Home Heating Oil

nadnad

thats a good point too - everyone tells us that our electricity bill is really small - but I don't know - its usually about £45 - £50 per quarter - is that smaller than other peoples? I don't know why but when we lived in our last house our electricity was about £90 per quarter and I can't think what we're doing differently.

ollywood68

nadnad wrote:

thats a good point too - everyone tells us that our electricity bill is really small - but I don't know - its usually about £45 - £50 per quarter - is that smaller than other peoples? I don't know why but when we lived in our last house our electricity was about £90 per quarter and I can't think what we're doing differently.

£40 or £50 a quarter - do you walk about in the dark!!! Mine is a semi detached house and is not that big. I have 2 small kids which may be a factor. Our bill is about £150 a quarter and that is about average compared to our friends. For some of our friends their bill is nearer £200 while for others it is about £130. £150 therefore seems reasonable when I made comparisions

IvanOpinion

We live in a modern 2000+ sq ft detached ... I pay £25 per month DD and always seem to have a credit balance ... builds up during the summer quarters and gets mostly used during the winter.

Therefore nadnad you can tell your BF/DH that his is absolutely tiny.

ollywood68 - good point about thermostats on older systems - would need a good flushing first.

Ivan

jnd

I'm with ollywood68 on this one. I pay £58/month DD and have 3 fills of oil in a year. I don't know Ivan/nadnad how you pay so little.

IvanOpinion

I wish I could advise you as to what we are doing but I have no idea. I am a total gadget freak and have virtually every applicance that sucks juice from the mains - even at Christmas I need 7 4-gang extension sockets just to power the lights (so I am not saving there) .. we have all the usual kitchen appliances and an additional chest freezer ... I won't even tell you how many TV's and videos we have. Possibly the one saving factor is that the boiler is right beside the hot water tank therefore we would never use the immersion heater.

Ivan

nadnad

yeah we never use the immersion - my parent's in law have to use it all the time - for some very strange reason their central heating doesn't heat their water!! Also my mother in law doesn't work - she's in the house all day - their bill is about £130 per quarter.

I suppose you have to take into account that my OH works long hours - and we're both out of the house by 8am and not back in until after six (he's never in until after 7 and after 8.30 twice a week) we're also out a lot at weekends.

I'm trying to think why our electric is so low - I'm very energy conscious and I do tend to turn lights off, I also have energy saving bulbs. I suppose things that use the most electric are things that heat up - we only cook about 4 out of seven nights so maybe thats something, we don't use a tumble drier which I know takes a lot of energy, we also don't have a dishwasher (just because we have no room - in the next house its the first thing I'm getting!), we never use the kettle - neither of us drink tea! So maybe all these things add up - I don't know I'm just not going to complain, we're building a 3000 sq ft house so I'm sure it'll all come as a very big shock when we get huge bills living there!

thetope

jeepers, i whinge about my oil bills but looking at this thread i guess i'm lucky! i live in a 3 bedroom terrace, and i order less than 1500l per year. october to march i use 500 litres in around 3 months, then april to september about another 500 litres. in winter we have the heat on from 6:30-8 in the morning and 4:30 -9:30 at night. in summer it's just on the odd chilly day and the boiler also heats the water.

i guess i'm lucky living in a terrace that i am pretty well insulated and with limited exterior walls exposed to the cold, my boyfriend isn't so lucky, he lives in a semi and the boiler is located at the far end of the garage (which to my mind is HUGELY inefficient) and he goes through 500 litres in a month in winter.

but, i recently benefitted from a grabbit bargain and kitted out the entire house with energy saving light bulbs. my last quarterly bill for electricity was £13... i am gobsmacked!! my computer is on about 9 hours a day (with associated router and modem) and the tv is on pretty much all evening too. so, if you haven't already, get those energy saving lightbulbs in! (these particular ones are philips ones and they light up quite quickly) i should add i have a bottled gas hob (electric oven) so that probably saves a few quid. the bottled gas is very effient also, i buy a new bottle (£14) about every 18 months and i use the wok burner (BIG flame) pretty much every night .

ollywood68

Just ordered oil today (27/9/05) 1000 litres and it cost £340 from Maxol direct. Their first quote was £363 but when i told them I had got another quote from Richie and Pennisula Oil at £340 they matched it.

Re the oil usage. I live in a 3 bedroom semi detached house. I ordered 1200 litres in Jan 2005 then 700 in April and now 1000 at the beginning of October. So that is about 3000 litres a year or 3 fills.

Re the electricity my last bill was £150 for the quarter and this is pretty consistent. I checked with my mates their costs and two had bills at around £130 and another nearer £200. So I consider my bill pretty reasonable. Whoever said they used £13 a quarter they're having a laugh

thetope

ollywood68 wrote:

Whoever said they used £13 a quarter they're having a laugh

not joking, i swear on my life!! my NIE direct debit was originally £28 per month when i set it up last year, then they recalculated and dropped it to £16 per month this year... but my account is over £90 in credit and rising...
obviously it was the summer quarter so there are less lights on, not as much use of the boiler pump and you are outside more, but still... my winter bill's only around £25-£30max per quarter.

i replaced my electric shower with a power shower 2.5 years ago which dropped my bill by about £25 per quarter (i was on a card meter then so could tell exactly what was saving me money.) then switching from an electric hob to gas also saved me about £15 per quarter. i don't have a dishwasher or tumble dryer and i tend to run the washing machine when i know there is hot water in the tank so that it doesn't have to heat it electrically. like i said above i have energy saving lightbulbs throughout the house except for the kitchen which are halogen. my kettle also leaks so i only fill it with the amount of water i need which is an inadvertent way of saving money!

When i moved into my house i also made sure the fridge and washing machine I bought had good energy ratings. I guess all the little things add up. i'm not a total energy saving freak though, i leave everything on stand by, never turn things off at the plug and have my computer on from i get home from work til i go to bed, have the tv on at the same time and my house mate will have the tv on downstairs too.

SaTScB

Just ordered home heating oil, here is an up todate list of prices received today. Please beaware LCC oils in Ballymena told me that oild is going up in the next couple of days by 2p/litre ouch!!!

All prices below are for 900L

Cheaper oil: 311.85
Meckin: 328.00
Maxol Direct: 318.75
Fuel service: 349.00
Kennedy: 336.00
LCC Oil: 325 (existing customer) or 335.00 newbie
Shell direct 330.00
SE McKay: 330.00

Good luck... winter is here!!!