Heating Oil Now Cheaper than Mains Gas

The latest industry shows that heating your home with oil is now cheaper than heating it with mains gas, according to OFTEC.

Using the Sutherland Tables, a respected, independent source of domestic heating industry data, oil is now cheaper than all the other main heating fuels. It costs nearly £120 less per year to heat a three bedroom house than using mains gas.

The cost of kerosene has dropped by nearly a third in the last two years. It is the first time it is cheaper than mains gas for four years. Oil is 47% cheaper than LPG and 37% cheaper than electricity for domestic heating.

According to industry forecasts, the price of oil could remain low for near the future. DECC’s ‘Fossil Fuel Price Projections Report’ suggests that the price of oil could fall further over the next three years.

“This is welcome news for the industry and the 1.5 million UK households who use oil for heating. With sustained low prices forecast, we envisage many households currently using LPG and electricity will look to switching to oil. We may even see some mains gas households changing to oil, particularly if they need to replace their boiler,” said OFTEC director general, Jeremy Hawksley.

The news is another blow to the Government’s renewable heat incentive (RHI) which is trying to encourage homeowners to switch to using heat pumps as an alternative, low carbon heating option. Fitting an air source heat pump is considerably more expensive to run in comparison to heating a home with oil.

OFTEC is lobbying the government to consider a simpler solution to lower heating costs and carbon emissions, namely a boiler scrappage scheme. In addition, OFTEC wants further incentive to encourage homeowners to upgrade the insulation in their properties.

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