# Monitoring heating oil usage



## ennisjim (7 Jan 2008)

Hi,
Just turned on UFH in new build a couple of weeks ago. I am using oil and solid fuel, but oil is main fuel. Considering oil price and lack of experience with UFH I was interested in knowing is there is a reasonably-priced way to monitor
(i) litres used over a period (eg. day, week, etc)
(ii) how long the burner is active (eg. over a day, week, etc)

(i) would probably be sufficient I suppose but (ii) would be nice to know too.

The common approach of dipping tank or having some simple indicator of how full tank is would be a bit crude I think. It would be nice to get the info reasonably quickly and adjust usage/settings/etc rather than have to wait weeks/months. Maybe this is unrealistic though.

Thanks
   James


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## ClubMan (7 Jan 2008)

Do a search for previous threads on how to monitor the oil tank level using various devices including wireless gauges.


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## ClubMan (7 Jan 2008)

See also this current thread:

Underfloor heating running costs - help


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## ennisjim (7 Jan 2008)

Thanks Clubman. I had searched using 'meter' and 'sensor' without much look. Didn't think of 'gauge', not to mention the popular alternative 'guage'


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## ClubMan (7 Jan 2008)

If you are using the _vBulletin _search then don't - use _Google _instead as per my signature and the thread in the _How to use AAM _forum.


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## davidoco (8 Jan 2008)

It might be a bit late for you now but my heatmiser controls give a temperature graph for the past 24 hours and a boiler run time broken down by week over the past four weeks.  using this and knowing what nozzle and pressure setting my oil boiler is set at gives me the oil usage for each zone


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## davidoco (8 Jan 2008)

Now that i ve said it out loud i ve noticed a flaw in my system which throws out my figures. My boiler will cut in and out depending on water temp  but my control panel keeps counting if power is going to boiler. This is nullified somewhat by using output delay on the stats to prevent excessive cycling but would not be perfect.


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## ennisjim (8 Jan 2008)

Hi davidoco,

Coincidentally I also have Heatmiser stats and the touch screen control panel. I also thought about the history/graph but as you say the stats record when they called for heat which does not necessarily match the times the boiler comes on which in my case too is based on temp in buffer tank.
I'll keep looking for some good way to track boiler/oil usage.

By the way, assuming you are living in your house and that you have UFH, how do you find the heatmiser controls in practice ? I'm not living in my house yet so only operating on the 'frost' setting (12degress constant) currently.


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## davidoco (8 Jan 2008)

This is the device you need, but at €200 euro I don't think it's quite worth it. [broken link removed]

I'll have to source an resettable electronic hour meter which I should be able to get for between €50 and €100. I'll post back if I find that. At least it will be useful for timing something else.

I use the heatmiser touch pad and stats but on a zoned rad system so I've no useful UFH stories to tell.

The only issue with the touchpad/heatmiser is getting the other users in the house to think temperature then time, people are used to thinking heating on at a certain time/heating off at a certain time, whereas the heatmiser is comfort based so users have to think in terms of comfort not time. Takes a bit of getting used to since most controllers are time based. Another small issue is the override for a zone, you have to know the comfort times to know when the zone is going to reset but I have them bringing the temp back down to switch off.


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## davidoco (8 Jan 2008)

Here's an hour meter from Radionics.ie that you would wire on the cable off the stat on boiler to the burner.

[broken link removed]


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## ennisjim (8 Jan 2008)

Hi davidoco - thanks for tracking down these devices. The one on Radionics site looks good. I'll investigate a little further and might buy one a try it out. Will post back later if I do.


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## ennisjim (14 Jan 2008)

I received the hour meter from Radionics (€25 incl vat P&P) and installed at weekend. Works well. Small unit, fitted nicely into slot in heating relay box.
Only time will tell  if this is a useful way to monitor oil usage over short periods of time, ie. not have to wait for empty tank to know if heating is operating efficiently.


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## ClubMan (14 Jan 2008)

davidoco said:


> Here's an hour meter from Radionics.ie that you would wire on the cable off the stat on boiler to the burner.
> 
> [broken link removed]




I'm confused. How does that monitor the heating oil usage?


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## ted (14 Jan 2008)

I think it starts counting time when the stat call for heat from the boiler. Multiply that by the flow rate from the boiler spec. and you'd have the oil usage. Seems a lot more complicated than installing a flow meter on the oil line.


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## ClubMan (14 Jan 2008)

OK - that makes sense. And sounds a bit complicated.


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## davidoco (14 Jan 2008)

You put that little device on the wire which is connected to the burner in your heating system. Best to take a wire off the burner itself and attach that device to it.

Then you count the hours of run time in a week or time period of your choice. If the burner ran for 8.50 (8 hrs 30 mins), and your oil pressure is set at 8 bar, and you have a .40 US Gallon nozzle fitted the most oil that can get through that nozzle in 8hrs 30 min of running is 8.5 x 0.43 = 3.65 US gallon. So that's 13.81 litres x whatever price oil is.

For the really pedantic out there you would have to subtract about 10 seconds x number of starts from the total run owing to the fact that oil does not start delivering for about 10 seconds on run.


Rough guide to nozzel outputs.
Nozzle 6 bar 7 bar 8 bar 9 bar 10 bar
size         GPH GPH GPH GPH GPH
0.40        0.37 0.40 0.43 0.45 0.48
0.50        0.46 0.50 0.53 0.57 0.60
0.55        0.51 0.55 0.59 0.62 0.66
0.60        0.55 0.60 0.64 0.68 0.72

See here for detailed nozzle Info
http://heating.danfoss.com/QSelect/190_MNU17379073_SIT54.html


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## ClubMan (14 Jan 2008)

I can't see my mother doing this!


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## davidoco (14 Jan 2008)

ted said:


> I think it starts counting time when the stat call for heat from the boiler. Multiply that by the flow rate from the boiler spec. and you'd have the oil usage. Seems a lot more complicated than installing a flow meter on the oil line.


 
It's just the cost of the oil meter at €200 which makes the power meter attractive. The power on counter can be used somewhere else and at €25 delivered it's cheap. How much oil would €175 buy? I do acknowledge you have to know what nozzle is in your burner but the details are actually written on the nozzle which makes it handy.

PS for low flow rates such as a domestic oil boiler the flow meter could be inaccurate.


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## davidoco (14 Jan 2008)

ClubMan said:


> I can't see my mother doing this!


 
You could help her out by getting the reading from the nozzle and fitting the meter.  After that she can do the logging and calculation in her own time.


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## ennisjim (14 Jan 2008)

At the moment I am happy to just count 'hours' rather than try to calculate oil volume used. Maybe when the tank empties I can use the cumulative hours run to 'calibrate' a full tank so that I can continue to use hours to track usage.

Just one possible flaw (in addition to the 10sec delivery time)... doesn't the burner stop when it reaches some set max temp ? If so, the place I've wired the timer doesn't know about this and I'd really need to find some wire in the burner which I can connect on to in order to really know then its running.


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## ClubMan (14 Jan 2008)

ennisjim said:


> Just one possible flaw (in addition to the 10sec delivery time)... doesn't the burner stop when it reaches some set max temp ? If so, the place I've wired the timer doesn't know about this and I'd really need to find some wire in the burner which I can connect on to in order to really know then its running.


Isn't that the same flaw as mentioned here?


davidoco said:


> Now that i ve said it out loud i ve noticed a flaw in my system which throws out my figures. My boiler will cut in and out depending on water temp  but my control panel keeps counting if power is going to boiler. This is nullified somewhat by using output delay on the stats to prevent excessive cycling but would not be perfect.


and why it was suggested that you wire the timing meter off the boiler's thermostat:


davidoco said:


> Here's an hour meter from Radionics.ie that you would wire on the cable off the stat on boiler to the burner.
> 
> [broken link removed]


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## davidoco (14 Jan 2008)

Yeah *ennisjim *it would be much better for you to fit that meter out at the burner, you can remove the control box and find the L and N supply coming in and wire the meter off that or fit a small junction box on the feed wire to the burner from the thermostat on the boiler.

Where you have fitted it in the UH2 you are only getting the same reading as the touchpad history.


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## ennisjim (14 Jan 2008)

Well spotted Clubman. My recollection of the thread contents are not what it should be considering I started the thread


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## ennisjim (14 Jan 2008)

Hi davidoco, thanks for hint on wiring.

Re. touchpad history... it may not be the same when there's a buffer tank (as in my case). As far as I know the history records time a stat called for heat which does not necessarily match the time the boiler was told to come on.


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## davidoco (14 Jan 2008)

ennisjim said:


> Hi davidoco, thanks for hint on wiring.
> 
> Re. touchpad history... it may not be the same when there's a buffer tank (as in my case). As far as I know the history records time a stat called for heat which does not necessarily match the time the boiler was told to come on.


 
I'm not familiar with buffer tank setups.  I guess the boiler feed is wired through the a stat on the buffer tank which would mess up the history allright.

With your meter now are you on the way to this sort of house.  All you need now is somewhere to start posting your findings  www.b*wired*.*nl*


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## Guju121 (24 May 2009)

Forget about counting hours lads, here is a meter that can directly measure oil usage over a short period ...


[broken link removed]


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