question about oil heat/hotwater

**banana** · 03-30-2006, 10:07 AM

Hi all:

I have oil baseboard heat and hot water.
I just got my last oil delivery this morning.

Total oil used: 537 gallons.

Now I took out all my oil bills. I noticed that last year my last delivery was the end of March and my first delivery was mid September for 138 gallons of oil. So I used 138 gallons for roughly 6 months of hot water only! That is outrageous! If I multiply that by 2 it is 276 gallons a year just to heat the water! If I am figuring this out right it cost me more to heat the water than my house!!! I do wash mostly everything in cold water.

Now my question is can I flip the switch on my furance and only turn it on when I need hot water? Say 15 minutes before showering and doing dishes, etc? Will this damage my furance in any way? I cant see having it kick on to heat up water that we are not using!!!!!

I think my fruance is called a winter/summer hook up. I do not have a water tank. The furance heats up the water.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!!!

**pkellyc** · 03-30-2006, 08:43 PM

There is a switch on your hot water heater. I think turning it on and off is a better idea. Oil is the cheapest way to heat hot water by the way.

**banana** · 03-30-2006, 09:13 PM

pkellyc - I dont have a hot water heater. My furance produces hot water it has a switch on it. I was wondering if I would be able to shut it off when we dont need any hot water since we are not using it for heat any longer.

**FrugalMomof3** · 03-30-2006, 09:42 PM

Well, I talked to my hubby and he said he doesn't think it would hurt it, I mean they put the switch there for that purpose (maybe not only that purpose but one of the reasons).

I also agree with why have the furnace run when you dont need to heat water your not using, that's a great point. DH said you made an awesome point. Maybe we will try it but with our heating system which is really really old, it might not work as well for us.

**banana** · 03-31-2006, 07:19 AM

Thanks Tracy! I think I will start that and see if it makes a difference. How many gallons of oil did you use this year just to heat your house? By the way my system is really really old also!

**FrugalMomof3** · 03-31-2006, 07:21 AM

Ann Marie,

Well to heat up the house as in to keep it warm, 0
we bought some econo heat heaters to keep the house warm so never turned on the furnace to heat the house BUT we did keep it on to heat the water.

The heaters we use only cost 3cents an hour and well it's cheaper than to spend $300 a month in heating oil. We only filled up our tank once this winter and we still have 1/2 tank left!