In article ,
djc 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.

When I replaced a 20 year old Ideal Mexico with a Worcester Bosch
condensing combi I was quite surprised to notice that I was spending 20p
(7.5kWh) a day just keeping the pilot light going. This was measured
over three summer months with heating off, electric hot water, and no
gas used for cooking (I was rebuilding the kitchen so cooker). So yes
60UKP a year is probably correct. The old boiler was pretty basic and I
suspect any heating effect from the pilot would be insignificant: much
of the day and night the heating is off and the heat would be lost to
the cold air in the flue.

Well, if your boiler with pilot light is totally unused in the summer
months it makes sense to turn it off totally. But you'd have saved more
money by using it to heat your hot water rather than electricity.

--
*Hang in there, retirement is only thirty years away! *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.