Waste Oil Heating

[Daryl Upole]

A few years ago I looked into waste oil heating systems. There are a few manufacturers out there. I personally do not have a large enough source of self-generated waste oil to completely heat with and would have to scavenge it.

Has anyone had experience using these systems and would you recommend them or not under various circumstances? I would heat about 1,600 sq. ft. shop during NE Ohio winter months.

[Matt Meiser]

There happens to be a pair of Clean Burn waste oil heaters on Ann Arbor Craigslist right now. They want about $3900 for one and $3600 for the other. I was intriuged so I looked up Clean Burn on the web (http://www.cleanburn.com) the other day. According to their FAQ, you will need between 500 and 700 gallons of oil per year on average. Thats a lot of waste oile. I think I generate about 12 per year between two cars and a diesel tractor. Economically, I think this would be hard to make work by the time you drive around and pick up used oil. Plus you need to store used oil, and in any quantity, you'll probably incur the wrath of the Ohio/Federal EPAs.

They claim an 18-24 month payback, but I think you have to already be generating the waste oil on site to make that work. I heat my shop in SE Michigan with about 200 gallons of propane per year, keeping it above freezing at all times and at about 62 when I work out there or have glue curing, a little warmer when finishing. This year that is about $330. My shop is a little more than 1/2 the square footage of yours and is well insulated. With the cost difference between the furnaces, the payback would be a lot longer for me even if I did have all the oil I wanted on site.

[Daryl Upole]

Matt, that's kind of what I've been thinking. I've seen some new units that are about $2,000 with about 100 gallon built in storage tank. I've also considered a wood burner. But, with chimney & all that's probably going to be about the same. The benefit of the wood burner, however, is to also dispose of scrap and I'd stay in better shape splitting wood!

We have natural gas which I have plumbed to the shop and I have all the provisions for in floor hot water heat if I can just get the plumber back to finish it out. But, our gas rates in NE Ohio are very unstable. A few years ago it was, maybe, $5 mcf, last winter it hit $14. My shop is well insulated also; so I"m guessing I should be able to heat as you do for well under $1,000 per season.

I guess I'm just a miser and don't like the control the utility company has over the rates and was considering alternatives before I committed to one direction.

I think I could get used waste oil delivered to me for about 50 cents a gallon at this point. But, of course, if everyone else gets on the band wagon the old supply and demand curve will kick in and waste oil will go up i n price. Some of the heater companie's web sites have EPA info. With our level of usage, we would not be much of a concern.

Thanks for the input.

[Matt Meiser]

Daryl, a couple other things to think about with the waste oil if you obtain it from other sources.

First, how do you know it is what they say it is? What if they contain hazardous materials? For example, PCB's used to be used in hydraulic fluids.

Second, what if you have a spill? There was recently a thread here about heating oil tanks and the cost of spills can be astronomical. I can imagine that a waste oil spill would be worse. Obviously the risk of the latter can be reduced with double-wall tanks and some kind of secondary containment structure.

Since you already have provisions for radiant heat, what about an outdoor wood fired boiler? Or some kind of solar?

[Pat Germain]

I'd be leary of any new, 'alternative' energy technology. While there are certainly some good ideas and technology out there, almost none of it is practical for the average homeowner.

(I know a guy who claims he's going to use a car alternator connected to a windmill to power his house during power failures. He says it's all explained on the Internet how it works. Since I know a typical car alternator won't put out more than 14 volts, I don't see how it would power anything more than a few lights.)

Burning waste oil may create EPA hazards other than storage. Burning dirty oil likely produces more emissions than clean oil. It would suck to invest in such a heater, then get shut down by the EPA.

[Matt Meiser]

Pat, this actually isn't new technology, at least the basic idea. I was telling my dad about the ones I saw on CL and he told me that his dad had a waste oil fired heater in his garage which they later replaced with a natural gas furnace. They probably would have put it in in the late 40's and replaced it in the 60's. I'm sure the new ones work a wee bit different though.

[Steve Campbell]

Nothing new about used oil burners. The contractor I used to work for heated his shop with a double barrel wood stove. We set it up with a very simple oil drip. Get the fire going and just turn on the oil drip. It made the wood last a lot longer and we got rid of some of our waste oil.

Steve

[Ed Breen]

Here in MUskogee one of the car dealers heats the service area with a used oil burner. He can get rid of his oil with out having it trucked. I can remember hgeating my shop when I lived in Peoria with a "top hat" which burned #2 diesel. It smoked at first but provided plenty of heat.

[James Jaragosky]

old school stuff here with high tec updated controllers. i got a buddy that has a trans repair shop in PA. he heats the place solely on the wast oil he generates. he was complaining last season that a simple needle valv he needed was $100. from the manufacture he figured it cost $2 to make but he couldn't get it anywhere else.
something to think about.
Jim J

[Daryl Upole]

old school stuff here with high tec updated controllers. i got a buddy that has a trans repair shop in PA. he heats the place solely on the wast oil he generates. he was complaining last season that a simple needle valv he needed was $100. from the manufacture he figured it cost $2 to make but he couldn't get it anywhere else.
something to think about.
Jim J

Jim,

That's part of my curiosity. A basic gas furnace, for example, is a fraction of the cost of these units. As far as I can tell, there are just a handful (3 I've identified) of manufacturers. From reading, they seem to have addressed many issues with added technology. But, that all comes at a cost. Plus they have had to go through all the regulatory paperwork, UL listing, state requirements and all that. So, newer technology, high investments to amortize, and probably low production does keep the cost to the consumer up for now and parts are probably no different.