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I have moved into a place with an old multi-fuel burner with back boiler to radiators and tank. My question is, is it necessary to switch on the pump continuously to circulate to the radiators and HW tank? Seems it's gonna be expensive - what's the minimum I can get away with?

Also a little confused since a friend has a similar system but with no pump! It still works,so....?

Thanks for any advice.

It depends on the type of system.
Pumped heating, gravity hot water ?
pumped heating and water ?

If it's gravity hot water then the pump wont run when hot water only is selected. The upstairs radiators will also get warm (heat rises) but for the water to get to the downstairs radiators it needs to be pumped.

So if you want the downstairs radiators on and the upstairs to be hot (not warm), then yes you have to have the pump running.

If a fully pumped system then yes the pump will run all of the time whilst on heating and/or water.

A central heating pump wont cost that much to run.