Cost of home heating oil

[toggleswitch]

OMG- I guess there will be no heat or hot water this coming winter!

I just got a fuel oil delivery that is priced @$2.50 per gallon.

Last year @ this time I locked my yearly requirments in @ $1.60 per gallon by way of a forward contract.

With all the fast food joints with fryers near me, and all the lube joints and the garages producing waste oil, I should just get me one of these.

I think the EPA has no permits or requirements. It is an approved disposal method of used waste oils.

And if rumors are correct not only is the stuff free, but sometimes they will give you a haul-away fee!!!

http://www.cleanburn.com/

 

[tolivac]

At those prices-could folks be converting to a diffrent fuel source for heat?Thats even expensive to use as a "motor fuel" Deisel-Bet some radio stations and other deisel Emerg gen set users will think about those prices when it becomes time to top up the gen fuel tank.At the time I ordered it for a radio staion I worked at it was about $1.30 per gal.-standard #2 heat oil-Cat gensets will run from that just fine.Cringe when the workplace I work at now orders 15,000 gal of the stuff!!they practically use up a whole tanker truck.

 

[toggleswitch]

Free heat

If I could house the unit itself outside my home, i'd really consider this.

Not too keen on burning contaimnated motor vehicle oils indoors.

HMM I really should talk to the fast food joints and see if I can get their fryer's rejected oil...imagine

What are you cooking? its smells so good in here..LOL

HMMM Waste- oil burning central air conditioning with propane backup... getting tempted!!!! (click on "air-conditioning")

http://econoheat.com/Default.htm

 

[tolivac]

when I dealt with the Cat Deisel Gensets-they DID NOT recommend burning waste oil in them-Very bad for engines-the waste oils will clog fuel injectors and turbochargers.If you used waste oil or any high sulphur fuels in Cat engines-the warranty was invalid.A few folks I knew of tried it-gensets didn't run long!!also I would be concerned about the "heavy metal" residues in waste oils-comes from bearings primarily.The Lead,cadmium.these are toxic.It would be interersting to see if a Cat engine could be converted to burn the waste cooking oils.The Cat dealer I dealt with would test a sample of your fuel at a small charge to determine if it was high or low sulphur.-and see if any heavy metals were in it.

 

[toggleswitch]

bad oil

Oh yeah there are contamination and clogging issues galore, I'm sure. If there were not, I could theoretically change the current oil-burner head to use my current boiler to burn this "sludge"

The specialized waste-oil burner is something to think about should I ever build a house from scratch...

 

[Cybrvanr]

Waste cooking oils can be converted to bio-diesel. This is the best way to burn these materials, versus burning them straight. It's a chemical process. Check out the link below for information about how to convert that old fryer oil into burnable fuel! The coolest thing about it is that your neighborhood will smell like french-fries on a cold winter's day!

Biodiesel: Journey to Forever

 

[toggleswitch]

Stick that In your tailpipe!

Kewl. Very cool link.

Thanks

 

[tolivac]

Very interesting link-Imagine all of the oil we would have to collect from "Micky-Dee's) to feed our boilers and deisel genset.Sounds like the alcohol content is to make the fuel stable.If not all kinds of things and fungus will grow in it.One fellow I know of who worked on ships mentioned this.The fungus gave off gases that would choke you out and would foul the ships plumbing and engines.Out at my worksite-we use it it fast enough to prevent that.sounds like the Biodeisel doesn't have the fungus problems.-and no sulphur or heavy metals-would be an ideal fuel.

 

[yaktx]

BioDiesel

Sounds like the alcohol content is to make the fuel stable.

Actually, it is to break down the long molecules into shorter ones that won't gum up your injectors. The chemical is sodium methoxide and it is made by reacting the proper proportion of methanol and sodium hydroxide (lye).

Some people dispense with this step and burn the veggie oil straight (after filtering out the solid nasties). This eliminates the need for a refinery in your garage, but it does entail more modifications to the vehicle. "Greasecar" devotees install secondary fuel tanks so that they can start the engine on petroleum diesel (or purchased biodiesel), then switch over to raw veggie oil once the engine is hot. The fuel line from the grease tank runs through a heat exchanger, where hot engine coolant thins it out so it won't clog injectors. Of course, one must also remember to switch back to the fossil fuel tank a few minutes before shutting off the engine. This strategy may not be recommended in cold weather.

Any engine that you are planning to run on biodiesel should have all rubber fuel-system parts replaced with some other material. Newer diesel engines have no rubber in the fuel system, but older ones (generally pre-1990 IIRC) may have rubber hoses or seals.

There was an article in Home Power Magazine a few years back about running an oil furnace on biodiesel. It can be done, although if you want to run it on straight veggie oil, I'd recommend an electrically-heated vessel within inches of the burner pump, and maybe heat trace on the line leading to the pump. The big bummer is what happens after an extended power outage!

If you want to make your own biodiesel, check out the article in this month's Home Power. You can build your own reactor using a scrapped electric water heater.

Commercially-processed biodiesel is available, but it is more expensive than the fossil kind.

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