Thank goodness I don't need heating oil at the moment. But for next year, what about using propane gas in a bottle as a stopgap?
I'm looking at the webpage
If I had, say, a gas cooker hob how long might I run it full tilt during the day on 47kg? Say 10 hours a day.
MM
A 19 kg bottle lasts me 5 months just for cooking on a hob. I do lots of cooking but it isn't used on average for more than 60 mins a day, with one to three burners in use. Using a *very* rough guesstimate, if on 10 hours a day with one big burner in use, you might get two months. Don't hold me to that though. The data about my use is correct, so you can do your own calculations.
Also you'd get a lot of condensation unless you had an extractor fan which had an external outlet.
Peter Scott
Assuming your oil boiler is a pressure jet model. Have a look round for a small blown-gas propane fired burner to interchange with your oil burner on the boiler.
Harry mentioned condensation, too. Something I hadn't considered at all, actually.
Now, in terms of cost, I could:
- have the oil CH working most of the day with all radiators except the kitchen (which is mainly where I spend the winter) turned down to frost protection only
- use an oil-filled electric radiator (variable 800W to 2000W) as I presently do
- use an external propane red bottle to power the gas hob
At present, the hob is electric (wipe-clean flat-surface type)
Which one of those scenarios appeals? NB: Take into account the current enormous rise in heating oil price, which might not drop for several months.
MM
Oh that sounds an interesting device, a google didn't produce much above some very brief DIY construction stuff rather than some nice, commercially produced, drop in burners.
Calorific value of propane is 50,350 KJ/Kg so you have 2.37 GJ of energy available. A mixture of small and large rings all flat out on a 4 ring hob say 10kW or 10KJ/sec so 237,000 seconds = 3950 min = nearly 65 hours or about a week at 10hrs/day.
Yes, all forms of insulation should be implemented first. We've done the double-glazing, cavity wall insulation, loft hatches, and had various holes filled up [1] too.
We also had some new rads put in, and the system flushed out.
Next there is attic insulation [2], and some final bits of double or secondary DG to do (e.g. round the front door).
We might also consider an oil-filled rad that we can move between rooms, and turn down the heat in some of them. Of course, as SWMBO points out, that doesn't solve a power cut. But I suppose the fireplace then becomes the backup heat source.
[1] Wondering why it got so cold in some rooms, I noticed that e.g. in the kitchen and bathroom, around various pipes going through the wall I could see daylight. [2] There is 4" in the largest attic, but its been disturbed a lot with various building works. When we're sure we're done in the attic (cabling, possible flooring in parts), then it can be insulated properly.
Ha, this is a very good point. We've got a miserable 1200 lt and will be faced with an expensive fill in January. Next stop a 3000 lt tank, methinks.
Yes that would be a sensible option if you can eliminate the risk of theft. =A32000+ worth of black gold sitting in a big tank in your garden is an open invitation. It would take minutes for anyone equipped with a large tank on a flatbed with a pump to drain and once theirs was full they'd let the rest spill on the ground. Or they might be clever and have a sign written box van with the tank stowed away inside out of sight.
Dave
I'll see them from the upstairs window, rapidly don my Just William outfit and let fly with my peashooter and catapult.
We have an external propane red bottle (two actually) to power our gas hob instead of electric, but that's just because we find a gas hob nicer to use, nothing to do with heating the house and price of oil.
There were a number of small boilers which were available with either oil or gas burners fitted. Names of burner manufacturuers which I can recall are Nu-Way, EOGB (Electro oil and Gas burners), Radiant. Many of these will no doubt have been merged by larger groups now.
And there's no point having a lockable cap, because they just punch a hole in the tank.
MM
Well, yes, that was what motivated my neighbour to change and what initially interested me, too, since I also hate cooking on an electric hob. An electric oven is fine, but gas rings are so much more controllable for everything else. However, in Flackwell Heath, my previous demesne, the gas hob was very useful for quickly spreading warmth throughout the kitchen on very cold days.
MM
Adding to my own post - riello were another manufacturer who are still going. The model 40 burner was available and generally the mounting flange was identical so a simple plug and socket from boiler panel to burner and a shut off valve and flexible fuel connection would permit easy swapping over without serious buggering about and altering combustion settings to change from oil to gas. You would need to contact Riello to ascertain the suitability/availability for Propane rather than NG. The smaller Ideal Standard package boilers of a decade ago were offered with choice of burner and I do recall servicing a couple of Ideal Falcons at RAF Cowden which operated on a Propane tank supply but that was around fifteen years ago. Coastal erosion may have claimed them by now.
The bloke I use (and trust) to measure the flue gases on my Myson raves about Riello. He's trying to find me a secondhand one to replace my current one. Says they do him out of business because they need little care.
Peter Scott
We have 2 13kg bottles on an automatic changeover, one lasts about 6 months, and we can easily swap them ourselves. (I think a 47kg cylinder would fail on the last point.). It's a fairly easy job to install a setup like that (flexible 10mm-ish copper, ours was done in one run, though the cylinders are just outside the kitchen), there's no worries about gas boards looking at your installation and condemning it, so if you're at all competent I'd say do it.
No you need to do what Chubb used to do when I worked there.. run a continuous length of thin, weak wire in a snake pattern all over the surface yo want to protect and run the alarms anti-tamper circuit through it. Any attempt to get through breaks the wire and sounds the alarm. You will probably have to glue the cable to the tank or use the lead foil strips that you see on shops. The foil is easy to attach using varnish.
Well, that sounds interesting in principle, but it's a large area to cover with thin wire and I'd hate to have to find a break in it because Mr Blackbird chased Mrs Blackbird all over the top of the thing.
We have 2 x 47kg propane on an automatic changeover valve. I fitted the hob and valve myself - it's reasonably easy if you're competent with copper plumbing. I thoroughly leak tested the whole thing - I don't care what the law says but I care very much about being blown up. 47kg of propane lasts about a year; we're keen cooks so the hob gets used every day. As for changing the bottles, the bloke who brings the gas does that, although I can move them by rolling them on their bases. The gas man can pick them up!
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