Oil usage - how long do you get out of 500L?

wyntir

We live in a 3 bed end terrace, we bought 900litres of oil beginning of january 2009, we have about 200 litres still left to use, its on minimum 2 hours in evening with a boost during the day.

thriftyminx13

500L usually does me and OH a year. But because of the coldspell I reckon its only going to last 5 months. A month is excessive.

seatzie

lol thriftyminx13 don't know what sort of house you're living in but 500l for a year???? take it you have other heat sources? electric/gas etc? or is it just that you're never actually in the house? lol

given the cold spell and bear in mind some places here have been a lot colder than others, if its been on a lot of the day a month won't be out of the question, checked my tank at the weekend and mine looks the same and no I don't have a leak, I've replaced the fuel pump and the boiler is serviced

bingo_bango

dmxdave wrote: »

If it is a plastic tank a padlock will be a waste of money

Agreed,

Would you rather be out the cost of a tank of oil, or the cost of a tank of oil, AND a new tank when they drill a hole in the side to empty it?

I used to have one until someone pointed that out to me.

burkey38

I got 900L at the start of November 09 and it's gone.

Allowing for Christmas the prolonged spell of severely cold weather and the fact that the Mrs is at home(though not with the heat on all day, she says)

Does this seem like a leak, thief or acceptable.

My initial reaction was.......what already? ....I know it's been cold but!!!

seatzie

its not been cold its been severely cold compared to normal, depending on your house type, hours used, what temperature your thermostat is at 900l since start of November 09 (nearly 3 months!) is perfectly plausible

when we moved into this house with the windows not closing properly, the guy who sold us it didn't tell us rather than fix them he'd turned the thermostat up to 85 on the boiler, I never checked it when we moved in, filled the tank, 6 weeks and 1000l was used was raging when I found out he had turned the boiler up to max instead of fixing the huge draught from the windows - when we lay in bed at night we had gusts of wind blowing across the bed and we were 8 feet from the window lol

beccam

Also we find in winter we use more oil because we're drying clothes over the radiators rather than out on the line and the amount of heat blocked is scary!

Without clothes over radiators we have heat on for about 2hrs in evening and house is roasting hot, with clothes we can have it on for double that time and just about be comfortably warm.

Pretani

Last year I used 1000L of oil and this year I'd be expecting to use 1500L with the cold weather we've been having. Our house is a 3 bed semi. We don't have the oil set on a timer, we switch it on when we need to. This is probably why we don't go through as much oil as others. We installed a good efficient burner when we put in the oil, we've got double glazing, good insulation in all the walls and the roof space is well insulated. I regularly bleed the radiators.

For those who think they're burning alot of oil, I would defo get your burner checked out and check your radiators regularly for trapped air. If you can cut out the set-timers you might save oil without comprimising on loss of heat.

SnowyOwl_2

seatzie wrote: »

lol thriftyminx13 don't know what sort of house you're living in but 500l for a year???? take it you have other heat sources? electric/gas etc? or is it just that you're never actually in the house? lol

given the cold spell and bear in mind some places here have been a lot colder than others, if its been on a lot of the day a month won't be out of the question, checked my tank at the weekend and mine looks the same and no I don't have a leak, I've replaced the fuel pump and the boiler is serviced

I must be like thriftyminx as my last but one oil delivery was 500 litres and that was at the end of 2008....I know the tank was pretty empty at the time. I didn't order any more until immediately after Xmas 2009, so that 500 litres was eeked out a long way. I have a modern 3 bedroomed townhouse - I'm frugal, that's all, and put on extra clothes before turning on the heat. I'm on my own too, so while my tolerance is OK I don't have to consider anyone who can't stand the cold as much as I can.


Makavelli - if you've got a leak I think you're supposed to let the council know - there's some rule or other about spilt oil and having to get it cleaned up or kept out of the waterways or something...

sleepymy

If you just had your boiler serviced it's likely the service guy has turned your thermostat up out in the shed. We've just used 250ltrs in a month which is way more than normal then I remembered that we had a guy out at the end of December. Sure enough, he had turned the thermostat up to 75, we normally keep it at 60 - 65. Since being told to turn the shed thermostat down last year we have been using far less oil.