Access Oil

Tips to Secure your Home Heating Oil

With oil prices increasing, it‘s important to be mindful of protecting your home heating oil supply from theft. Taking preventative measures doesn’t have to be difficult and will simply ensure that you are not an easy target.

1. Containers: Don’t leave empty containers lying around or in the vicinity of the tank as it may encourage opportunist thieves.

2. Padlock: Make sure to use robust padlocks on oil tank openings.

3. Security Lighting: Make sure that your tank is well lit up with motion detected security lighting and if you have CCTV, ensure that the camera is trained on the tank. Be sure to check in case the security lighting is interfering with the footage being recorded.

4. Fuel Tank Alarms: If you live in rural or exposed area or have a large fuel tank, consider installing a fuel tank alarm or monitoring system that will alert you immediately if there is any interference of drop in fuel level.

5. Positioning of the Fuel Tank: Ensure that your tank is out of the sight of road users. Consider planting naturally defensive shrubs around your tank. And remember that a criminal is not going to carry away large quantities of fuel by hand. They will need access to a car or van so make sure that any access gates are left closed.

3. Tips to Secure your Home Heating Oil

With oil prices increasing, it‘s important to be mindful of protecting your home heating oil supply from theft. Taking preventative measures doesn’t have to be difficult and will simply ensure that you are not an easy target.

1. Containers: Don’t leave empty containers lying around or in the vicinity of the tank as it may encourage opportunist thieves.

2. Padlock: Make sure to use robust padlocks on oil tank openings.

3. Security Lighting: Make sure that your tank is well lit up with motion detected security lighting and if you have CCTV, ensure that the camera is trained on the tank. Be sure to check in case the security lighting is interfering with the footage being recorded.

4. Fuel Tank Alarms: If you live in rural or exposed area or have a large fuel tank, consider installing a fuel tank alarm or monitoring system that will alert you immediately if there is any interference of drop in fuel level.

5. Positioning of the Fuel Tank: Ensure that your tank is out of the sight of road users. Consider planting naturally defensive shrubs around your tank. And remember that a criminal is not going to carry away large quantities of fuel by hand. They will need access to a car or van so make sure that any access gates are left closed.

Get in touch for more information: http://www.accessoil.ie or call 01 882-8236.

8 Tips to Keep your Home Energy Efficient

1. Turn your thermostat down by one degree
This can save up to 3% on your heating bill and for an average household, that’s a saving of €25/year. 20C is ideal room temperature with 15-18C for hallways/bedrooms. (Source: SEAI).

2. Service your boiler
If your oil or gas boiler hasn't been serviced recently, you could be wasting money. In fact, by servicing your boiler, you could improve your overall efficiency by 10% - saving you up to €150 per year.

3. Spend less time in the shower
If a family of four spent 5 minutes less in the shower each day, they would save €32.70 per year.

4. Use a colder wash on your washing machine
90% of energy consumption of washing machines goes on heating the water. Most washing machines and detergents are designed to operate well at lower temperatures. You can save up to €10.86 per year by choosing a 40 degree wash versus a 60 degree wash.

5. Turn off appliances on standby
Most appliances can use up to 20% of the energy that they would use if on, so ensure they are fully switched off, e.g., TVs, DVDs, computers, printers, games consoles, satellite boxes/players/recorders, mobile phone chargers, kitchen appliances, etc.

6. Change your light bulbs
Switch from incandescent to energy efficient fluorescent, or LED light bulbs. The average house has 11 light bulbs (including lamps). If you replace a 40 watt with an energy saving CFL ‘A’ rated bulb, you would save €143.88 in one year.

7. Put on dishwasher/washing machine only when full
An average dishwasher costs 10c per load, if you just put the dishwasher on one less time per week, it will save on average €5.20 per year

8. Install Themostatic Valves on all your Radiators
Control the temperature in each room by installing themostatic valves in each radiator. In locations where a high level of heating is required, e.g., living area, set the thermostat at the top setting. If only background heating is desired, e.g., hallways, bedrooms then the valve can be fixed at its lo

Summer Energy Saving Tips
Now that the warm weather has finally arrived, here are a few tips to save energy & money:

1. Check your thermostat and if its above 20ºC turn it down – this can save you up to 20%. The temperature in hallways and bedrooms should be cooler – ideally 15-18C.

2. Switch appliances off rather than leaving them on standby--can save up to 20% of your appliances’ energy use. Don't forget to switch off your mobile phone charger!

3. Change your light bulbs. Replacing one traditional incandescent light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb of the same brightness uses less energy, as well as emits a brighter light. In addition they’ve a longer lifespan so need to be replaced less often, thereby saving €€€.

4. Turn down temperature of your hot water. With the air temperature naturally higher than in summer, you're less likely to notice a drop of a few degrees in the temperature of your hot water.

5. Shower rather than have a bath – it uses 20% less energy. Keep your showers short – we know nothing beats a long hot shower, but limit those extended showers and you’ll save energy and reduce your bills!