Prime heating oil season is just around the corner! Which means high usage is becoming the elephant in the room! Our last winter was brutal. We had a total of two major snowstorms and 54 total inches of snowfall in Danbury! We also saw a surge in the price of heating oil because of the war with Iran. At the time of writing, heating oil is sitting at $4.09 a gallon, while gasoline is sitting around $3.55 a gallon. But you might be asking yourself how much you’ll burn on a day-to-day basis. This is an important question to ask yourself, and the answer is good to know as well!
How much you’ll be burning is different than what your family or neighbor might be burning. But I’ll be sure to break all that down for you! However, if you did run out of oil, you’re going to want to run to the gas station to get about 5-10 gallons of diesel. If you’ve got an oil delivery coming soon, then you’re going to want something to hold you over until you get your delivery. If you ran out of oil, you’re going to want to check out this blog post here.
The Biggest Contributors to Your Heating Oil Usage
There are a lot of things that contribute to your heating oil usage. However, some play a bigger part in it than others do. Below, I’ve compiled a list of all the major contributors to your heating oil usage and consumption.
- Temperature Outside: The biggest and most important factor for high usage is the temperature outside. The colder it is, the more heat your home is going to try to produce. For example, you’ll likely be burning more oil when it’s 25 degrees out, compared to when it’s 50 degrees out!
- Temperature Inside: While it might not seem like it, your home’s internal temperature will affect your heating oil usage. Ideally, the most comfortable setting for your home is usually around 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Setting the temperature higher, to say 80 degrees, puts more pressure on the system, causing it to try to produce more heat. This’ll ultimately result in more oil consumption.
- Home Size: Your home’s size plays a crucial role in your daily consumption. The larger your home is, the more space that the system needs to heat. With more space, there is higher consumption. If your home is only a single-floor house, then it’ll burn much less oil than a home that’s two floors. The same can be said for a smaller home versus a larger home.
- Good Insulation: If your home is well insulated, then you won’t have to worry too much about high usage! Your home’s insulation will determine how well it can maintain the heat your system produces. If your house is very well insulated, then you’ll likely have lower usage. But if your insulation isn’t up to date, then you might have higher usage. Your home’s insulation will determine how well you can keep heat in the home!
- System Age: The age of your system definitely plays a role in its efficiency. If your system is newer, then it’s going to have good efficiency. Systems that are older than 30 years tend to be less efficient than newer systems. A brand new furnace tends to be well worth the money in the long-term.
- What You Use Heating Oil For: What you use your heating oil for will affect how much oil you use. For example, if you’re using heating oil for just hot water and have propane or electric heat, then your usage will be significantly lower than someone who uses heating oil for both heat and hot water. Using heating oil for heat and hot water will, unfortunately, cause you to burn much more oil than if you’re using it for just one or the other.
Impact of Outside Temperature and Size of the Home
I briefly mentioned these above, but they’re so important for usage data that I figured I’d go a bit more in-depth. The size of your home and the temperature outside are probably the most important factors for consumption. The graph below gives you a combined average of usage based on square footage and outside temperatures. While yours might be different, you can get a general idea of how much oil you’ll be burning. But if the temperature is colder outside, you might see yourself burning a little bit more. The same can be said about having good insulation. If you’ve got good insulation, your home will burn much less oil.
During the winter in the Northeast, you’ll burn 5-7 gallons of oil on average. But this is just the average. This isn’t always the exact amount you’ll end up burning during the winter. Each winter is different and results in different usage data!
Now, let’s figure in the size of your tank. Most homes in the Northeast have a 275-gallon tank. Whether or not that’s a Granby or Roth tank, it’s going to be roughly the same. On all tanks, the top couple of inches are left open for airflow. So on both tanks, your true capacity is 250 gallons. If we calculate a full tank with an average usage of 7 gallons per day, that’s roughly 38 days before your tank goes empty! That’s a little bit over a month! This is why it’s so important to find out how much oil you’re burning daily! When your tank gets to about a quarter, you’re going to want to order a fill-up!
Annual Heating Oil Usage
A large majority of those in the Northeast will only use heating oil during the winter. During the summer, your system will most likely be turned off. However, if you use heating oil for hot water as well, then you’ll have some very minor usage during this time! But this only tends to equate to less than a gallon of oil per day.
However, as you probably know, wintertime sees a massive spike in usage. As mentioned previously, the home size and outside temperature will be the primary factors in this. While the outside temperature determines how high you turn your system up, the size of the home influences the amount of space your system tries to heat. During the winter, your system will absolutely be working harder than during the summer.
Tracking Your Consumption with a Smart Oil Gauge
To better understand how much you’re using and when you should order, a Smart Oil Gauge is the perfect way to do that! All you need is a stable WIFI connection for the gauge to connect to. Then, once you set the gauge up, you’ll be able to keep track of your usage through our app. The gauge also gives you the added benefit of telling you how many days until you reach 1/2 tank and 1/4 tank. The gauge then uses these statistics to tell you when and how much oil you should order. The app also offers FuelSnap integration. This integration will allow you to use your Smart Oil Gauge to calculate how much oil you need to order and by when!
The Graph in the app will show you level readings and usage data for daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly periods! However, the app only displays data from the previous year. If you want to export data from a previous year, you must log on to the website and export the data to a Microsoft Excel sheet!
Your Monthly Usage
Depending on how big your house is and how cold it is outside, you might burn an average of 5-10 gallons of fuel daily during the winter. Now, while many factors can make this more or less, they tend to vary. Insulation is big on keeping homes warm. But some homes might have poor insulation, which will result in high usage! But with tools like the Smart Oil Gauge and even your float gauge, you can easily track your usage and schedule a delivery within minutes! Plus, it’ll give you a better understanding of your daily usage!
Happy Heating!
Hunter
