how much heating oil will my home use???

finley1280
finley1280 Posts: 1 Newbie
edited 25 February 2014 at 7:07PM in LPG, heating oil, solid & other fuels
Official MSE Insert:

If you've arrived from Google, our fully researched Cheap Heating Oil guide may be helpful.

Back to the original post...


hi guys i need some help!
i am looking to rent a 3 bed semi and it uses heating oil the boiler looks fairly modern and the is no arga there is a large green tank in the garden and i have found out that its about £315 for 500l of oil what i need to know is how long will that last me???
i am completly new to heating oil so and tips or advise anyone can give me would be sooo fab!!! thankyou xxxx
«1

Comments

  • suki1964
    suki1964 Posts: 14,313 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    How long is a piece of string???

    Thats a question only you can answer because its you that determines how warm you like your home, and only you at this moment knows how well its imsulated

    But to put in into prospective - 500ltrs is really a half full. 900 or a 1000's litres is more the norm when talking about a fill. Average family ( whatever that is) would be looking two fills a year - bigger houses - 2 to 4 fills a year

    Myself - 2000ltrs a year topped up with coal throughout the winter months and here winter is Sept through to May
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,056 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    There have been a number of threads on this subject - it seem that 2,000 litres a year is about average.
  • We are around 2,000 litres too.
    As for hints and tips - log on to boilerjuice! or similar site. It groups orders together in a local area which can produce savings. You can also pay a monthly amount into your 'tank account' which you can then use to pay for your oil. There are other types of oil, which cost more but are apparently more economical. I just stick to the standard stuff as that is expensive enough!
  • Everyone can I ask what house size you all have because I would love to use 2000 litres per year, I am currently using 500 litres per month an its costing a fortune around £350 per month.

    I am looking to change this to a air source heat pump and solar to combat the costs.

    I only have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening.

    I am interested to see how everyone uses theirs. I have a 5 bed detached house.

    Thanks
  • Cardew
    Cardew Posts: 29,056 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Rampant Recycler
    Everyone can I ask what house size you all have because I would love to use 2000 litres per year, I am currently using 500 litres per month an its costing a fortune around £350 per month.

    I am looking to change this to a air source heat pump and solar to combat the costs.

    I only have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening.

    I am interested to see how everyone uses theirs. I have a 5 bed detached house.

    Thanks

    Welcome to the forum.

    As said above there are loads of threads asking the same question - this is an example:

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/508485

    The average gas consumption in UK is 16,500kWh pa. That equates to approx 1,650 litres of heating oil.

    The average takes in everything from a 1 bed flat to a mansion.


    Apart from variations in size, standard of insulation, heating temperature, hours in the house, amount of hot water used, where in UK(West Country or NE Scotland) etc, the efficiency of the boiler is a big factor. This can range from 90+% for a modern condensing boiler down to below 50%.

    I have read that servicing of oil boilers is far more critical than with gas boilers to ensure optimum efficiency. On my two old gas boilers there is no adjustment in the servicing schedule that affects efficiency.(other than size of pilot light)
  • suki1964
    suki1964 Posts: 14,313 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Everyone can I ask what house size you all have because I would love to use 2000 litres per year, I am currently using 500 litres per month an its costing a fortune around £350 per month.

    I am looking to change this to a air source heat pump and solar to combat the costs.

    I only have the heating on for 2 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening.

    I am interested to see how everyone uses theirs. I have a 5 bed detached house.

    Thanks


    I have a five bedroom detached house on a hill in a field in Northern Ireland

    But then I dont heat the house to silly temps, dont have the heating on at all in rooms that are barely used and use stoves in the sitting rooms to keep them to a comfortable ( even toasty) heat

    Slowly drop the thermostat and slowly increase the layers worn
  • I have my heating on 17 degrees October-April for about 5 hours a day on average. We have a 4 bed detached and our hot water also runs from oil (2 teenagers, so lots of showers).

    Our boiler is 2 years old and we use 1300 litres a year - £915.
    Just when I'm about to make ends meet, somebody moves the ends
  • fluffymuffy
    fluffymuffy Posts: 3,424 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    We have a 4 bed detached house made of solid stone, with no insulation in the walls or loft, and single glazing (Listed Buiding). There are 5 of us here and we use a lot of hot water.

    The heating is on from 6:30am constantly until 10:30pm - but the thermostat is set at 14 degrees C. If we need more heat we light the woodburner. We don't have any radiators switched on upstairs apart form a heated towel rail in the bathroom.

    We moved here in June and have so far used 600 litres of oil. I just ordered another 500 litres. I figure it will be about 1500 a year.

    I guess the trick is to keep a thermal flywheel of background heat at a lower level than is comfortable, and top up with a woodburner. We also have an air-source heat pump (brought from our last house) but haven't had it installed yet.
    I am the Cat who walks alone
  • Madmel
    Madmel Posts: 798 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Mortgage-free Glee!
    I know this is an old thread, but we must be really tight because it takes us 11 months to use around 500 litres! It's a 4 bedroom house, more than half of it is stone/cob construction so no cavities to insulate. The roof insulation is poor because the roof leaks [when it is finally repaired, we'll get more insulation]. The boiler is quite old, but DH replaced the old broken CH pump with a new more efficient one, and we use less oil. We also backed the boiler off so it doesn't run full-blast.

    Heating is on for an hour morning & evening, and we also use oil to heat the water. We have an open fire in our sitting room where we burn wood to supplement the heat in there. I paid around £380 in August to top up the tank, and I expect that to last into next spring/summer unless we have a particularly severe winter.
  • tori.k
    tori.k Posts: 3,592 Forumite
    we were the same we used to use around 300l a year in our 3 bed terrace house but then we were only using 3 rads as never heated the bedrooms, heating/hot water on when needed. guess we were lucky but with no mains gas it worked out really cheap for us.
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 349.7K Banking & Borrowing
  • 252.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 452.9K Spending & Discounts
  • 242.6K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 619.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.3K Life & Family
  • 255.5K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.