Heating Oil Consumption
Discussion
geeks said:
We are just about to buy a place on oil for heating. Reading this thread has been an eye opener...
It’s not all bad. We have one house that is incredibly well insulated and burns virtually nothing. It really is no worse than gas/electricity. Where oil gets painful is if your house is large and badly insulated and/or the variability in price combined with the payment arrangements (usually pay for a delivery in one go rather than month by month) causes issues.
LooneyTunes said:
geeks said:
We are just about to buy a place on oil for heating. Reading this thread has been an eye opener...
It’s not all bad. We have one house that is incredibly well insulated and burns virtually nothing. It really is no worse than gas/electricity. Where oil gets painful is if your house is large and badly insulated and/or the variability in price combined with the payment arrangements (usually pay for a delivery in one go rather than month by month) causes issues.
Recently moved to an oil fired modernised bungalow. Fairly well insulated we think (yet to be proved).
Still working out heated square footage as we have a garage block with a separate condensing boiler serving the accommodation above.
Filled the 1250 litre tank in October and again at the end of December. Between fills used 1000 litres 12.2 litres per day to be exact.
Problem is last time I bought oil in the 90’s it was about 9 p per litre.
Last fill was 62 p per litre!!!!
Still working out heated square footage as we have a garage block with a separate condensing boiler serving the accommodation above.
Filled the 1250 litre tank in October and again at the end of December. Between fills used 1000 litres 12.2 litres per day to be exact.
Problem is last time I bought oil in the 90’s it was about 9 p per litre.
Last fill was 62 p per litre!!!!
essayer said:
It's tough at the moment. Some combination of solar + ASHP + batteries would let you charge at offpeak/sunny times, then use the stored power to run the ASHP. But the property has to be ASHP-compatible, at least.
I'm guessing it's stone walls, high roofs, old insulation, concrete floors? These sorts of properties are going to need significant retrofitting to be more energy efficient, many converted in a time when oil was cheap and CO2 wasn't on the radar.
Keep topping up the oil until electricity rates go down..if they ever do
Thanks, I’m going to look into things which I can potentially supplement the oil fired heating.I'm guessing it's stone walls, high roofs, old insulation, concrete floors? These sorts of properties are going to need significant retrofitting to be more energy efficient, many converted in a time when oil was cheap and CO2 wasn't on the radar.
Keep topping up the oil until electricity rates go down..if they ever do
That’s correct, stone walls and concrete floor and the main room is open to the eaves. Thankfully we have very good double glazing but I may chuck some extra insulation in the 2 small areas of loft, which will help a little bit.
I’ve recently partitioned the biggest room with some Crittall style glazing which has helped keep this area warmer. We also installed a thick door on the mezzanine level where we were getting significant heat loss and effectively sealed off each end of the house which are currently independently heated.
I thought we may have a leak but during the summer months the level on the Watchman doesn’t move at all, despite heating our water. We appear to use circa 25 to 30 litres of oil a day in the winter months which averages to about £55 a week across the entire year.
4 bed extended semi detached house with a mix of 50s and 2000s insulation, uses about 1,600 litres a year, the wife does like it 20/21 at least but zoned so only bits of the house heated at any one time help. One big underfloor area which I think overall is efficient but you can seen consumption shoot up in this weather. Includes hot water heating.
juggsy said:
Very interesting chat with our plumber today who came to look at things. Rebalanced all the rads, but noticed some of our wiser TRVs weren’t open all the way when calling for heat, which could be causing the rads to heat up slowly and potentially consume more oil.
I would love to know how your plumber worked out the Wiser TRVs weren't opening enough when calling for heat? Nothing on the TRV shows this, neither does the app, was he using magic beans?geeks said:
We are just about to buy a place on oil for heating. Reading this thread has been an eye opener...
We have a 4 bed barn conversion built 30 yrs ago , we have a refill every 13/14 months which is about 1000 litres, a new boiler 4 years ago made a big difference, coupled with a log burner for the lounge .I have an electronic hour counter that operates whenever the boiler is firing and I keep a note of the reading each week. The boiler burns 5.3 litres of oil per hour and in a really cold week I’ve seen up to c.40hrs usage. This winter has, so far, been warmer and, since 1st Nov, I’ve used about 70% of what I used in the same period last winter.
gfreeman said:
Recently moved to an oil fired modernised bungalow. Fairly well insulated we think (yet to be proved).
Still working out heated square footage as we have a garage block with a separate condensing boiler serving the accommodation above.
Filled the 1250 litre tank in October and again at the end of December. Between fills used 1000 litres 12.2 litres per day to be exact.
Problem is last time I bought oil in the 90’s it was about 9 p per litre.
Last fill was 62 p per litre!!!!
That seems a lot. We’re in a 4 bed detached house built in ‘86. Still has the same boiler so now 36 years old. All we’ve done is double glazed 15 years ago and double the loft insulation. I work from home so the heating is on 20.5 all day. Then the log burner takes over the lounge in the evening. We’ve done about 800 litres since the middle of October. Still working out heated square footage as we have a garage block with a separate condensing boiler serving the accommodation above.
Filled the 1250 litre tank in October and again at the end of December. Between fills used 1000 litres 12.2 litres per day to be exact.
Problem is last time I bought oil in the 90’s it was about 9 p per litre.
Last fill was 62 p per litre!!!!
essayer said:
‘Fairly well insulated’
That’s a huge amount isn’t it? Our barn is very badly insulated and we did less oil (800 litres ish Nov-Jan)
I was thinking the same.That’s a huge amount isn’t it? Our barn is very badly insulated and we did less oil (800 litres ish Nov-Jan)
We have a 520yr old place. Traditional insulation (lathe, plaster, sheep wool). I wouldn't necessarily call it well insulated, but I reckon we use 20% less oil per day in over 3.000sqft.
I did some back of the cigarette packet calculations today based on our last fill up. Turns out we’re burning 13.7L/day which at a 60p/l fill up cost, means it’s cost us around £250 per month for heating and hot water over the last couple of months 
And thats only having the heating on morning and late afternoon/evening, occasionally during the day when it was particularly cold, log burner in use on a few nights a week.
We suspect we’re poorly insulated (we’re getting a paid inspection to look at this), but still this seems like a crazy amount, particularly as our boiler is brand spanking new. I must say the sums have terrified me, particularly with heating oil £1/l at the moment.
One experiment I’m trying is removing the smart TRVs (and using standard ones). Plumber told me oil boilers don’t regulate like a gas one so are much less efficient attempting to heat a couple of rooms versus just getting the house warm. Going to see what that does, but could there be anything else to investigate?
And thats only having the heating on morning and late afternoon/evening, occasionally during the day when it was particularly cold, log burner in use on a few nights a week.
We suspect we’re poorly insulated (we’re getting a paid inspection to look at this), but still this seems like a crazy amount, particularly as our boiler is brand spanking new. I must say the sums have terrified me, particularly with heating oil £1/l at the moment.
One experiment I’m trying is removing the smart TRVs (and using standard ones). Plumber told me oil boilers don’t regulate like a gas one so are much less efficient attempting to heat a couple of rooms versus just getting the house warm. Going to see what that does, but could there be anything else to investigate?
juggsy said:
I did some back of the cigarette packet calculations today based on our last fill up. Turns out we’re burning 13.7L/day which at a 60p/l fill up cost, means it’s cost us around £250 per month for heating and hot water over the last couple of months
And thats only having the heating on morning and late afternoon/evening, occasionally during the day when it was particularly cold, log burner in use on a few nights a week.
We suspect we’re poorly insulated (we’re getting a paid inspection to look at this), but still this seems like a crazy amount, particularly as our boiler is brand spanking new. I must say the sums have terrified me, particularly with heating oil £1/l at the moment.
One experiment I’m trying is removing the smart TRVs (and using standard ones). Plumber told me oil boilers don’t regulate like a gas one so are much less efficient attempting to heat a couple of rooms versus just getting the house warm. Going to see what that does, but could there be anything else to investigate?
Sounds very similar to my usage, however we have 2 boilers so going through ~28 litres per day. I'm having my tank brimmed on Monday which thankfully I ordered at 63p but not sure this'll get us through to spring.And thats only having the heating on morning and late afternoon/evening, occasionally during the day when it was particularly cold, log burner in use on a few nights a week.
We suspect we’re poorly insulated (we’re getting a paid inspection to look at this), but still this seems like a crazy amount, particularly as our boiler is brand spanking new. I must say the sums have terrified me, particularly with heating oil £1/l at the moment.
One experiment I’m trying is removing the smart TRVs (and using standard ones). Plumber told me oil boilers don’t regulate like a gas one so are much less efficient attempting to heat a couple of rooms versus just getting the house warm. Going to see what that does, but could there be anything else to investigate?
Alex L said:
Sounds very similar to my usage, however we have 2 boilers so going through ~28 litres per day. I'm having my tank brimmed on Monday which thankfully I ordered at 63p but not sure this'll get us through to spring.
Yeah quotes for a fill up are scary. What’s the format of your house if you don’t mind me asking Alex? I’m in a 4 bed 80s detached, not immediately next to another property so quite exposed to wind etc.juggsy said:
Yeah quotes for a fill up are scary. What’s the format of your house if you don’t mind me asking Alex? I’m in a 4 bed 80s detached, not immediately next to another property so quite exposed to wind etc.
I'm in a barn conversion with solid walls, floors and vaulted ceilings so limited insulation compared to modern housesjuggsy said:
Yeah quotes for a fill up are scary. What’s the format of your house if you don’t mind me asking Alex? I’m in a 4 bed 80s detached, not immediately next to another property so quite exposed to wind etc.
Ours is an 80s barn conversion with consumption similar to yours, used about 1000L since Christmas. We have Evohome and it does appear to run the boiler less often when there’s heat demand but I’d be interested to see if removing smart TRVs makes a difference
Fingers crossed for the weather warming up, I’ve started to run the air con in heat mode, ~400W but probably cheaper than oil!!
Alex L said:
I'm in a barn conversion with solid walls, floors and vaulted ceilings so limited insulation compared to modern houses
essayer said:
juggsy said:
Yeah quotes for a fill up are scary. What’s the format of your house if you don’t mind me asking Alex? I’m in a 4 bed 80s detached, not immediately next to another property so quite exposed to wind etc.
Ours is an 80s barn conversion with consumption similar to yours, used about 1000L since Christmas. We have Evohome and it does appear to run the boiler less often when there’s heat demand but I’d be interested to see if removing smart TRVs makes a difference
Fingers crossed for the weather warming up, I’ve started to run the air con in heat mode, ~400W but probably cheaper than oil!!
Either way, I’m surprised at my consumption given some people on here are getting through 1200L in a year.
Someone the other day was complaining today how his monthly gas bill had gone up to £45/month!
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