Cheaper Oil for Fuel?

amtrakuk

Moonbeam39 wrote: »

It is getting really scary - I only installed oil heating at the turn of this year as I was advised it was a cheaper option from electricity "Total Heating with No Control" :rotfl: . (Live in a village with no access to gas)

It was only after installing that I realised we were in a situation where the oil suppliers are completely unregulated and can effectively charge what they want.

The increases in the cost of a litre of kerosene is obscene 64.54p per litre if I order over 900 as at today's prices :mad: - while I moan about it now it is not until winter is here and I cannot afford to heat my house for my family that it will really be felt and I am sure I will not be alone!! God only knows what the price will be sitting at then:eek:

Damart here I come!!

JC!!!! That works out at about 580.00! One of my managers at work moans he has to fill his about 3 times a year. If yours is the same thats an annual bill of £1740, that has to be the most expensive way of heating and hot water. Im on standard rate electric and mine is only £900 a year. Are you sure there isn't a leak or something wrong with you're boiler?

amtrakuk

tim441 wrote: »

Do people feel its better to use elec for heating hot water in the summer .. rather than oil? From my research it looks similar but I may be missing something or have got my numbers wrong!!!

I believe that one litre of heating oil provides between 10 and 12kwh at 100% efficiency (depends on source of information). So on a comparison with electricity can be said to cost around 5.5 to 6.5p per unit (Jun 2008. Heating oil around 60p per litre).

On this basis it is still cheaper than electricity - typical tariff around 9p (compare that with natural gas (not available in our village) at around 3p).

However in terms of a full comparison the extra heat loss in heating water from boiler to tank in pipe runs etc probably mean that the comparison between oil and electricity is very close?

I use a 12KW Redring Powerstream on Demand electric water heater for the house hot water. Although you don't get the same flow of water (4-5 litres a minute at 50 degrees output) in summer it does work out more cost effective than a cylinder in my view.

andyinlondon

mine is on par with oilbaron, we were using 1000L a month last winter when it was cold. and no there are no leaks.
i thought it was possible that someone was stealing it but fitted locks to the tank and it has not made much diference.
I was also having a look at alternative fuels and boilers, no gas supply out here though.
Kroll make some very efficient oil condensing boilers and some burn anything oil boilers. and even a replacement burner unit you can fit to your existing boiler to make it a burn anything boiler.
They claim that it can burn anything from biobiesel to waste engine oil, rapeseed oil, diesel, kerosene and even animal fat (yuk)

Has anyone got one of these or seen one in action?

At over 60p/L i have to do something before this winter it is getting to scary.

zarazara

Thats an awful lot of oil. How big is the house?
Have you considered geo-thermal heating?

hormygollop

tim441 wrote: »

Do people feel its better to use elec for heating hot water in the summer .. rather than oil? From my research it looks similar but I may be missing something or have got my numbers wrong!!!

I believe that one litre of heating oil provides between 10 and 12kwh at 100% efficiency (depends on source of information). So on a comparison with electricity can be said to cost around 5.5 to 6.5p per unit (Jun 2008. Heating oil around 60p per litre).

On this basis it is still cheaper than electricity - typical tariff around 9p (compare that with natural gas (not available in our village) at around 3p).

However in terms of a full comparison the extra heat loss in heating water from boiler to tank in pipe runs etc probably mean that the comparison between oil and electricity is very close?

Get away from oil,you cannot get 100% efficiency from an oil or gas boiler, some of your heat must always go up the flu. new oil burner you might get 90% if you are lucky. Dump the oil and get onto something like an air source heat pump, cost about 2p a kw running costs, much more efficient than oil and much cheaper than geo thermal.
Keith

bobmedley

Just had to purchase 500 litres at 64p per litre inc VAT:mad:

My first oil tank fill was in September 1999 and it was 12.5p per litre inc VAT - that's about 16p with inflation:mad: :mad: :mad:

amtrakuk

64p a litre... Thats gonna hurt.. Is there any alternatives?

I've heard about geothermal and heat pumps but I've also heard they cost a bomb to install and have to have a service contract? I know alot of people are promoting heat pumps but has anyone got one? If so how much do they cost, how much is the installation and what's the monthly running cost?

I've been looking at Solar panels but unless you got a 10 acre roof there is negligible benefit from it

bobmedley

I have got a couple of air conditioners that are heat pumps (air not ground), so I am going to use them *a lot* come Winter.

If you go for a whole house system, then I think somebody on another thread mentioned around £5k but it is pretty much the cheapest way to heat a house. Single units like mine can be as little as £500-£600 plus fitting - this is minimal, just a hole drilled through the wall and indoor/outdoor units bolted on. Most inverter units work off a 13A plug, so there's no real need for dedicated wiring. They are not noisy at all and of course whilst it doesn't exactly save money, you get the air-conditioning in Summer - lovely:p

I only have them serviced every couple of years & that's a check of the gas/oil and a clean for £100.

My units are rated at 800 watts and a coefficient of 4, so you get c3.2kw of heating and cooling. As they are inverters, they do not run constantly so it's not 800w x 24hrs x 7 x 52 - in fact, my electricity consumption has not varied much since they were installed (that might change when I cane them this Winter though)

I had to buy the oil as my tank was running on fumes & it's still used to heat the water (even at 64p, it's still cheaper then electricity for me).

amtrakuk

So would I be right in thinking it produces the same heat output as my 3 KW convection heater whilst only using 800w? I dont think I'll go for a whole house system as I only heat the kitchen, hall, front room and bedrooms. I might have a look on youtube for videos, sounds very tempting.

I used to have a bionaire convection heater with a turbo fan in my front room before I ripped it out due to the noise the fan made over the tele. Would I have the same problem?

Marky_J

This thread is scaring me silly!

We're moving to Cumbria in a couple of weeks and the place we've got has a newly fitted oil burning boiler (I hope this is efficient?) with a great big tank outside.
This is completely new to us (I've only just found out the difference between Kerosene and gas oil!!) as we've always been linked to natural gas. I'm currently on the hunt for suppliers (research from a distance!!) and most of the links I've tried on this thread don't supply to our new address. Does anybody know of any Cumbrian suppliers that are reasonably priced and reliable? What's consensus on buying as much as poss now because prices are going to rise??
Many thanks