# Oil Central Heating



## BTS (Jul 22, 2013)

Hello all,

Just after a bit of advice really!

Just had an offer accepted on a house which we are really pleased about. The house has oil central heating which we have never had before and had no experience of. 

The house was built in 2009 and the oil tank is Balmoral and has been installed underground. The boiler and tank were installed when the house was built so approximately 11 years old.

I just wondered if there is anything I should be looking out for or asking for? How long do the tanks last, especially underground? I can imagine it will be expensive to change! 

Any help or advice really appreciated! 

Thanks,

Ben

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk


----------



## nbray67 (Mar 22, 2012)

We've looked at a few houses that have been Oil or LPG due to no gas in the rural areas Ben.

Oil was rather more expensive than gas a few years ago but prices have come tumbling down, LPG I'd avoid solely on cost alone.

Advantage of an underground tank is that it's out of sight, unsure of how you'd inspect them but they are built to be buried.

You've got to have good access and a sturdy drive/approach for the trucks to fill the tanks, another consideration to take in.

Oil central heating engineers are out there but not as many as there are gas engineers and if the boiler is circa 11yrs old, it may be ready for a change so possibly look at an electric boiler going forward.

Another consideration pointed out by my wife when we've pondered oil properties is the fact that if you are used to cooking with gas, your only option thereafter is electric or LPG.


----------



## Nick-ST (Mar 4, 2013)

I can't say I was aware of underground tanks? I was always lead to believe the tank has to be the same height as the boiler or higher. With regards to it being expensive to change. Unless it bothers you just leave the old tank in the ground and fit one above ground. Won't be more than 2k supplied and fitted.

Nothing wrong with having oil central heating either. Just monitor the price of oil regularly. If it takes a major dip then fill your tank!


----------



## Andy from Sandy (May 6, 2011)

Going forward new builds will not have have gas cookers. It will only be a matter of time after that no doubt that all gas cookers and gas boilers will have to be updated. Probably expect this to happen from 2025.

If the property already has oil then it must already be setup for the delivery tanker I would imagine.


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

Most of the houses over here in Northern Ireland have Oil Fired Central Heating. Gas is only really starting to be rolled out across the country, having been in Belfast for a while. 

I've a 4 bed detached house, built in 2003, and is well insulated. Heating and hot water usually averages around £100 per month. 
Servicing wise, it's around 60-80 a year, and only once I've had to replace an oil pump which was 60 quid. 
Our tank is above the level of the boiler, so is gravity fed. If yours is below ground, I'd check if it is a bunded tank (double skinned) and also if the oil supply is pumped. The only issue with that is if you run out, itll be a pain to bleed the air out of. 
Also, check your home insurance regarding cover if youve a leak. I've never heard of a tank being under ground tbh, so worth running past them too to see what conditions or certification they look for. 

Any other questions, ask away. 

Cheers

Cooks

PS - we cool on LPG, and it is VERY economical, with a 19kg cylinder lasting well over a year. 


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## Christian6984 (Dec 20, 2007)

We have an oil tank in the garage as their is no gas where we live. Im no expert but everything is kept working as my dad is a Central heating engineer / Plumber. The boiler is also in the garage and was fitted when they moved in im guessing around 1979 as the garage was a single beforehand, being so old very little has gone wrong with it and it has never been out of action for very long. Hob and Oven are both electric and again will be a similar age to when they moved in, fancy... no, but they work so cant complain. 

The only disadvantage is the tank for the oil is in front of my second car which has to come out of the garage when they fill it to stop them damaging it. Thankfully my dad fitted a gauge down the side of the tank so we can see how much oil is in it, how do you know if its underground how much left you have? Our boiler is that old it can run on a bit of red diesel in emergencies.

I know one neighbour is also on oil and the other neighbour has a LPG tank


----------



## Andy from Sandy (May 6, 2011)

> how do you know if it's underground how much left you have?


Probably the same way you know when your car needs filling.


----------



## BTS (Jul 22, 2013)

Thanks for everyone's replies.

I managed to get a registered oil heating engineer to go and give it a good check over next week for £45+ VAT which I didn't think was bad. 

In terms of knowing the level, there is something in there that sends a signal to a screen inside the house.

Bit of a learning curve for me but overall seems a decent option for heating at the moment! 

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk


----------



## Cookies (Dec 10, 2008)

BTS said:


> Thanks for everyone's replies.
> 
> I managed to get a registered oil heating engineer to go and give it a good check over next week for £45+ VAT which I didn't think was bad.
> 
> ...


Thatll be a sonic oil watchman. Good bits of kit. Personally speaking, oil central heating has been incredibly reliable for us for many years. So I certainly wouldnt let it out you off to any degree.

Good luck.

Cooks

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


----------



## P2K (Jun 17, 2020)

We've been in our house since 2002 and it had oil heating already installed.
I couldn't tell you how long it had been installed as the rest of the street have gas and the houses are from the 60's.

We go through approx 1000 litres per year for heating and hot water for our three bed semi with a conservatory. 

In total there are nine radiators ran from it.

Cost, well that's depending on when you buy it. We pay £55 per month direct debit but have loads of money in the account for emergencies.

Every year I phone round several companies to get the best price per litre including VAT and then contact the company we have an account with and get them to match it.
Also Boilerjuice is your friend, they do a country average so you can keep an eye on prices when you are getting ready to buy, obviously trying to get it at the lowest price. Prices fluctuate daily. Remember 1p per litre difference over 1000 litres is a tenner 

The boiler is a Worcester and every engineer who comes out says they are the best on the market and pretty bullet proof.

Over the 18 years we have had to have two new pumps, which were around £70 a time, however the first replacement was the wrong one which was the reason we needed a second one a few years later.
I suppose that follows on from the comment about there not being as many oil engineers out there as gas. I presume he wasn't very good if he fitted the wrong pump, all he had to do was google it!! :wall:
If you get a good engineer to service it then happy days.

This winter we have had to have the tiger loop replaced which was around £50 too. (It circulates oil that doesn't get burnt back round to the boiler)

Also our tank it at the bottom of the garden, obviously ground level, and the boiler is first floor so the boiler does all the work.

When we get an oil delivery the tanker parks on the street and uses a long pipe. But as previously mentioned if it has been in a while then I wouldn't worry too much about getting oil to the tank.

If you have a digital reader in your home for the level then you are laughing, just remember to keep an eye on it then check boilerjuice when it get low.

Sorry for the long reply but I hope there is some useful info in here for you :lol:


----------



## ollienoclue (Jan 30, 2017)

We are on oil. There are hundreds of people able to maintain these systems, no reason at all to fear having one. There must be thousands of these installations in our county. I reckon of the 20+ properties we looked at, the bulk of them had oil central heating.

You can have a gas cooker if you want, you just have LPG cylinders outside your house to feed the hob with a pipe to feed it through the wall, again there are hundreds of these setups around the place. Fudge cooking on electric. You can't beat gas. We've been here near 3 years and have only managed to use one 20kg(??? not sure of the size but they aren't the tall ones) of LPG for cooking yet- I think these are about £30 delivered.

We don't do boiler juice or online quotes or any of that, we just pay our local oil supplier a set amount per month on direct debit and ring them when it wants filling. Being a loyal customer also means that if we needed a delivery on short notice they will drop something for us pretty pronto. Same company have a team of oil boiler engineers so they do the servicing, I can't remember what brand boiler we have but you won't go far wrong with the kind already mentioned.

We too have a sonic watchman, I had to change the battery in ours as it lost signal, no bother whatsoever.

An underground tank should be ok as less likely to permit the theft of heating oil (which does happen in places) but an above ground tank isn't daft money if you needed a new one.

LPG boiler systems I am told are slightly more economical on fuel but there are far fewer suppliers of LPG and you have to pay a standing fee for the tank so the potential to be rogered is far higher.

Don't let the system run out of oil. During the summer when all it is doing is running hot water our system uses scarcely any oil, barely notice the gauge moving. Our house is a lot of square metres I reckon we go through 3 tanks a year.


----------



## P2K (Jun 17, 2020)

ollienoclue said:


> We don't do boiler juice or online quotes or any of that


We don't either (for quotes), I just use it as a guage as oil prices fluctuate quite a lot and I'm very tight. 
I like to try and get it when its cheapest :lol:



ollienoclue said:


> Being a loyal customer also means that if we needed a delivery on short notice they will drop something for us pretty pronto.


Agreed, it's a good idea to get a supplier and become a long serving loyal customer for the reason above.
However I do strongly advise phoning round to get the best price before you contact your supplier.
Our supplier has been 3p a litre more expensive than the cheapest before and they have matched it, saving us £30.
10 minutes of phoning round for £30 is well worth it


----------



## ollienoclue (Jan 30, 2017)

We pay our suppliers about £100 a month from memory but they rang up back in April to say we had over £1000 in the account and asked if we wanted any back. Instead we put the payments on hold for a bit. Have just ordered a tankful today and been told it will be here by Thursday. I am not actually sure how they price the stuff or what but I do know they have their own depot and tanks locally. Oil is dirt cheap at the moment (or certainly was). I can understand people filling up stuff if they use a lot of it or have multiple properties though. I know it was about 20ppl during the summer.

Some people have advised me to use boiler juice but in all honesty I can't be fudged to deal with yet another company, give them yet more details or worry about another phone number, we don't have the time and it is rare either of us are in the house twiddling our thumbs during the day anyway.


----------



## P2K (Jun 17, 2020)

ollienoclue said:


> Some people have advised me to use boiler juice but in all honesty I can't be fudged to deal with yet another company, give them yet more details or worry about another phone number, we don't have the time and it is rare either of us are in the house twiddling our thumbs during the day anyway.


I'm with you with that, I hate creating accounts. I used to read on here for months before I decided to create an account 

However I think you are misinterpreting what I mean. 
I don't have an account with boiler juice, I only go to their website for info.
The prices I look at are not the price boilerjuice will charge you but the average price of heating oil from around the country.

I just go to the dropdown list for charts and select "Heating oil prices England"

Then alter the period, week, month, 2 months etc etc.

This just gives me an idea of whether prices are going up or down and me personally, I find it a useful tool.

As you can see from the attachments, the average price in England for October the 17th was 28.95p per litre :thumb:


----------

