How much do you spend per year on home heating oil?

flanree

Hi Folks, I'm spending almost 3,000 euro a year filling my home heating oil tank, is this nuts? How much are you using per year, either litres or euro?

Nody

It would help if you specify the size of your house, your heating habits and what type of house it is (i.e. stand alone etc.).

darc

flanree wrote: »

Hi Folks, I'm spending almost 3,000 euro a year filling my home heating oil tank, is this nuts? How much are you using per year, either litres or euro?

That's crazy usage if going by today's price.

I use about 3000 litres a year (€1200 at today's prices) for large detached house with heating on approx. 5 hours a day from Oct to April.

3 things you MUST do.

Get the system serviced every year. It costs about about €60 -€80 and makes a HUGE difference.

Turn the thermostat on the burner down to 21 degrees. - This is the most comfortable constant temperature for the house.

Insulate you attic to 200mm.

Welease

As has been said, that is a crazy amount of oil to be going through..

My house is 4000 sq ft detached, with around 20 double radiators and we will use about 1500 Euro or so per year for heating and hot water (its our only source of heating and hot water), and this was with windows that were drafty (this has now been fixed).

When we first moved in last year, we went through a full tank in 4 weeks (1000 lts), and that prompted a look at how/when we were using the heating.. It's now on for an hour in the morning, and 4 hours in the evening.. we fixed all the draughts and set a thermostat, and if its cold at lunch time.. put a jumper on..
We now get about 10 weeks from a tank (over the winter).

flanree

Thanks for the help folks, I have a typical 3 bed semi with 8 single & 3 double rads. The attic has the usual foam roll insulation between joists but nothing againat the roof felt. I would have the heating on about 6 hours a day for over 6 months a year anyway. My other worry is the hot water. A recently fitted insulated cylinder boiler only gives us enough hot water for 2 to 3 showers in the morning and it runs out. Could I have a leak in the heating system?

Welease

I doubt you have a leak, all that water has to go somewhere and you would probably notice it...

My guess, you either have the temp set way to hot (so its burning contsantly), or you may have a faulty thermostat.. Does the boiler stay on permenantly for the six hours? i.e can you see it burning away.. or does it turn off and on (i.e. just keeping the temp constant)... if it is on permenant then that may be the cause of your problems.

It may be worth having your boiler checked out.. there is absolutely no way you bill should be anywhere near that level.. (at a very minimum in the interim, i would suggest programming your timer so it comes on for an hour, off for 30 mins, on for an hour etc in the evening.. that at least will save 90 mins or so per day, which would extend the life of the tank of fuel).

flanree

The boiler just stays on til the stat reaches temperature, not constant. I remember the plumber saying the hot water should stay hot for 14 hours. That never happened.