Exactly, just switch it off, back on when you want it.
- Thread starter Mick Annick
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Gareth J
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Hmm, 2000l for a well insulated house not doing hot water either is a LOT! For comparison, our oil runs an old inefficient wick Rayburn over winter and does a bit of heating and a bit of hot water. Also have thick walls but barely any insulation on them. Uses just less than 1000l.
I would keep an eye out for a second hand condensing boiler (Grant?) there are plenty around on marketplace generally for £50-£250. Then set the thing up so the return temperature is optimum under normal use.
You don't want that boiler cutting in/out on its internal thermostat. There's a huge chunk of steel and water in there that takes a significant amount of energy to warm up. Using it to warm just a couple towel rails is horribly inefficient. (Go electric on the towel rails?) It also looks like the boiler is in an unheated bit of the house so, potentially, all the heat that leaks from the boiler is wasted.
Compensate for this by running in batches, hot and hard for as short a time as is practical. Any time the boiler is up to temperature, (if it is in an unheated space) it's wasting energy. Would be a frugal option to run a pump overrun timer too, so your pumped radiator circuit keeps circulating for some time after the boiler has timed out to drag a bit more heat from the boiler back into the house.
Don't be scared by a heating controller but if you prefer a timer, as you're only running one channel anyway, a controller will only offer you the option to do day by day programming rather than the same setting every day.
I would keep an eye out for a second hand condensing boiler (Grant?) there are plenty around on marketplace generally for £50-£250. Then set the thing up so the return temperature is optimum under normal use.
You don't want that boiler cutting in/out on its internal thermostat. There's a huge chunk of steel and water in there that takes a significant amount of energy to warm up. Using it to warm just a couple towel rails is horribly inefficient. (Go electric on the towel rails?) It also looks like the boiler is in an unheated bit of the house so, potentially, all the heat that leaks from the boiler is wasted.
Compensate for this by running in batches, hot and hard for as short a time as is practical. Any time the boiler is up to temperature, (if it is in an unheated space) it's wasting energy. Would be a frugal option to run a pump overrun timer too, so your pumped radiator circuit keeps circulating for some time after the boiler has timed out to drag a bit more heat from the boiler back into the house.
Don't be scared by a heating controller but if you prefer a timer, as you're only running one channel anyway, a controller will only offer you the option to do day by day programming rather than the same setting every day.
Mick Annick
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The outhouse is quite well insulated, the back wall is the living room wall and I’ve blocked off as much as I can whilst leaving a bit of fresh air for the boiler to breathe! Second hand boilers are scarce here (rural France), but if I can reduce boiler run time to a few hours a day that will reduce consumption significantly.
I’m looking at swapping out one of the towel rails for electric at the moment - can you get dual water / electric ones?
Longer term we have to think about what we do next for heating, no mains gas and not keen on LPG, pellets take up too much space and have their issues - house next door had a major fire a couple of years back when the feed hopper got blocked, currently replacement oil boilers are available but not permitted for new installs so may get dearer as the market shrinks…
Mick Annick
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Yes, all liquid fuels here are dearer than the UK and have been for some time.
Mick Annick
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Solar is popular here - a friend has his barn covered plus an array in his garden that tracks the sun.
