the oil company will deliver what ever you require, within reason. But if you just examine the tank for the capacity and ring the oil company they will be able to tell you how much it will cost to fill or half fill. If the capacity isn’t written on the side of the tank you could measure the outside dimensions and estimate the volume that way.
Some oil companies here in eiré have a scheme goin where u can pay into a card,say 50 a month,20 a week or whatever, we ring em up for a fill or half fill and pay with the card, handy out, worth tryin the companies in your area, they might do the same
Thanks Mike. That’s a good suggestion.
We are considering renting an older 4 bed house, ( not actually seen it yet as we are relocating ), as a consideration how much on average is it to use oil fired heating systems ?
Hi Scott. Its very difficult to say as every house and resident is different. I think we spend about the €750 a year. But we have a wood stove as well which reduces the amount of time we use the oil heating. Anyone else want to say what they spend a year on oil?
I have just been questioning the amount we are spending on oil, coal, electric & bottled gas. We are renting a 6 bedroom farm house which was totally gutted and reburbished in 2007. I would assume it has been done correctly and is well insulated. The walls are probably 1.5-2ft thick if the depth of the window sills is anything to go by. It looks like there has been a new skin built inside the old frame. The rooms are all large with large ensuite-bathrooms to every bedroom, a massive 30ft long kitchen-diner & 2 more reception rooms. So far from January this year we have used 5000ltr of heating oil. 30bags of coal. 3 deliveries of logs, 3x15kg gas bottles for a potable heater and on average £130.00 of electricity per MONTH and I am currently sat here with a jacket on! I have had 4 heating engineers out to check the oil burner but none seem to really know the system inside and out and each one comes up with a different faulty part that they replace that could be causing a potential problem. I had 1000ltrs of oil delivered 2 weeks ago and we have nearly used half. And although it has been a wet miserable, cold season up in the highlands of Scotland we have not had the heating on 24/7. Most times we just had the wood burning stove on in the kitchen or lounge wherever we were going to sit as the evening got colder and that wasnt everyday. I am at my wits end with purchasing fuel and cannot get out of the lease for another 12months. Any suggestions?????
Hi Jayne,
I am a heating engineer and was shocked when I read your tale of woe. It is impossible for me to give you a definitive answer to your problem but safe to say that your oil usage is way way beyond normal even for a poorly insulated stone castle. Can’t imagine what type of cowboy heating engineers inspected your system ! I suggest you firstly leave the heating off for 24 hrs and dip the oil tank to check if there is a leak also be mindful that your oil may be stolen. If no leak or theft please ask a good local plumber to inspect the whole system.
Hi
This is a very interesting blog as I’m reading currently in bed with two hot water bottles trying to work out if my my boiler is using too much oil or whether it’s an expensive commodity! I’ve used €300.00 of oil in the last 6 weeks. The boiler has only been on 4-5 to hours a day max sometimes less if I’ve been out. After 2 weeks I switched 1 radiator off in a room infrequently used so now I’m only running 4 large rads and I’m turning one more off tomorrow. Will this make a substansial saving? This is an old cottage which seems warm once it heats up but the boiler is a about 12 years old do you think it’s running efficiently? How much should it cost on average for those 3 or 4 rads? I can’t see a thermostat anywhere though….I nearly cried when I saw that you only spent €750 a year. My oil cost is 1.02 cent per litre last time I filled up I also use the fireplace in the large kitchen/ diner and only a woodburning stove seems to be needed in the sitting room.
Please help!
Frozen in Ashford
I dont know if you got my last message, but it was about my boiler using 300 litres of oil since the 21st of november, when it is only on for about 6 hours a day any idea why.
Hi John,
I am not sure as there are a huge amount of variables. It could be as simple as an oil leak (although I hope not for environmental reasons) to something more complex. The first step would be for you to get a fully qualified oil boiler technician to investigate the problem.
Thank you for your comments.This is the line i was going to take,i dont know enough about boilers to try and do something myself.
thank you again. Wishing you a happy Christmas,and all the best for 2013
Very interesting –
Just a question on the conversion of 0.6 Gallons per hour -
Is the assumption here that all boiler nozzle sizes are quoted in US gallons ?
0.6 US gallons = 2.27 litres
0.6 GB gallons = 2.72 litres
Thanks Dan,
To answer your question, yes oil nozzle sizes in Ireland and the UK are generally quoted in US gallons.
Regards,
Hi , just 2 questions,
Does the burner cut off at the thermostat setting thats in the room??
Does it cost alot to have it starting and stopping 3 times in the day?
As in starting it up i mean.
Hi Norman,
For the typical domestic situation the burner in the boiler is usually regulated by the setting dial actually on the boiler. This dial sets the top temperature for the water heated by the boiler. The burner then kicks in when the temperature of the water drops a set amount below the set temperature (as set on the boiler). The thermostat in the room usually just turns the boiler on and off when the temperature drops below the set point (or rises above it).
The above situation does not apply where zoned heating is provided, which is more complex.