It looks like we are buying a cottage & barn in the ‘countryside’. They both run on oil and have a septic tank.
Does anyone have experience of the cost of this compared to ‘normal’ heating and drainage? I understand the tank cleaning is based on volume, of which I don’t know yet.
What about oil heating costs?
I’m on oil fired central heating. No mains gas in my village. Cost per annum depends on consumption and price per litre which is linked to oil price. Our poorly insulated 4 bed house consumes about 1500 litres a year and price varies. I’m guessing it’ll be about 45p/litre currently but easy to check. If you’ve a big tank, 2000 litres, then fill up once a year. Call the local companies (spot their tankers on the road) and a quote. Loyalty does not pay. Shop around. Order in advance, never in an emergency (ie never run dry as you’ll need an engineer to get it going again and you’ll be fleeced on price). Ask for price with VAT so you can do a fair comparison. Ask your neighbours about local buyers groups as can make it cheaper, but sometimes not as loyalty often doesn’t pay. Never subscribe to a monthly refill as you’ll be ripped off. When you move in check the level in case it’s nearing empty going into winter. Now is a good time to buy as Brent is in the gutter so I’m guessing kerosine prices are low.
iirc Boiler Juice are a type of group-buying site for the oil but they group the local orders together rather than you calling the locals to band together. Works out a lot cheaper for us than our friends on gas. Prices have been dropping wonderfully recently, lowest it’s been in 14 years.
We share a septic with our neighbours, works out at £200 a year I think for emptying. Only difference to being on the main system is the type of bleach you should use.
1500ltrs a year?! I wish. Don’t you have a wife & young kids 
I reckon we get through double that, which at current prices is still under £1k a year.
I think we got our last batch at under 30p/litre, but that is very low. Highest has been about 56p iirc. We now pay DD to the company (£100/month), to avoid those big bills that we got at the start.
I will have a 3 bed detached (well insulated) with 2 adults & 2 kids in, then another 2 bedroom detached (well insulated) with two 80+ year olds living in it.
2 bed cowshed here, 2 people, we get through maybe 800-1000 litres a year, we do supplement the heating with a fire at times over autumn/winter.
You’ll probably do better than us then. Ours is a right hotch-potch. Original cottage is c.1815 with solid stone (2 layers of Cotswold stone packed with mud!), a newer half which is 1930s iirc (brick) which made it an L-shape; then the extension we had done last year, to make it a T shape! Our boiler is a Rayburn, which is over 20 years old, and the CH system must be pretty old too.
Sorry, for @Poet that’s the South, East & West wings 
Just checked my records and it was 1800 litres last year. 4 bed cottage c1890, granite built, with 1990s extension, papier-mâché built. We do have a very good Scandi log burner that we use 6 months of the year and that eats 4m3 wood so some oil savings will come from that. This is a timely discussion - I need to brim the tank now as it’s low and winter is coming, and Brent is still $40/bbl or thereabouts 