I have an oil-fired boiler, which also serves as the hot water heater. Is there anything wrong with shutting off the circuit breaker to it, when I go away for the weekend?
Even though the temperature control for the hot water is turned to the minimum, it will still come on a few times per day. (The room thermostat is turned so far down, to 50, that it never makes the boiler come on.)
It should be fine, as long as it's not January in Alaska. The only issue you may find, especially if the boiler is on the older side, when they cool down and the cast iron contracts, you may get a little leakage.
If you're only gone for the weekend, the risk of cracking a boiler section from thermal shock probably outweighs the small amount of oil you would save, which even at today's prices is only perhaps $2.
2 days * 3 firings per day * 5 minutes per firing = 30 minutes fire time = .5 hr fire time 1 gal per hour firing rate * .5 hr fire time = .5 gal fuel oil.5 gal fuel oil * $4 gallon = $2
You can of course make a better log of firing intervals and duration and use your actual fuel oil price to get a more precise result, but as you can see, it isn't much.
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