Cost of oil-fired heating

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 ?

Nick (Thinking of installing an electric boiler)

Reply to
Nick L
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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.

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

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

So oil heat costs around 7.5p per kilowatt/hr. Electricity which is supposedly 100% efficient etc. costs ???? per kw/ hr. Syggestion: Is the changeover cost and any reductions in maintenance cost such as combustion chamber replacement, chimney cleaning, oil tank mtc. etc. amortised over say a number of years worth it? What are expecatations for changes in costs of oil and electrcity? And yes there was a very long discussion on this matter, here, very recently.

Reply to
terry

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.
Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

I would say its not worth it YET unless you are a heavy user.

However on a new install I would certainly give it thought.

I think oil will stabilise around the $110 a barrel once the speculators leave the field..and then steadily rise smoothly as some kind of balance between supply and demand is achieved. That places it above coal and nuclear in terms of price. Gas will likely track it higher as well.

Ultimately oil will be an expensive transport fuel only: electricity generation can be easily done by other means, and that tends to suggest that electricity will replace fossil fuels as he main method of domestic heating.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Broadly ATM, at 60p/l I'd put it closer to 8p/unit useable heat.

I pay 8.415p/kWHr on a "normal" tarrif. E7 I pay 4.27/13.18

If you bring in capital expenses of a change over it's highly unlikely that it will be worth it in a term less than 10 years.

Both upward. Oil will rise faster but in smaller steps as it follows the market price of energy much more closely than electricity. Electric will rise but in larger more spaced out jumps as and when the power companies feel they can get away with another 10 to 15% increase after the last one... I'd expect most suppliers to hoik the prices again before the winter demand comes in and the "cheap" summer bills have landed. Did I hear last week that British Gas where thinking about it already?

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

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