thirsty boiler.

hello all,
my first post, i am trying to gain knowledge on all things in the house,
I am an electronic engineer by trade and a hobbiest mechanic, so i like to think i can tackle most jobs.

anyway, my boiler (in my newly rented house) seems to be going through 500 liters a month!!, it is on approx 6 hours a day. coming from my old house this is more than twice what i am used to.

I noticed white smoke coming out of the flume, however it is a fairly new boiler with a tiger loop. the old one is still sitting beside it.

also its a pressured system, i bleed the heaters and topped up the pressure to 1 bar, the hot water tank doesnt seem to heat very quick and you are lucky to get 2 showers from it. the temp at the heaters is 60c but at the hot tank it drops to 40something, all the way down the feed pipe to the same level of the heaters. (just thinking no real flow so wont heat? blled valve stuck?)
aslo i did notice the pressure raise to 2 bar one night (air in the system?).

its alot of info i know but probanly not enough at the same time..

where ca we start?

thanks in advance
Stewart.

Start with wiki and faq for lots of basic knowledge.

Your boiler uses 600 litres a month?
A bit more info would not go amiss?

Works out to 2.8 litres/hour. What boiler is it? Model and output.
May not be that bad. Is your new house bigger than your old one?
White 'smoke' is probably condense If the boiler is fairly new it will be a condensing model and this is normal.

How have you calculated your boiler is using 500 litres a month?

thanks for the replies, i think i could be trying to run before i can walk here..
Its an RD3 and it has a manufacture stamp of this time last year, checked it last night.

i calculated the 500 liters a month as it nearly ran out at the start of november so i got 500 liters to see us over crimbo, checked it last week and i had to put a brick below the tank till the oil came!!

not sure on the output, how do i check this?

yea i suppose the house is a little bigger, detached as well, and a dorma bungalo.. all adds up i suppose.
i think it could be a condensing one as it has like a water trap attached to the side.

is it more efficient to run hotter for shorter or cooler for longer?

thanks again.
Stewart.

RD3 sounds like the burner, without the boiler make & model it is hard to tell you what your usage is, even harder without knowing what the nozzle size is for example if it's a 1.00 USG / 60o means that it will use 1 US Gallon (6.66 pints or 3.78Litres) per full Hour (with the oil pump running @ 8 bar), so if its running constantly for 5 hours a day it'll use 18.92 Litres per day over10 days = 189.20 Litres
best thing ...get a decent engineer in who can either downrate or uprate the boiler, also there is the debate over running it constantly over the day which makes it a more consistant heat, ( 2 car's both done 100,000 miles, 1 was done in a town the other on a motorway..which would you buy?) the motorway as its been running consistantly not stop starting...but with more info we can help you more