You may know friends who use oil monitors, but you’ve always thought they were a bit of a waste of time – you know how much oil you bought and how much you have left. However, over the years you may have had an unpleasant surprise when your oil levels suddenly drop during a cold spell or, worst of all, someone’s stolen half your supply.
Modern oil monitors don’t just tell you what your levels are, they can tell you how much you’re using each day and alert you to perilously or suddenly low levels so you can take action in plenty of time.
Pic Credit: Pixabay
Being able to see your levels is useful
Of course, this is the primary benefit, because if your monitor also looks at your daily usage it can tell you that you’ll run out in 15 days; this means you can head here to get a cheap top-up. You can also rein in your usage a bit if you’re burning through your supply a bit too fast.
You’ll be alerted to theft or leaks
Your monitor can sound an alarm if there’s a sudden drop in oil levels so that you can take action. Many thieves siphon off a small amount every few days, so if you don’t find a leak, you can put more security measures in place. If you do find a leak, you can get help before you lose too much oil and damage the environment.
Your boiler will never suddenly run dry and go into lockdown
You can set a limit on your monitor so that it alerts you to dangerously low levels. This is important not just so you’ll top up, but so you can avoid a boiler lockdown. This is a mechanism that prevents damage to boilers – running dry can let air into the internal workings – and while it does prevent any damage, it also means a call-out as well as a top-up.
You can keep an eye on your tank from a distance
You can look at your oil levels from your cosy bedroom; it’s also a lot cleaner than using a dipstick.
You will save fuel and carbon
You can get monitors to tell you how much carbon you’re sending out as well as how much oil you’re using. Knowing how much CO2 they’re responsible for is a wake-up 
call to many – they finally upgrade their boiler or fix the windows. Monitoring your oil usage can help you to save up to 15% on your spending each year.
Oil monitors aren’t as expensive and fiddly as they once were
Lots of people would like to install and use an oil monitor but they think that the cost of buying and fitting one is more than they’ll actually save. This isn’t true anymore as many modern tanks have sockets ready for the monitors to slot into. Other think that bunded tanks don’t work well with monitors, but with the right advice and the right monitor, there’s no difference.
