Waste Oil Burners

Quite recently I found out about this cool alternative energy technology called waste oil burners. These devices are amazing!

They allow you to literally heat your home of business off used waste oil. Yeah, I said it, heating a building off dirty motor oil. What are people going to think of next?!

You can put these machines in any heating system whether you have a furnace or a boiler. There is no difference at all. A boiler just heats an area by basically heating water which is then circulated throughout a room and a furnace blows out hot air into an open space. But the mechanic that actually makes the heat is the same. And this mechanism, called an oil burner, usually runs off heating oil or natural gas. A waste oil burner runs off motor oil.

Now from what I hear to maintain these devices you must filter the oil. That seems to be the main problem with some of the people who invested in these things. With a regular oil burner you do not have to filter anything. The oil is clean so it isn't an issue (although condensation can still build up at the bottom of your holding tank). But used motor oil has metals, dirt, sludge, blow-by, and condensation. These things will totally mess up your who heating system including absolutely clogging up your oil burner nozzle.

You must filter your oil to the best of your ability for these things to function for a long enough time for you get a return on your money. You can either pass the oil through several 30 micron filters or purchase an oil centrifuge to spin all the water and dirt out. Whatever method you come up with you need to keep in mind that waste oil burners are built way better than they were a decade ago but are still very delicate. Even letting a small amount of antifreeze in your oil supply can cause problems.

You also need to secure a steady supply of waste oil for this system to work. The wintertime will obviously be the hardest. A waste oil furnace or boiler can use 20 gallons of oil a day when the temperature reaches zero or bellow. If you use your imagination you will have very little problem in this area though. This is still considered a waste product and there are a lot of businesses and individuals who have to pay to get rid of it. Fleets with a lot of trucks, tire shops, oil change shops, transmission shops, and mechanic businesses all will most likely generated a lot of waste oil that is a pain to get rid of. They will be more than happy to give it to you.

I am very impressed with this sort of technology. I would imagine its hard to afford the initial price of around $6-$8 thousand dollars plus installation but if you could eliminate a heating bill I could see where it would be worth it. After two or three years its like putting that expense in your pocket. If you are interested I would check to make certain waste oil burners are okay for your area. They are insanely clean but some neighborhoods or areas may have regulations preventing you from having one.

04.12.2009. 00:12