Where is heating oil used?

[IHateWasps]

Stupid question but I keep seeing people talking on MN about heating oil and I've never know anyone who has this system. Is it mainly in rural areas? Also how long does a tank last you? Is this system more expensive?

Just had 750lts delivered couple days ago, ordered 3 days before cost just over 48p per ltr, so £350 ish, I find it no problem to keep an eye on the level of the oil and order when needed, takes less than10 mins to do (thats inc getting the hose unreeled and put back on the tanker).

I did not realise oil heating was so common still .
So many questions confused

Are your tanks above or below ground - Above, in a part of the garden we don't use much
How long does it take to sort out a delivery? - You can do short notice but you pay through the nose, we usually order 10 days in advance
How long does it take to fill a tank (relative to it's size) - Not long, about 10-15 minutes from the tanker pulling up, unreeling the hose, filling then putting the docket through the door
Do you have to be in when the oil is delivered - No, we just leave the key in a safe place
Can nighbours club together and get a discount - Yes, we use The Oil Club which clubs neighbourhoods and villages together to get a better rate
Is theft a issue - Yes, so we lock ours and monitor it via CCTV

..should say that will prob last until Dec in a 1100 ltr tank then get top up then, used about £30 worth since May just for hot water, no heating on at all.

@Chasingsquirrels

Rural/commuter village about 10 miles from Cambridge. Although we have a village community heating scheme (large scale ground source) in the pipeline.

sounds interesting! Is that SP?

We live in a village 8 miles from Cambridge, no gas here so almost everyone is on oil. However, we switched to an ASHP 3 years ago - with the government subsidy its basically free.

EmmaGrundyForPM it is indeed.

I'm in a town in the Highlands and we use oil. There is gas on the street now but the previous owner didn't get connected for the couple of hundred they w

We live in Leicestershire and have an oil boiler. We have just filled up 1000 litres and it cost just under £500. Feels expensive because we pay out a lump sum at a time. Most of our village are on mains gas but as we live down quite a long drive we would have to pay to have gas installed. We also use a gas canister for our range cooker! One canister seems to last forever- at least 6 months!

Lived in military married quarters that were oil fired, had a huge tank in the garden.

Oooh thank you everyone for answering my questions.
For some reason I thought the tanks would be bigger than around 1000 lts

I bet you don't make the mistake of have to get a emergency top up often if it cost so much more .

At first I thought it was a bit odd that you could have it delivered while you are out but I guess it's but like my milk man deliving my milk and eggs while I am in bed .

@squashyhat

I live 500 yards from a gas main in a semi-rural area of the south east. But because it would cost a fortune to get it extended (house was built in the early 1900s) we have an oil tank.

Same in East Wittering, West Sussex.

Are your tanks above or below ground
How long does it take to sort out a delivery ?
How long does it take to fill a tank
( relative to it's size)
Do you have to be in when the oil is delivered
Can nighbours club together and get a discount
Is theft a issue*

Above ground
We have an arrangement that a delivery lorry comes to a bunch of us on a fairly regular basis and tops us up
Not long, like a big petrol pump just more litres
In, yes for the key. Ours is locked.
We club together for convenience, rather than price
No, it's locked.

I had gas connected to the house about 27 years ago, costs about £5000, so many of my neighbours haven’t done the same. We are in South Suffolk. My mum is just over tge border in Essex and still uses oil. There isn’t a gas main within 5 miles I don’t think.

My aunt had oil and lived in Hanwell - London. I was stunned tbh

We are in Warwickshire. Fairly rural. We have heating oil, mains electricity and a septic tank. Our water is from a reservoir on the Estate. We also have a well too.

We buy our oil in the summer when it is much cheaper and fill the tank for the winter.

Forgot to add we have bottled gas for the cooker.

I was on oil living in a small village in the south west. It was hugely more expensive than gas when I was there, though that was a few years ago. Plus the boilers were more expensive and less reliable.

I am in Cornwall, no mains gas in the village. We have a 2500 litre tank. I usually buy 2000 litres at a time as I get a discount for that volume.

Rural North here (the actual north, Northumberland), we have an oil tank, spend 600/700 a year to heat our old farmhouse which I don't think is bad

[quote MooseBeTimeForSummer]@PickAChew seems ironic that most of East Yorks doesn’t have mains gas when it comes ashore at Easington (or used to).
My family home in Hedon was on the mains.[/quote]
Yes, we had it in Hedon (many, many years ago!) but at least some of Skirlaugh doesn't and the village where my parents now live is right next to a gas storage site and they don't have it there.

We got our 1000 litre tank filled in March 2020 when the price dropped to €400 per 1000L. We managed to get a second hand tank for €60 so filled that too.
The price was €650 per 1000L two weeks ago, now it’s €755!
Luckily our supplier is only a few minutes away and doesn’t charge extra for emergency top ups. I even called them the day we got bad snow and they were here within an hour.

has all this huge hike in gas effected the price of oil for those on oil?