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Hi Chaps,
I have a couple of questions regarding our oil boiler installation - a Grant Vortex Pro 15/26, serving an unvented cylinder.
1) I've read on another (non-plumbing!) forum that it's inefficient to use the boiler solely for hot water heating during the summer months, when the CH is off. The suggestion was to use the immersion heater only. No reason was given, but I guess the reasoning is that you're not heating up the system water in boiler and pipery - just 'injecting' heat directly into the cylinder. So although the kWh 'unit cost' of leccy is higher than oil, it still works out cheaper. Is this true, or a load of old cobblers?
There's only the two of us, so our water needs are quite low. Currently, I'd say the boiler does one half-hour burn morning and evening to satisfy our needs. The boiler has been 'range rated' to 15kW, so it does this without short-cycling. Which brings us to:
2) When we had the system installed in 2015, the boiler was range rated right down to 15kW. This was enough at the time, but we had plans to extend the house a little later on. Unfortunately, employment uncertainty has put those plans on hold, so my other question is whether any long-term problems could occur running the boiler at its lowest 'setting' for two or three years - or is it fine to run it like that indefinitely?
This is the first oil system we've had, so it's all a bit new!
Cheers
I have a couple of questions regarding our oil boiler installation - a Grant Vortex Pro 15/26, serving an unvented cylinder.
1) I've read on another (non-plumbing!) forum that it's inefficient to use the boiler solely for hot water heating during the summer months, when the CH is off. The suggestion was to use the immersion heater only. No reason was given, but I guess the reasoning is that you're not heating up the system water in boiler and pipery - just 'injecting' heat directly into the cylinder. So although the kWh 'unit cost' of leccy is higher than oil, it still works out cheaper. Is this true, or a load of old cobblers?
There's only the two of us, so our water needs are quite low. Currently, I'd say the boiler does one half-hour burn morning and evening to satisfy our needs. The boiler has been 'range rated' to 15kW, so it does this without short-cycling. Which brings us to:
2) When we had the system installed in 2015, the boiler was range rated right down to 15kW. This was enough at the time, but we had plans to extend the house a little later on. Unfortunately, employment uncertainty has put those plans on hold, so my other question is whether any long-term problems could occur running the boiler at its lowest 'setting' for two or three years - or is it fine to run it like that indefinitely?
This is the first oil system we've had, so it's all a bit new!
Cheers