With the outside temperatures starting to get cold again, heating oil is on the mind. So it’s important to be mindful and check your heating oil tanks. But also, it’s important to check the price of heating oil. When oil prices get high enough, you might up spending close to or over $1,000. It’s important that because of this, you ask yourself “How long until I run out of oil? Well don’t worry, I’ll be covering that in this article here.
What’s the Capacity of a Heating Oil Tank?
Usually, standard oil tanks will have a capacity of 275 or 330 gallons. However, these tanks will never get filled up to their maximum capacity. So they have a true capacity of 250 or 315 respectively. But that being said, I don’t recommend letting your tank get low. The reasoning for this is because your tank could have some sludge build-up on the bottom of it. This is common on old steel tanks. But, if you have a Roth tank, you won’t have to worry about this. However, that doesn’t mean that you should let your tank get low.
When your tank’s level gets below 1/8 full, you’ll start to stir up the sludge in your tank. The sludge will then get sucked into your burner’s feed lines. This can often cause a clog and worst of all, no heat! This is a huge problem that has to be dealt with immediately.
With this information in mind, you should NEVER let your tank’s oil level get below 1/8 full. For a tank that’s 275 gallons, this is about 35 gallons. DO NOT Let it get below that amount of oil. This can result in your feel lines sucking up sludge and your burner getting shut down.
Due to this 35-gallon mark, you really only have about 215 usable gallons on a 275 gallon tank. But, this is a worst case-scenario. You should always order oil at a quarter tank.
How Long Will a Tank of Heating Oil Last You?
By knowing the size of your tank, and the amount of usable gallons that you have in your tank, you’ll be able to figure out how long an entire tank of oil will last. The next questions is a little bit trickier to answer. That question is “How much oil will your house need?”. I go very in-depth on this in my articles on usage during Spring and Winter. Take a read at those to get my in-depth explanations on usage during those seasons!
During the winter, you will naturally be burning more oil. This is because the outside weather is much colder than during the spring and summer months. You will burn through a lot of oil especially if it’s your primary source of heating. You might even need to get oil delivered every month or so, depending on how much you’re using! The average home will usually burn around 2 to 7 gallons of heating oil daily during the colder months.
However, during the spring and summer, you’ll be burning significantly less oil. This is because these months tend to be a bit warmer. Which will cause you to burn less oil than you usually do. If heating oil is your primary form of heating, then you will only really burn anywhere form 1-3 gallons a day on heat. During the summer, you’ll probably burn around .5-1 gallon at most.
Avoid Running Out of Oil: Always Order at a Quarter
You should now have a basic idea of how long a tank of heating oil will last you. This should ensure that you are better equipped to avoid a runout.
The general rule of thumb that I like to live by is to reorder oil when your tank reaches a quarter. This will ensure that the delivery truck has plenty of time to get to you before you run out. You can use our FuelSnap website to order oil online. Or even better, you can use the Smart Oil Gauge, to alert you when you’re running low! The gauge will not only alert you when you’re low, but it will also tell you how much oil you have and how much oil you’re burning, right at the touch of your finger!
Being on top of how much oil you’re burning is important! This will help you figure out how long a tank of oil will last you, and how long until you’ll need to order again! I hope this article has been helpful! If you need to reach us, feel free to reach us at 203.456.1499 option 3 from 8 am-5pm EST, Monday through Friday.
Happy Heating,
Hunter
