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How much oil will I use?


Julian3449
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My cold girlfriend and I are just about to order an oil tank for the cellar. But I am unsure what capacity to request.

Naturally, one does not want to refill it every month: once a year would be just about bearable.

It is a holiday home, stone built, 4-large bedrooms. It'll need about 10 radiators and I think the bioler will need to push out 25kw.

We will have it on for heating and hot water for 4 weeks in the winter when we visit.

Will a 1,000-litre tank be sufficient?

I appreciate I may not have given enough information, here but can anyone help?

Thanks

Julian 34 (age and region)

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I would install a 2500 litre tank just in case the house became a permenent residence. Have 1000 litres delivered now and then keep an eye on oil prices in the summer and fill it up if cheaper to do so then.

Obviously usage depends on you and what the weather is like! At the moment it's freezing here in the Charente and has been for the last couple of weeks. My central heating is off during the day but only because I can live in the salle de vie and have a brilliant (French) woodburner. A friend has used 1000 litres of oil since Christmas as she has a large drafty village house with gorgeous doors (gaps underneath) and floorboards (gaps between) and very little insulation anywhere. Brrrrrr - she comes round here to keep warm! I can't afford more than 1500 litres a year (for heating and hot water) so I use a timer.

How cold is Italy?

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I have a village house with 4 large bedrooms and 4 largish other rooms, 11 radiators (not all turned on) and used at least 800 litres in a year, in the winter period only going across for weekends - on average, every 2nd weekend (and not at all in one 5 week period). This oil was only used for central heating.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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We installed a 1200 ltr tank for 12 rads in a fairly badly insulated stone house and I now wish we had put in a 2500 ltr tank as it is very boring watching the gauge go down quickly!

A Brit neighbour of ours put in a 2500 ltr tank at the same time and as far as I know did not have to have permission unless they just did it without. It is internal and would not be seen by anybody.

With oil prices going up they would have done better than us buying a full tank last year, but only if the price did not go down of course, which it hasn't!

We have used about 1500 ltrs from Oct3 to date. Sunny weather during Oct/Dec kept the boiler from kicking in much during the day but we have had a lot of cold, snowy weather since the end of Jan that has it going nearly all the time. We operate it on 17 deg during the day and 16 deg at night. The problem here (11) is that the delivery truck cannot (will not) get here when there is snow on our very small road even when ploughed, which it is every day.
Our French neighbours let their supply go right down and had a boiler fire in the house apparently due to muck in the tank.

 

 

 

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We've got oil central heating at our (permanent) UK home and our Gite in France.

The UK house has a 1300 litre metal tank and the French one a 1500 litre plastic one - much more sensible idea.

In the UK we go through about 2000 litres a year using the oil for radiator heating and hot water.

We've found that the price varies quite a bit during the year (more expensive in winter, even more expensive during Gulf War time and cheaper in summer) and it's also cheaper if you can get a larger delivery. Most UK suppliers give you a discount if you order more than 1000 litres (and if you can club together with your neighbours and all be delivered at the same time, an even higher discount for larger quantities).

It's frightening how fast it goes down in winter, we filled up in December and the tank now only has ~300 litres left. I'll have to fill up again before the end of the winter and then will end up with a full tank for all summer. More bad planning.

My advice is to buy the largest one you can fit in, certainly 1200 litres and 2500 if you can.

Geoffrey

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We have used about 1500 ltrs from Oct3 to date. Sunny weather during Oct/Dec kept the boiler from kicking in much during the day but we have had a lot of cold, snowy weather since the end of Jan that has it going nearly all the time. We operate it on 17 deg during the day and 16 deg at night.

You're a spartan lot! I have our thermostat on 21° day and night. At 17° I would have to wear my anorak and mittens. I find that it doesn't pay to try and vary the temperature overnight as it takes so long for old buildings to react to changes. We use about a tank full (3000ltr) per year which does all heating (13 radiators) and hot water (for 3 on average) in a large old stone farmhouse that is quite well insulated.

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I'm with you on this Mazan, we have the overnight on 17° too, 21° during the day, but our sitting room is up to around 23 or 23.5° from 17h until 23.30. I like to be pleasantly warm when we are sat doing little. I suppose I got used to it being very warm when we used the fire all the time and it would be 25°-26° in the sitting room on an evening.

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we must be a bit more used to the cold here in the mountains in Wales heating is set at 17 but 20 in the bath room goes off at 10 30 at night . only comes on for 2 hours in the morning for us to have a shower and back on at 5 at night . its -7 out side at the moment think i will open the window as norm before I get into bed hate it being stuffy in the bedroom       

         Dave, beds warm   Olive`s in there and 3 cats on the bed

            

we might not find it that cold in 79 then ????
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Mazan

In our house the thermostat is downstairs at the back of the house where there is a large hall and staircase to upstairs, and a lot of heat goes up so that it can be warmer upstairs for any given temperature setting. We work outside a lot during the day and it feels very warm when we come back inside.

We also have a large insert going in the living room at night so we don't feel spartan, if we did I would be the first to up the ante!

I think that thermostats should be set for whatever is comfortable rather than a set figure. When we had the heating installed, the plumber advised us to have 19.5 deg during the day and we were too hot.

 

 

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Having looked at the temperatures you keep your houses at night I am amazed that the cost of oil does not bankrupt you. I have never ever ever run central heating on during the night and that includes nights well below freezing but more importantly living in a house on a slipway in cold north east essex in full blast of the easterly winds.

Every 1 degree extra heating that you run day or night equates to between 6 to 10% increase in cost of fuel. I remember a post by Val2 when she said that when her children complained of being cold she told them to put another jumper on - that is what we do. I have fleece trousers and a fleece top (with t shirt underneath) plus wool jacket when needed - and I am sitting at a computer typing. It is 18.3 C in here and I have just closed down the fire as I am too hot. It has finally got above freezing outside. We even let the log burner go out overnight as it gets too hot to sleep.

Instead of heating the bedrooms to 17 C, why don't you heat the bed with a low wattage electric overblanket.

Gosh I must sound really mean but knowing how much we spent on central heating in the UK for a fairly good sized 4 bed house, I am just not prepared to pay 4 times as much to heat this place - but then we were frugal in the UK also.

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