Heating Oil Usage Calculator

Estimate annual #2 heating-oil gallons from square footage, climate (heating degree days), and water-heating load.

Inputs

NOAA / weather.gov publishes climate-normal HDD for most US cities. New England is typically 5,500–7,500.

A typical oil-fired water heater uses ~120–180 gal/year for a household of four. Set to 0 if hot water runs on a different fuel.

estimated annual gallons

711 gal

Heating
561 gal
Hot water
150 gal
With 10% buffer
782 gal

Methodology

Annual heating-oil = heating load + hot-water load.

Heating uses the standard residential heuristic:

annual heating BTU ≈ sqft × HDD × insulation factor

Then converted to gallons via 138,500 BTU per gallon of #2 fuel oil and a seasonal burner AFUE of 85%.

  1. Inputs: 2000 sqft × 5500 HDD × 6 (typical / average insulation).
  2. Heating gallons: 561 gal/year.
  3. Hot-water gallons: 150 gal/year.
  4. Total: 711 gal/year. Adding a 10% buffer for cold winters: 782 gal/year.

Heuristic only — for an exact number, use a Manual J residential load calculation. Oil furnaces and boilers retrofitted with modern flame-retention burners can hit AFUE ratings closer to 88–90%; older units run noticeably lower.

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