How We Collect Our Data

We collect prices directly from supplier websites across Ireland. Our system monitors over 70 heating oil suppliers, including both national distributors and regional independents.

Sources include:

• Direct supplier pricing pages - We scrape publicly available price lists from supplier websites
• Online ordering systems - Prices shown in WooCommerce and custom e-commerce platforms
• Aggregator sites - Cross-referenced with comparison platforms like Cheapestoil.ie

Our automated scraper runs every hour during business hours (6am-10pm Irish time). This ensures you see the most up-to-date prices available.

Each price sample is timestamped and stored with its source URL for full traceability. We display the "Last updated" time prominently so you know exactly how fresh the data is.

Different suppliers quote prices in different formats - some show price per litre, others show total cost for specific volumes. We normalize everything to a per-1000-litre rate for fair comparison.

When displaying prices for specific volumes (300L, 500L, 1000L), we calculate the actual cost you'd pay based on the supplier's pricing structure, including any volume discounts.

We currently focus on the Republic of Ireland, with particular depth in Leinster counties where we have the most supplier coverage.

Each price is tagged with the county or counties where the supplier delivers. National suppliers (like Certa, Top Oil) are available in multiple counties, while regional independents may serve specific areas.

We're actively expanding coverage and adding new suppliers regularly. If your local supplier isn't listed, let us know.

We apply several validation rules to ensure data quality:

• Price bounds checking - Prices outside reasonable ranges (500-2000/1000L) are flagged for review
• Staleness detection - Data older than 2 hours is marked as potentially stale
• Source verification - Each price links back to its original source for verification
• Anomaly detection - Sudden price swings are reviewed before publication

The green pulsing indicator you see throughout Tankful means the data is fresh - collected within the last 2 hours.

Keep in mind that even "fresh" scraped data represents the supplier'spublished prices. Actual quotes may vary based on:

• Your exact delivery location
• Minimum order requirements
• Time of year and demand
• Payment method (some suppliers offer cash discounts)

We recommend using Tankful to identify the best suppliers to contact, then confirming the exact price with a direct quote.