How much oil do you use per year?

I don't know what electric rates are like where you live, but $300 will get you a good electric water heater. I'm probably spending around $20/month in electricity for hot water, based on what you've posted you are around $125/month so payback could be really quick.

We have a much smaller house, and this is our first year with a pellet stove. But I think our oil usage for heating and hot water was around 800 gallons? I want to find out exactly how many to be able to know our savings for this year. We are thinking that without using it for heat that we can keep it around 200 gallons for just hot water. There are 5 of us. Although the kids are still little and share baths so that is a savings. But still your number seems high for just hot water. We also use the water heat setting on the dishwasher so it uses more electric but saves in oil. We are also looking into other means of hot water.

Rokal said:

Last year, my pellet stove heated my entire 2400 sf house (built in 1970's). I only turned on the baseboard heat on the coldest nights to keep the pipes from freezing. Before getting the pellet stove, I was using about 1300 gallons of oil per year. Last year, I used about 500-600 gallons mainly for hot water. I have an indirect hot water tank and an my boiler is over 40 years old. Does 500-600 per year seem high for hot water usage for a family of four (daily showers, laundry, etc.)?

I realize that the boiler is old. I would consider getting a new boiler if I could reduce my oil usage down to 250-300 gallons per year. The payback would be quick if I could save 250-300 gallons per year.

How much oil a year are you burning and how old is your boiler?

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Thats a LOT of oil for just hot water. Last year we used about 500 gallons for both heat & hot water. I kept the thermostat very low. The previous owners used 900 gallons/year for heat and hot water. Boiler is about 20 yr old and was last tested to be about 80% eff. We also have an indirect water heater. The house is roughly 2200 sf and was built in the late 50's and has average insulation.

This is the first year with our pellet stove and we hope to be much more comfortable so I don't anticipate a huge drop in oil used but do expect some.

I don't use any oil, I have geothermal

when we bought our house we put in the stove (last year) the oil company said the old owner used about 1000-1100g per season we used 275ish last year the oil company kept calling and saying your due for oil im like NOPE after the 3rd call they were like we think your gauge is broken and you should be dry lolol

I would do a ge hybrid hot water heater(heat pump) love mine

Your posting could have been my house. It is a 2300 sq ft ranch. It was built around 1970, 40 year old boiler. Before the pellet stove I used 1300 gallons of oil. I said enough is enough, so I bought a Harmon P68, four years ago. Oil usage went down to 400 gallons to supplement the pellet stove and H2O. This year I bough a used Harmon P38, for $500, for the other end of the house. I will not turn on the boiler, my goal is bring the oil usage to zero. I installed an electric hot water heater. We have very reasonable electric rates because of a hydro dam. Roughly speaking 1300 gallons @$4 per = $5200. Maybe 5 tons of pellets @ $200 = $1000. So I saved myself a good $4000. I like that! The house is nice and toasty, my wife likes that. I will probably look for another used Harmon for the cellar.

Tom C.

125 liters +- a year htg 2140sqft. Last year was an exeption and burned 285 litres as had spinal surgery in Dec and was down and out for a while. Let the stove go cold while I was away from the family. Easier on the wife with 2 boys.

We use about 125 gals last winter.mainly for hot water.The only time the oil burner is used for heat is if we leave the house for a few days.Of course that's with only 2 people living here.Maybe you could send the kids to gramma's for the winter.Just kidding

Our house is about 1450 sq. ft.; stone and brick exterior; plaster over wooden lathe interior walls; built around 1910 with no insulation.

Ironically, on Monday, just after the install of our new Accentra FS we received an oil delivery of 131 gallons. We had been topped off last May 26 and used it in between then and now only for hot water. So 5 months of hot water used 131 gallons of oil.

We are a family of four, including a not quite 15 year old daughter who showers and washes her hair EVERY day, but this is somewhat balanced out by her twin bother who rarely goes near the shower at all - and then fleetingly, although now that he is in a coed High School, this is changing.

Last season our oil bill, including the service contract and one uncovered repair was just under $4800. To be fair, my 'beloved' mother in law lived with us last year and we had to keep heat up higher and on all day every day to accommodate her.

In any event, we are hoping the new stove will eliminate that cost and now I will turn my attention to alternative hot water solutions.

If you are using 500-600 gallons of oil to heat water, you are either using an obscene amount of hot water or your boiler setup is seriously inefficient. I heat my whole house on 560 gallons/year. If I were you, id ditch using the DHW coil in the boiler and buy an Electric HWH. Or if you can swing the cash, get a new hybrid HWH. Either way, that is wayyyyy to much oil just to heat water.

karl0525 said:

I would do a ge hybrid hot water heater(heat pump) love mine

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Do you get the option of diverting the cool air from it into your house during the summer and venting it outside during the winter? I saw them at HD but wondered about the wasted cool air. Damn pricey, too

wow that's a lot of oil. i only use oil for hot water and heat only when we are away.

i used 130 gallons last year.

just filled up to top my tank off and sitting on lots of pellets so im good.

normally use 800 gal a year for heat and hot water now use about 150 just for hot water for 1300 sf cape built 1740

"0" zilch, nada, none! I am weened. Have been since Dec 8th, 1995

I've post this before but here it is again. I need to update it through 2011, your post gave me motivation.

We have a separate oil fired Hot Water Heater for just domestic hot water, which uses about 12 gallons/month for 2 adults, and two kids showering when you can get them to.

Two years ago we used up the leftover oil in our tank (bout half full) and last year we used no oil at all. Put a wood stove in this spring to use as a primary source of heat, and will use our corn stove as a supplement at the other end of the house...again no oil!

I have been tracking this for the past few years since we installed our pellet stove. Using oil for hotwater only 2 adults, 2 teenagers who take very long showers we would use 300 gallons of oil a year. Our boiler is also very old and we wanted to get off of oil totally so we just installed an electric hotwater heater. Waiting for the last 30 gallons to empty our tank before we flip the switch to electric!

Two people, lots of canning, brewing, and keeping the garage under heated to 50°F. Last year was 172.7 gallons.

Rokal said:

spacecowboyIV said:

I don't know what electric rates are like where you live, but $300 will get you a good electric water heater. I'm probably spending around $20/month in electricity for hot water, based on what you've posted you are around $125/month so payback could be really quick.

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I live on Long Island which has some on the highest electric rates in the country :-(

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Maybe then as one poster recommended you should look into a heat pump/electric coil hybrid unit. You are paying way too much and a new boiler is going to be a waste of $$$ if you are going to heat with pellets anyway IMHO.

I can say exactly ONE good thing about oil. Nothing beats an oil fired hot water furnace for churning out massive amounts of hot water almost as quickly as you need it. We lose power many times per year, and the recovery rate of that water heater is amazing, from ice cold to shower ready in half an hour. I have heard electric hot water heaters take very long to recover.

fire_man said:

I can say exactly ONE good thing about oil. Nothing beats an oil fired hot water furnace for churning out massive amounts of hot water almost as quickly as you need it. We lose power many times per year, and the recovery rate of that water heater is amazing, from ice cold to shower ready in half an hour. I have heard electric hot water heaters take very long to recover.

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Not the instant on demand ones, but then they suck a lot of juice.

The quick recovery units are also not that bad.