If you have an oil fueled, AGA, RAYBURN or ESSE please come and talk to me.

[LittleMissBliss]

We are in the process of buying an old cottage in a village with no gas supply. We want to change the electric heaters to radiators. It already has an old one oven Rayburn fitted in the kitchen which appears to heat the water or has heated the water at some point.

So if we got a larger 2 oven version, thinking of an ESSE cooker with back boiler. My questions are,

Where do you store your fuel?
How much do you spend on fuel a year?(and if you power your hot water of the range)
Does the water cylinder need to be next to the range?
Or could we move it under the stairs? (bathroom downstairs)
How much does it cost to service?

Many thanks!

[LittleMissBliss]

shameless bump

[LittleMissBliss]

I guess your all cooking in your cosy kitchens...sigggggggggggh

[GentleOtter]

We have a big tank in the garden for our ancient Rayburn (rented house and landlord insists it stays).

This thing gobbles fuel although there is an oil fired central heating system too. When the heating broke down for a year, I was going through a tank (1100 liters) roughly every four months but kerosene was 15p per litre then. It is about 45p per litre now ?

The water cylinder is in the kitchen right next to the Rayburn.

We service ours ourselves as it is very basic (1960's model) so don't know how much for a plumber. Our Rayburn is always set on lowest heat and may soot up as it is not a high enough temperature. It is warm though and has been used to revive lambs, chickens, prove dough, dry clothes.....

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

OK, I have had, in the past decade, a very old solid fuel Rayburn, which cooked and heated the water (there was a backboiler with the livingroom fire, which tried to do the central heating), and an oil-fuelled Aga, which also cooked and heated the water. I currently have an oil-fuelled combi boiler and an electric cooker, and an open fire which used to have a backboiler.

Fuel storage; ugly green oil tank in the garden, I'm afraid, though you can hide them behind trellises or whatever (bearing in mind the need for an oil tanker to gain access for filling.) And coal in a coalshed, obviously. Oil tanks come in different sizes, mine is a 1500 but smaller are available.

Costs; I haven't really taken note tbh, but it cost just over £600 for over 1300 litres of oil on my last bill. How long it lasts is variable and on that occasion "not nearly long enough", (about three months, iirc) but then I have a very large, cold farmhouse and we've just had the coldest winter for many a long year.

I can't really answer your other questions as my landlady pays for the servicing and so on, but a call-out to restart my oil combi boiler (after I stupidly ran out of oil) was £45.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

We have an oil fired stanley range which does cooking, heating and hot water.

Fuel is stored in an oil tank in the garden, with pipework underground leading to the range.

With oil prices as high as they are at the moment, we are spending £2.5k - £3k per year on it (roughly 3 tanks of about 2000 litres each).

Water cylinder would be located as for any other system, usually in the loft or airing cupboard (we have hot water cylinder in airing cupboard on first floor, and cold water tanks in the loft). If you put it next to the range then you would presumably struggle with water pressure?

Service I think is about £100, depending on whether they need to replace anything

[LittleMissBliss]

Thanks for the replies.
DP has just come back from the house which he visited with the plumber (who isn't certified for oil but is for gas and LPG) and has decided that he thinks LPG would be better than oil as you don't need such a large storage space for the canisters as a large oil tank.

I'm sulking as have been looking at ranges all day and have my heart set on one...[spoilt brat emoticon]

He feels that having a boiler in the utility room would be a better idea.

I still would like a range.... it's part of my country dream and is much prettier than a boiler and has duel use.

But I guess oil prices being what they are then gas canisters are probably a better idea.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

I have to say that if I was starting from scratch and choosing whether to put in gas or oil, I would choose gas.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

Can you keep your Rayburn? I loved mine, even though you have to learn a whole new cooking style with solid fuel, and be prepared to change your plans for dinner if the wind changes. (Stronger wind = more draw on the coal = higher cooking temperatures...)

[scaryteacher]

Jesus CSWS, even keeping my 80000 btu Stanley on all day in the winter, I only used 4000 litres a year max (and it was normally about 3000 litres).

My servicing tends to be more as mine has those bloody baffles on it; and when we come back to UK and reoccupy the house I might change it for a twin jet, or one of those Alpha thingies I keep drooling over on the AGA/RAYBURN/STANLEY website.

It saved a fortune when we had it installed in 1994, as we had had an ancient LPG rayburn which cost £125 per month in gas whichever season it was. The Stanley was far more economical. I miss it; a ceramic hob and a poxy single electric oven doesn't warm my bum, my tea towels or cook wonderful casseroles and clean itself as well.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

I don't know the btu of mine scaryteacher, but how big is your house? We are a large 5 bed semi, and there is someone at home all day every day, so we do prob have it on more than many people would.

[LittleMissBliss]

I may be able to negotiate keeping the rayburn. It's solid fuel. We are fitting a log burning stove in the sitting room so would have to buy wood anyway....It's just in a really awkward space but may be able to extend the flu pipe to make it more central...

I just think they make a home so snug and lovely.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

Yaaay, keep the Rayburn! They're lovely. And you can pop your feet up on it, with the firepit open of an evening...

But use coal in the Rayburn, wood burns too fast and they can be a bugger to get lit again.

(Hint; BBQ charcoal starts very easily with firelighters, and then you can add coal.)

[scaryteacher]

Large 1835 four bedroomed detached mine captain's house, and I used to keep the Stanley on all day when it was cold, as I reckoned there wasn't much between keeping it on or off.

You'll find the BTU on the plaque inside the lower left hand door where the burners are I think.

I miss it, especially my slab of cast iron to cook on...and my tenants don't like it, they don't cook on it, neither do they use the woodburner. They use electric heaters which cost a fortune, and run the immersion for hot water. They are mad.

[aJumpedUpPantryBoy]

Do keep it if you can. We have an oil fired Esse and I love it.
It's a pleasure to cook on and makes the kitchen so cosy and warm.

[CantSleepWontSleep]

Ah yes, you are right st - 60,000 here, although I suspect that our radiators may total slightly more than that . I do remember doing a calculation when we were changing some a few years back, but can't remember what we were up to at the time.

[LittlePushka]

We have a two oven SANDYFORD, does water heat and cooker all on programmable timer. Servicing is about £90 pa, runs on oil (not sure if you can get then to run on gas.

Lovely piece of kit, we have it in great buttery yellow colour. Do miss a grill occasionally though...but mircowaves have grills inbuilt now I suppose.

Jusst thought you might like to check out the name as it had not been mentioned above.

[chixinthestix]

We have 40 yr old small solid fuel rayburn. When we moved in it had been converted to run on oil - big green tank in garden, cost about £1200 last year to be on constantly from Oct - Mar. Servicing was £80 a time. Now we have taken out the oil conversion and burn wood only. Its fab and free (DH is a tree surgeon) but we use tons and tons. It heats all our hot water, kitchen, bathroom and 2 bedrooms and do most cooking on it. Hot water cyclinder is about 1.5m higher than rayburn and it seems to work fine.

I would say keep the rayburn - they are simple to service, impossible to break and have got much more character than a new range

[sminkle]

Littlemissbliss - I was moving to the country and wanted the aga for the look more than anything, but when when I worked out how much the oil burning was going to cost (a few thousand litres a year to fuel) I just couldnt justify it - esp as I am out all day at work and it would be burning away all day wasting the heat. So as a compromise I ended up getting a beautiful red aga with electric oven and gas top (I love gas cooking - have had all different types over the years). So this one looks the same as traditional agan in terms of door/front but obviously has gas rings on the top - i absolutely love it - have had it for about 5 years now and its just brilliant.