Does shutting off zones save money?

ryanthevan

Hi there!

I have a 22-year old oil boiler that heats the house across several zones via hot water baseboards. I have a few questions on how to run it more efficiently.

- Will it low oil consumption if I turn certain zones off during the day? Or is the boiler already running hot water to the other zones, so the savings to not have that water run through other zones would be minimal?

- Is it more efficient to turn the boiler off on certain days of shoulder season? In the fall or spring, we may have a week of needing the boiler, and then a week of not needing it. Does it save oil consumption to turn the boiler off for a week, or even a day at a time if it's not needed?

Thanks!

hot_rod

Are the zones in rooms that are unused, that you can keep cooler all season?

If not a small setback could save some energy in some or all of the home

ryanthevan

hot_rod said:

Are the zones in rooms that are unused, that you can keep cooler all season?

If not a small setback could save some energy in some or all of the home

One zone includes an arctic entryway that is likely not very efficient to heat.

The second zone is an upstairs area that recieves a lot of sunshine and heats up naturally midday, even when it is cold.

The final zone we would have on most of the time

Robert_25

The smaller the difference between the indoor and outdoor temperatures, the less energy that is required to maintain the indoor setpoint.

Does your oil boiler maintain temperature even when none of your zones are calling for heat?

GroundUp

Less area heated or lower temps equals less fuel.

Jamie Hall

The rather obvious question here is -- how are the zones controlled? If they are on thermostats, just turn them down and leave them down. That will save energy and hence oil. I'd avoid daily setbacks on them, but you can always turn them up on the days when you need to be warm.

Caution, though: be sure that you maintain the air temperature in those spaces above the dewpoint to avoid condensation. This will avoid condensation and the resulting mold and moisture damage problems which, believe me, you do not want.

bburd

Also, it's generally a bad idea in climates with freezing weather to disable a zone completely. The cost of dealing with frozen and burst pipes will more than wipe out any fuel savings.

Dave Carpentier

Do you ever "monitor" your boiler to get an idea of the cycle run time lengths ?
Long burns are best.