Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace?

   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #1  

blackrams

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Frankfort, KY
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Just as the title asks, I'm hoping to discover the recipe for a good "Used Oil" furnace for my shop.

Have looked at the commercially produced versions, simply put, out of my financial reach.
Have looked at some 55 gallon barrel versions, they don't last and I don't want to set my shop on fire.
Have considered an old wood burning stove but, everyone tells me that I need to pump the oil through a filtration element and have a regulator installed to control the fuel being fed to the fire box. My understanding is that as the fire box heats up, the fuel (used oil) will thin out and if not regulated will build an incredible amount of heat and may not be controllable.

Really don't know squat about this and it may not be the route to take but, I have access to a lot of clean used oil and I think it's a waste to send it back to a recycler if I can heat my shop with it. All suggestions are welcomed to include those who say don't do it.
Just looking for options.

Rams :newhere:
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace?
  • Thread Starter
#2  
The oil is either from my own equipment or from sources that I know and trust. Could there be any of those contaminants? No question about that, there always could be but, the sources know how I would use it and I honestly don't believe they would sabotage it.

But, just in case, I'm prepared to used a storage container with a drain in the bottom. That way, I can always drain contaminants out that drain.

Rams
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #3  
I once used an old oil fired furnace. The burner does not know the difference if it is clean fuel. Settle out any water, anti-freeze, and heavy particles first. Strain/Filter and filter again, 10 micron final filter at burner. You may need to change nozzles to get the right size for the used fuel cetane and heating load and raise the burner pressure to atomize the fuel better. I think I set mine at 150 PSI (long time ago when I was a heating tech). If it smokes open the air shutter a little. Smoke will draw the environmental police.

Ron
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Appreciate the advice, just considering options. I have a used "emergency heat" unit (or whatever it's called) from a 10 year old home HVAC unit hanging from the ceiling of my shop but, I only use it when it's really cold outside and if makes that electric meter spin like it's going to take off like a helicopter. In that my shop is considered a commercial building (no rest room or living quarters) the rates are much higher. Makes using the shop in colder weather very expensive.

I have insulated the walls/ceiling and used particle board (plywood) on the walls and corrugated tin on the ceiling (reflects light better) to help retain what heat I can in the shop. Have considered buying a propane wall heater but I just hate wasting that used oil fuel.

Rams :drink:
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #5  
That used oil is full of combustion byproducts and is really not good to release all that into the air that you and others breathe. Better to recycle where the facilities exist to keep the air clean. Where I live it is illegal to burn waste lube oil. Some people burn used oil from commercial deep fryers either in converted Diesel engines or furnaces as the combustion byproducts are not present.
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #6  
That used oil is full of combustion byproducts and is really not good to release all that into the air that you and others breathe. Better to recycle where the facilities exist to keep the air clean. Where I live it is illegal to burn waste lube oil. Some people burn used oil from commercial deep fryers either in converted Diesel engines or furnaces as the combustion byproducts are not present.

"Where I live it is illegal to burn waste lube oil".
Understood!
In Canada everything requires a permit (cost), an inspection, is illegal, or is subject to 15% HST (sales tax).
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #7  
Heck, it all depends on how fancy you want to get.
If you have a wood stove and want to use some oil to boost the heat out of it, set up a couple of buckets to get the heavier crap out of it get some kind of a steel reservoir some brake line and a small adjustable valve get the wood fire going and start dripping oil on it, you'll gets lots of heat with just a simple slow drip out of it. If you want to get fancier set up an old oil burner as mentioned earlier.
Also a search used to turn up lots of home brewed heaters, some looked very good.
Burn it and get the value out of it.
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #8  
I had a cheap Ben franklin wood stove in corner of garage. A 1/4" copper line ran into the stove pipe below the damper. I used fire sealant and a brass coupler through the pipe to keep it air tight.
Outside about waist high, I had a little platform nailed to the house upon which sat a 5 gallon can.

The copper tube went into the side of it about 6" off the bottom. This kept it from getting clogged with grunge.
In the middle of the tube run which was downhill from the can to the stove for gravity feed, was a needle valve to adjust the oil flow. Like a ice maker tee valve.

I'd get the fire prepped, throw a larger piece of wood and paper to the back under the flue and light her up.
Then crack the needle valve allow the oil to DRIP into the stove.

A little goes a long ways!
That ol stove got glowing red a few times when inexperienced friends turned it up!

Had 10 years on it when I moved and tore it apart due to being afraid somebody would burn their garage down without knowing the limits of the contraption.
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #9  
A buddy of mine had a homemade setup in his shop for years. Basically it was setup as described in previous posts to drip oil on burning wood in the stove. After a few accidents he learned that you need to get a good fire going before you start the oil flow. A drip of oil at a time is lots but the oil has to be clean so it doesn't plug the needle valve used to adjust flow.

After a puddle of oil on the floor several times from the fire going out he installed a smaller reservoir so that you couldn't run more that a gallon of oil at a time.

In the end he got tired of the playing around and installed an overhead gas furnace. That also solved the problem of the snow being black all over the yard from the oil smoke.

There I think I've covered all of his issues. I did have a conversation once with a company that had a homemade hot water heating setup. The hot water in turn heated all the buildings. They had a oil burning boiler with a pump pumping clean used oil through a nozzle into the combustion chamber under the boiler. It was setup with a thermostat and would self start when more heat was needed. They had a spare pump and nozzle that was easily exchanged when there were issues. One of the issues was synthetic oil as every so often the nozzle would need the plastic chipped off of it. That wasn't an issue with dino oil.
 
   / Recipe for a home built "Used Oil" Furnace? #10  
Youtube to the rescue!! waste oil burner - YouTube

I watched a bunch of these, and they all lead to more... Some really nice setups for very little money and trouble.
 
 
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