Heating Oil Usage Calculator: How Much Heating Oil Am I Actually Using?

Have you ever wondered how much heating oil you use when turning your heating on for a few hours at a time? Or how your heating oil consumption changes when you’re working from home or when your kids are home from university?

To work out approximately how much heating oil your household uses, just follow along with our heating oil consumption calculator below.

What is heating oil usage measured in?

Before we dive into our oil usage calculator, we need a science lesson - starting with energy.

Energy is measured in Watts (named after Scottish scientist and engineer James Watt). However, the measurement more commonly seen is kilowatts (kW) – the equivalent to 1000 watts – as it takes a lot of watts to heat a home.

To breakdown energy usage, you need to know how long the heating is on for in hours. Therefore, total energy use is measured in kilowatt hours or kWh.

From our records, we know the average UK household using heating oil as their primary source of energy expends around 26,000 kWh each year on heating.

Following it so far? Excellent, we’ll move on!

Heating Oil Usage Calculator: A step by step guide

Step One – Energy value of kerosene

We need to establish how much energy there is in kerosene. A quick Google search will tell you that one litre of kerosene contains circa 10.35 kWh of energy.

So, to calculate the volume of heating oil, an average UK home uses in a year, we simply:

• divide the total energy expenditure (in this example 26,000 kWh), by the amount of energy in one litre of kerosene; 10.35 kWh

This equals:

2,512 litres of heating oil, or 2 – 3 tanks

This is about what we would expect to deliver to an average-sized property in a year.

Step Two – Usage based on seasonality

Next, we need to consider seasonality, because even the coldest person doesn’t have their heating on all year round.

So, let’s say for argument’s sake the average UK household has their heating on for six months of the year, six hours each day. Six months is roughly the equivalent of 180 days, so for ease of calculation, we’ll go with that:

• dividing 26,000 by 180 gives us the amount of energy used by your home every day it is on

This equals:

144.44 kWh

Step Three – Daily usage

To get a figure for daily usage, we simply:

• divide 144.44 kWh by 10.35 kWh (the energy value of kerosene)

This equals:

just under 14 litres

Step Four – Hourly usage

Working out how much you use per hour then becomes easy. You just need to:

• divide 14 (litres used per day) by 6 (hours the heating is on per day)

This equals:

2.33 litres

Step Five -  How much is used when the heating is on

From here, you can calculate how much heating oil you use every time you turn the heating on.

If, for example, you put the heating on for four hours on a chilly night, you’ll use approximately:

(2.33 x 4) = 9.32 litres of heating oil

And if you’re stuck inside all day?

Well, if we consider all day to be 15 hours:

(2.33 x 15) = 34.95 litres of heating oil

Variables to consider when using an oil usage calculator:

Although our heating oil consumption calculator is a great tool, do remember it is a rough guide only.

The precise volume will be affected by a number of factors, including:

• external temperature
• the age of your property
• how well your property is insulated
• the size of your property
• how efficient your heating system is
• how often you’re at your property during the cold months
• how many people are living in your property

So, if you’re concerned about how much oil you’re consuming, have a go at using our oil usage calculator and think about the variable factors we’ve shared.

There are plenty of ways to keep the costs of your heating oil low and your oil tank running efficiently, so you can keep yourself warm without stress.

If you need more help with understanding heating oil prices, please get in touch with our expert team who would be happy to help.