Oil Heating Considerations

[NeverAgain]

I'm moving house shortly and the new house has an oil boiler. Can anyone tell me roughly what I should budget for a 3 bedroom detached house in oil usage. Any tips or tricks or essential knowledge for oil heating too?

It's a rental property so upgrading and spending too much money on it isn't worthwhile.

[Triton Thrasher]

Central heating kerosene is good for cleaning engine parts.

It's also a cheap fuel for oil lamps.
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Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[steve the grease]

A tank full costs us about 500 notes . We go through 2-3 a year. It's dearer than gas I believe.

[Rogerborg]

When it get reeeeally cold, the oil sludges in the pipe, the boiler doesn't work, and you die unless you have alternative sources of heating. HTH, HAND.
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GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[defblade]

Keep an eye on the levels, the price goes up a lot if you want delivery in less than 3 or 4 working days. Check a couple of local suppliers for price each time, and Boilerjuice. Boiler should be serviced annually. If you do run low, some petrol stations sell heating oil, so you can top up with jerry cans.
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Honda Varadero 125cc => Suzuki Bandit 650 33bhp => 77bhp =>
BMW K1200R Sport 163bhp => Aprilia Shiver GT 750 95bhp

[weasley]

We have a 1,000 litre tank and get 3 deliveries a year, each delivery is around 700-800 litres. We have a 4-bed with 2 adults and 2 kids, empty through the day during the week.

We have used Boilerjuice a few times and it is a good place to start. The last one was from comparetheoilprice. When we installed the boiler about 4 years ago oil was around 60p/litre. It dropped to less than 30p and now hovers around 40-ish.

We have a wireless remote tank gauge; sensor in the tank and meter plugged into a socket in the house with a 10 bar gauge on it, plus an alarm which sounds if it gets low but also if the level drops faster than it should (suggesting a leak or a theft in progress).

Running out of oil is a pain, partly because of the grumpy family but also because of having to purge the lines and prime the pump; easy enough to do but a smelly faff of a job.

Our village is also part of a community purchasing cooperative - there may be one operating in your area. It means we order a bulk delivery then share it out as needed, getting a decent deal in the process. Unfortunately the timing of orders always seems to be misaligned with our needs.

Having come from always having gas I was worried it would be more effort having oil, but it’s not that bad and having a finite amount which you can see disappearing gives you a greater sense of energy use and an imperative to take reasonable measures to economise. Once you get an idea of usage and delivery lead times you should be fine. The earlier you order the cheaper it is.

Luckily our boiler is in the garage so when it needs a service or priming the smell stays out of the house. A friend had a leak in his boiler which was in the kitchen and the whole house reeked for months.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

[stinkwheel]

My local supplier does me a monthly standing order. We vary it annually depending on use and I just phone them when I need a top-up. They also have a key to my tank and know where it is so I don't need to be about when they come. Generally works out I pay a wee bit more than I needed to and get a refund come renewal time (which pays for the boiler service). I find this convenient instead of having to find enough for 800litres of central heating oil when you notice there's only 2" left in the bottom and it's the last week of the month.

As above, watch the levels because if you run out it can be a few days before you get a refill.

Also be aware of theft, lock your tank and practice good boundary security. You have hundreds of pounds worth of oil sitting there, people can and do nick it.

I also use propane cylinders for my cooker because I really can't stand cooking on an electric hob.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[weasley]

We were starting from scratch and had the choice of gas or electric hob - I also hated using electric hobs but we were persuaded to go for an induction hob. I’d never go back to gas now.
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Yamaha XJ600 | Yamaha YZF600R Thundercat | KTM 990 SMT | BMW F900XR TE

[Ed Case]

Find a good service engineer for your oil boiler, sloppy maintenance won't do.

[dodsi]

[panrider_uk]

[weasley]

[MCN]

The injector system can fug up with shite so it is proper to have clean fuel supplied, keep water way from it and filter it.
You can get a water removal device too.
Some systems use Diesel (Heavy Fuel) and some use Paraffin/Kerosene (like Jet A)

Have a shoofti around the system during the summer months before winter hits.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Evil Hans]