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?

I've been listening to the radio this morning and apparently the price has now risen to £1.80! Today and warnings that may double again! Absolutely shocking.

It is crazy - fluctuates between 40-70ppl usually.

Your problem is leaving the hearing on all day @Troublesometooth that's ridiculous!! No need at all!!

Get a wood burner fitted.

@ddshocker

Your problem is leaving the hearing on all day *@Troublesometooth* that's ridiculous!! No need at all!!

That clearly isn’t the problem when the cost of 500L of oil has gone from £200 to £1000!

I agree I can stop using my heating all day long. It is on a thermostat so when I say it’s on all day, it will be getting up to heat then shutting itself down, it’s not constantly blazing out heat!

I will obviously cut my usage right down. However the fact the cost has gone up by 500% is terrifying!

@Proudboomer

All oil prices are going silly at the moment. I went to fill up with petrol at a small independent garage this morning. They were shut as being refilled but their price board was blank so they are clearly going to increase the price. They are always slightly more expensive than the supermarket petrol stations but I like to support independents but I might have to rethink that as last week when I filed up it was already over £1.49 per litre.

Sorry if I'm being naive but what is the cause of the prices sky rocketing? Is it one cause (war) or are there a number of factors? Is there anything at all the Uk government can do to intervene and control this in any way?

I think that you may have to consider days without heating, especially come April when days are longer and evenings later as it were.

Oil prices have dropped a bit this morning due to the news that the Middle East will increase production

I ordered 1,000 litres yesterday and paid £1,2390 for it. It's not coming until the end of the month.

Lots of companies are taking orders but not guaranteeing a price and then you pay when they deliver. I am not chancing that.

@User76745333

Oil prices have dropped a bit this morning due to the news that the Middle East will increase production

That's really welcome news. I heard someone on the radio a couple of days ago who said another big factor (over the boycotting of Russian oil) is the pent up demand due to the pandemic so there is a big surge in demand plus loss of a big supplier, so perfect storm. Someone's making a fortune out if it though, no doubt. Prices to the consumer will be additionally raised due to local supply & demand issues.

If other producers agree to increase production then price should at least stabilise if not reduce a bit. We need peace back in the East - I don't see how what's happening can be sustained politically or practically.
So I'm hoping market will restore some calm in the next few months 🤞

So price of crude has gone down from 130 to 110 dollars a barrel - good news.

Have seen an odd thing on boilerjuice - if I look for a quote, standard price (by March 25th) is £1.45pl, but Express 5 price (by March 18th) is 96.6ppl. I've repeated it today and same thing. Anyone else?

I bet there's going to be knock on massive demand for:

Triple glazed windows
Loft & other insulation
Thick tog feather/down duvets
Down jackets
Wool jumpers & blankets

I can’t even get a quote from boilerjuice 😳 it may be stocks that they have on hold with a supplier at an old price??

The oil company we use wouldn't even quote for 500l only up to 350l

OfstedOffred also maybe Intelliheat heated throws , we have turned heating off as had these already and they keep even the DC cosy all night. They cost almost nothing to run (Pennies ) according to their description

@coldandverytired neither can I! It just says along the lines of don't panic there's no shortage, check back soon

@Walesrecommendations if you are in the land of daffodils as your username suggests you may well be near me in mid-Wales in which case it’d be cheaper for me to fill the tank with diesel at present- 2 local suppliers have told me I can offer some but they can’t tell me when I’ll get it and I’d have to pay the price on drivers day rather than as I usually do take the quoted price 🥴 so we’ve switched off the heating for now and lit the stove.

@DoubleTweenQueen yes I saw that earlier, too! About 127ppl standard or 98ppl express. Very odd, especially considering express hasn't been available all week.

I don't think I know anyone who leaves their heating on all day. Are you in a very cold part of the UK OP? It does seem excessive.

Boilerjuice is £1.29 a litre for me at the minute.

@BrightonBunny

I don't think I know anyone who leaves their heating on all day. Are you in a very cold part of the UK OP? It does seem excessive.

Nope. It’s on but on a thermostat so it will be clicking on and off itself all day. It’s not blaring out the heat all day long.

Ok, oil fired heating & water and big draughty house here - 1. If you have an electric shower as you say turn off the hot water for the time being - if 2 yo likes a bath put a big plastic storage box in the shower, fill & let them wallow in that. 2. Do you have adequate loft insulation? If not see if there are any local ‘green grants’ that might help. 3. Use insulation tape/masking tape around the window openings to reduce drafts. If you don’t have double glazing stick bubble wrap on the panes (believe it or not that’s what it was originally invented for😆). 4. Draught excluders/curtains around doors. I know you seem reluctant to hear it but heating on all day is bonkers - ours runs an hour in the morning, hour at lunch, 3 hours in the evening - if you follow steps above this should be ok. Do you have any open fires/wood burners in the house? Coal & scavenged wood can help here… Spring is around the corner - just get through the next month and we can get some breathing space 🔥💐

No one but the very rich can afford all day heating. Do an hour in the morning and an hour at night. Otherwise just wrap up.

I used to live a wonderful life of all day heating OP but recently the oil price has gone through the roof. Rather than watch my bills go through the roof with them I've decided it's time to turn it off.
If I was you I'd look at changing somethings asap.

We actually ran out of oil when that big storm came recently as all deliveries were severely disrupted so I found out you could go to the local oil delivery company and fill up a can to take home, might be an emergency option. We did that to tide us over and it forced us to rethink things. We all bought a hot water bottle and thick winter clothes. The water uses oil to heat it but it's a damn sight cheaper heating a hot water bottle and wearing woolly clothes than the radiators being on all day and you can also use a kettle instead to heat the water.

It is cold where we are but Im now in a fleece and a thick dressing gown with a heavy tog duvet. My young dc have thick tog duvet and clothes (thick dressing gown and slippers) for chilly loo trips. It's not an option for us not to change, on top of diesel price rises we will push ourselves to the brink if we don't immediately make changes to things like this.
Good luck to you but really we've just lived a bit indulgently and it's time to rein it in and I can honestly say it's ok.

@BrightonBunny our heating is on most of the day but we run on a coal system so don't have the option to just turn the fire off.

We turn the fire down to a low setting to help it burn longer but the heating isnt as effective as gas and therefore needs to be on longer to feel the same effects.

Funny enough, we were actually looking into switching to oil... I think I'll keep my coal for now.