oil filled boiler - advice required

beckster407

:money:Help please!

I have found a 3 bedroom bungalow that I would like to rent but it has an oil filled boiler for the heating system.

I have no idea about this.

How expensive is this to run ?

Any ideas of an approx monthly cost compared to gas central heating ?

Thank you
Becky

reeac

beckster407 wrote: »

:money:Help please!

I have found a 3 bedroom bungalow that I would like to rent but it has an oil filled boiler for the heating system.

I have no idea about this.

How expensive is this to run ?

Any ideas of an approx monthly cost compared to gas central heating ?

Thank you
Becky

I think that you mean "oil fired". We've been in our present 3 brm. bungalow for 14 years and have always used 1800-2000 litres of oil per annum. Current price is about 60p./litre but our last purchase [in June] was 50p./litre. That makes it £1000-1200 p.a. . We are retired and so around the place most of the time and don't skimp on heating - if you're out working then you'd save a bit. Mains gas is cheaper - say by 20% or so but that hardly justifies the cost of a new gas boiler unless the old oil-burner is clapped out.

beckster407

Thank you very much that's very useful.
Think I need to do some calculations and way it all up.

reeac

beckster407 wrote: »

Thank you very much that's very useful.
Think I need to do some calculations and way it all up.

A small update: if you want to compare oil and gas then gas prices are quoted per kWh. whereas oil are quoted per litre. Conveniently, 1 litre of oil yields 10 kWh. so at 50p/litre it's 5.0p/kWh or at 60p/litre it's 6.0p/kWh.

There is a fairly fundamental difference when it comes to buying the two fuels. With gas you'll have a continuous supply via a running contract with all the fine print and marketing tricks for which utility companies are renowned. You can, however, have a combined gas+electricity contract which offers good savings. With oil you typically make a one-off, no strings attached purchase and then the fuel's all yours until you need some more. Time your purchases right and you can save money.

malc_b

This isn't far off, oil is 10.35 kWh gross. You then need to take into account boiler efficiency if you want to compare the true price with say electric which is 100% efficient.

Having said that gas and oil boilers are similar efficiencies comparing condensing with condensing and non with non. Oil is slightly better. You can look up your boiler on sedbuk .

G_M

If you decide to go ahead, make sure that either your tenancy agreement, or the associated inventory, states

a) how much oil is in the tank at the start of the tenancy and
b) what happens at the end of the tenancy:
i) if you are expected to leave the same amount when you leave, this is almost impossible
ii) if you have recently filled the tank and leave more, will the LL pay you for the extra oil you leave?
iii) if you leave less, will the extra you owe be calculated using the price of oil when you last filled up? Or the price on the day you leave? (in which case, who specifies that price?)

If this is not all clear upfront, you risk problems later.

FiatFan_2

We started renting a 4 bed bungalow in July and have been using between 65-100 litres a week. As we were new to oil fire boilers too, I've been monitoring usage to try budget for the future.

We rang around the oil suppliers and decided for the first year to go on a DD payment plan, lowest payment accepted is £80pcm. So far we've bought in about 1200 litres and we've about 400 l left at the minute. Hopefully in the summer we can buy some cheap outright and not on DD once the year is up.

As G_M states, our rental agreement has all those points covered so we know where we stand should we decide to leave (not likely!) or LL sells up. Fortunately for us, 4 months after moving in the LL replaced the 14yr old boiler with a new one which to use shows their commitment to keeping the house.