Warming our home with heating oil
Heating your house with oil. Here in Ireland, it’s a regular occurrence, especially in the more rural areas. But how does it work exactly and why do people use it? Like most people I know, I’ve only ever heated my house with gas or electricity. But our new home is heated through oil, so I’ve done some digging on heating with oil.
What is heating oil actually?
Even though everyone just calls it oil, which conjures up images of pouring olive oil into a boiler, it is actually kerosene oil. It is derived from crude oil and is very similar to diesel fuel. Although they dye it a different colour, to prevent people from using it in their cars since it’s cheaper than regular diesel.
Because it is derived from crude oil, which is a non-renewable resource. Using heating oil might not sound like the best option. But on the flip side, it can also be made as a biofuel. And therefore could be considered a sustainable option.
However you look at it, it might not be the most sustainable option out there, no matter what the suppliers say about it. Because although it doesn’t produce as much methane as gas, it certainly is not a wholly clean fuel source since it does produce more carbon dioxide.
Why use oil to heat a home instead of gas?
For most of my life, I used gas for heating and cooking in the home. And so did everyone I knew, because, in the Netherlands where I grew up, we’ve always had an extensive gas network. If you want to read how we moved here read my post about how we emigrated. However, in Ireland as well as in the UK, it is very different.
This mainly because during the first half of the 20th century, the western world moved away from using coal as their main fuel. And in Ireland and the UK, there weren’t really the funds and time to put down an extensive gas network. So instead of opting for gas, they chose to install oil tanks in remote areas. This made more sense economically. It also had the advantage that a person could choose for themselves if they wanted to switch away from coal.
But if you think that only old cottages here in Ireland are heated by oil. Then think again, even relatively newly build estates all have oil tanks installed into the backyards. Because to lay the pipes needed for a mains gas connection is a very expensive business indeed.
Our experience with our home heating oil
At first, I was apprehensive when I heard that the new house would be heated through oil. But since we only use minimal heating in the house anyway, we thought it shouldn’t be a problem. In case you’re wondering, we keep a toasty 16° to 18° degrees Celcius or in Fahrenheit 60° to 64°. We just wear a lot of layers in winter and warm comfy slippers to keep warm.
Now, after using oil heating in our home, I find it very easy and don’t really notice any difference, warmth wise to gas heating. I even feel somewhat safer, knowing that the oil won’t be able to explode or burn in its liquid form. Since gas is highly flammable and a leak can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, which I’ve had issues with in the past, I never felt comfortable having gas in the house.
So, all in all, I find that using heating oil for our home is quite easy, and after a year we will see what we’ve spent on heating our home.
How do you heat your home?
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Hi! I am really curious about this. I live in Sweden, and we have never used gas or oil for heating. Why do you think that is? The development differs so much from rest of Europe
Hi Antonia,
That is a good question, and it is quite interesting how heating options differ so much in such a relatively small area as Europe.
I’m not exactly sure why we heat the way we do although if I would make an educated guess.
I would say that regarding Ireland the use of oil is mainly due to a not-great economic start throughout the 20th century. And heating houses with oil was more economically viable than heating with something like gas. It allowed people a “cleaner” way to heat their homes without the government needing to set up an elaborate infrastructure for the dispersed rural population in Ireland.
Concerning the Netherlands, it was easier to heat homes with gas since the economic status of the country was more stable and well off and it had easy access to plenty of gas. The small area and dense population also made it financially more viable to for the Dutch government to set up an elaborate infrastructure.
Both countries choose a new more modern fuel type that was an alternative to wood and or coal which felt to many as a dirty and old-fashioned way to heat their homes.
Unfortunately neither of these more modern and “cleaner” fuel types are able to be produced sustainably unlike wood which can be replanted indeffinately.