To think oil fired central heating is a bollocks

[FrostyTheCrunchyFrog]

and to want to KILL IT DEAD?

I've run out of oil. Again. In a total catch 22 - can't afford to fill the tank, so am putting in 200l a month, and at the moment, that is lasting 3-4 weeks. (costing £135 a pop). To fill the tank would be £603.

It's unbeliveably expensive - compared to gas, in London I was paying maybe £50-60 a month in gas through the winter, and was always in credit.

ARRRGH. I've just asked them for a direct debit, but the way that works is you pay each month until you have enough to fill the tank. So basically, for the next few months I'll have to pay double what I am now, then we'll be OK. Except I don't have that.

And I'm COLD. Stupid house.

I feel your pain. We screwed up our heating settings when we first moved and ran out of oil in the middle of a particularly cold spell. Best part of a grand to fill the tank - which we did not have lying around at the time!

Do you have a log burner or similar?

Yes its total shit. We get by because we also have a woodburner and burn any and all free wood/furniture we come across. I hate oil.

Nope. No alternative heat at all, the landlady in her wisdom took the fires and back boilers out. I have jumpers. And thankfully, children who do not feel the cold.

Just rang company, they are going to do their best to get the oil out to me today. the corner shop does 20l drums for £20, but I'll need 2 (there is literally no oil at all).

Did I mention WOE?

Absolutely awful system. I would so love to have gas, but sadly this is not available here.

I can get drums of oil at a local petrol station, would that be any use for you? They're expensive though but it might get you by over Christmas?

Oh x-posts.

can you tip the tank

In Ireland they've started selling drums of oil at garages for about ?40. Lots of people using them now, as they can't afford to fill the tanks. You also see a lot of oil tanks propped up on bricks to get the last drops of oil out! Hard times.

Can so relate to this :) We have just moved to a house with oil central heating from gas and we are really noticing the difference in cost etc.

Granted the house we are in now is very old, but it just doesn't really get warm at all. We are trying not to use the heating too much as it is so expensive and the oil seems to get used up so quickly. So sit there with fingerless gloves on when I work from home. Dh is living in thermals whereas DD doesn't seem to notice. Luckily her bedroom and the lounge are the warmest in the house

We are looking to buy in this area and am wondering if LPG would be any cheaper than oil.

I've ordered (yet another) 200l, think I'll try and scrimp and get another 200 every 2 weeks for a while, at least try and get us through to spring!

If the company can't get out today, I'll go and buy the emergency drums for tonight. At least we don't have snow!

Oh god! We're moving to a new place with oil fired central heating in January and after looking at various posts on various sites I'm now dreading the expense of it. We have got two open fires that we can hopefully use to help out alot; and luckily as we're renting one of the terms of the contract is that you have to leave the tank full when you leave the property, so we're ok for a little while.

Can i ask about your usage at the moment? I'm hoping to only have the water on for an hour a day and the heating for about 30 - 45 mins twice a day just to take the chill off whilst we sort out getting a fire going; but never having had oil fired central heating before i don't know if that's still gonna cost us massively in oil.

Also have you seen on the british gas website they have an item for sale that goes behind your radiators and reflects lost heat back into the room. They are only £4.99 each. Although I'm sure i read on one of the credit crunch threads that you could easily make something similar with some sturdy cardboard and some strong shiny foil.

Sorry i can't offer any other advice, based on what i've read about oil fired central heating i'd say YANBU

Usage is pretty heavy I think - 2 hours in the morning, 4 or so in the afternoon/ evening. House is poorly insulated, so heat doesn't last (I need to get more curtains, more flipping money!)

But no fires, I'd give my right arm for a fire tbh. Back boilers are much better.

Oh, BTW, if you're going in to a full tank, probably best to start a DD with a company now, so by the time you run out you've paid for the refill!

Frosty Don't know which company you're using, some won't let you fill up then pay by DD (as you've found out), try Countrywide Farmers, I'm pretty sure they'll fill your tank then let you pay by DD.

& yes Oil fired heating is a fucker.

We had one in our previous house, ran out twice due to a dodgy gauge (it stuck at about 1/3 full). The first time was at New Year 2 years ago in the snow, and it happened to lots of people at the time.

It was expensive to fill but my feeling was that it wasn't much more expensive than mains gas would have been in the same house. It's hard to say, though, the house was bigger than any other we've lived in, and old. But fuel prices are just so ridiculous anyway these days.

Filling the tank is the best bet to get cheapest prices, of course, so if you can get ahead a bit, it will save money in the long term. There are also online sites (eg boilerjuice) which enable you to get discounts if you order in conjunction with other people buying in your area. Or you could do this yourself by talking with your neighbours - most oil sellers would consider matching the lowest online price if you approached them directly.

I have no idea of the cost of oil vs gas my old house ate expensive anthracite and emptied the coal shed like there was no tomorrow.
I do know that oil seemed realy cheap when we bought this house 14 years ago and now it's 3 or 4 times as much to fill the tank. Not to mention the huge bill to buy a new tank because the metal one was rusty
Various local people recently researched getting mains gas, but it's just too expensive.
LPG is a worse rip off than oil because you are tied to your supplier.
At least I can ring round oil companies and compare quotes.
We had it almost run out in the snow. We were using very expensive electric instead.
Our own fault, totally filling our tank is cheaper so it's always a juggling act to work out exactly when to get them to come.
My heart really goes out to people who have this problem month in month out.

Frosty wrt to curtains; go to the charity shop & buy old cheap blankets.

Cut them to size with pinking shears (try & borrow some) then safety pin them on the underneath/inside of your curtains

If they are a good colour & size you could sew them in, otherwise just do it temporarily

YANBU to think it's bollocks, but if you move somewhere that doesn't have gas mains your choice is that, electric, or no central heating at all.

I have oil-fired central heating, but it is via a 'woodburner' type fire, which incorporates a back boiler for hot water. The fire goes on low at the beginning of the season and stays on. We just put the radiators on if it gets really cold. My supplier is Butler Fuels, and I am on a plan whereby they come every so often, top up the tank, and I pay by DD every month (currently £95).

Yes, the cost has trebled+ since we had it installed, but I have friends with LPG and their costs are absolutely horrendous, and their house is always cold 'cos they can't afford to put the heating on.

Definitely second KatyMac's advice about lining curtains with old blankets.

Also ask around and see if anyone has a portable calor gas fire you could borrow - that way you could heat one room instead of the whole house? Constantly running out of oil is going to cost you even more in the long term as it doesn't do the boiler any good at all (sorry to be the bearer of more bad news).

For the longer term, also see if there is a oil-buying syndicate running near you - see here - it won't help with the buying-every-month catch 22 but it could lower costs once you can get out of that cycle.

I am on oil too and have been for 12 years. The cost per ltr has trebbled in the years we have been here.

I too am with Butler and pay by direct debit. I don't reemeber having to pay up front when we first moved here. I would phone around and find a supplier to fill you up and then lets you pay by direct debit if you can.

Do you have a thermostat on your heating? if you are home all day you may find it economical to leave on a low setting (once you have got the house warm) as a huge amount of oil is used in the start up.

Agree with lining your curtins with balnkets - also cover any doors with curtins/blankets. Ikea do cheap fleece ones.

Going charity shop-wards ASAP for curtains for back door, kitchen and bedrooms. (there are blinds but they do sod all in terms of heat retention.)

No thermostat, whole system is ancient. Might be time to beg chat to landlady about a change.

Hi Frosty,

Yes, oil heating is so incredibly awful.

The last two winters I went without central heating following running out of oil, getting air locks in the fuel line, getting a blocked filter, boiler just packing up completely, stupid XP putting biodiesel in which damaged the pipes, not being able to afford the £650 for 500L every 6 weeks etc etc. Plus I could only buy the oil per 500L and no emergency drums locally.

This was in an uninsulated bungalow with air bricks below floor level to allow the icy wind to fully circulate the house. It was horrible.

I had a little coal fire which I would light at 6 each morning and relied on electric blankets, portable electric heaters and a portable gas bottle style fire to keep the house warm. Water was able to be electrically heated too, but as you can imagine, the leccy bill (prepaid meter type) was massive.

One piece of advice would be to get some silver emergency space blankets - about £2 from GoOutdoors camping shop- Cut them to size and bluetack to the window panes. This really helps to keep the heat in/ cold out, and they let some light through.

Also, don't use Boilerjuice oil brokers, they are a ripoff and are trying to force up the cost of oil.

Other than that, do what you can to get the system changed next year or, if you are renting like I was, move out! It is just not worth the hassle with oil heating and I would NEVER do it again!

On the bright side, it's character building (ducks from hurled hotwater bottle!)

Spending my first warm winter with gas since 2008 :)

Character building! well, there's always an upside.

No options here, all the rentals are OFCH or economy 7, which is even worse!

Definately try to get a couple of portable gas heaters. A bottle costs about £30 to refill and will last for a couple of weeks dep. on usage. Have a look on ebay for one?

I really feel for you, though, nothing worse than feeling cold all the time. (throws loads of HWBs at Frosty in attempt to keep her warm)

Frosty - when I was 12 we moved, in September, into a house which had ancient (seriously ancient - big cabinets full of heat bricks) storage heaters and nothing else. In his infinite wisdom my father ripped those out (well, we all did - we seemed to be lugging bricks around for weeks!) but the new (LPG) central heating wasn't installed until the next spring.

Ice on the inside of your bedroom windows is definitely "character building" - but we all survived fine (including DB2 who was only 2 at the time) - we ate lots of stews and other long-cooked things because my DM was looking for excuses to have the oven on. We basically abandoned most of the house, kept the kitchen warm with electric heaters, and put on several layers of clothes before leaving the kitchen .

My parents have since, twice, run out of LPG in the middle of snow season, when the delivery truck can't reach them. They spent last Christmas without gas, inspite of the fact that their tank is supposed to be filled automatically.