Energy Facts

1. Should I order 500 litres or 900 litres?

There is going to be a greater expense involved in having a delivery driver fill your tank perhaps four times a year than twice a year.

We've calculated that, on average, you could pay 1.7 pence less per litre for 900 litres compared with 500 litres.

Based on a 1.7 pence per litre discount, the table below shows the amount of money you might save on average each year depending on how much oil you use:

A benefit to ordering smaller amounts of fuel is that less fuel is at risk from theft. Smaller amounts would also be easier to budget for.

2. It has been estimated that 1 litre of oil was produced by just over 21 tons of ancient, decayed biomass (plants and animals)

Source: Burning Buried Sunshine: Human Consumption of Ancient Solar Energy

3. How does the price of oil affect the ...

It has been said that it takes 6 barrels of oil to bring a cow to market

In June 2008, a ferry trip from Belfast to Stranraer will take up to 14 minutes longer (depending on the time of day) in attempt to reduce the fuel consumption by 8 per cent.

Stena's Irish Sea director hinted that the high oil price could result in the withdrawal of the HSS ferries (that travel at more than 40mph) and be replaced by conventional ferries operating with a top speed of 25mph.

4. What is "fuel poverty"?

The definition of fuel poverty that will be used by all Departments in Northern Ireland is:

A household is in fuel poverty if, in order to maintain an acceptable level of temperature throughout the home, it would have to spend more than 10% of its income on all household fuel use.

5. Is electricity cheaper at night time?

Not unless you apply for one of the cheaper rates available.

Rather than powering down and restarting power stations, for example coal and nuclear power stations, it is deemed better to keep them running constantly.

As there is a surplus of electricity from the power plants during the night, electricity companies try to encourage us to use this off peak electricity by offering it at a discounted rate.

A standing quarterly charge may apply. Note that your electricity energy provider might not know how much electricity you are using at different times of the day. You may have to notify them that you want to use their Economy 7 scheme as they may need to install extra equipment.