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One litre of heating oil contains about 10 kWh of energy. Enter your litres (or kWh) and, if you like, the price per litre. You get the energy, the cost and the price per kWh, which lets you compare oil with gas or with a heat pump.

Enter your values

Pick what you know and what you want to find.
Litres burned: from your delivery notes or the tank gauge.
Where do I find this?

Add up the litres of your deliveries over the year, corrected for the tank level at the start and the end.

A tank gauge or a delivery note shows the litres.

About 10 kWh per litre of heating oil.
Where do I find this?

Heating oil (extra light) contains about 10 kWh per litre as net calorific value (Heizwert) and about 10.6 kWh as gross calorific value (Brennwert). Comparisons and boiler efficiencies usually use the net value.

Low-sulphur oil is often counted at about 10 as well.

From your last delivery. Leave empty to skip the cost.
Where do I find this?

The delivery note and the invoice show the price per litre, often quoted per 100 litres: divide by 100. 1.00 is only an example.

Only changes the symbol; no exchange rate is applied.

Result

Enter your values to see the result.

Energy
– kWh
Cost of the oil
–
Price per kWh of oil
–

Want this tracked for you? UtilityControl logs your meters and costs automatically.

How it is calculated

  • Energy (kWh) = litres × energy per litre (about 10 kWh/l)
  • Litres = energy (kWh) ÷ energy per litre
  • Cost = litres × price per litre; price per kWh = price per litre ÷ energy per litre

Example

2,000 litres of heating oil are about 2,000 × 10 = 20,000 kWh of fuel energy. At 1.00 per litre that is 2,000, or 0.10 per kWh.

What this estimate leaves out

This is the energy in the fuel. The heat that reaches your rooms is lower because the boiler is not 100 % efficient (see the Heating Oil to Heat Pump Calculator).

Sources: Bundesverband Geothermie: net and gross calorific values of fuels (in German)

Written and reviewed by QLines, Cologne · Last reviewed

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

How many kWh are in a litre of heating oil?

About 10 kWh as net calorific value (Heizwert), and about 10.6 kWh as gross calorific value (Brennwert), which also counts the heat in the water vapour of the flue gas.

How do I convert litres of heating oil to kWh?

Multiply the litres by about 10. 2,000 litres are about 20,000 kWh of fuel energy.

How do I compare oil and gas prices?

Divide the price per litre of oil by the energy per litre (about 10 kWh) to get the price per kWh. Gas bills count kWh by the gross calorific value, so for a like-for-like comparison divide the oil price by about 10.6 instead.

Is that the heat I get at home?

No, it is the energy in the fuel. The heat delivered is the fuel energy times the efficiency of the boiler, often 80 to 95 %.

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