Until we moved to our last home - Clay Cottage at the end of a Suffolk Lane - we'd never had oil fired central heating. We had a wood-burner and a multi fuel Rayburn for 23 years and LPG and electric where we lived before that. The boiler at Clay Cottage was in a cupboard in the kitchen and at least 30 years old - it had a few problems in my 5 years living there and thank goodness the father/son heating engineers business had been looking after it for the lady who lived there before us and knew all about its care.
Moving here to my bungalow and the oil fired boiler was only 7 years old so I thought it wouldn't have too many problems, but in the first couple of years here I had to call on Ian several times. Then it developed a leak which was repaired and since then I've had 2 years with hardly any issues. I know what to do when the Low Pressure light is flashing so that was one problem I could sort out by myself.........
.....until last week when the heating didn't come on and I went out to the garage to find the low pressure light on but when I tried to turn the little levers that let water in to get the pressure up again one broke....whoops.
No heating isn't too big a problem as I've got alternatives but no hot water for shower and hair washing is horrible. Thankfully after I left a message for Ian the heating engineer, he called in the next day to do a temporary fix.
At both Clay Cottage and here I've had to have new oil storage tanks - this one here wasn't on a firm base and leaned against the back of the garage wall. New rules mean they have to be double skinned (bunded) and situated over a metre from buildings.
I'm just about to order 500 litres to top up the tank for winter. The price goes up and down but I'm very glad I can afford to fill the tank to keep me warm..........as long as the boiler works.
Apologies for this post being very boring ...........if you have gas, which arrives in your home without any effort to power your heating you are lucky!
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Oh I hear you Sue about oil heating. I’ve lived in Dorset all my life, 77 years and in various villages, none with a gas supply, so it’s always been oil. I’ve had leaks, stuck valves and other problems. Now I have a Grant boiler which is outside and an excellent heating engineer, I just wish oil companies would let us top up with 2 of 3 hundred litres instead of 500 being minimum amount, it’s a huge amount of money in one transaction. I’ve only pit the heating on this week, we have been so lucky with mild weather here. Sandra.
ReplyDeleteAfter a lifetime of getting up to a cold house it is lovely to come out of my unheated bedroom into the warm living room in the mornings
DeleteI have the luxury of gas heating but from my old job answering home emergency calls, I know that oil fired heating has a shortage of engineers to repair and when they go wrong, they go wrong big time - leaks are the main concern. I hope yours is sturdy and if haven't already, that you make sure you have contact details for a good engineer/repair man and an annual service is invaluable. I hope you will be warm and cosy this winter. Betty
ReplyDeleteI suppose because most of rural Suffolk has to use oil we do seem to be OK for heating engineers, there are three advertising in the parish magazine.
DeleteOur first two houses had no heating at all apart from a gas fire in the sitting room. I well remember coming home from work and starting cooking while still wearing AL my outdoor clothes; York and Peterborough were perishingly cold in winter. Especially for a southerner brought up with full central heating. We have gas now, and I'm grateful every time I walk past a radiator or have a bath.
ReplyDeleteI remember how cold the house I lived in as a child and coming home from a day out visiting aunties and uncles and Mum would light the fire and we would all huddle round in coats until the room warmed up
DeleteWe pay a monthly direct debit into Boiler juice so there is always money there when we need to order oil and it builds up nicely during the summer months. We also have a wood burner and open fireplace and I do love the cheeriness of flames.
ReplyDeletePenny
Boiler Juice keep sending me emails offering Direct Debit, but I just save in the bank instead and pay online
DeleteA friend turned on her heating yesterday and had a similar problem albeit with a fairly new gas boiler. She did all the pressure checks but to no avail. The engineer was calling last night on his way home from another job. Fingers crossed for you both. Catriona
ReplyDeleteDo hope your friend got heating sorted, it was the coldest night here so far but my heating is still OK after the temporary fix, hopefully he will come and do a permanent thing sometime
DeleteNever boring, our heating did not turn on this morning, we had hot water so the boiler was working, our router turned itself off, so the hive could not link, typical on the coldest morning so far.
ReplyDeleteYes coldest early morning here too but thankfully heating is still OK.
DeleteNot a boring post - but one I can really empathise with. We had a new tank in 2009 and that was replaced last year. Boiler Juice is a good arrangement for getting oil at the optimum price. I know the boiler cannot last much longer, and am setting money aside for the inevitable replacement cost. Truly grateful for our very reliable engineer. Keep warm my friend! In my childhood, hair washing was usually done with a jug over the bath, and often "strip wash" at the basin with a flannel.
ReplyDeleteHair washing when I was little was over the kitchen sink with a flannel over eyes to keep out water - even baby shampoo seemed to sting back then.
DeleteI'm so glad that we have a mains gas boiler here in the bungalow. In our park home it was LPG fired and I was always worried about running out during winter especially if there was snow and the tanker struggled to get in. Luckily, we know a great heating engineer who is happy to come to our new house to service the boiler. We used to call his dad in (for about 30 years!) to do the job at the old house and now the son has taken over the business. We are very lucky. I hate to be cold 🥶 🤧
ReplyDeleteAngie
I find being cold makes me very depressed. The guy who looks after the boiler is pretty good at coming to sort it quickly - he does repairs and his son does the annual servicing - due next month
DeleteIn a remote part of Wales, my parents had an electronic fuel gauge on the tank and the company would arrange all of deliveries in the area. It was all very efficient.
ReplyDeleteI believe that's available here - but my tank has a watchman thing that plugs into electric and tells me what's in the tank. I usually get down to about half full and then top up
DeleteWe've been reliant on oil fired boilers for a few years now too. I loved it when we had a solid fuel Rayburn, we had a cosy kitchen, hot water, it ran a couple of upstairs radiators and we could shove a casserole in the oven part to slow cook all day - a little messy , yes, but very reliable .
ReplyDeleteAlison in Devon x
We loved being self-sufficient for heating although it did mean spending several hours every weekend in winter cutting wood
DeleteNot a boring post at all, in fact it's made me very grateful that we now have gas fired central heating and hot water. Back in Wales it was oil fired and our boiler was outside. I could guarantee it would always need attention ... those pesky little levers ... when it was cold, dark and raining and I was on my own while Alan was away at work for the week. The nights I struggled with torches and getting the boiler front off drove me mad. The dogs and Ginger would be watching me from the comfort of the conservatory ... and God help Alan if he happened to phone for our nightly chat, just as I got back in!!
ReplyDeleteYes always raining but at least the boiler is in the garage. I can get the front off OK but can never get it back on properly.
DeleteThere's gas in towns and some villages in Suffolk but mostly not
Boilers are never boring, especially when they go wrong. I'm glad yours is (almost) sorted out again. We know how lucky we are to have mains gas, believe me.
ReplyDeleteI well remember all huddling round the fire, but also toasting crumpets by it. I appreciate central heating, having lived in many houses without it when the children were little.
I've had more years without proper central heating than I have with it, several places we lived had really old electric storage heaters that were useless
DeleteWe heated with wood when we lived in the woods the first time. When heating season was over, we spent the rest of the year working up a sweat filling the woodshed in preparation for the next heating season!
ReplyDeleteYes I know exactly what you mean, there is much moving wood from one place to another when you heat with it
DeleteGas furnace in my basement next to the water heater. I had the annual furnace check up and cleaning just last week and all is good!
ReplyDeleteThat's good news, you are sorted for winter
DeleteBack in the late 70's we built a house which was a 1/4 mile from the nearest natural gas source. As an alternative to the expense of bringing in the gas line that far, we were talked into geo-thermal heat source. Ground water in Michigan is 56 degrees Fahrenheit and the premise is the heat from the water is removed down to 34 degrees. A deep water well was the source. Somehow the system consolidated that heat (don't remember exactly how) and the now 34-degree water was redistributed back into the ground. In the summer, it became the source for air conditioning. It was a great innovation at the time and the heating company used our house as their promotion. We sold that house a few years later and it was a great selling point. I just looked that house up online a few days ago and it stated forced air heat but did not say geo-thermal so sometime later, owners must have converted to a more common heating system when the area became more developed with new houses and streets and access to natural gas. So technically we had a quiet heating system with no fumes, no gas bills, but a very high electric expense, running the system.
ReplyDeleteNew houses built here have to have ground-source heat pumps - people say they are OK except when the weather is cold! They are very expensive to run too so I've heard.
DeleteHas it really been seven years? Seems like yesterday.
ReplyDeleteMains gas isn't always that great and does come with its own set of problems. In a perfect world, I would like a wood burning fire, an AGA, and solar panels. My choice is based on the ownership of these things by my friends and neighbours.
I've only been here 4 years but the boiler is now 11 years old. Using wood for everything was very hard work and dusty. I don't think anything is perfect.
DeleteI feel lucky. Apart from a couple of times when the boiler stopped because an outside pipe froze, it's not been a problem and I am hoping when the combi boiler is fitted, it will stop that particular issue. xx
ReplyDeleteThis is an oil fired combi boiler so when it goes wrong both heat and water are lost - at Clay cottage we had alternative electric immersion for water and solar thermal panel too
DeleteCertainly not a boring post - it made me think of my childhood. Spent (from 8) in a freezing boarding school with virtually no heating. Wearing heavy 'army greatcoats' (actually the school deep green, heavy wool coats) and chilblains. Nasty. We put central heating (electric) into our double brick home and that warmed up for the whole of winter, then gas into our lovely 1930 Arts & Crafts home and loved the warmth, and the control, that gave. Of course a wooden 1930 house, with leadlight windows was a nightmare to heat, but being cold reminded me of school, and I told my husband that heating was cheaper than psychotherapy!!!
ReplyDeleteOil heat is not too common here, more up in the north and it is very expensive. I feel so lucky to not have to use oil or propane or electric to heat my home.
ReplyDeleteGod bless.
Like you I enjoy a cozy home in the winter. Having Ian to service your system is ideal.
ReplyDeleteIn 2020, I replaced my oil burning furnace with a new one and fortunately have had no problems. It is serviced annually by the people I bought it from.
My heat pumps supplement the furnace. When oil gets expensive, I use the heat pumps and vice versa when electricity gets highly priced.
We decided 45 years ago when we bought this house that we wouldn't have central heating (our previous home had it) happily for us it's a decision we've never regretted. We have a gas fire in each of the main rooms downstairs and a gas cooker in the kitchen (also a small electric one). Our water is heated by a gas multipoint in the bathroom so our water is totally separate. Sometimes one item goes wrong - but we don't lose all heat or cooking facilities, the only one we have a panic about (it's happened twice) is when the water heater takes a day off and we have to have it fixed or replaced, don't mind cold rooms but cold water - absolutely no. I suppose it's what you get used to really. We enjoy being in the kitchen when cooking or baking which is most days, and the residual heat goes into the rest of the house, otherwise we just heat the room we're sitting in. Bills are just not a problem thankfully. Elaine in Portsmouth
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