Keeping warm in winter

Our house is not on mains gas, so we use kerosene to fuel our (ancient) boiler backed up with log burners.

I quickly realised when we moved here that the price of heating oil fluctuates depending on the season, and when you need it the most it will be the most expensive. Generally, winter prices can be 10-15p more expensive than summer so it pays to buy as much as possible in the summer.

Our tank takes, when full, 2500 litres and I have a monthly saving plan with a heating oil brokerage called Boilerjuice. Whenever I want a quote, I plug in the figures into its online calculator and it collects prices from local suppliers. Generally, I find the quotes are pretty competitive when compared to ringing round the suppliers and the longer you can leave it before needing the oil the cheaper it is.

So, this year as usual I waited until August to get my quotes for 2000 litres delivered ready for winter, only to find that the heating oil prices have gone barmy. Last year at this time I paid 33p per litre. This year I am being quoted 49p per litre. I paid £660 last year and this year it will cost £1050 for the same amount of oil. That's a whopping 60% increase.

So, I got up at 5:30 am this morning to do the figures and come up with a different strategy.

First, I'm going to get a list of suppliers and go direct to see if I can get a few pennies off a litre. I can also get the money in my Boilerjuice plan account refunded back to my bank account if I need to pay for fuel elsewhere.

Second, depending on what prices I can get direct, rather than fill the tank up I'm going to get the minimum order quantity of 500 litres and watch the prices like a hawk to see if they come down. My research this morning tells me that in three of the last five years October-December has had lower prices than the summer.

Third, we're having a new boiler fitted in September, which should be a lot more economical with fuel consumption than the current 23 year old one so hopefully what we do have will last longer. I'm also having new accurate digital thermostats put in so combined with the new system pump I had fitted in January, our consumption should be lower.

Fourth, I'm going to add to our stockpile of wood and order some smokeless fuel so we can delay putting the heating system on for a bit longer this autumn.

Fifth, I'm going to thoroughly prep this house for winter. I'm going over to Moneysavingexpert forum to have a read of their Preparing for Winter thread to pick up some ideas. Every week I can keep this house warm and delay putting the heating on is money in our pocket.

Finally, I'm going to pray that this heatwave continues well into the Autumn!