Oil usage

samandmillie

Our tank holds 1200l. I use an old broom handle to measure how much oil we have used. In just under 3wks we've used 2" of oil, we mainly use it for heating and use electric for the water. It's our first winter with oil and I'm hoping it lasts as it cost over £700 to fill the tank. The heating has been on an hour or so per day. Does 2" sound like reasonable usage in this time period? Many thanks

milliemonster

I have no idea of how much oil you have used as simply saying it's dropped 2" doesn't really give us an idea of the volume of oil used.

What I would say is we have a 1300l tank, at this time of year we have our heating on for 10 mins in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening, we would expect to increase that to an hour and a half in the morning and probably 4 hours in the evening when it starts to get really cold and I would envisage our tankful to last til around late Feb/early march so would need to refill then.

ash28

We have an 1100l tank and have a large modern house - 5 bedrooms, 3 bathroom, large living room, dining room, large kitchen, a utililty and a study. We use oil for the heating and water and electricity for cooking. We have an open fire in the living room we use logs and coal on that.

We are early retired and are in most of the time so in cold weather the heating can be on all day. The thermostat is set to about 18 degrees and it comes on in the morning for a couple of hours and then in the early evening until about an hour before we go to bed. If it is cold it is put on constant

We have lived in the house for exactly a year now and in that year we have used 2340l which cost roughly £1300. We are having an oil delivery tomorrow, which will be our fourth since moving. I expect that to last until mid to late January - longer if the weather is mild.

Our fills have been end of October 2011, end January 2012, end April 2012 and tomorrow. We went on holiday after the April fill and left our daughter in charge and when we got back there was a quarter of a tank gone (after 2 weeks) I asked her if she had been syphoning it off for her friends!

The tank is refilled when there is around a quarter of a tank left.

During the worst of last winter it was costing us about £5 a day in oil.

We live in rural Lincolnshire - it's flat and exposed and gets pretty chilly.

suki1964

Ash - that sounds about average, if not a wee bit low for a house of your size

We too have that size a tank and go through three fills a year - but we top up with coal during the winter - perhaps 35 quid a month on top during the cold months

My mum is old - ish -(76) and feels the cold so the heating is on atm for 4 hours a day

samandmillie

I have been monitoring my usage. From 6th aug to 27th oct we used 17cm of oil. For the last 2 wks my husband has been working from home and has had the heating on, we've used 10cm from 27 oct to 11 nov!!! He has only had it on from apprx 3pm until 7pm.

I measured the level yesterday, doe sit shrink in size when it's cold or have we really used that much?

Thanks

G_M

Talking about 2" of oil or 17 cm is meaningless!

Is your tank a low level, wide one or a narrow, tall one?!!!

A 2" drop in the former is far mor oil than a 2" drop in the latter!

What is the total height of the oil? If it has dropped from, say, 8" to 6" that is a quarter of the total volume of oil (whatever the total was at the start!)

More information needed.

suki1964

You used that much

Oil levels drop real fast as it gets colder

I've used a couple of hundred litres in a month with just 3 hours a day of heating/hotwater. And I'm burning smokeless on top of that

bobmedley

Buy one of these

http://www.dunravensystems.com/portfolio/apollo-smart/

samandmillie

I am not sure what type of tank it is, what sort of height would low level be? If it helps I have to stand on a brick wall to see into the top of it? I've guessed that 27cm is around 270 litres, only because its gone down by about 1/4 from when we had it filled. Thanks for the recommendation on the meter.