Period heating oil

[tobydog]

I am sure I'm not alone in keeping a watchful eye on how low the heating oil price is at present. I'm in a syndicate called Bungay Buyers and was recently offered a chance to fill up at 46.6p per litre plus VAT. The crude oil price has fallen nearly $3 a barrel since but frustratingly I need to hold off as my small tank is still half full of expensive oil I bought in March :roll: . Hope everyone else is taking advantage.

 

[Penners]

tobydog - whenever I buy period heating oil I always phone around for the best price. On a couple of occasions I have compared the best quote I've got direct from suppliers with the price from Bungay Buyers, and BB have invariably been more expensive.

I find the best price is normally available from Goff. If you've received a better quote elsewhere, Goff will almost always match or better it. But beware of bluffing - they know what others are quoting!

 

[mattice]

A little nervous filling my 'period' steel 2500 litre tank up to the brim, just going to burn a bit more before I get a 500l order. I've used boiler juice a couple of times but always found it cheaper by phoning around. Happy days considering when we moved in November 2012, the tank was empty, it was -10 degrees, and an emergency order cost me near enough 80p

 

[Penners]

Yes, I've also found Boilerjuice to be more expensive than phoning around to suppliers directly.

 

[tobydog]

I used to be a customer of Boilerjuice until they became uncompetitive. Also there was a bit of gossip / scandal about them being owned / in cahoots with certain suppliers. It was odd that nearly every delivery was with Southern Counties :? . Bungay Buyers were much better but I will take your advice Penners and still ring around to check anyway. I agree that Goff are good but so are Butler Fuels.

 

[tobydog]

Just had a quote from Boilerjuice at 48.28p plus VAT so pretty close to BB's 46.6p. I'll let you know what price I finally get and who with.

 

[Flyfisher]

Might seem pretty close, but that's an additional 3.6%. Nearly as much as the VAT.

 

[Penners]

Yes, that works out at over £16 extra for a 1000-litre order. I reckon you could get the tram to the picture house, see the latest Laurel & Hardy film, buy a packet of Woodbines, have a pint and a packet of pork scratchings for that.

 

[skier-hughes]

No Chips?

 

[Penners]

Chips with pork scratchings? That's like socks with sandals!

 

[skier-hughes]

Doh! chips and a pint....... but chips must come with batter bits.............

 

[jocelyn plummer]

Since we are on the subject--- what is the current price of LPG at the moment? :roll: :wink:

 

[LadyArowana]

Chips with pork scratchings? That's like socks with sandals!

Noooooooo, even DB looks awful in that combo

 

[skier-hughes]

Most people will do anything for a $160m sponsorship deal!!

 

[Penners]

I'd be prepared to wear socks with sandals for only $159m.

 

[skier-hughes]

Not to sure I would

 

[JoceAndChris]

Socks with sandals are infinitely preferable to chips with batter!!! As Grantham Slimming World's official Miss Slinky 2014 ( ok, it wasn't a hard contest) I object.

Toby - thanks for the alert on the oil. We paid a lot more than current prices in August when we last had a delivery. Must order!

I'm also thinking of getting some storage heaters, or, at least rigging my plug in rads ( the columnar oil filled type) to a timer to make use of cheaper electricity at night. Anyone else done that?

 

[Feltwell]

Memories of storage heaters from a house I lived in as a child is they are hopeless.

Firstly, you need to know in advance just how cold the following days will be in order to set them right - easier perhaps in these days of t'interweb and more accurate forecasts.

Secondly, they were lovely and warm in the morning, then gave out gradually decreasing heat all day whilst we weren't there, and were stone cold by the evening, just when you want them to give out some heat. My parents tried umpteen different combinations of the controls, all to no avail.

Unless they've come on dramatically in the last 35 years, I'd not bother. I think there is a good reason why they fell out of favour almost completely.

My parents ripped them out and put in a closed coal fire with a back boiler and radiators. I'm not suggesting this for one second for your house, but in their 1970's bungalow it wasn't out of place.

 

[tobydog]

Although we have oil heating now, when we moved in five years ago we had E7. Bizarrely, the house had oil fire heating before the E7 and apparently the owner didn't like the pipes everwhere. I can only think that they thought the wire trunking everywhere was more attractive :? .

Anyway, as Feltwell said, it worked great in the morning but the evening was a struggle, particularly as we faced those two savage winters a few years back. Twiddling with the dials made no difference whatsoever. Having said this, I understand that the latest heaters are much more efficient and controllable and now there is E10 which stages the off-peak periods throughout the day rather than just at night. It's not as cheap as E7 though for obvious reasons.

Not sure on the cost these days but you would need to have your electricty input updated because you need two meters. Our E7 meter is still there and it's a three phase system which I'm told would be quite expensive to install new. Not sure you would need such a powerful meter unless you fitted out the whole house.

As our five year old boiler is already on its way out :evil: , E10 sounds quite attractive, however, we are now commited to oil and water because we have wet underfloor heating in the new extension and I'm not sure I want all the upheaval again.

 

[Penners]

Memories of storage heaters from a house I lived in as a child is they are hopeless.

Firstly, you need to know in advance just how cold the following days will be in order to set them right - easier perhaps in these days of t'interweb and more accurate forecasts.

Secondly, they were lovely and warm in the morning, then gave out gradually decreasing heat all day whilst we weren't there, and were stone cold by the evening, just when you want them to give out some heat. My parents tried umpteen different combinations of the controls, all to no avail.

Unless they've come on dramatically in the last 35 years, I'd not bother. I think there is a good reason why they fell out of favour almost completely.

I'd endorse every word of what Feltwell has said, based on identical memories of my parents' storage heaters.

If you still feel like putting some in, Joce, I should also look very carefully at the running costs, which can be considerable.