Is oil fired central heating really expensive to run?

[mummyjaguar]

have fallen in love with a property which has oil fired heating but I've only ever had gas. Presumably its very expensive??

TBH I don't know how much gas costs. For heating & hotwater in a 3 bed house it cost me £400 for the winter (filled up in October - virtually empty last week) to fill up again though cost me £500 as prices had gone up (is same for gas though I hear)

As with gas it depends how often you have your heating on and what temp it is set at, how good your insulation is and how old your boiler is.

My oil boiler is only 4 -5 years old, my house is large. My neighbours boiler is 10 years old and her how is much smaller she actually gets through much more than I do.

I get through a tank of oil 2500lts every 10 months or so, this used to cost around £500 is now around £8-900.

I hate not being able to have a having a gas hob though.

it depends how much you use (is that obvious ?!).

What I mean is - friends we know use huge amounts more than us - but they have the house much warmer.

If it is a recent boiler and well insulated then probably won't use much. If it is an ancient boiler and next to no insulation then it will cost a lot. In that case it would be worth investigating updating the boiler (£1-2000) and increasing the insulation.

Very helpful everyone thank you. I hadn't even thought about the gas hob point!

I think its an old system and may well just need scrapping and replacing. Maybe with a gas system. There is now gas in the village.

Ask the sellers how much they have spent on oil in the last year (we did) but do bear in mind if they stay at home all day or have the house very hot.
Oil prices around here have gone from 36p a litre to 58p a litre in the last year. Having said that, we have used 2200 litres this year (sprawling type 5 bed house with lots of windows on a northfacing side ), compared to the almost 5000 litres which the people who used to own this house used...because they had the heating high all the time and we believe in wearing jumpers!
I wouldn't let if put you off the house (although I know it caused me a little concern when we were buying this house - that and not being on mains sewerage )

I just looked at my last invoice, actually it was less than 2200lts although that is what I ordered (I never go below 2 on the watchman) as thy could only get 2005 in.

So similar sized house and oil useage to Millarkie, we have a similar jumper wearing outlook! I'm never actually cold, but there are times when I would like it warmer!

We also have a watchman which keeps bouncing between 2 and 3 for the last 3 weeks...I'm not sure whether to order or pray it lasts a bit longer and hope the price gets better..oil fired central heating turns you into a gambler!

What size is your tank Millarkie? If your house is my size I'm guessing similar tank size to mine - 2500?

At this time of year I would be tempted on a 2/3 to give a WAS (wait and see) if the price goes down a bit. But in warm weather I'm inclined to hold out as we do have an immersion for the water if desperate.

I've been down to red flashing light in times of dire need

Yes it's 2500. We were at 3 last May and didn't go down to 2 til late August so I'm going to gamble for a few more weeks I think. But then the price will probably keep going up

We have oil fired and in this house it's not efficient -- I would go for gas every time now.

T'is nearly bankrupting us...but then I live ni a big old house on a draughty island where the oil is very expensive by the time it gets here

even though there is gas in the village, there may not be in your property.

there's mainline gas in the town, but everyone out here is LPG.

it's about as expensive as oil-fired.