Joe wrote:

How many gallons of heating oil should I be going through a month? I
filled up my tank on November 7th and my gauge stopped working so I'm
not sure when to request a refill. Knocking on the sides of the tank
makes it seem like it's well below half - maybe even a quarter full.
Should I have used that much in two months? I'm in CT and it's been a
very mild winter (70 degrees on Saturday). My oil burner is an
effecient 7 year old McClain and I live in a fairly insulated 1300 sq
ft Cape Cod. My oil heats my house and hot water (hot water is one of
those mini tanks that connects to the oil burner that automatically
heats water on demand), my stove is electric. Anyone is a similar
situation care to share with me their fillup averages?

Just buy a new tank gauge, they aren't expensive perhaps $30. They are
also easy to replace if they are separate, if it's the combined gauge
and breather Y fitting, just get the standalone gauge and install in on
one of the other tank top openings (usually four) and ignore the old
gauge.

Unless you jump to the lowest price at the moment each fill up, just
have the oil company put you on scheduled delivery and you won't have to
worry. The first few times they'll come extra early to insure you don't
run out, and based on the degree days and the gallons in each delivery
the software they use will calculate a proper fill interval for you and
adjust it as needed based on the weather. It works very well.