Fuel oil prices and suppliers.

[Alli]

Hi, we have a two bed house, with oil central heating and electric cooker. Simpsons Oil at the harbour Quay deliver oil and we pay by direct debit to them. The tank we have is 1200 litres and does us approx 12 to 12.5 months. The most it cost us 5 years ago was £356 and the fill we got in Jan 2005 cost £211 with the cheapest being in Jan 2004 at £181.

Our heating is on in the winter continually(,Middle October to beginning April) after that we have it going off aroun 11pm and back on at 6am. We find this the most cost effective way of running the heating, and the water which is on the same system is on approx 2 hours per day in the winter and summer. In the summer the heating is only on as and when required.

Hope this helps you a bit :D

[307]

I use Simpsons Oil. Harbour Quay, Wick for domestic fuel oil - good service - usually deliver next day or sooner if call made in the morning.
I think I paid £250-ish about two months ago for 1000 ltr.
My mother-in-law paid £300+ just this month.
I'm sure we fill the tank about 3 times a year, so its roughly £750 annually at current rates..... (but maybe its only twice a year..... so say £400 as lower cost)
We have a big house, 4 bedrooms upstairs, three public rooms, kitchen, utility room, 3 bathrooms (1 en suite), so thats likely why it costs so much.
House isn't exposed to the weather though, and has full double glazing throughout and is insulated on walls and all attic space.
Heating is on most evenings from October thru to end of April & is on a temp sensor & can be manually tripped if necessary. I usually have it on if I'm at home during the day in the winter.

[Whitewater]

I also use Simpsons, and as 307 has said they provide an excellent service. but I would have thought that you would have been cheaper on town gas.

We installed our heating system about 6 or 7 years ago, we changed from solid fuel and find the oil very much cheaper. The system has now paid for itself with the savings we made. However, if town gas was available in the area where we live I think I would have probably installed gas at that time, after I had done my sums on all the different systems it was considrably cheaper at that particular time, but I don't know the present price of gas.

We generall have two fills of our tank (1200 litrers) over a 15 to 16 month period, I'm not too sure of the present price/litre as I have not had a fill since last October, at that time it was I think about 22p/l

The house has three bedroms, sitting room, kitchen, dining room and bathroom, all largish.

You will see that most are referring to 1200l tanks. That is because if you go larger you have to provide a bund, but I think you can now get tanks with built in bunds. However it might be worth looking into the oil price if you were to take a 2000l or larger tank as you may be able to get the oil slightly cheaper on a larger delivery.

Also check out the efficiency of the various systems before you finally install, some are up 95% wheras others are as low as 80%. This also maks a difference to your running costs.

Good luck with your project.

[caithpal]

I filled up 3 weeks back and it was 34p per litre. That's 10p more than last October when I filled up then. I complained to Scottish oils and they said it was due to the oil refinery in the USA blowing up and causing concerns amongst oile buyers. Also the record high price of oil! I phoned Simpsons and they were similar in price. Stay on towns gas if you can but remember when we run out of gas in 5 years or so it'll be even more expensive just like our electric price if we don't get our finger out and build some more nuc plants.

[captain chaos]

Just ordered today from Simpsons 30.19p per litre Scottish fuels quoted 32.19p per litre

Fuel Heating System Type Cost* The table below compares the annual cost of providing heating and hot water to an average house using various fuels and system types

£ Per Annum

Mains Gas Condensing Boiler 400
Mains Gas Conventional Boiler 474
Oil Condensing Boiler 401
Oil Conventional Boiler 482
LPG Condensing Boiler 891
LPG Conventional Boiler 1070
Solid Fuel Gravity-fed solid fuel boiler using anthracite grains 661
Solid Fuel Open fire with back boiler using House coal 717
Solid Fuel Solid fuel room heater using anthracite 699
Electricity Economy 7 - storage heaters in living rooms and panel heaters in bedrooms with an immersion heater for hot water 622
Electricity Off-peak electricity for electric heaters and immersion heater 1117

*Comparative Domestic Heating Costs for South East region SALKENT October 2003
so add another 10% or so for Caithness and at least another 20% for price increase since 2003