Advised to turn the dial on oil boiler down to one if really cold winter. Advise please.

[fitzykev]

I had my really old trainco boiler serviced today which i was reluctant to do as it ran that well last winter we used less than a 600 pound fill. And it was pretty much 24/7 on thermostat. We are in a bungalow. Anyway the very nice man advised me if it is a very cold winter to turn dial down to one and keep it on all the time. Is this correct advice? Also i asked him could i put fire resistant insulation around the boiler and he said yes or even a boiler jacket. Is this okay to do?

 

[muggles]

Don't know why you'd turn it down in cold weather. Also if you turn these down too much they suffer from bank end rot and you'll need a new boiler pretty fast.

Some insulation would certainly be a good idea though

 

[ChrisJP]

Does you boiler also provide hot water (normally via a coil in your HW storage tank through which the water from the boiler flows)? If so, turning your boiler thermostat right down will cause your HW to be lukewarm - and also incur the risk of legionairres disease bacteria build-up

 

[ericmark]

I am watching to see replies, I too have an oil boiler, and I have not really worked on oil boilers, unlike many gas boilers which modulate (turn down), the oil boiler simply turns on/off. It works by what is called a mark/space ratio, which means it varies the time on and time off, so the average is what we need. Until it comes to the point where on all the time.

What we want is for the radiators to never get either stinking hot or cold, but give out heat all the time. The diagram shows how we get circulation, which we want to continue to move the air around, and if the air stops moving we can get hot or cold spots, but that is where my knowledge stops, how turning the temperature changes how this all works I do not know, my training was limited to heating pipes, and the temperatures were well over what is used in the home, I was working with 600ºC, so would like to know what we are aiming for in a house.

 

[MeldrewsMate]

I too cannot see the reasoning behind the advice you have been given, unless your boiler is in an unheated outbuilding.

 

[fitzykev]

I too cannot see the reasoning behind the advice you have been given, unless your boiler is in an unheated outbuilding.

Yes its inside a small purpose built brick shelter.

 

[ericmark]

When house hunting, I saw a lot of boilers housed outside the house, I have not worked out why? The risk of freezing must be much higher, so I suppose the liquid used will be some anti-freeze mixture? But when my boiler runs, it cools heating the house, the only heat wasted is what goes out of the flue.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The risk of freezing must be much higher, so I suppose the liquid used will be some anti-freeze mixture?

A few of my banks had them outside, in separate boiler rooms, they simply had a frost stat, in the boiler room.

 

[oilhead]

The longevity of many old oil boilers means there are still lots which were installed before the availability of todays 'sophisticated' controls. With gas boilers, the old cast boilers are pretty well extinct, but there are still lots of 2 pipe oil systems, and outside installations which kept smells (and oil leaks and noise) out of the house. As this is also in a bungalow, there may be lots of pipework in the loft and continual running at low temperatures will protect this from freezing. Whilst it may encourage return port corrosion, particularly if it is on gravity hot water, as the boiler is getting closer to replacement, this may not be such a bad recommendation.