To keep your home warm during the winter months, 有一个燃料充足、功能齐全的供暖系统是至关重要的. Heating your home in the winter, regardless of how your home is heated, can be one of your most costly living expenses. To keep these costs under control, you need to know how to calculate your daily and monthly usage.
Regarding cost, oil is an unpredictable commodity because its price is always in flux. While this is primarily due to the political climate in the regions that supply oil, changes in U.S. policy also play a role. Whatever the future holds, the cost of oil is likely to remain an unpredictable subject.
Regardless of whether oil prices are up or down, there are plenty of things you can do as a homeowner to control your heating oil costs. For starters, 你需要确定你每小时在家里消耗多少石油, 因为这可以让你知道你在一个平均月使用了多少.
How to Figure out Your Monthly Heating Oil Cost
The first thing to do is to gather some basic data about the oil burner from the manufacturer label. Check the data plate on your heating unit. Depending on the make and model of the burner, 你可以在你部队的正面或侧面找到这些信息.
1. Check the Gallons-Per-Hour Number on Your Burner
The data plate should list some of the basic information about the capacity of the burner. For example, it should list a figure for the number of fuel gallons the burner will consume throughout an hour. Take note of the number. 如果你没有看到每小时加仑数列出在盘子上, check the burner nozzle, 因为这通常会涉及到你的供暖系统的一些关键数字. The number might be etched onto the tip of the nozzle or on one of the six sides of the hexagon.
Note that the figure for hourly fuel consumption refers to 60-minute periods of burner activity. 如果燃烧器每小时只工作20分钟, it will take three hours for the burner to reach its per-hour level of fuel consumption. 在大多数家庭中，每小时的燃料消耗率是 between 0.8 and 1.7 gallons.
2. Note Peak-Hour Oil Consumption
The next step is to get an idea of how much fuel your burner consumes during the warmest and coldest hours of the day. 在24小时内留出两个不同的小时, one during the afternoon when temperatures are at their warmest and one during the early morning hours when temperatures are at their lowest.
For example, you might decide to track the operation of your oil burner between 2 and 3 p.m. 注意燃烧器第一次打开的时间(2点后).m.). Record the time when it switches off. If the burner turns back on before 3 p.m.，记录那个时间，然后记录它再次关闭的时间. Your burner might run between 2:05 and 2:15 p.m., then again from 2:45 to 2:55 p.m., a total of 20 minutes during the hour.
3. Note Oil Consumption During the Coldest Hour
Next, observe the operation of your oil burner during the coldest hour of that same day. 那可能是在最热的12小时之后，比如凌晨2点到3点之间.m. Take the same notes as you did before, noting the minutes of the hour when the burner starts and stops its oil consumption.
Chances are, the burner operated for longer during the day’s coldest hour than during the warmest hour. 这次可能是在2:05到2:15之间运行.m, between 2:30 and 2:45 a.m. and between 2:50 and 3:00 a.m., a total of 35 minutes.
4. 计算每天多少小时你的燃烧器使用燃料
The next step is to take the two numbers — the number of minutes your burner operated during the warmest hour and the number of minutes it operated during the coldest hour — add them together, then divide that number by two to determine the average hourly fuel consumption of your burner. 在我们的例子中，平均每小时的燃料消耗是27.5:
(20+35) / 2 = 27.5
Once you get the average, you can multiply it by 24 (the number of hours in a day) to determine the number of minutes per day your burner uses oil:
27.5 * 24 = 660
Then, take that number and divide it by 60 (the number of minutes within an hour) to figure out how many hours per day your burner consumes fuel:
660 /60 = 11
5. 将每日活动时间乘以油箱每小时的加仑使用量
The last step is to take the number of gallons your burner consumes per hour and multiply that figure by the number of hours per day the unit burns oil.
Say your burner uses 1.2 gallons per hour. If it runs for 11 hours per day, multiply 11 by 1.2 .计算你的燃烧器一天要用多少加仑的燃料:
11 * 1.2 = 13.2
Your burner consumes 13.2 gallons of fuel per day.
6. 计算你的油箱需要加油的频率
Part of determining how much you spend on heating oil each month is calculating how frequently your tank needs to be filled. The size of your oil tank and the typical amount of fuel you burn daily help to determine how often you need a refill. 弄清楚一箱燃料油可以用多久, 将油箱的大小除以每天的典型燃料使用量. 例如，如果你有一个275加仑的油箱，使用13加仑.2 gallons of fuel each day, divide 275 by 13.2:
275 / 13.2 = 20.83
你可能需要每20天左右加一次油.
What Factors Impact the Cost of Your Oil?
For homeowners, the cost of oil itself accounts for little more than half the overall cost to heat a home with an oil-burning heating system. When taken as a whole, 与住宅取暖油有关的费用包括三个部分:
- The price of crude oil from the oil refineries.
- 炼油厂生产住宅供暖用油的成本.
- The cost to bring heating oil to the public, 包括运送到供应商和送货到家的成本.
Factors That Impact How Much Oil You Use
秋天和冬天的天气模式会影响你对热量的依赖. If outside temperatures get exceedingly cold, you will inevitably need to consume more heating oil than you would under more ideal conditions. If your heating system is old, it might have to work harder to produce sufficient heat for your living quarters, 这也会导致更高水平的石油消耗.
1. Air Leaks in Windows and Doors
To lower your consumption of heating oil, 你需要保持整个房子的绝缘. 检查你房子里的门窗，确保没有缝隙存在, as these can result in costly air drafts. To ensure no air leaks are present between your walls, perform the following steps:
- 在窗玻璃边缘放上打火机或蜡烛. If the flame blows sideways, there is a draft between the glass and window frame.
- 在门的边缘重复打火机的实验.
为了密封气流，你可以在窗玻璃和窗框之间填满窗户边缘. Replace the seals on your doors. 确保门框的内外边缘没有草稿. 要特别注意前门的下面, as this is often a major source of air drafts.
如果你有壁炉，考虑在不使用的时候把烟囱塞住. There are inflatable plugs designed to fit chimneys that you can easily insert after you have put out a fire, 当你准备烧一根新木头的时候再把它们拿出来.
2. Poor Insulation
还要检查墙壁、阁楼、地下室或爬行空间的绝缘情况. 如果绝缘材料不足或退化，根据需要更换. 如果你的阁楼的隔热层浸湿或发霉, 你的屋顶可能有漏洞，需要修理. Aside from affecting the warmth of your home, 湿式保温可能是有害毒素的滋生地. 因此，你应该立即删除它的发现.
隔热层也会因动物侵扰而恶化. If a rodent problem exists in your neighborhood, 检查你的黑暗空间，寻找啮齿动物活动的迹象. 大鼠和老鼠会留下粪便和咬痕. 如果他们已经进入你的阁楼或爬行空间, there will inevitably be an opening into your house that is letting in cold air and other problems.
To prevent rodents from accessing your house, set up traps along the walls of areas in which you have found evidence of activity. Rats and mice tend to use walls as guides, 所以最有效的方法是在沿墙的关键点放置陷阱.
如果啮齿动物通过屋顶上的洞进入你家, 也许是时候修复你的带状疱疹了. The presence of overhang from nearby trees can also form a rodent pathway into your house. 因此，让所有的树木远离你的房子和屋顶至少6英尺.
How to Reduce Your Home Heating Oil Costs
To keep heating costs down in the winter months, you need to choose the right times to purchase oil. 石油价格每天都在波动，所以定期检查价格是很重要的. 如果您在明升亚洲手机版有一个在线帐户，您可以在以下地址查询当前油价 My明升亚洲手机版Energy.com. If you do not currently have an account, you can check the oil price for your area by using our price checker.
这里有一些其他的节省成本的建议来管理你的取暖费用.
1. Fill When Costs of Oil Are Down
One of the most effective ways to lower your heating oil costs is to get your tank filled during the times of the year when prices are generally at their lowest, such as in the summer or early fall.
2. Switch to More Efficient Heating Equipment
加热设备的效率一直在提高. 新炉子燃烧燃油的效率比旧炉子高得多, 哪一种方法可以帮助你最大限度地利用你油箱里的油. If your equipment is more than 10 years old or if you have noticed you are burning heating oil faster than usual, it may be time for a replacement. 和专家安排一次免费的能源咨询，帮助你选择新的能源, more efficient piece of equipment for your home.
3. Consider Assistance Programs
如果你生活在低收入家庭，你可能有资格获得援助计划. Some programs operate at the state and federal levels to provide help to households that have trouble meeting energy costs. 低收入家庭能源援助计划就是一个例子. 它帮助在一定收入门槛下的房主支付取暖费用. There are also programs that offer emergency help when unplanned events lead to financial hardships.
Get Heating Oil From 明升亚洲手机版 Energy
出于许多原因，计算取暖油成本是至关重要的. 一旦你确定了你的房子每天消耗多少油, 你可以准确地预测每月和每年的成本. Of course, there are factors in the world at large that make oil a volatile commodity. To ensure prices do not spiral out of your range, it is smart to work with a supplier that offers purchasing options that work with your budget.
At 明升亚洲手机版 Energy, we offer pricing options that make it easy for our customers to stay warm within their budgets. Contact 明升亚洲手机版 Energy today for a quote.