Heating Oil Missing

fisherb

I think the fastest way to sum this up it to copy below the letter I sent to heating oil.co.uk - has anyone had a similar experience, or got any advice to offer?:

Dear Sir/Madam,
I wish to make you aware of a situation I have found myself in which should be of importance to you.
As you can see from my online account, I made on order on 16/12/09, ref HO0015953, I had run out of oil at the time.
The driver arrived a couple of days later, I was in, he filled up and left a receipt for 500 litres in my letter box. When I plugged my watchman in later the same day it indicated ‘2’ on the display – I suspected this was due to a fault or flat battery and ignored it.
I have now, 07.02.10, run out of oil, as you can see from my previous orders of the same quantity this is very fast, I have been away for two weeks during this period (my tank was and is still padlocked with no signs of tampering). Therefore I have used, if the receipt is to be believed, 500 litres of kerosene in little over a month in a small 2 bedroomed cottage with the heating on for 4 hours a day on average and a new, well maintained boiler and heating system.
Needless to say, I am extremely unhappy (and unexpectedly suddenly cold) about this and would appreciate an investigation of some description from your end,
I await your response

manda1205

Are you certain there is no leak anywhere, I would think its best to rule out a leak before sending the letter to heating oil.

fisherb

Without a doubt, the tank is on concrete and the boiler in a clean shed, the pipe is visible all the way and the system is almost new! I can understand a small leak, but I think I'd have noticed 300 litres!

manda1205 wrote: »

Are you certain there is no leak anywhere, I would think its best to rule out a leak before sending the letter to heating oil.

paceinternet

If you have averaged only 4 hours running a day, then for the size of your property, it is unlikely you could use 500 litres. But that is not much run time in these temperatures.
You should check just how often the boiler is running. The temperatures we have had over the last 6 weeks could have been lower than you have experienced in the past. If your boiler is in a shed, it may have a frost stat on it, switching it on when necessary.
Also, what do you do for hot water?

fisherb

Its on a digital thermostat, I work some long hours (unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it!) so its only on from 6pm to 10pm (21celscuis) daily and weekend mornings.
Hot water is on demand from the combi boiler, but having an electric shower only ever for washing up daily really!
It does have a frost stat on it, currently set at 3celscius, but the shed is adjoined to the house and although it does come on on very cold nights, it is only ever for ten minutes and rarely.
Please keep the ideas coming though, because I really am baffled, short of my watchman being right and it not filled with what I paid for!

Swipe

I suppose you'll only find out for sure when you next refill the tank

fisherb

Swipe wrote: »

I suppose you'll only find out for sure when you next refill the tank

This is exactly the thought I just had, an expensive way of finding out if I've been ripped off though!

Cardew

The difficulty you face is that in seven and a half weeks over the coldest winter for years you have only used 5,100kWh(500 litres).

Notwithstanding you know your consumption pattern, 5,100kWh is quite modest consumption over that period for most people. - around £150 if you have gas.

A delivery man on the fiddle might steal the odd 50 or even 100 litres, but 300litres on a 500litre delivery sounds implausible.

oysterman

If you had the oil delivered on the 18/12 & it ran out on the 07/02 approx 7 weeks, you might well of used all the oil.

Is the tank metal or plastic?
What size is the tank?
As for the watchman's they are notoriously unreliable, your better off dipping the tank with a garden cane.

fisherb

It was delivered 6 weeks ago, and I've been away for two of those, with the boiler physically turned off.
The tank is 1000L, I was interested to hear if anyone had experienced any discrepancies with the watchman though, and yes, I am kicking myself for not dipping the tank now!

oysterman wrote: »

If you had the oil delivered on the 18/12 & it ran out on the 07/02 approx 7 weeks, you might well of used all the oil.

Is the tank metal or plastic?
What size is the tank?
As for the watchman's they are notoriously unreliable, your better off dipping the tank with a garden cane.

G_M

The Watchman seems a bit of a red herring as the OP's tank ran dry. So he definately used 500 litres in the time period described.

Who actually delivered the oil? My understanding is that oil.co.uk are agents, or middlemen, but arrange delivery with the cheapest local supplier. If you were at home, did you see the tanker?