Hydrotreated vegetable oil is a paraffinic fuel made by hydrotreating fats and oils. It burns in an oil boiler after a burner conversion, and the industry proposes it as the route that lets an off-grid house decarbonise without ripping out the heating system.
The price question, answered honestly
We do not publish a UK domestic HVO price, because there is no public series that measures one. The official statistics cover kerosene and gas oil. HVO for heating is sold in small volumes through a handful of suppliers and the prices quoted are quotes, not published rates. Restating a figure from a seller would break the rule this whole site runs on.
What can be said from the readings we do have: kerosene sits at 90.01p, and every published account of domestic HVO puts it above that. Ask your supplier for a price in writing before you spend anything on a conversion, because the conversion is only worth doing if the fuel is available near you at a price you have actually been quoted.
The conversion
- A burner change, usually a nozzle and pump adjustment or a replacement burner head, carried out by a registered technician.
- Seals and hoses checked, because paraffinic fuels behave differently against some older elastomers.
- Tank cleaned. HVO is a good solvent and will lift decades of sludge off the bottom of an old tank straight into the filter.
- Commissioning and a service record, which is also what any warranty claim will depend on.
The carbon claim, and what verifies it
The saving figure widely quoted for HVO is a lifecycle number, not a combustion number. It depends entirely on the feedstock and on the chain of custody that certifies it. A litre made from genuine waste residues and a litre made from a crop grown for the purpose do not carry the same figure, and the difference is invisible at the nozzle.
So the question to ask a supplier is not what the percentage is. It is which certification scheme the consignment is registered under and whether the paperwork follows the delivery. Without that, the number is a marketing claim rather than a measured one.
The energy content point nobody makes
HVO carries less energy per litre than kerosene. That means a litre of HVO does slightly less heating than a litre of kerosene, so a like for like price comparison per litre understates the real gap. Correct for energy content before comparing, exactly as the blend adjuster does on the American side of this site.
The trial
A demonstration programme has run HVO in a set of ordinary homes to show the conversion works in practice. It does show that. What it does not establish is a supply chain able to serve the off-grid housing stock, or a price at which a household would choose it over kerosene. Those are the two open questions and neither is settled by a demonstration.
Primary sources for this page
- OFTECTrade body for the UK oil heating industry. Registration scheme for technicians. Cited for installation practice, not for prices.
- DESNZ Quarterly Energy Prices, table 4.1.1Monthly typical retail price of standard grade burning oil, the fuel sold to UK households as kerosene. Priced on the Monday nearest the 15th of the month, for deliveries of up to 1,000 litres, VAT at 5% included. This is the only official UK-wide domestic heating oil price series.
- Alternative Fuels Data Center, biodiesel blendsEnergy content and blend handling guidance for B5 through B100.
- HMRC fuel duty ratesKerosene used for heating is charged at a nil rate of duty. Gas oil carries the rebated rate.