Am i getting ripped off?

iypoon

Hi Guys,



We recently purchased a house in connecticut, 1650 square feet. This is a 2 bedroom 1 floor house. It has an oil boiler that's fairly old (maybe 30 years?). It's 4 zoned heating and we keep the temperature at 52 degrees minimum. When we get home, the living room/kitchen heat turns on to 60 degrees until 11 and then goes back down to 52. The bedroom goes up to 65 at 10:30 and shuts back down at 2:30 in the morning to 52 degrees and goes back up to 65 degrees at 5:30 in the morning then back down to 52 degrees at 7:30 am. So i think we don't use the heat all that much.



We just started the service with the oil company last month. Since then we've had to turn off the heat completely for the last two weeks because the boiler giving off a horrid smell and we're going to have it checked by the chimney cleaners before turning it back on.



Today we received a delivery of oil for 63 gallons of oil! Does that seem right? 63 gallons for 2 light weeks of usage? That's awfully expensive...

Rod

Check the figures.

Hi- I'm just thinking 63 gallons in 14 days = 4.5 gallons a day and if you then divide the 4.5 gallons by 24 you get 0.1875 gal per hour. Actually that doesn't seem that much when you look at the figures. You're using a huge setback and you may want to reduce the setback a bit as you are using a lot of fuel just to make up the temperature.It is sometimes more fuel efficient to just maintain the temperature with a small setback. I don't know about chimney cleaners but I would sure have a good burner tech come in and clean the boiler and check that the burner is firing properly with a digital analyzer. This should be done annually.

You might also want to look at a new boiler as the efficiency has improved tremendously in the last 30 years.

- Rod

iypoon

...

Thanks Rod... so basically if i kept the temp at 55 when i'm away and 60 when i'm home, that would save me fuel instead of going from 52 to 60? Yeah, i'm thinking about looking at a new oil burner but i was hoping I could avoid that.



I saw some mid efficiency burners online for about $2K, how much would it cost to have installed, roughly?

Gordy

obsessed with setback

 Your boiler is working to recover from setbacks while at the same time you are not comfortable. Set it, and forget it unless you go on vacation, or an extended weekend.



 IF you are COMFORTABLE at 60* you are already saving a little money by lowering the delta t from the outside temperature.

meplumber

One of the rules of our board is that we do not discuss pricing.

While most of us will gladly answer technical questions, we do not touch pricing, as this varies from area to area.



Something to keep in mind, is that most professionals will not install a product that the homeowner purchases over the internet.  We all work for a very long time to reach a master license or licenses in our trade and in this litigious society that we live in, it is just too risky.



The manufacturers and distributors that we purchase from provide us with warranty and technical support that we cannot achieve online.



Also.  Gordy is right.  You are wasting more energy than you are saving by bouncing the temperature around.  You are already saving by having the t-stat at 60 deg.  Leave it alone and the house will be more comfortable and efficient.



Good Luck.