If you use heating oil as your main source of heat or you’re thinking of switching to heating oil, or you might be burning a lot of oil. Well then you might be asking yourself, “How Long will a Tank of Heating Oil Last Me?”. Well, while it might not seem like it there’s actually a lot of different contributing factors as to how long a tank of heating oil will last you. Don’t worry, because I’m going to break it all down for you below!
The Size of Your Home
One of the biggest contributing factors to how much oil you’ll burn and how quickly you’ll go through your tank can be determined by various factors of your home. Surface area plays a big part in this and can determine how quickly you lose heat. If there are a lot of windows or drafty doors, this gives heat more surface area for it to escape from.
The shape and layout of your home also influences heat loss. Ranch style homes are prime examples of this because they have a larger outside surface area per square footage. Especially for a two-story home. The more surface area on a home, means the more places for heat to escape from the home. Think of it like using mittens and gloves. In colder weather, when you wear mittens your hands will be much warmer than if you were wearing gloves. This is because your fingers are all touching each other and there’s less room for the heat to escape. With gloves, because each of your fingers are in their own individual slots, the heat will have an easier time escaping your hands.
Home Insulation
How well your home is insulated plays a major roll in how much heat will escape your it. If your home is well insulated, then that means that your home has an easier time maintaining heat. This will result in your home holding heat for longer periods of time if your home has good insulation.
However, if your home doesn’t have good insulation, then you’ll have a harder time maintaining heat. This can cause your home to lose the produced heat much faster, which will often result in higher heating oil usage. Drafty windows and doors are big contributing factors in this, because they tend to be the most reasoning for heat escaping your home.
What Your Heating Oil Is Used For
This is a major reason for how quickly you’ll burn through heating oil. Depending on what you use your heating oil for will greatly impact how quickly you burn through it. If you use heating oil for just hot water, then you’ll often find that it’ll take you longer to burn through the oil in your tank.
However, if you’re using it for both heat and hot water, then you’ll most certainly burn through heating oil MUCH faster than you normally would. This is because the oil in your tank is being used for more purposes which will result in an increase in usage.
Exterior Temperature
The temperature outside plays a huge roll in how much oil you’ll use. If the outside temperature is hot, then you’ll often see yourself burning far less oil than if it was cold outside. If the outside temperature is average or moderate, you might only really be burning a gallon or two if even.
The average day during the winter is roughly 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Taking the average home into account which is roughly 2500 square feet, you can expect to burn around 5 gallons per day during the winter. During the summer however, this is reduced down to .5-1 gallon per day.
Your Yearly Usage
Taking into account the above math, I’ve compiled a chart that will help you better grasp how much oil you’ll burn yearly. Now this might not be exactly how much you’ll be burning annually. But it’ll still give you a solid estimate as for how many gallons you’ll be expected to burn.
The Size of Your Tank
Now, while the size of your tank doesn’t directly impact how much oil you’re burning, it does affect how often you’ll need to order more oil. The smaller your tank is, and the more often you’ll have to order oil. The opposite to true when it comes to larger tanks. You won’t have to order as often, but you’ll typically have to order in larger quantities.
With that in mind, regardless of how many gallons your tank’s capacity is, you should always order when your tank is a quarter or 1/4 full. This gives the dealer plenty of time to fit you into their schedule and come out to deliver heating oil. While you can use all the oil in your tank, ordering at a quarter gives you enough of a safety net where you know you’ll get oil before you run out.
Now on a 275 gallon tank, on average you should expect to use roughly five gallons of oil per day. So if you divide 5 by 275, then you’ll get 36. So you’ll have 36 gallons of oil to burn before your tank runs empty!
Other Minor Factors
Those are all the major factors to keep a look out for. But, there are still some minor factors that can play into how quickly you burn through your oil. This could be if the house is occupied all year or if it’s just a vacation home. Or maybe you like to keep your home at 60 degrees Fahrenheit rather than 70. That 10 degree difference will often save you from burning a couple gallons of oil!
How old your burner is and it’s condition will effect consumption as well. Older burners tend to burn much more oil than newer ones because they need to work a lot harder to burn the oil in the tank. The difference between a twenty year old furnace and a year old furnace is astronomical.
But regardless of how much your burning, or how big your tank size is, a Smart Oil Gauge will be able to drastically help your heating oil journey. You’ll be able to monitor your heating oil properly and have all of your level data and usage information at the palm of your hand! Being able to order oil from the app too is such a big help! Using the FuelSnap integration will be able to give you a leg up on ordering oil when you need it!
Happy Heating,
Hunter
