Dave Liquorice wrote:
On Thu, 15 May 2008 12:23:36 +0100, Nick L wrote:

With the price of heating oil hovering around 60p per litre does anyone
know roughly what it costs to run a typical domestic oil fired boiler in
pence per kWh ?

Have a search back in here (I think) It's been discussed recently. But
basicaly burn 1l of oil in an hour and you get about 10kW of heat. So
60p/l (I'm glad I was sitting down...) is *roughly* 6p/kWhr but you have
to factor in the ineffciency of the boiler so add about 25% to that for a
real cost of useful heat.

(Thinking of installing an electric boiler)

There was a thread about that as well, IIRC it ran quite long and
rambled...


Yes, twas me that started it.

At that time it came to around 5.8p/unit: oil has gone up since.

I think some of the conclusions bear repeating.

1/. If you can use e.g. UFH in a concrete slab as a massive storage
heater, or use a heat pump, its likely that your ultimate cost will be
below oil at current prices. You could also use a massive insulated tank
- 10,000 liters or more - of water as a heat bank heated by off peak,
and run a heat exchanger through that to power a wet CH system during
the day.

2/. Oil prices currently do not reflect shortage of supply, so much as
speculation and profiteering by all concerned. Hey start a war and buy
oil futures, why not? I would expect oil prices to dip below $100/barrel
later this year, but not by much. That is still above the price at which
oil is competitive against off peak, but off peak itself may rise in cost.

3/. My BELIEF is that long term, we will indeed build a couple more coal
stations before going mainly nuclear, and that long term electric
heating WILL be cost competitive: If I were doing it all over, I'd put
in a heat pump. HOWEVER think 'power cuts' - at least our AGA and the
open wood fires and the wood stove keep us warm when the power lines are
down, which is usually an annual event. The large tank of hot water
under the floor does appeal as well..storage for several days is not
impossible, and a generator could power pumps to circulate it.