I have bought a house with a fairly old oil-fired central heating
system, which works well, so we're not planning to change it.

The only problem is that the system works by being on all the time,
maintaining a tank of hot water, and the only way of turning off the
room heating function is by turning down the thermostat in the hall.

This means that we have to wake up and turn up the thermostat at 5 in
the morning in order for the house to warm up again...

Is there any kind of timer control that could be used with this
system? I've always had gas central heating in the past, and each
system has come with a timer control, but there doesn't seem to be an
oil equivalent.

Can anybody help?

Many thanks.