How Much Heating Oil Will I Use A Day?

If you’re using heating oil to warm your home, it’s also best to make sure that you have enough fuel in your heating oil tank, especially during the colder months. With this said, it’s also best to know how much heating oil you’ll need to last for winter.

Most of our clients ask us, “How much heating oil will I use a day?”. In this article, we’ll discuss the answer to this question in detail.

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Factors That Affect Heating Oil Usage

1. The Size And Design Of Your Home

The first factor that can affect your fuel oil usage is the size and design of your home. Larger homes would naturally need more heat than smaller homes, so their heating requirement would also be high. The same thing would still happen even if they’re at the same ambient temperature.

Apart from the size, the design will be a crucial factor, too. Each home comes in varied interior space volume, which would result in different heating requirements, too. Even if two houses are of the same size, the thickness of their walls, the insulation, and other details would be different, which affects their overall fuel consumption.

2. Ambient Temperature

Next, you would also have to consider the ambient temperature.

If you’re living in colder areas, you’ll naturally need more heating oil to heat your home. Even if the temperature drops 15 degrees Fahrenheit, your fuel consumption can immediately double.

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3. Condition Of The Oil Furnace

Last but not least, the condition of your oil furnace will also influence your fuel consumption.

If you don’t clean and maintain your oil furnace well, then it would not function efficiently, making it use more oil than what’s needed. So make sure to have your oil furnace serviced at least once a year, especially before the fall.

The more efficient your heating system is, the less it will consume.

Heating Oil Consumption Based On Temperature

Now, let’s discuss how your oil consumption would differ based on temperature.

Heating oil tanks have an average capacity of 275 gallons. When the local temperature is around 50 degrees Fahrenheit, the average home would be able to use 2 gallons of heating oil in one day.

So, if you do the calculation, one heating oil tank can last for 137.5 days or around four and a half months. In other words, one tank might be all you’d need to survive the cold season.

Although this sounds great, you need to remember that temperatures can fluctuate during the cold season. A drop in the temperature can lead to higher heating oil consumption for the day.

For example, if the temperature drops to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, you would be using 3.7 gallons. If the temperature stays at 40 degrees Fahrenheit for the whole cold season, then one tank would only last for 74 days or around two and a half months.

When the temperature drops to 20 degrees Fahrenheit, you would need to consume more heating oil to heat your home. When this happens, you’ll have to consume around 7 gallons a day, and the whole tank would be empty in 39 days or just over a month.

You probably know already where we’re getting with this.

During the colder months, temperatures can remain at the standard 50, go down to 40, move up again, and then go down to 20 the next day. It’s unpredictable, so you can never be too confident about your oil use.

On average, you could be using around 5.3 gallons of heating oil a day during the coldest months, where one tank can last for 52 days or around one month and three weeks.

If you have a smaller tank or you think you’re using more or less oil than the average, then make sure to estimate your fuel consumption based on the calculations above or just your daily usage.

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Estimate Your Heating Oil Requirements Based On Historical Statistics

Next, you can estimate your heating oil requirements based on historical statistics.

If you’ve been living in your home for several years, it’s easy to calculate your average consumption based on your past heating bills. This is ideal if you’re keeping a record of your yearly fuel consumption, as you can use every information here to determine the annual, monthly, and daily values of your heating oil consumption.

Now, what if you’re new to the neighborhood?

For this, you can check if there are homes similar to yours nearby. You can ask those neighbors about their heating oil usage to determine how much oil you’d need in a day.

Another way to go around this is by contacting the nearest supplier for heating oil to get an estimate.

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Average Heating Oil Usage Based On Square Footage

You can also determine your average heating oil usage based on the square footage or the size of your home. The average home in the US is around 2,687 square feet, and your home may be smaller or larger than this.

So, to give you an idea of your home’s possible heating oil consumption, we have some standard estimates you can see. These are based on the heating oil consumption for every 1,000 square feet of space depending on the average temperature outside:

• 10 degrees Fahrenheit: 3.27 gallons
• 20 degrees Fahrenheit: 2.67 gallons
• 30 degrees Fahrenheit: 2.07 gallons
• 40 degrees Fahrenheit: 1.47 gallons
• 50 degrees Fahrenheit: 0.87 gallons

Based on these estimates, if your house is around 3,500 square feet, you will need 3.5 times the average requirements above. If the outside temperature is at 40 degrees Fahrenheit, then you can consume approximately 5.15 gallons of heating oil in a day.

 

Heating Oil For Water Heaters

Another factor that you should consider is if you’re also using heating oil to warm your water supply.

Water heaters would require an average of 0.5 to 1.0 gallons of heating oil per day. If you have a large home, have more people in your household, and shower every day, then it’s possible you could be using more.

Add the calculation that you use for your water heater to your heating oil consumption, and you’ll be using more heating oil than usual.

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Final Word

Figuring out how much heating oil you consume in a day would help ensure that you have enough heating oil to last for the winter. And it’s not even complicated to figure out as you just need to base it on the:

• Ambient temperature
• Size of your home
• Historical statistics

However, if you’re new to the neighborhood or you just want to be sure your calculations are right, you can always call a local heating oil company, like Tevis Energy, to get an accurate estimate.

Call Tevis Energy For Your Home Heating Oil Requirements

Tevis Energy is a trustworthy heating oil delivery company that services central Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. Our company offers affordable and the most competitive heating oil prices in the area. Our goal is to provide you with excellent products and services. When you choose us to be your oil supplier, you can rest easy knowing that you will have correct and prompt heating oil deliveries at the best possible prices. Furthermore, we offer various heating oil delivery plans and financing options, as a way to customize your oil deliveries. Be sure to call us today to learn more.

Tevis Energy has certified and highly trained HVAC technicians to cater to all your heating and cooling needs. We guarantee that each of our techs has the experience, skills, and knowledge to provide excellent HVAC services. Our team can assist you with installations, repairs, maintenance, and much more. Our superior HVAC solutions always come at affordable costs.

Call us today to learn more about the products and services our company offers. We provide free, in-home estimates.

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