Browse Forums Heating, Cooling & Insulation 1 Dec 04, 2007 8:13 pm We recently had a new floor heating system installed in our house - driven by a new GEMINOX 30 KW oil boiler. It warms the house, looks good and was quite expensive. But is it efficient?
It records its burn time and we can measure the consumption of oil. I can see that it uses about 5 liters of oil per burn-hour and our oil has a thermal "content" of about 10.8 KWH per liter. So, even if the boiler is producing it max output (30 KW) for each burn-hour, it's eating 54 KWH of energy (5 x 10. to do that. That seems pretty bad - about 55-56% efficient. Is this normal? Re: Efficiency of new Oil Boiler 2Dec 05, 2007 1:21 am Colin where are you?
Oil burners were considered cheap to run in the 60's/70's but with todays oil prices they are very expensive to run and as oil is a finite resource - not the best of heating systems to install into a house. It's a bit late to be working out costs per KW - but I would not expect it to be very efficient as I have had an oil burner before and it was very expensive to run (Oil as such - is generally known as a kerosene or very close to it style burner). Steve Re: Efficiency of new Oil Boiler 3Dec 05, 2007 8:32 am 54 kW.hr per day during the heating season is a lot of energy. Our entire household uses about 15 kW.hr per day and that's for everything.
Perhaps if you turn the thermostat down 2 degrees you'll cut this in half. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 Re: Efficiency of new Oil Boiler 4Dec 06, 2007 6:51 pm Thank you both (Yak_Chat and Casa2) for taking the trouble to reply.
The decision to buy an oil boiler was simply a "reasonable decision" in an awkward set of circumstances. We didn't and still don't live in an ideal world. But, apart from that, it is still a heater with a technical specification. And one can wonder whether it is functioning normally or not. I know that I can increase or decrease the consumption by turning the thermostat up or down. But my question was really this: Does the fact that a modern heater with a max output of 30kW consumes fuel at the rate of 54 kW indicate that there is something wrong with the boiler? It strikes me as odd but I'm not an engineer... Kind regards Re: Efficiency of new Oil Boiler 5Dec 06, 2007 11:26 pm Colin - this might help.
http://www.derbyheatbanks.com.au/2.html The derby uses a similar prinicple to your underfloor heating system - ie a heat bank that stores heat. And this article may interest others on heating / cooling costs etc. http://www.energyinstitute.com.au/docs/Factsheet%207126%20(Winter)%20LR.pdf Casa I think you'll enjoy reading this article from Alaska. http://www.uaf.edu/ces/faculty/seifert/ABSN/ABSN44.pdf Steve Re: Efficiency of new Oil Boiler 6Dec 06, 2007 11:39 pm Thanks Yak_Chat/Steve. Interesting article. I particualry liked the vertical hot water panels forspace heating, which is the direction I'm currently heading. Demolition August 2009, Construction Started September 2009, Completed December 2010 go upvc window frames ensure insulation under colorbond. not just sarking, lighter color roof also not sure if you have seen this viewtopic.php?t=5823 last couple of pages… 4 98067 I'm about to put down some Merbau. Is it necessary to oil underneath the boards before laying? 0 760 Hi, as per the subject. Does anyone have any recommendations for the best value decking oil (Bunning is close to where I live) for a treated pine deck? Thanks 0 1290 |