Anyone in the oil heating business? Know some that is? I keep hearing that they use heating degree days as a tool for deliveries. A few people that I have asked (mainly people working in the front office of oil companies and perhaps not really knowledgeable of this) say that its very accurate. However in my house it seems in the dynamics of heating (we get aprox 6,000 HDDs) My impression is that I use a lot more oil during the mid 2,000 than the first or last 2,000. Do you find this is true with other houses or is my house have problems? (I THINK its well insulated and weather stripped)

Also it seems to me that HDD don't take in to account of high winds or a lot of sun or cloudy. I would think that oil companies might use something like a certain sized and certain gauge aluminum box painted flat black with a small heater (bulb?) with a good thermostat to keep it say 70 degrees inside in an areas that gets max sun and representative wind and a good electric meter. After developing a formula for electric use and oil use wouldn't that be closer to a tool for measuring how much fuel you will use? Or is the averaging of HDD so telling that its all that is needed? Is my house not typical?

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