OT:Seen in Brum

[Jethro_uk]

A45 Small Heath bypass.

Unleaded 113.9/l Diesel 112.9/l

:)

[cl]

It's getting that way everywhere, most places around here (East Anglia and into London) are either the same price for both or, as above, a penny cheaper for diesel.

[charles]

I spotted both at 115.9 here today

[tim.....]

it's 2p cheaper at my local Morrison (though both are more expensive)

tim

[Andy Burns]

Stock up now for Winter ....

[ARW]

Nearly made the some post myself but I was not near a computer.

[Roger Mills]

I've not seen diesel cheaper yet, but I have seen it the same price as unleaded in several places instead of the usual 5p dearer.

Anyone know the reason?

[Dave Liquorice]

Will the winter grade diesel be in the pumps yet? I doubt it.

There was a news item about diesel matching or getting below petrol prices last week. Over capacity in UK refineries for petrol, more efficient petrol engines meaning less demand. Diesel is cheap from abroad as the pound is strong relative to the dollar (the oil currency) and non-UK refineries have over capacity for diesel.

[Andy Burns]

Doubt it, but then I have no idea how much difference that makes, I've only ever seen the glowplug light on mine two or three times in 4+ years. Do we get 'old fashioned Winters' down to waxing temperature now?

I assumed over capacity due to low summer demand for heating oil would be a factor, weren't we also awaiting extra refining capacity coming online to avoid winter spikes?

[Bob Eager]

During a cold spell about 3-4 years ago, SWMBO's car actually stopped on the motorway due to waxing. This was January, and she uses the car daily, so it shouldn't have been 'old' fuel.

(the garage said it was because it was 'cheap' supermarket fuel; they said they'd had a lot of calls)

[Dave Liquorice]

Glow plug light always comes on on mine, from cold for a good few seconds. Maybe only a second when warm. Not that you have to wait, it'll start fine even cold.

Well we often have "ice days" were the temp doesn't get above freezing during the day, overnight lows of -5 C are nothing to note,

-10 C is.

Looks like summer is over, 7 C last night and about 1/2" of rain.

Refineing isn't a simple distallation process, they "crack" the longer, heavier molecules, into smaller bits the fractionate the result. Removal of other elements such as sulphor or compounds then takes place.

Petrol is a mix/blend of a great number of hydro-compounds that is produced to a certain octane rating. The octane rating is a measure of how resistant the fuel is to pre ignition. The reference fuel is a mixture of iso-octane and heptane but the actual fuel just has to match the reference fuel as regards pre-ignition. It's not a measure of energy content.

So by adjusting the cracking and fractionisation they can adjust the ratio of fuels produced, the limiting factor (apart from quality of the crude oil) is most likely how much capacity there is in the post fractionisation processing and how much storeage they have.

TBH I can't say I've noticed a seasonal variation in heating oil price, the variation due to the price of crude is much greater. Looks like heating oil is down to 34 p/l and still falling. Might be lower than the bottom of the big dip in January this year(*) when we paid

32.95p/l. Oil bill of £1300/year is *a lot* nicer than £2300/year...

(*) Mid winter, price dropped by about 10p/l for several weeks then recovered but the trend since Dec '13 (60p/l) has been down.

[charles]

I've being driving a diesel engined car for about 25 years - I invariably buy my fuel at Sainsburys - never had a waxing problem - and the cars have always lived outdoors. Possibly it was one tank at that one supermarket.

[JimK]

/TBH I can't say I've noticed a seasonal variation in heating oil price/q

Eh? How long you been buying it? You stitched up on a contract or something?

It's always cheaper in summer and generally peaking week before Xmas...

Jim K

[whisky-dave]

didn't they annoucne that it's worse for pollution than petrol because it produces more NO2 which is even worse than CO or CO2 due to the partical size. Maybe selling it off cheap to get rid of it, the sort of bright idea I'd expect from govenrment.

[whisky-dave]

There was an artical about that sort of thging on watchdog or something similar a few weeks ago comaines have been adding stuff to the fuel, I think it's some bio fuel addition.

[Davey]

Yesterday, I did the Summer Purchase for our local Syndicate. The quoted price for a normal (500-1000 litre) purchase was about 37.5 ppl. I got ours at 31.6 ppl. Although over the years that I have been doing this I agree that there is a seasonal swing, it is often hugely over-ridden by other factors, such as we are seeing right now, as described above.

It's always worth joining your local heating oil syndicate. If there isn't one, start it!

[Huge]

[44 lines snipped]

Rejoice, brother!

Of course, the main reason the price of diesel has fallen below that of petrol is I've switched from a diesel car to a petrol one.

[Davey]

Next you'll tell us that you washed your car the other day, just before the heavens opened! It's all your fault, clearly.

[Vir Campestris]

Our pond has a leak, and I had decided it was low enough for me to crawl around in the mud at the weekend to try and find it.

It's now gone up three inches... so it's my fault ;)

Andy

[Huge]

Wow. I hope whatever's in the bottom of your pond is a lot less stinky than what's in the bottom of mine!