With temperatures having dropped over the last week and even talk of the white stuff potentially falling in the coming days, we’re all turning up our oil central heating and relying on it more to keep us warm and toasty, and prevent our homes from becoming cold – which is so important for our health!
Keeping warm with good air quality in winter is so important for all of us and essential to staying healthy, especially for the elderly or vulnerable. Cold and damp housing can lead to increased sickness including respiratory problems, cold or even hypothermia in extreme cases. The Energy Saving Trust recommends heating your home to between 18 and 21 degrees Celsius during winter.
Here in the UK, we’re fortunate that extreme winter weather is the exception rather than the norm, but here we’re going to take look at how the colder weather affects your heating oil, whether with freezing temperatures comes frozen home heating oil, and how can we ensure we keep a continuous flow of warmth in our homes this winter if we are hit by extreme weather conditions.
With the cost of living crisis and rising energy prices continuing, it's never been more relevant to get good advice and have a cozy Christmas.
Can heating oil freeze?
By using heating oil, you’ll be pleased to know that you’re benefitting from a highly efficient fuel which provides more heat per gallon than any other fuel. However, just like water, domestic heating oil does begin to freeze when temperatures drop. The good news is that whilst water freezes at zero degrees Celsius, the freezing point of heating oil is much lower. Typically, home heating oil freezes at minus 47 degrees Celsius and when it does freeze, it does it in a way that you perhaps wouldn’t expect. It actually turns into a kind of gooey gel.
Heating oil ‘gelling’ – what you should know
As we all know, water turns into ice when subjected to cold temperatures. Heating oil however becomes very viscous, and turns into a thick, gel-like wax, creating a sort of sludge. Kerosene heating oil comes from crude oil, composed partially of long hydrocarbon chains. These chains form wax platelets in the oil, and as temperatures start to drop, these platelets crystallize gradually as the oil’s temperature falls.
The result - a waxy substance that makes it very difficult for the heating oil to flow through your oil fired central heating system, and can cause damage to your central heating system in several different areas:
- Your central heating oil tank – as it’s heavier, the gelled oil will settle to the bottom of your heating oil tank. And as more of it settles, the less burnable it will become.
- The oil lines – As the gelled oil is pumped through the heating oil lines, it will build up on the walls of the oil lines, narrowing the passageway. Less fuel will reach the igniter and as a result, efficiency will suffer.
- The nozzle – To burn, your home heating oil must first be turned into a vapour. Gelled fuel will block the nozzle, allowing less oil to convert to heat reducing the overall efficiency.
- The oil filter – As gelled oil is forced through the filter, it will clog quickly and the filter will need replacing.
If you suspect your oil system has already clogged due to gelling, you should immediately contact an OFTEC registered oil heating engineer to get your system back up and running.
How can I prevent my heating oil from freezing?
Whilst in the UK temperatures of minus 47 degrees celcius just don't happen, there can be a risk of fuel lines freezing in very cold weather conditions. Prevention is definitely better than cure, and you’ll be pleased to hear that there are preventative measures which can help protect your fuel lines. A good idea is to wrap the fuel lines that are exposed to the cold with waterproof insulation such as foam to protect against the elements.
How can I keep my house warm this winter?
Whilst there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it getting cold outside, there are some simple tricks which can help you keep warm inside and stop that precious heat escaping. For instance, rather than whacking up the thermostat, have you thought about leaving the oven door open (if safe to do so) when you’ve finished cooking? Why waste that heat! So open the door to let the heat escape into your kitchen and help keep your house warm.
A few more savvy energy saving tips to keep your house warm this winter:
Get your boiler serviced
Whilst your home heating oil is unlikely to freeze this winter, the colder weather does put a greater strain on your oil central heating boiler, as it will be required to work much harder than in the summer months. For this reason, we highly recommend you have it serviced before winter sets in to make sure it’s working as efficiently as it can and is up to the demands of a cold winter. A defective boiler can increase your heating bill massively so we would always advise you to have your boiler serviced by an OFTEC registered oil heating engineer to ensure it runs to its maximum efficiency, and who will also check your heating oil tank as well as checking for dangerous carbon monoxide leaks as part of the service.
Rearrange your furniture
Obstructing your radiators with your sofa or with beds can massively impact the temperature of your rooms. Organise your furniture to ensure your radiators are not blocked and there is enough space for the heat to circulate.
Place kitchen foil behind your radiators
Heat your home and not your walls. A very cost-effective and simple trick to reduce energy usage is to place tin foil behind radiators which will help reflect the heat inwards. It’s easily done by covering a thin sheet of card with kitchen foil, then placing it behind your radiators – it will reflect heat back into your rooms so they warm up quicker and retain more heat.
Keep your curtains open during the day but closed at night
A lot of heat can escape through our windows so if you have curtains, keeping them closed at night will keep that lovely heat in. And leaving them open during the day will allow any sunlight filtering in through your windows to provide heat.
Draught-proof your home
Patch up any drafts coming from windows, doors, letter boxes or keyholes. It’s worth spending a few pounds at the local DIY on window draught excluders and insulating tape.
To get more energy saving tips, read our blog on how to get ready for winter and save on energy bills.
Of course, you can also throw on an extra jumper to help you keep nice and toasty, but when the time does come to order your home heating oil, you can get better boiler efficiency if you top up with Premium Heating Oil which is specially formulated to ensure your oil central heating boiler runs at its best. Premium Heating Oil is a cleaner burning fuel that makes your boiler up to 15% more efficient, but not only that, it helps stop rust developing in your boiler, reduces fuel degradation and prevents sludge building up over time in your heating oil tank. And if you join our Flexi Saver Plan, it comes as a free upgrade.
Get in touch for a competitive quote, or give us a call on 01423 770 666.
Want to learn more about heating oil? Check out our other blogs covering when is a good time to buy your heating oil, and how much oil you need to heat your home.