To be terrified about the cost of oil

[Troublesometooth]

We don’t have any mains gas, heating and hot water both run on oil. We usually buy 500 litres every 8 weeks in winter which costs £200-300.

We are desperately low and the cost today is £700! We simply can’t afford to pay this to heat our home for the next 8 weeks.

Other than wearing more jumpers can anyone suggest ways of keeping warm?

There's quite a lot of clear water between "dont turn the heating on" and having the central heating running all day, every day.

And realistically there's more chance of turning off your own heat than convincing the entire energy system to be different.

I have an oodie my heat is off a lot more than it used to be.

I ordered 2000L at 85p/l whereas I’d normally wait til cheaper times in summer, was too worried it would soar even higher . I’m then going to tweak our heating as it’s on twice a day and we can manage with much less . I also don’t know how to turn the temperature down on our hot water as that might be more efficient too.

Jesus Christ on back of this thread I checked and 1000l of heating oil is now £1400. It’s usually £400-600. Luckily we have about half a big tank left and we just filled up the coal bunker. our new boiler will break if we run out of oil so going to have to seriously ration heating to just an hour in the morning and rely on the fire to heat the water. Fucks sake.

@User76745333

Electricity isn’t cheaper overnight unless you’re in economy 7 (which most people aren’t)

We seem to have a dual meter which has daytime and nighttime readings. We're in the East of England in the countryside. Our night time rate per kWh is going up to less per kWh than daytime rate before the price hike, so am running washing machine at night! Wasn't aware of it previously.

You don’t need your heating on all day every day

Wear jumpers during the day, heating on first thing, then again it the evening

Running round after a toddler should warm you up

Crikey - this thread will give me nightmares! No gas here either. We get through a shocking amount of oil - changes will need to be made!

Fortunately we don’t need to pay the £2k for 1000l I was quoted. We bought oil about a month ago. I’m just annoyed with myself that we only bought 500l and didn’t fill up.

Wow! I moved out last Autumn of a house which used heating oil. I’ve just checked my BoilerJuice order history. The most I ever paid was 55 per litre and around £275 total for 500L which would last about three months.

The price now is 150 per litre and around £754 total for 500L!!

I would absolutely not be able to afford that and would instead go cold. That is a terrifying thought.

On occasions when I ran out of oil before and had to wait a week for the next delivery, we made use of the wood burner in the living room and wore loads of layers. We got hot water by boiling the electric kettle and also heating massive pots of water on the electric stove top for hot baths etc. if I still lived in that house, this would be our normal rather than our emergency routine.

This is shocking. What on earth are people going to do?

My Granda got 1500 litres 3 weeks ago for £900. Last night for the same amount from same company it would have been £1933. Absolutely unbelievable. Thankfully we have a wood burning stove. We would of used it and boosted heat for bedrooms. Now we don't use heat at all and stick to stove and jumpers. Have electric blankets if needed

Boiler juice can't quote for us currently because there are no available suppliers!

On the 2nd March our County oil club weren't able to secure a group price. Oil was quoted 82p per litre but the suppliers weren't able to commit to taking additional orders because they weren't certain of their supply. We were recommended to order independently. The first time this has happened in 11 years.

Fortunately, our boiler can be switched to using electricity. Not that that is much cheaper but at least we won't run out!

Hot water bottles or a electric blanket on for 15 minutes to warm bed.

Wear a dressing gown over clothes to keep warm and pop one on your kids too over clothes .

I switched my oil heating off yesterday. Looked at boiler juice they want £824 for 500l

I can’t afford it . I will be able to save enough to buy some in in October at that price

Going to have baths once a week , hot water bottles in bed and use the dishwasher instead of washing by hand . Luckily my electric is on a good rate until June .

This is awful. Surely it’s going to come down to people not buying food and then more and more using food banks? Wages and benefits need to increase asap to reflect this cost of living.

@ScootScot

This is awful. Surely it’s going to come down to people not buying food and then more and more using food banks? Wages and benefits need to increase asap to reflect this cost of living.

Yes. The cost of filling a tank has more than doubled. Most people can't just magic up an extra £600 to get 500 litres. Same with other energy. It doesn't bode well for next winter does it.

@godmum56

i do feel a bit eyerolly when people leap in and say "oh you don't need the heating on, just turn it off" its in the stupid advice list along with "get a pay rise" take in ironing' or "move house"

I’m more than rolling my eyes at this. People are trying to help! It isn’t as nice as having the heating on in every room, I know, but otherwise you’re stuck with massive bills. Your choice!

And I don’t live in a well insulated house or like the cold. My house is a half completed, damp 300 year old, exposed farmhouse in the Pennines- it’s cold! I’d love to have the heat on all the time and am just as susceptible to cold. I just can’t afford heating all the time.

People are trying to help and not being condescending! Some of us are already having to turn heat off prior to these price rises. God knows what we will do!!

We are keeping ours off until around 6pm and then only putting it on for a few hours. I worry about damp though.
We have a village syndicate but think we left because they weren’t always getting the best deal, regretting that now!
Luckily we have a log burner, unluckily our shower isn’t electric!

Forgot to say, we’ve got two duvets on each bed and wear jumpers/coats around the house.

in my area it's now £2 a litre so £1000 for 500 litres. That's a four fold increase in a matter of weeks. What is to stop it going up to £3 , £4 or £5 a litre?

I am also concerned with supply issues. My hot water relies on oil. It's a rented house so no choice.

Oil theft is real problem. I have a full tank so am a sitting duck. They are know to follow tankers and come back and suck it back out.

Our village orders oil in a syndicate, about 20,000 L a go.

All the Suppliers round here currently will book you in for a delivery in 2 weeks, but they won't give you a price until delivery (apart from to say it will be more than today!). Never seen this happen before.

Yanbu. I've just passed a filling station where diesel is £1.72 a litre.

@ScootScot

This is awful. Surely it’s going to come down to people not buying food and then more and more using food banks? Wages and benefits need to increase asap to reflect this cost of living.

No, the the government should treat the cause and not the symptoms. Our problem is one of energy supply and capacity. We are sat on an island made of coal, floating on pockets of gas and oil, with an advanced nuclear industry as well as 100% predictable and 100% reliable tidal flows.

We could be totally energy self sufficient for centuries.

Governments of all types for more than 40 years have failed to invest in domestic oil, clean carbon capture coal burning, low polluting gas, new nuclear and hasn't even looked at developing tidal energy.

Instead, we export our oil and gas reserves making BP rich, while importing foreign gas at higher prices. We waste billions on boondoggle wind farms leaving ourselves open to the randomness of having a breezy day to keep the lights on. We could green taxes on energy that you buy with income you've been taxed on anyway. We subsidised the wealthy to get solar panels and electric cars, so ironically the richest are now the most isolated by energy cost inflation.

We cripple our manufacturing base by making it the most expensive place to do business while outsourcing everything to China and patting ourselves on the back for lower CO2 emmisions.

What's clear is that this kind of energy poverty is exactly the future net zero promises us. Freezing cold houses, unaffordable travel, and food that will cost a wheelbarrow full of cash for an average weekly shop.

It does seem really unfair that there is a price cap on gas and electricity, but not on heating oil. Especially since minimum order volumes mean that the price tripling overnight can mean a massive upfront unexpected cost.

If you need oil for the hot water then it's not optional, and some boilers will need an engineer to fix them if they completely run dry. For some people over the next few week, there will be the choice of finding £800+ (rather than the £200-300 they expected), or having no hot water until they do.

I really didn't want to move to an air source heat pump until I'd seen some evidence of it successfully heating big, open houses in a cold part of the country (rural aberdeenshire), and not costing a fortune to do so. Maybe need to rethink!

21:51DoubleTweenQueen

User76745333

Electricity isn’t cheaper overnight unless you’re in economy 7 (which most people aren’t)

We seem to have a dual meter which has daytime and nighttime readings. We're in the East of England in the countryside.
Our night time rate per kWh is going up to less per kWh than daytime rate before the price hike, so am running washing machine at night! Wasn't aware of it previously.

Might be a regional thing? We're East Anglia countryside and have dual rates. I've also be running the washing machine overnight since the prices started going up.

In terms of oil and diesel it's just terrifying - how the heck are people supposed to afford these prices?

Can you talk to your neighbours about setting up an ordering coop? They do that round here, one big order, everyone gets a delivery on the same day and they pay for what they have. Works out cheaper.