On 7 Dec 2006 02:17:49 -0800, wrote:

|
| Forgetting the cost of the gas used for a minute, you're assuming all that
| energy is wasted. It's not - only a proportion is. The rest goes to
| keeping the water inside the boiler warm so it doesn't have to heat up so
| far when it fires next. More wastage when the system isn't in use though I
| suppose.
|
|Hadn't thought of it like that, but there's only so much water inside a
|boiler. As soon as the pump starts and cold water is drawn in then
|surely this preheating effect is minimal?

But the energy is then used to heat the house, *not* wasted as you imply.
Almost all the energy which does not get to the boiler eventually heats the
house, so is not wasted.

How many hours in the year do you leave doors and windows open to cool the
house? Only during that small time is the energy used by the pilot light
truly wasted.
--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk Google Groups is IME the *worst*
method of accessing usenet. GG subscribers would be well advised get a
newsreader, say Agent, and a newsserver, say news.individual.net. These
will allow them: to see only *new* posts, a killfile, and other goodies.