How much heating oil is in your tank?

Checking how much oil you have left in your tank is easy.


• Look inside (with a torch if necessary)

• Dip a bamboo stick in it

• Take a piece of string just slightly longer than the height of your oil tank. Put one end through a tennis ball and tie something such as a piece of coloured cloth, to the other end. Drop the tennis ball in to your oil tank, where it will float, but leave the cloth end on the outside of the oil tank. The cloth will appear higher up with less oil in the tank as the tennis ball floats downwards (and lower down when the oil tank is full with the tennis ball floating near the top).

Checking is easy – just like checking a smoke alarm is easy, you just press a button. So why so many television adverts about checking your smoke alarm?

Remembering to check is the trick. Being bothered enough to check when you do remember – that’s the cumbersome part that may result in a cold house, disgruntled family and even an air locked tank. If you’ve had to incur the cost of emergency heating oil or more emergency deliveries (as well as an air locked tank) then its time to consider a more cost effective, hassle free and family friendly solution.

Heating Oil Monitors are by far the easiest option. You get to have an alarm warn you from the comfort of your home that its time to visit cheapest oil (or cheapest oil in the Republic of Ireland) and avoid all the panic and cost involved with running out of oil. These devices use ultrasound now so there aren't different devices for different tanks or long bars you have to insert into the tank. You get a 10 bar indicator to let you know just how full your tank is.

The sensor shown below is for an Apollo Ultrasonic and just plugs into your wall.

If you are concerned about heating oil theft, you might also want to consider the new Watchman Alarm

For prices and a full list of features, see our heating oil website and click on Shop.

Jump in the price of Home heating oil

Despite hopes that prices would remain steady this year, home heating oil prices have rocketed at the start of this week by an average of £15 (and by around £20 since last week).

For example, Emo Oil in Belfast have increased their price for 900 litres by over £40 in a week from £283.50 last Wednesday to £326.03 for 900 litres by the following Tuesday morning. Just about all suppliers surveyed by CheapestOil.co.uk have increased their prices with some increasing their prices every few hours.

This comes at the same time that crude oil as jumped to a 4 month high of around $54. On Friday, crude oil rose to over $50 for the first time this year. The increase is attributed to a stock market rally on news in the US of a plan to buy toxic assets and reports regarding an improving housing market.

Demand for oil is still considered to be weak with the price predicted to reach $60 per barrel this year.

Home Heating oil prices compared to crude oil prices

A question often asked is "why is home heating oil not the same price as it was when crude oil was this price?".

Such a question made headlines in NI (Northern Ireland) in late 2008.
There may be discrepancies but the biggest reason for the difference is in the exchange rates (as oil is priced in dollars).

In November 2007, $64 would have been just over £30. In November 2008, $64 would be around £40. This sort of difference alone would mean oil priced at £300 one year could cost £400 the following year.

If the price of crude oil remains steady and the pound gains strength against the dollar then there is no reason why we can't see even cheaper home heating oil.

For the UK, including Northern Ireland, the big question should not be how many dollars a barrel of oil is but how many pounds a barrel of oil is. Although the crude oil price has dropped quite a bit, consumers haven't got the full benefit of it because oil is priced in dollars and the pound has been weak recently against the dollar. For example, anything that cost US$45 would translate as £22 in the summer but cost £30 now so the exchange rates have been working against the price drops of oil.

However there is only so far it can go. Oil distributors would be quick to point out that they sell kerosene, not crude oil and that other cost factors need to be taken into consideration. If the price of a barrel of oil was free, that doesn't mean someone is going to get it refined into kerosene and deliver it to your house for free. There are costs that are going to be more static than the stock market prices.

We maintain a list of stock market versus home heating oil prices on our website.

About http://www.cheapestoil.co.uk/ : Since this is our first blog entry, here is a bit about ourselves. Cheapest Oil Limited operates http://www.cheapestoil.co.uk/ and http://www.cheapestoil.ie/ . The Cheapest Oil websites are independent home heating oil price comparison sites for Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Independent means that we are not affiliated with any distributor and so no commission is paid.