Oil central heating, tell me more!

[Lilacbluewaters]

I have seen a property however the property doesn’t supply gas and runs on oil. The property is only 15 years old and has under floor heating downstairs and radiators upstairs. It is also fitted with solar panels.
Could anyone give me any insight into costs?

We are a family of 4, 2 adults and 2 children age 3 and 1.
I’m just worried it will be too expensive with the oil and how does it work etc

Any info
Thank you

Oil is expensive at the moment, but all utilities are!!
The only difference that you’ll have is that you’ll have to regularly check if you’re not running out( there will be a gauge) and remember to order on time!

I've just sold my house with oil.

I had a 2,500 tank and a 'Signalman' in the kitchen which showed the oil levels. One thing is to make sure your tank is locked, sadly some people in our rural community did have oil stolen.

How much it costs depends on how efficient the boiler is, how well insulated the property and on the solar panels, so no one on here will be able to tell you for definite.
Oil is expensive, but so are other fuels so I wouldn't let that put you off. Be aware that usually the expense will come all in one go, rather than in an even amount each month, but having said that you may have a local oil supplier who can bill a set amount each month and top up as necessary.

We have ours on auto top up. So the fuel company just comes around periodically and fills up and leaves the invoice in the post box.

Our tank holds 2.5k ltrs. The last fill up was 800 ltrs for £800. The fill before that was £600 in January.

We have heating on a lot, sometimes during the day as well as evening and mornings. We also have underfloor heating.

I have a BER B2 rated house, underfloor heating in a large kitchen, exposed on a hill. I go through about 2.5kl of oil a year heating the house.

Now, my boiler is in an external building, with exposed pipes, and I don't have a decent control system or thermostatic valves, so there's probably some efficiencies to be made there.

My friends heat a smaller house, combined with a wood burner, in a less exposed location with under 1000l/year.

We looked at a house to rent over 10 years ago, with oil CH, the owners were moving to a house they’d built next door. Potential landlady proudly told us that by being frugal/being out of the house she had kept the heating bill to £60 per week in winter!

I was due a baby that September, we passed on the house. That was long before recent price hikes - if I were you I’d ask to see their average fuel usage so you can make an informed decision.

It’s cheaper to buy larger amounts of oil at once so make sure it’s a big enough tank.
The new oil boilers are really efficient not as cheap as mains gas but the best of all the other options. solar thermal would reduce oil useage

We buy oil at times of the year when the price fluctuates down, makes a big difference. It's worth having a good quality WiFi gauge inside the house so you know how much you have left before filling up.

It works the same as gas in that you have a boiler which operates as any other boiler and which will need servicing annually. The difference is that you will have an oil tank somewhere on your property that feeds the boiler. Oil tanks vary in size. Ours is 1000 litres, but they come in bigger sizes.
Oil is expensive at the moment. Two years ago it was ridiculously cheap! Hopefully the price will come down again though. All heating is expensive at the moment though, isn't it?
There are many oil companies that will fill your tank for you. We use a local company who will come out within a few days. Sometimes there is a village collective, as a bulk buy can reduce the price. One thing though - never let your tank run out as all the gunk in the bottom of your tank may very well clog the boiler's burners, meaning a call out from the service person. Older tanks have a sight gauge on them, or you can dip the tank, or you can have a remote monitor. Ours is plugged in in the kitchen and we can see at a glance how much oil we have. I don't know anything about underfloor heating and oil I'm afraid. We just have radiators and our fairly new boiler is very efficient and the house heats up quickly. Cost wise (excluding the current crazy prices) we spend about £1000 a year on oil - that's for a 4 up, 3 down house with 2 occupants. We only have it on mornings and evenings, and use a multi-fuel stove a great deal (and much more so now as logs are still cheap round here). Anyway, hope this helps

I've only ever lived in houses with oil central heating. As a family of 4, we usually order about 1000L in a year. Cost obviously varies greatly. It's quite expensive at the moment, but I can't imagine more expensive than electric.

How cost efficient it all is depends, like others have said, on your set up. Currently, the only thing that runs off oil is the heating. Hot water comes from solar (and electric if we need it). We also get £800 back per year selling to the national grid. So we don't use any oil in the months where we aren't using the heating.

I would imagine in a new build with UFH, you'd not have to have the upstairs radiators on much. What do the solar panels power?

Oil prices have been up and down like crazy over the last couple of years. We top up 500l at a time and need to do this 3-4 times a year. Last top up was £600 but it’s been as low as £250 in the recent past (that’s unusually low - was during the pandemic when demand was low).

Oil is generally cheaper than electricity but more expensive than gas.