We have an average sized detached house with oil fired central heating. 14 years old, so presumably has cavity wall insulation and clearly has reasonable thickness of roof insulation.
It has always been hard to heat, especially the kitchen, which is the largest room in the house, has three external walls and a north facing back door. It has one small double radiator under the front window and one small single at the other end.
Most of the time our oil consumption is reasonable, but the last two weeks have been horrendous. With the heating on for 6 hours per day and the hall thermostat at only 16 or 17 degrees, we are going through 100 litres of oil per week.
Given that I suspect that the boiler is firing the system for all of those six hours each day, (because the very cold hall never reaches 16 or 17 degrees in this very cold weather we are having and only has a very small single radiator by the front door and one tiny single radiator on the landing), I guess that's about right. I think the boiler consumes more than 2 litres/hour. so 12 litres per day, 84 per week plus a bit more at weekends I guess.
My questions are: Can I reasonably assume that if we just can't get the house warm (radiators are all perfectly hot) that the builder has just put in too few/too small radiators?
Does anyone else experience this enormous leap in oil (or gas) consumption when the ambient temperature drops significantly?
One other thought. The boiler is in the garage - so the froststat is probably cutting in - how much oil is consumed keeping the boiler itself warm? Would it run all night or just a few times sporadically?
It has always been hard to heat, especially the kitchen, which is the largest room in the house, has three external walls and a north facing back door. It has one small double radiator under the front window and one small single at the other end.
Most of the time our oil consumption is reasonable, but the last two weeks have been horrendous. With the heating on for 6 hours per day and the hall thermostat at only 16 or 17 degrees, we are going through 100 litres of oil per week.
Given that I suspect that the boiler is firing the system for all of those six hours each day, (because the very cold hall never reaches 16 or 17 degrees in this very cold weather we are having and only has a very small single radiator by the front door and one tiny single radiator on the landing), I guess that's about right. I think the boiler consumes more than 2 litres/hour. so 12 litres per day, 84 per week plus a bit more at weekends I guess.
My questions are: Can I reasonably assume that if we just can't get the house warm (radiators are all perfectly hot) that the builder has just put in too few/too small radiators?
Does anyone else experience this enormous leap in oil (or gas) consumption when the ambient temperature drops significantly?
One other thought. The boiler is in the garage - so the froststat is probably cutting in - how much oil is consumed keeping the boiler itself warm? Would it run all night or just a few times sporadically?
