Pay As You Go

Northern Ireland Minister for social development, Nelson McCausland, has given the go ahead for trials of a new “pay -as-you-go” system for heating oil customers.

At present there are pay-as-you-go schemes for both electricity and gas in Northern Ireland, but no equivilent for oil, the main heating fuel for two thirds of the province’s homes.

Jillian Ferris from Carillion Energy Services, commented: “Last winter we sawfirst hand how difficult it is for oil users to buy fuel when they it when weather is extremely cold. We are used to paying for electricity and mobile phones on a pay as you go basis, so we decided to try to find a pay as you go payment method for oil.”

The new system will allow householders to pay for the oil in their tank as they use it. Customers would purchase credit, in the same way as they do with their electricty keypad meter. The credit would be converted into litres, based on the actual cost of the oil in their tank, plus an administration fee. Once the credit has be authorised, a controller at the tank would allow oil to flow through the meter to provide heating.

Trials are scheduled to start soon, and, once in full operation, the system should offer a much needed boost for Northern Ireland households which experience fuel poverty.

To acurately see what fuel you have left in your oil storage tank you need to use some sort of gauge. If you have a bunded top outlet tank then a hydrostatic gauge would suit the purpose, if you tank is bottom outlet you can use a sight gauge.

See Fueldump for our range of Hydrostatic gauges. Hydrostatic Contents Gauges 

See Fueldump for our range of available sight gauges. Tank Contents Sight Gauges