Most economical way to run oil heating?

[1manonthebog]

For years I have always just hit the 1hr boost button to turn on my heating. I maybe hit it once in the evening and let it run and hour, let it go off an hour then hit the boost button again for another hour.

Now my father in law says its more economical to just let it run for the solid 3 hours as it uses more oil starting up, kind of like a car going on short journeys, it uses more fuel than going for a long run due to all the stopping and starting.

In saying that now we do seem to go through more oil than he does and we use our heating less. Most evenings his heating is on from say 4-5 pm to 10 at night, where as ours in on max 2 hours.

 

[SimonG]

Cant compare oil usage unless you know nozzle sizes.

Also depends on controls, room stat, trv's etc.

 

[Best]

As above, and it also depends on how well insulated your home is and how well installed and serviced the system and boiler is.
To run your heating for one hour on, one hour off, one hour on, is very wasteful of fuel and will give you LESS heat! A thing people forget, is if they run their heating for say, 3 hours, the boiler itself will burn fuel in perhaps a total time of less than half an hour in the first hour period, then much less the next hour and a decreasing amount each hour period. Only thing that actually runs a lot is the electrical circulating pump.
But you have been cold starting the boiler, letting it heat your home partially in just one hour, then letting your home cool down a lot and the boiler & rads go cold, before cold starting again. All you were doing was actually letting the boiler flame burn for longer time periods overall for less heat.

 

[bright spark]

Exactly, unless ye have identical houses with d same boilers/ controls etc.
There's loads of variables. Main one being how much heat does d missus love

 

[Best]

There's loads of variables. Main one being how much heat does d missus love

That's why wall stats are so good. Stops women running their heating boiler for hours on full blast and overheating the home.

 

[Worcester]

That's why wall stats are so good. Stops women running their heating boiler for hours on full blast and overheating the home.

I couldn't possibly acknowledge that we have a disconnected wall stat that the missus uses (turns it up and own) and an actual remote programmable wireless one that really does the controls could I

 

[quality]

my opinion is rip it out fit a proper air source heat pump system
job done

 

[lame plumber]

my opinion is rip it out fit a proper air source heat pump system
job done

bit pointless if the house isnt properly insulated?!!