I am considering either an oil or gas bolier to a Heatrea Sadia cylinder in a direct, unvented plumbing system. If I use oil the burner will be in the garage which will be approx 30m away from the cylinder in the house. If I use gas the boiler can be in the same area as the cylinder within the house. Am I wasting energy and money in the 30m of pipe in the oil option? Would I be wasting the equivalent of 3 radiators before I get to the house? Alternatively I could site the oil burner closer to the house since many of them come with weather proof housings these days though this would spoil the look of my propsed patio area!

Hi Gavin:

I am not familiar with the heatrea sadia cylinder, but I am familiar with oil and gas heat systems so maybe I can help a little?

My thoughts here are that:

1) gas burns much hotter (more efficiently) and cleaner than oil

2) gas systems need less maintenance to maintain

3) gas systems are inherently quieter than oil systems.

Never mind that you mentioned above that the distance required for oil is 30M or you need to spoil the patio...

Without doubt energy is wasted and if the pipes are left uninsulated there will be a great heat loss that will definitely cost in terms of dollars. If you insulate the heat pipes then the greatest cost here will be purchasing/installing the pipes 30M and then using the pump to circulate water the extra distance all the time... that is probably not much... but if you add 30M of insulation and the labor to install it we're getting up there in extra costs right out of the gate.

Anyway... just my thoughts! Obviously I vote for gas... ;)

MARK