…be forced air?
We currently have an oil boiler for our heating system and use baseboard radiators. Can we continue to use baseboard heat if we install geothermal heating system?

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Anyone who has ever lived in a home with an oil boiler will be aware how difficult it can be to keep on top of how much it’s costing and finding the cheapest suppliers for replacement oil. Like petrol, the cost of boiler oil varies all the time and without careful planning it’s easy to get caught out if your tank starts getting empty when prices are high. Here are a few tips to help make sure you’re getting the best prices for your heating oil:

Buy your oil in bulk
Like most things, the more oil you buy at once, the cheaper it will be. For this reason it’s best to plan ahead and buy enough to fill the tank at once instead of waiting until the tank is almost empty then buying a little bit at a time. Joining forces with friends and neighbours to order heating oil as a group is a good way to get costs down even further, as you can get some great discounts for bulk orders and delivery costs will be much less too.

Buy your oil in the summer
There are many factors that affect the cost of oil, most of which we can’t do anything about. What we can do is to make sure we buy the majority of our oil during the summer, when the cost is at its lowest. It goes without saying that heating oil is a far more valuable commodity during winter months when people use their heating more, so fill your tank during the summer and just top up if you need to in winter.

Make sure your boiler is looked after
The same as any other boiler, oil boilers should be serviced regularly. Boiler oil servicing should be carried out once a year to make sure it is running as efficiently as possible and that there are no potentially dangerous problems. Getting your boiler serviced could also save you heaps in emergency repair costs as there’s less chance of a surprise breakdown during the winter when it’s most needed.

Security
Strange though it may seem, theft of heater oil is on the rise. A large outdoor tank could contain anything up to £1000 of oil after a delivery, and for the opportunist thief it’s just too easy. The majority of oil tanks have space to attach locks and there are locking systems you can get for the fill points as well, so make sure your tank is secure and you could save loads of money and stress!

Not many homes in towns and cities use boilers powered by heater oil to fuel their central heating nowadays – with almost every home wired up to the national grid and gas mains, using a large tank of oil to warm the house seems a bit outdated. Even people who live in more remote rural areas and may not have access to these conveniences have a wealth of new technology and alternative power sources to choose from. Wouldn’t it be better to set up one of these ‘green’ power generators that run on wind, water or solar power than commit to using expensive and wasteful oil which needs to be regularly replaced?

So does oil still have value as a source for central heating despite the much discussed issues of cost and environmental issues? Oil is not cheap after all, and it is in short supply. If we care about our environment shouldn’t we make sure we’re using power that is less pollutant and wasteful?

But like so many other things in life, it’s not quite so simple. We want our central heating to be reliable and constant, and the main problem with environmentally friendly power sources is that they are new and relatively untested. An oil boiler is more reliable, and doesn’t depend on certain weather conditions to perform – as long as the oil supply doesn’t run out and the boiler is serviced regularly as should be the case with any boiler, it will last a long time.

They might seem old fashioned and relatively expensive, but oil boilers definitely still have a place as a heating source, especially those who live in areas that otherwise don’t have the convenience found in cities. They can be expensive to run because of the need to refill the tank regularly, but communities can order heating oil as a group and receive discounts for bulk buying

Living somewhere really remote would once have meant being cut off from the modern world. Even now there are small communities in the UK without access to mains electricity or gas, that have to rely on generators or other alternative power sources every day. Of course nowadays no one is completely cut off provided they have electricity in the home. But for those who live a long way from any towns or cities it can be a challenge finding the best source of energy to power your home without the risk of ending up stuck if it fails.

Modern technology means that a noisy and wasteful generator is by no means the only way to get electricity. Wind, water and solar power are all becoming more and more commonly used, and are an environmentally friendly way to produce power for the home. The main issue with these is that to work they require specicfic weather conditions, and as we all know the weather can be unreliable to say the least! To avoid the risk of being completely stuck if there was a problem, it’s a good idea to have a separate central heating system with a boiler that doesn’t rely entirely on your alternative power source.

An oil boiler is a good and reliable way to heat the home that doesn’t require any specific conditions, as long as you keep it topped up with oil. You have to order heating oil to refill the tank but although this can be expensive, especially if you buy it in the winter, it’s a fraction of what you’d pay to install solar panels or other alternative power sources at home. It’s easy to manage and with a bit of forward planning you can save loads of money by ordering your oil in summer when prices are lower and in bulk with friends and neighbours.