MILLIONS of households excluded from energy bill protection bills will be able to get help with gas and electricity costs.

The Prime Minister Liz Truss today announced a freeze on energy prices for two years.

Under the new Energy Price Guarantee, a typical family will pay no more than £2,500 a year for their energy bills for the next two years, saving households £1,000 a year on average.

Households that are not on standard gas and electricity tariffs will receive equivalent financial support from a new fund.

Today, the Prime Minister announced:

More than 1.6million homes which rely on heating oil are not currently protected by the energy price cap.

A further 850,000 households that live in mobile homes on 2,000 sites across the UK aren't protected by the energy price cap.

More than 17,000 additional households that rely on heating networks to warm their homes are also unprotected.

However, Liz Truss has announced a new fund for those on heating oil, households in mobile homes and those on heat networks so that "all UK consumers can benefit from equal support".

The exact details on the new fund will follow in due course.

Extremely large recent price rises have led to concern about the impact on households that rely on oil for heating.

Latest government data suggests that Northern Irish households rely on heating oil the most - and costs have risen by up to 120% in recent months.

Some 67.5% of homes used heating oil in Northern Ireland in 2016.

Home heating oil is usually delivered to homes in a lorry and stored in a tank near your home. You'll still be connected to the electricity grid for your electricity supply - but the oil is used for central heating.

There are two main types of heating oil – gas heating oil and kerosene.

According to Boiler Juice the average price of £1,000 litres of heating oil has more than doubled from £458 in September 2021 to £1,008 right now.

Those living in mobile homes are equally excluded from the protection offered by the energy price cap - meaning bills are often higher than those on the standard variable tariff.

These households don't have a direct relationship with their energy supplier and owners of their mobile home parks charge the residents for the energy they use.

Your oil tank will probably be able to hold between 1,000 and 1,500 litres of home heating oil and it's likely you'll get through around 2,500 litres of heating oil every year. 

That means you'll likely need up to three deliveries a year, so it's a good idea to be smart about when you order these.

Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert has explained before that higher demand in winter means December is often the priciest time to order, so avoid this time if you want to avoid hiked costs.

But if you aren't already stocked up, that means you don't have long left before that inevitable surge, so the advice is to get in as soon as you can.

You can sometimes get bigger discounts when you purchase larger amounts in one go, but this will obviously result in larger upfront costs, so keep this is mind.

Try haggling with your provider as you may be able to negotiate a lower price.

The MoneySavingExpert team even says you can group together with neighbours to bring down the price.

You could bulk buy as a village or community to negotiate a better deal as the supplier would only have to visit the area to deliver once.

Have a look around to see if you can join a pre-existing club, otherwise you'll need around 20 of you to get together for a good discount according to the financial pros.

You can also try to be savvy with your heat usage, so you don't burn through your oil so quickly.

You can save more money by buying less frequently or eking out what you do have until a more cost effective time - like in the summer.

Try things like turning the thermostat down by just one degree - according to Hubbub that can cut your bills by over £50 a year. 

You could also use heating controls to set a timer so you’re only warming up when you need it.  

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