Poll: When You Burned #2 Oil, How Many Gallons Did It Take?

Lets keep this poll to those with primary residency single family homes that were once heated exclusively with #2 heating oil. How much oil did you burn per "average" heating season?

I'm excluding myself, even though I replaced an oil boiler with a coal boiler. The reason for this is that until we got the coal boiler we heated our home via its back-up resistance boiler and never used the old oil boiler. And our home was bank owned when we bought it, so I didn't have an opportunity to consult with the previous owners to see how much they burned.

larry aka "Numbers"

my vote of 950 gals included yr round domestic hot water. I didnt know how to factor that out...

waldo lemieux wrote:larry aka "Numbers"

my vote of 950 gals included yr round domestic hot water. I didn't know how to factor that out...

I would just leave it factored in to keep this simple.

DHW is usually considered to be about 15% of your total energy demand, give or take a few percent. So you were probably somewhere in the general ballpark of 800 gallons for home heating (over a span of likely 7 months) and 150 gallons for hot water (over a span of 12 months).

Mods, since I'm not going to make an entry, is there any way you can work your magic on this poll on my behalf so I can see the results of my own poll sans for hitting the "view results" button?

But if I was going to cheat, my entry would be 700 gallons.

I'll say 1,000 gallons but it could have been as high as 1,100 or as low as 900, every year is different. I did not have a very efficient boiler either, in fact it was probably very inefficient. A modern oil boiler would have done the same job with less oil but I don't know how much less.

I believe you can see your poll results if you log out.

700 and my house was COLD

gaw wrote:I'll say 1,000 gallons but it could have been as high as 1,100 or as low as 900, every year is different. I did not have a very efficient boiler either, in fact it was probably very inefficient. A modern oil boiler would have done the same job with less oil but I don't know how much less.

It might be fair to say that back in the heyday of our youth the typical oil furnace/boiler was about 60% efficient, with some units (conversion units mostly) as low as 50%.

Today they are 85% to 87% efficient (or higher if you go with a condensing oil furnace or boiler).

I can see from the number of contributors to this poll who are off the chart on the high end that I was thinking more of a nominal 85% efficiency when I set up my range of poll selections.

If you burned fuel oil, why not join in, Larry ?

I don't see why you stay out of your own pole. It's not like you'd be biased in one direction, or another, to affect the out-come.

Paul

I only heated this house with fuel oil for one season, and from what I remember it was about 1600 gallons for the year. We also used a propane space heater to supplement on really cold days. I think there may have even been an electric heater in the bathroom.

One thing I remember very clearly, when we heated with fuel the basement and floors were very cold...I also grew to hate the sound of that oil burner.

Rob R. wrote:I only heated this house with fuel oil for one season, and from what I remember it was about 1600 gallons for the year. We also used a propane space heater to supplement on really cold days. I think there may have even been an electric heater in the bathroom.

One thing I remember very clearly, when we heated with fuel the basement and floors were very cold...I also grew to hate the sound of that oil burner.

I hear ya. Hate to hear my furnace run too. Especially when I knew it was going through 20+ gallons a day during the coldest part of winter to heat this monstrosity.

Now, with a coal stove and the fuel oil only supplementing the cheaper electric plenum heater installed in the furnace duct work, on just the coldest days this past winter, it only used 40 gallons all winter !

I haven't had to buy fuel oil in about 6 years. Still working off what was in the tanks and have a couple of hundred gallons left.

With the rates going up more than double during winter, our electric has become more expensive than coal. Hoping the addition of the #6 base heater will get the electric down to near zero use too.

Paul

With the rates going up more than double during winter, our electric has become more expensive than coal. Hoping the addition of the #6 base heater will get the electric down to near zero use too.

My thrust into base heaters is also about efficiency and less electric overall. There is a third reason for me in that if I can stay warm I don't need back up power so I am selling my Lister. So far the generator sale has more than paid for beautiful and functional functional base heaters. How can you beat that. I even have a little money left over to buy a nice camera and take photos of all the solar panel going up in the area......... hahaahahaahahahhaa. The solar desk at Lowes is busy.

Now I am on a hunt to find the behemoth machine that our liberal idiots built in 2011

http://www.ocsoilny.org/hudson-valley-grass-energy.html

I am posing as a hay farmer with crops to dry for turning into pellets but no one returns my calls. I am dying to find this thing (which I am sure is rotting in a barn somewhere) and find out how much of my tax money was sunk into this nonsense. Little things please little minds. However, enough of my fun let's get back on thread.

Although it is more than a house, my little farm HO use has gone from 3000 galls (estimation of last winters use if the damned boiler was running) to 50-100 galls... beat that if you can.

If we're counting also having a business on the property too, I can come close.

My shop is had been converted over to electric hot water, so put me down for over 2500 gallons of HO a season (this winter would have been way over that) to down to 40 gallons.

Wish I could put one of my 118's out in the shop, but I don't dare with 80 year old car's type fuel systems and a paint booth.

Paul

coalnewbie wrote: Although it is more than a house, my little farm HO use has gone from 3000 galls (estimation of last winters use if the damned boiler was running) to 50-100 galls... beat that if you can.

1600 gallons per season to 50 gallons burned since Jan of 2011. Does that beat it?

My thrust into base heaters is also about efficiency and less electric overall. There is a third reason for me in that if I can stay warm I don't need back up power so I am selling my Lister. So far the generator sale has more than paid for beautiful and functional functional base heaters. How can you beat that

that sounds like smart business to me. I have also been looking at ways to reduce electric dependency.

[quote="waldo lemieux"]larry aka "Numbers"...[/quote] as referred to by WL, you could have at least provided the math formula with BTU heat loss, demand, BTU output per plate on oil unit, gallons per hour, degree days for your area, type of windows, insulation etc... I feel slighted! .........couldn't help it. On a serious note, I included oil for 6 months of domestic hot water as well.

...Last season I burned approx 50 gallons for hot water and zero for heat

BTU heat loss: -a lot
Demand: about the same
btu output per plate on oil unit: get outta here
gallons per hour: I dunno but a hear slurping noises
degree days for your area: hmm
type of windows: transparent
insulation: horse hair (and you think I am joking)