At Scotia Fuels, we track the weather on a daily basis to enter temperature information into our ‘weather clock’ to determine what are called degree days. Degree days are a measure of coldness in a 24 hour period. In February, a typical day would amount to 50 degree days and in August there would be zero per day. In HRM, we average 7500 degree days per year with 70% of those occurring between December 1 and May 1. Hence the need for more deliveries in winter!
These degree days help us to schedule oil deliveries automatically when your oil tank gets to the 1/3 level. As an example, an average household uses 2000 litres per year and has an oil tank capacity of 909 litres. Using these parameters on our weather clock we would deliver 3 to 4 times per year or each time 1875 degree days count off on our clock. When the tank is filled the clock is reset and begins to count down again to schedule the next delivery after 1875 degree days have elapsed. Every day we analyze each delivery we make to all of our customers to see if any adjustments are required to ensure the 1/3 level is being achieved.
As you can appreciate, not all customers use the same amount of fuel per year and some have different size tanks. All of these factors are accounted for to ensure we deliver at the right time to all of our customers.