Oil prices

ccluedo

beefturnmail said:

I reckon I have enough oil to last through until May/June, but does anyone know if letting the oil in a tank run too low cause any problems?

A neighbour let theirs run too low around 4 years back and it cost £75 +vat  to get someone out to clean the pipe between tank and boiler. I think they said less than an inch was in it and they had tilted the tank to delay buying. Turned out to be a bit of a false economy.

beefturnmail

Thanks - I have about 7-8 inches left.  The take off point is about 4 inches from the ground, so I presume that's as low as it can go

lohr500

Deleted_User said:

If you have any water in the bottom of the tank that gets sucked through the pipe, you could have an issue. But nothing usually fatal, once you've had the boiler cleaned out. 

Oil floats on water. So if you have water in your tank up to the level where the oil feed comes out of the tank then won't you end up with water flowing to the boiler regardless of how much oil there is in the tank?

If you tipped the tank up to squeeze a bit more oil out, then yes, I could see how that would cause a problem with water in the bottom of the tank.

lohr500

dunstonh said:

I have enough under normal use to see me until late April.   However, we have cut the hours the heating is on and turned it down and are running three woodburners instead to try and eek it out.   If I can get it to warmer months then it barely uses anything for hot water.   By then, the panic buying should be over and the price falling back.

I am thinking along the same lines.

We filled our 2500 litre tank close to maximum in the 3rd week of January.
Since then we have been getting through an average 14.5 litres a day. That should see us well into the summer. Through the summer we use less than 2 litres a day for hot water only. 

But I have still adjusted the room thermostat setting down on our Hive controller and, like you, cut the hours of heating.

We have a plentiful supply of logs so over the weekends we are now going to light the log burner in our main room.

I guess we are fortunate that we have no short term need for an oil top up But I would like to eek it out as well in the hope that things will settle down later in the year and prices will fall.

beefturnmail

14.5l per day - wow.  My max is 4l per day in cold spells in winter - I do mainly use a log burner for heat though and house is well insulated (built in 2015)

lohr500

Big old farm house in an exposed location in North Yorkshire. Both of us now retired so the heating is on during the day.
Don't get me started on the electric AGA running costs 

RG2015

beefturnmail said:

14.5l per day - wow.  My max is 4l per day in cold spells in winter - I do mainly use a log burner for heat though and house is well insulated (built in 2015)

If you use a log burner for heat it is not really a fair comparison, although I see that that @lohr500 also uses a log burner.

I only use oil for heating and hot water, and average about 9 litres per day in the winter, and 1.5 litres per day in the summer.

I got a delivery on 7th Feb but only filled to about 80% in the hope that prices might fall from the 64 pence I paid. 

I estimate that it will be October before I need to refill but I am getting worried. From 28p in March 2020 to 64p in February 2022 to about 142p today.

dunstonh

lohr500 said:

Big old farm house in an exposed location in North Yorkshire. Both of us now retired so the heating is on during the day.
Don't get me started on the electric AGA running costs 

We sound very similar.   Old country house using around 2800 litres a year but only with a 1500litre tank.  And a 30amp AGA.

Today was great.  I had one burner on in the room I was working and by afternoon, fired up the one that spreads around the hour more.  Didnt need the third running burning and the house was plenty warm enough.   

Our local supplier is reported to be offering 110p this morning.  Boilerjuice was 199p.  And apparently, other independents are pricing lower than boilerjuice.  A common trend with the local independents is tthat they are not taking on new customers and only supplying their regulars.   it makes me wonder if those that work with boilerjuice are offering their own direct customers lower prices but hammering boilerjuice customers.

motherofwildthings

lohr500 said:

Big old farm house in an exposed location in North Yorkshire. Both of us now retired so the heating is on during the day.
Don't get me started on the electric AGA running costs 

Similar here. Old cottage in the cotswolds, very exposed, single glazing and a draft through most doors and windows. We rent and the building is listed so limited to what can be done but landlord has helped as much as possible for the issues we've had. We go through a lot of oil with 2 older kids and a baby to keep warm in a very draughty house. Our cheapest oil supplier is 1.30 pl without VAT added. We are down to two bars and just can't afford to put more in. We have a log burner but it only heats the one room as our walls are about 15 inches thick. Getting ready to camp out in he front room at this rate. We are lucky enough that my husband is on a great wage but even with that, we are struggling with rising fuel, food and electricity costs. All whilst desperately trying to save for a mortgage (housing in our area is 450k for average for 3 bed terrace). Not sure what to do anymore to be honest. We don't eat out, we only do free trips (or trips with my national trust card at £10pm) our spending is bare minimal. Food shop per week for us is £70, thats with two ravenous children. My MIL keeps telling us we just have to spend less money (infuriating!) but apart from the kids two clubs, we don't have any expenses. I don't even go and get myself a coffee from the cafe in the village. 

thrope

Also very worried about this. Moved to a new house last year, budgeting around £150 per month for energy costs in the winter (£100 oil heating and hot water, ~£50 electric). Now looking at around £400 a month in the winter (oil costs x 3, electricity costs x 2).

I don't understand why home heating oil price seems to have decoupled from crude and petrol and is showing such higher increases than those. When we moved in last May we paid 42p/L for kerosene and crude was around $65/barrel. Now crude is around $115, less than 1.8x more (but OK very volatile) but we are being quotes £1.30-£1.40/L kerosene (over 3x more).

Does anyone have any insight?