Oil boiler and Aga running costs

[EmmaStone]

Hi there

We seem to be spending an inordinate amount on oil in our new house. Parts of it are about 150/200 years old, isn't brilliantly insulated, but so so. We've got a very old oil boiler (30 years+) and an oil Aga, which is on 24/7, and heats the hot water.

We moved in October, and have had to order oil every month. Since the end of October, we ordered 2200l of oil. A quick trawl through some past posts on Mumsnet and googling seems to indicate this is really, really high.

The house is fairly large - 4/5 beds, we're out most of the day in the week (although with the Aga on constantly, there's not much we can do there. Heating is on for approx 4-5 hours a day perhaps? We've also had the log burner on on colder days this winter.

The plan at the moment is to remove the Aga and replace the boiler, but I'm wondering if there could be a different problem (leak?) that we don't know about, so it would be useful to know if others in a similar house aren't paying much different?

last filled up Easter 1999 probably won't refill till late summer 2020

That is very good going!

If you want to cut heat loss, draughtproofing and loft insulation are the cheapest and have the best payback, apart from closing doors. Presumably you have no cavity walls which has next best return.

The worst payback is new windows and a plastic door. They cost so much and save so little they will never repay.

But if your old windows are rotten and falling out and need replacing, of course include DG

Your Aga is an energy waster.

We love our Rayburn. Does the hot water and heats half the house, uses 200l of oil a month so unless yours is massively more thirsty (look at how it has been adjusted) it’s not the problem.

Our boiler on the other hand can drink like a rugby team on tour and 500l of oil a month for the winter covers the Rayburn on 24 hours a day and four hours a day of heating.

@Fashionlisch Yup, we do run it at 17 for heating and 45 for hot water, plus we have a log burner in the (large) lounge, but the house is well insulated and has double glazing throughout (modernish 1970s box with big windows, and a conservatory over the back protects from the prevailing wind), I can see an old or bigger house would be less efficient.

I think we order about 3000 litres of oil a year( possibly 3500 if it's really cold) , we have an ancient boiler , 1920s 4/5 bed semi, insulation ok ish as we've just had new windows. Someone is home most of the time.
You will ( obviously) spend more on oil in winter and the longer and colder the winter the more you will spend. Oil aga will definitely be expensive to run, we don't have aga atm but in previous house had gas aga that was on all year ( only means of cooking) and it was expensive to run but I loved it.

This all sounds familiar to me. Moved into oil heated property in 08.
Aga and Oil. Bills were very high and I strove for efficiency. Prices fluctuate.
Aga costs were servicing twice a year and weekly Oil use.
Had it converted to electric. Gave me much finer control on usage. Mine comes on around 3pm warms up to 7pm and then is OFF.
Oil boiler was a pain as was the local fitter who was qualified to service it.
Had many problems. Was worried it was leaking somehow.
In the end it was me, not the engineer, that found it had split.
Went from Oil boiler to Biomass Boiler.
So that's a £2K plus bill for Oil down to a £600 bill for pellets.
Heating via wood from the UK not Oil from the Middle East.
Hot water about 25p per day. Minimum £2.20 a week. Cold winter using about £10 per week.
Still love my Agat though. My top tip is to takr adv of the pro cleaning your local supplier may offer. My decades old s/h Aga came up LIKE NEW after a four hour clean by them. The before and after pics were outrageous. All that burned on stuff you can't get off. Trust me it comes off.

I can't comment on the Aga but I once rented an old house with oil and the guy servicing the boiler was able to tell me how many litres per hour it used which was handy for budgeting as my previous oil heated house wasn't such a draft place.

If an old vaporiser burner they are easy to service yourself to save a few quid. When you do so you can also measure how much oil a minute it is using at your preferred level of adjustment (mine uses 3.9cc of oil a minute).