Anyone else use Oil to heat your house?

[Jonny2184]

I have an oil question....
I just bought a new house and we use oil to heat it. Not the hot water tank but just the heat in the house.
Anyway, I had my oil tank filled maybe November 22nd or 23rd. The rules they have only let they fill to the 3/4 mark.
It's only been maybe 2 1/2 weeks or more and my tank is almost down to the 1/2 mark.
Where did all my oil go. It cost me 1000 to fill it and if I have to pay another 1000 by January that is really gonna suck.

When it was filled in November is was warmer and now it have dropped at least 10 degrees celcius. Does the volume or mass of the oil degreese with the cold weather?? Kinda like a car tire, the air expands and shrinks with the temperature.

I also dont have any interior doors in the house yet. I figured that could be why, so I put up big blankets and covered off the main door ways and that seems to be helping with controlling the area the heat goes into...

But do you have any suggestions as to why my oil tank is going down so fast??
I go out everyday and check the guage and you can see that it moves millimeters everyday...?

[dsirkle]

If you own the house insulate and then insulate some more.If you rent try to persuade your landlord to insulate. I am a retired natural gas utility employee and I can tell you that most homeowners will spend the money to insulate their homes to keep their costs down and most landlords don't want to put money into their rental properties.This results in the people that can afford it the least having the highest heating bills. A lot a old houses lose heat like a chimney if they are not insulated.The price of heating oil fluctuates and sometimes it is cheaper than natural gas and propane and sometimes more expensive. Electricity (Hydro) is always the most expensive form of heating. That old furnace can also be converted to operate on gas or propane. If things stand as they are you will be filling that tank up alot. A 1 floor house loses most of its heat through the roof and a 2 floor loses more heat through the walls.On a 1 story house you should concentrate on insulating above the ceiling,on a 2 story focus on the doors and windows.I reread your post and I see that you own it. Insulate like crazy! If it is a brand new house you would be better of to bite the bullet and have a professional insulate the place.In the long run you will save.

[littleindiangirl]

Excellent advice!

[Jonny2184]

Yeah I agree, great advise!
I do have a little insulation laying around at home so I'll cut it up and stick it into any little hole I can find!
And I'll cover some windows with plastic for the winter. They are new windows but I think the people that installed them did a bad job and they have air leaks all around the edge.

[Ginevive]

Plastic over windows helps immensely. And I am not sure how your windows are setup; but caulk around the open edges (if they caulked, and left holes) can help also.
Those "draft dodger" things, or even a rolled-up towel, can also help with any spaces left under doors (like our closet doors; our closet is freeeeezing, so we roll towels up and put them in the small gap under the door.. weems to help.

[Jonny2184]

Plastic over windows helps immensely. And I am not sure how your windows are setup; but caulk around the open edges (if they caulked, and left holes) can help also.
Those "draft dodger" things, or even a rolled-up towel, can also help with any spaces left under doors (like our closet doors; our closet is freeeeezing, so we roll towels up and put them in the small gap under the door.. weems to help.

Yeah I don't have any trim around anything yet so you can run your hand along bascailly any area and feel some kind of cool air.
One of my windows in the kitchen was especially drafty and I did do a shabby job of caulking around the window and drywall but it did help a bit I think! It's really the huge gaps around my floor and drywall that I guess I should be doing some work on right away.
Tonight I will try to make my way down into the crawl space and see if I can see any holes coming up into my floor.
Thanks for the info!!!