Oil Tank refilling advice please?

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi

We have oil heating and I have come to hate it! We spent nearly £1000 on oil in 3 months last winter - although I am at home all day and it was exceptionally cold.

Talking to other people around us a budget of about £80 a month for heating oil is realistic. Last winter all our local suppliers were struggling with the demand and the logistics of getting deliveries out when the weather got really bad and we had to wait three weeks for a delivery.

So my advice is keep an eye on levels, stock up in advance if you can and set aside a sensible amount for future orders.

aliasojo

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Hi

We have oil heating and I have come to hate it! We spent nearly £1000 on oil in 3 months last winter - although I am at home all day and it was exceptionally cold.

:eek: 3 months!

Myself and eldest son are home all day.

I'm told this area was hit badly by snow last winter and some people here were snowed in for 5 weeks before the snowed thawed enough to shovel out.

We'll all be wearing single duvets indoors if that's the case. I can't afford £1000 for 3 months.

suki1964

Yorkshirelass isnt far wrong Im sorry to say:eek:

When we first moved to oil a fill was 400 and it didnt last 3 months,

But careful use of the thermostat and use of winter woolies bought that down and now the stove really helps

aliasojo

Oil has been delivered and driver has confirmed what has been said here.

He reckoned we should have ordered 2000 litres instead of 1000.

He says we'll go through that easily (and quickly!) with the kind of winters they get here and that once the bad weather starts, they wont be able to get their trucks up the lane to deliver more.

There was I thinking we were all set until next Spring.

Will need to go work on the budget now to work in buying more. So much for moving here to save money for a deposit!

suki1964

It's not all doom and gloom with oil

The hardest thing is having to pay upfront. It really makes you aware of how expensive heating costs are

I have a huge house and elderly parents who have to have a warm house. When we first moved in a tank of oil wouldn't last 3 months. Yesterdays delivery which took me to 1400 litres will do me till at least the end of feb - middle of march

It's a question of deciding which rooms need more heat and when rooms actually need heating. I do have stoves in the two living rooms which allow the olds to be as toasty as they like but the bedrooms etc get heated when needed. Mornings before they get up and evenings at their bedtime and with short spurts during the day to keep the house from getting cold and damp.

I keep the house so that yes you can tell it's warmer then outside but in winter we do dress for it with socks and jumpers and there are throws on all the seats to use when just sitting and not moving about

Most people around here have either a stove or open fire as supplementy heating. Also when the oil freezes another source of heating really is needed

Lotus-eater

What she said ^

Stove here as extra heating, our thermostat hardly ever goes over 15 degrees and we all dress up warm, we still manage to use 1000 litres a year mostly. We are at home all day also.

Electric blankets on the beds, so the bedrooms don't need to be heated. It can be hard for some people. I always overheat in other peoples houses in winter.

jess1974

My 500 litres should last 3 months, but then my heating only goes on in the evening for around 3 hours, i'm at home during the day but will put the woodburner on if i get chilly, we dress sensibly for the weather and i do not like an over hot house.
Even in really freezing conditions i get up in the morning with no heating on, as i find rushing around getting the kids to school keeps me warm....I would never ever have the heating on through the night as i would wake up with a headache and feeling ill...

scottishminnie

Aliasjo

My advice would be to shop around every single time. We usually buy 1500 litres per order and I don't think it has ever come from the same place twice. I get it slightly cheaper as my husband buys significant quantities of diesel from the fuel companies so they quote based on us being a business customer.

I'm always horrified at how much the differences can be. We had a delivery last week from Scottish Fuels who were 6p per litre cheaper than Johnson Oils. That's a huge amount.

As a private customer they will sometimes give you a slightly better rate if you offer to pay by debit card when ordering rather than giving the driver a cheque or waiting for an account. I haven't done it that way for a while so I could be out of date - they may do it differently now.

I'm hoping that the 1500 litres will see us thro to February although since we had to put the heating on last night I'm not too hopeful. Being at the top of a hill in the countryside means there is no shelter from poor weather (as I'm sure you've experienced!)

I'm currently budgeting £100 a month for fuel and that's all year round so no dip in summer, just so we have enough put by for the tank fills. Wouldn't be so bad if that was everything but it's only for heat - £79 a month for electricity on top is just not funny.

The other thing I would say is that order long before you think you will need it. Sometimes the backlogs can be as long as a week. We tend to order when the level on the gauge thingy gets to about a foot from the bottom.

YORKSHIRELASS

aliasojo wrote: »

Oil has been delivered and driver has confirmed what has been said here.

He reckoned we should have ordered 2000 litres instead of 1000.

He says we'll go through that easily (and quickly!) with the kind of winters they get here and that once the bad weather starts, they wont be able to get their trucks up the lane to deliver more.

There was I thinking we were all set until next Spring.

Will need to go work on the budget now to work in buying more. So much for moving here to save money for a deposit!

You have been unlucky really because you have moved into the property now just before the cold weather. We save for oil all year around so we have some money built up for our winter deliveries. We dont use our oil boiler during the summer, just put the immersion heater on twice a day for half an hour to get some hot water.

Oil usage is very variable too. Our house is old and we need new windows but cant afford them. We do wrap up warm and dont have the heating going 24/7 but we live in a remote village in North Yorkshire and last winter was very cold. We also have a stove and open fire but these arent enough to heat the whole house and of course they still need fuel!

Thankfully the weather has been mild so far this year and we havent had the heating on yet, lets hope it stays that way for a bit longer.

One thing you should do is keep a record of how much oil you use this winter so you can budget for next year.

aliasojo

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

Thankfully the weather has been mild so far this year and we havent had the heating on yet, lets hope it stays that way for a bit longer.

One thing you should do is keep a record of how much oil you use this winter so you can budget for next year.

We can't not have the heating on just now, this place is freezing. We're not even actually at winter yet

Just checked the terms of our lease and we're not allowed to use calor gas heaters either, which is a pain as we have 2 of those in the garage.

I'm now genuinely concerned about heating this place. There are holes and gaps all over the place that we thought we could just put up with for a short time but I think we underestimated the costs associated with such issues. We've blocked up what we can but as the house had suffered from subsidence previously, there are a number of areas which are problematic.

We can't even put up thick curtains because the curtain rails here are so lightweight and flimsy they wont take the weight and we're not supposed to touch things like this.

Might go have a word about that one though.

I hope we will have moved on before next winter comes.