Average heating oil consumption for a single-family house: This is how high it is

If you want to estimate your average heating oil consumption for heating your detached house, you need to know whether your hot water is also heated with oil or another energy source. We show you how to calculate your consumption and how to optimise it.

Average heating oil consumption in a detached house – What you need to know

If you want to know your average heating oil consumption, you need to take into account whether you also heat your water with heating oil.

• For a single-family house, the average consumption of heating oil is about 15 litres per square metre of living space per year if you also heat your hot water with heating oil.
• If, on the other hand, you only use your heating oil to heat your living space, your heating oil consumption is reduced to about 13 litres per square metre of living space per year.
• Instead of using these estimates, you can also calculate your own heating oil consumption: To do this, you must first determine your last annual consumption. If your water heating also runs on heating oil, you must subtract about 80-100 litres of heating oil per person in the household. The result is the total amount of heating oil that you have used exclusively for heating.
• If, however, you use another energy source to produce your hot water, such as gas, electricity or solar thermal, you do not have to deduct anything and your last annual consumption will immediately give you the total amount of oil used
• In both cases, you have to divide the total amount of heating oil by the number of square metres of living space you have. Then you get your personal heating oil consumption per square metre and year.

These factors influence your heating oil consumption

Your heating oil consumption is not only influenced by your heating habits. There are a lot of other factors that may also play a significant role.

• A very big influence on your raw material consumption is the technical condition of your heating system and the temperature setting.
• A technical check-up of your system can save you up to 10 percent energy. This is because a specialist will check whether your heating output can be adjusted to the respective outside temperatures. If this is set incorrectly, you will use just as much oil in the transitional period as on cold days. With intelligent temperature control, you can save a lot of money.
• In addition, a check will bleed your radiators and readjust the thermostats so that they can perform at their full capacity again. You could take the opportunity to replace your normal thermostats with programmable thermostats.
• Of course, the insulation of your home also plays a crucial role. After all, the worse your property is insulated, the more heat you lose to the outside via the walls and roof. Your money then literally dissolves into warm air.
• It is also important that you ventilate and heat properly so that you do not throw a lot of energy out the window unnecessarily. When ventilating in winter, you should ventilate intermittently and turn down the heating thermostats. Tilted windows are not enough and you lose too much energy and the air in the room is exchanged very slowly.