New boiler

Dear Mr. Gocze/Prof Hill:
In May I traded in my old hot air furnace and electric hot water heater for
a new boiler.? I burned 900 gallons of #2 fuel oil last heating season,
plus paying big bucks for my hot water and thought it was time to save
some.? I anticipate that I will use 500-600 gallons over the next year for
both heat and hot water.? In fact, while I was worried that the oil water
would be more expensive than the electric water, my fuel tank has hardly
moved at all since it was filled the middle of May.
With this in mind, I was somewhat shocked to read in today's "By the
Numbers" column that Prof Hill's typical week would consume 10 gallons of
oil to heat the water.? While I don't have meters to track use, I have
noticed that my furnace runs for about 5 minutes to bring the hot water
tank back up to its 140 deg temp.? My wife and I estimated that it runs
approximately 5 times each day.? My boiler is rated at .85 GPH? which I
assume is fuel use.? Doing the math, this comes out to about 2.5 gallons of
fuel per week.? At $4.50 per gallon, this works out to be $11.25 per week
for hot water.
My last full month's electric bill before the conversion was $243.? The
first full month after the conversion was $112.? Looking at that last bill,
it comes out to 19.2 kwh per day now vs 38.3 kwh per day a year ago for
service during the month of May.? The only difference between the two was
hot water and the blower fan on the hot air furnace (which didn't run much
in May).
I hope my assumptions are correct, but I think I would have noticed a 80-90
gallon drop in my 275 gallon oil tank.
Thanks,
Doug
Orono

Hi Doug,
Sounds like you are in great shape!
Dick has five apartments in his home, so there is a lot more usage in his
home than in yours.
If you are not seeing any movement on the oil tank gauge, that is obviously
a good thing.
Would be good if you topped it off (Ugh!) before the heating season starts,
and then you would have an accurate sense as to the actual DHW use.
From all you are reporting, this sounds good.
Tom