Maintaining a home heating oil supply requires smart planning, especially during colder winters and if you’re spending more time at home. Our team of experts can help you understand more about your home heating oil usage, so you can stay warm and keep life running smoothly at home as long as required.

How much heating oil do you use?

Already, Bloomberg has reported that it is likely there will be a surge in heating demand in 2021. On average, it is estimated that homeowners will use roughly 500 - 800 gallons of heating oil between the months of October and March. That translates to a usage of 2.75 – 4.45 gallons per day. Many people who leave their home for part or all of the day, often turn their heat down to use less heating oil. However, as more people work remotely from home, fewer homeowners are turning the heat down. So, that 2.75 – 4.45 gallons of oil usage per day could increase.

These amounts are calculated with averages in mind. If it’s a more bitter winter than usual with lower temperatures, your furnace or boiler will work harder to maintain those comfortable temperatures--and that requires more fuel. If the temperature outside drops to about 20 degrees, you could see your 3-gallon usage of heating oil rise to 7 gallons.

Home size has a substantial impact on the amount of oil you will specifically use in your home. If you have a two-bedroom home, you may have an oil tank that holds 275 gallons of oil. During a typical winter, you may not need to refill that tank for 20 to 30 days, but, again, it will depend on how cold the temperatures get. Large, multi-story homes may have a larger oil tank, but they may need to refill it just as frequently, especially if the home’s insulation is dated.

If you want to get more technical and calculate heating oil usage in terms of your square footage, you certainly can. For instance, if you wind up using 500 gallons of oil to heat your 2,300 square-ft home during the 182 days of the cold season, you could expect to need about 0.2 gallons per square foot. That’s not precise because we know that usage fluctuates depending on the temperature outdoors and if you, as the homeowner adjust your thermostat. If you turn your heat down to 65 each time you leave your house, you’ll use less oil than if you stay home continuously with your thermostat set to 69 or 70 degrees.

What is the cost of heating your home? 

The cost of heating your home varies with the cost of heating oil. That cost varies with the current rate for oil. Staying home more can affect your heating cost and poor insulation can affect your energy costs, too. However, there are other factors at play as well. If your home is drafty, you could wind up paying more each day to heat your house. If your furnace or boiler is old, you might be paying substantially more to heat your home than someone heating a similar-sized house with a new, more energy-efficient furnace.

Because temperatures can fluctuate considerably during the cold season, so can energy costs and oil usage. That’s why many of Petro’s customers opt to sign up for a plan to protect their heating oil price regardless of what the cost of a barrel of oil in the marketplace happens to be. Petro provides a number of pricing plan options and has a SmartPay monthly budget payment plan that helps you spread the cost of those higher winter heating bills monthly, throughout the year to help you budget better and manage annual energy costs.

How long will my heating oil supply last?

If you spend more time working or doing more at home than you’ve done in prior years, you will probably find that your heating oil usage will go up. That means that you’ll need to refill your oil tank more often. Instead of filling your 500-gallon oil tank every 6 weeks or so, you may need to refill it every month. The good news is that heating oil is not subject to supply problems and it stores well. So, if there’s a sudden rise in temperatures, you can just relax, knowing that your oil is safely stored in your tank until you need it.

With Petro’s automatic oil delivery service you won’t have to worry about running out of oil because of increased usage. Our system uses the latest computer model, that predicts when you need oil and will send someone out automatically whenever our records indicate you may require a delivery and deliver it, right on time! The Petro team also works around-the-clock, to ensure that customers get heating oil exactly when they need it.

If you’re concerned that your increased presence at home is using up more energy than you expected, you can take some measures to conserve your heating oil. For instance, if your home is older, you may wish to invest in improving its insulation. That will reduce wear and tear on your furnace and require less heating oil. Other ways to cut back on heating oil use include:

• Open draperies to allow the sunshine to warm up your house
• Turn down the thermostat at night and cover up with heavy blankets while sleeping to keep warm
• Seal cracks around your home and block cool air from coming in around doors and windows with weatherstripping
• Be sure not to block radiators or registers so that heat can circulate to warm your house more effectively

Taking steps to conserve your heating oil will also help you extend its use and cut down on your overall energy costs.

Learn more about heating oil and get a quote from Petro Home Services.

Petro offers different heating oil plans and services, including automatic heating oil delivery, to match your needs. Our website has lots of helpful information about heating your home and you can rely on Petro Home Services 24/7 for all your heating oil and other home service needs.

Be sure to contact Petro to chat with a heating oil professional about your home and heating system today.