Budget buying home heating oil in Ireland? Here's roughly how many litres €100 and €200 get you, minimum orders, and why bigger fills cost less per litre.
By MyOil Editor ·
If you've a set amount to spend, the honest answer is: it depends on the price per litre on the day, which moves around. But you can work it out in seconds.
Take your budget and divide it by the price per litre. So if kerosene is, say, around a euro a litre, then €100 gets you roughly 100 litres and €200 gets you about 200 litres. If the price is higher, you get fewer litres for the same money; if it's lower, you get more. The maths never changes, only the number you divide by.
That's why we don't print a single "today's price" here. Prices differ by county, by supplier and by the week. The useful habit is to compare local prices for your own area before you order, then do the simple division for your budget.
Here's the thing that trips up budget buyers. Most suppliers have a minimum order, and it's usually 500 litres. A smaller number of suppliers will do 300 litres, and some will deliver 200 or even 100 litres for an emergency top-up, but expect to pay more per litre for those small drops, and sometimes a delivery surcharge on top.
So in practice, €100 on its own often won't meet the minimum order at all. If 500 litres is the floor and the price means 500 litres costs more than €100, you either need to spend more or find a supplier who does part-loads.
That's worth knowing before you ring around, so you're not disappointed.
This is the single biggest money lesson for oil-heated homes. The more you buy in one go, the cheaper each litre usually is.
The reason is simple. It costs the supplier roughly the same to send the tanker out to you whether they pump 300 litres or 900 litres. Spreading that delivery cost over more litres brings the price per litre down. So:
A typical 1,000 litre domestic tank filled from near-empty takes roughly 900 litres (you never quite fill to the brim). If you can stretch your budget to a larger fill now and then, rather than lots of small top-ups, you'll usually pay less overall across the year.
Once you know your litres, you can estimate how long they'll last. A rough rule for an average Irish home:
So 100 litres might see a busy household through only a handful of cold days, while the same 100 litres could stretch much further in spring or autumn. Your own usage depends on the size of the house, insulation, how many are home during the day, and whether you're heating water only or the whole house.
Rather than guessing, you can see when you'll run out based on how you actually use it. That takes the dread out of it, because running dry is the expensive scenario: a cold house, and often a boiler that locks out and needs bleeding before it'll fire again.
If money's tight and you can't do a big fill, a few practical moves:
Work out your litres in one line: your budget divided by today's local price per litre. Then check it against the minimum order, and against how long that amount realistically lasts your home. Compare local prices for your county and take it from there.
Set a price-drop alert and we'll email you when oil gets cheaper in your county.
Set a price-drop alert →Pop in your tank and last fill, and we'll estimate how many days you've got left.
See when you'll run out →If you can't afford an urgent heating-oil fill, the Additional Needs Payment can help. Who qualifies, how much, and how to apply in Ireland.
Read →No, there's no SEAI grant to swap an old oil boiler for a new one. Here's what actually is funded, and how to get real value.
Read →Struggling to afford a fill? Here's the real help available in Ireland, from Fuel Allowance to emergency payments, plus tactics to stretch every euro.
Read →Tell us your county and we'll watch the price by the fill, not the cent. Add your tank and we'll tell you when you'll run out, and nudge you in good time to order.