In the heart of these heating systems is the oil burner. This is the actual mechanism that burns the fuel to create the heat source, or the flame. If this device does not work the rest of the equipment will not work either. This is why I think it is important for every homeowner to know exactly how oil burners operate so that if they fail you have a general idea of how diagnose and fix them (either by yourself or by a certified heating technician).

The Process of How Oil Burners Run A Furnace or Boiler

1. There is a device called an aquastat that triggers the power. When this happens the electric power to the heating system you have is turned on. The electricity that goes to your burners or boiler is controlled by a safety control called a Cad Cell relay.

2. Once the electricity is turned on the heart of your heating system, the oil burner, commences its operation. When it starts to receive electricity the electric motor within the system causes a shaft to rotate.

3. Then the shaft under oil burner starts to rotate. Without going into detail this starts the air blower and oil pump.

4.  As the fan on your oil burner is spinning it is drawing air through the intake system slots. This air will be used for the combustion process.  The heating oil has to be mixed with air to ignite properly.

5. At the same time as the fan is drawing air the motor shaft, which runs off of electricity, is driving the oil pump.

What does the oil pump do? This device is drawing fuel (the heating oil) from your tank.

Fuel lines are connected from your holding tank to your oil burner and the oil pump draws it out. If your system is set up right the fuel will pass through a oil filter and an internal screen of some sort to get out any more moisture or sediments. As the fuel is coming up it is highly pressurized.

This pressurized fuel, which can be over 100 psi, goes from your holding (storage) tank, through the pump, into your oil burner. As it flows through your oil burner it is turned into a very fine mist, or spray, as it flows through an oil nozzle that is attached to be in a the oil burner mechanism.

So here’s what we have so far. The fan blower is bringing in air and the pump is bringing in fuel. Two out of the three components we need for combustion. The last thing that is required is the spark to light it all.

6. The device that sparks the air in fuel on an oil burner is called the ignition transformer. You can spot this thing really easy as it is going to be a black box that is situated at the very top of the whole device.

The ignition transformer receives electricity and then converts it to a very high voltage which is then transferred to dual electrodes that is located at the end of the oil burner nozzle.

These electrodes are separated by a very small space, or gap, and and produces spark to ignite the fuel and air as it is being sprayed out of the nozzle.

There are systems in place (Cad Cell Relay, Stack Relay Switch, Flame Sensor) that will turn off any burner if there is not a flame produced. You not want your system to continuously pump heating oil out of your nozzle if it is not being used. This would be extremely dangerous!

7. So the fuel and air, coming out of the nozzle, are being ignited to produce a huge flame. This flame heats the rest of the heating system.

If you have a boiler the flame is heating the combustion chamber which in turn is heating the water which flows throughout the building. If you have a furnace the flame is heating that and that hot air is then blown throughout a room.

The combustion chamber liner prevents the oil burner from damaging the cast iron or steel boiler itself, while the hot surface of the combustion chamber liner helps make sure that all of the fine droplets of oil sprayed into the combustion chamber do in fact ignite.

9. When you’re aquastat (or thermostat) has sensed that the right temperature in a house or building has been reached it turns all the power to be oil burner off.

If you think your oil burner is failing to come on when it should or failing to go off after structure is already heated and this is the device that may be malfunctioning. Before all those other systems go on the aquastat have to tell it to. Many times this is the first device a heating technician will check.

Quick Recap of How Oil Burners Work (Summary)

These heating systems work by turning heating oil, a combustible substance, into heat.

It is pulled from your storage tank by the oil pump first.

It is pressurized and turned into vapor which then passes through your a burner’s nozzle as a very fine mist.

The mist that comes out of the nozzle is mixed with air and ignited by electrodes.

A flame is produced from this process which causes a combustion chamber or the air around it to be heated up.

And this is how many of our homes are heated.  You want to make sure you get your oil burner serviced on the recommended maintenance schedules.

There is nothing worse than having your boiler or furnace break down in the middle of winter.  Even if it is not winter you can find yourself taking cold showers if this device fails in any way.  Hopefully by being more familiar with how it works you can backtrack and try to troubleshoot some things.

Here is one of my most recent heating bills.  Its for the month of January.  As you can see with the use of my waste boiler my total heating hill for the month was $10.66.  The last month was cold (not as cold as it was last year) and my total energy bill was a little more than ten bucks.

December was high (see the chart of usage on the picture) because on of my handymen Josh was using the gas space heater to heat an uninsulated shed he was building outside.

It was bone chilling cold that month and because of the holidays he was going abnormally slow.  Even with that the bill last month was $40 and the space heater was going all day long.

But by January my heating bill was back to normal as you can see.  Again, the average temperature where I live is 14.9 degrees for January and this month was about that.  That being said while everyone else was experiencing $350-$450 natural gas bills my total bill was next to nothing.

I am not using that much oil.  On really cold days I may used close to 20 gallons.  I have enough of a supply to last me for months should it ever run out (that is far from happening though).

I had Steve from Nuera Heating come and do a thorough cleaning on my boiler like I did on a used one three months ago and with my Beckett fuel economizer my oil burner has maximum energy efficiency (you can use that tool on regular oil burners too).

If it sounds like I am bragging about my current set-up I do apologize.  I get so excited talking and writing about it.  For years I had wanted to find some way to “get off the grid” as best as I could and now its like I have accomplished that to some degree.

It gives me a lot of satisfaction to turn my heater in my home or shop to eighty degrees if I please and pay $10 at the end out the month.  With the square feet I would have been paying close to $450-$500 bucks if I had my just a regular oil boiler set up like I did before.

My sister, her husband, and their six kids came to live with me from Idaho as well.  It has gotten so bad down there my brother-in-law could not make a living.  So with me there are twelve people living in my house.  That’s a lot of hot showers!  So I would venture to say that if I had not invested in this unique oil burner back in 2007 my heating bill would be close to $500.

Do I recommend getting a waste oil boiler (or furnace)?  You betcha!

You may find this surprising but there is not much competition.

I begin to think about this today because I have been seeing a lot of comments on sites and forums of people asking about the best brand of oil burner they can buy.

Okay- let me give you the answer to that.  Its Beckett.

And, no, they are not paying me to say that.  They don’t have to.  If Beckett has competition in the oil burner market then its a total secret.  Sure you have other companies like Weil Mclain that makes oil boilers and heating systems but they all come stocked with Beckett oil burners inside them.

That statement might not be totally fair.  There are three more manufacturers.  They are Wayne Home Equipment, Arco, and Carlin.  But they are so behind the top spot, as far as market share goes, they are barely worth mentioning.

Wayne Home Equipment might be the closest out of the three.  You will see the others pop up from time to time but for every ten houses that have oil burners I have found eight or nine of them have a Beckett AFG.

Here is a company that is in total control of their marketplace and they seem to do a fairly good job of keeping it that way.  They have a good track record and make quality products so I do not see anyone really complaining about it.

Its just funny, because this is such a common item, and you would think there would be even more companies making it and the competition being a lot more fierce.

I can tell you another thing.  They are going to have some good years ahead.  There is a good chance New York City buildings are going to be required to change out their aging boilers because of pollution concerns.  Its not a law yet but officials in the city have promised to introduce regulations over the next year to phase certain types of boilers that run on certain types of heating oil and its had the backing of Mayor Bloomberg.  That city has thousands of upon thousands of buildings and guess what type of oil burners is in all those boilers.  Hum?

Maintenance

I asked a friend who owns a heating repair company what is a common mistake that most homeowners make as far as maintenance of their oil burners (the heart of the heating system).

He said that the a good portion of the problems people encounter could be avoided if they did two things.

1. Had their oil burners cleaned on a more regular basis
2. Did a better job of changing the fuel filters (which filter out dirt and moisture)

Like I have said before you also want to change out the nozzles at least once a year.  They are not that expensive and get clogged easily.  I got into an argument with a furnace technician because he said a nozzle can last years.

I told him that may be so but for everyone that does there are ten that do not so why take the chance.  I have seen them for as low as $5.00.  Get them changed out on a regular basis.  Its really not that hard or expensive.

Was doing some research online and found this great article on the Massachusetts Public Safety website outlining some very good practical advice for homeowners getting their oil burner serviced.  It outlines several questions to ask the service technician as well as making sure he does his job correctly.

The majority of the heating service technicians are honest people who are not looking to rip anyone off but mistakes and items overlooked can be potentially costly for you.  In light of this I think its always a wise plan of action to at least have an idea of what they should be doing to ensure at least some measure of checks and balances.

Waste Oil Burners

I wanted to end this post by talking about waste oil heaters.  I started this blog about them but found out what when the majority of people were looking up the term “oil burner” they were not looking for information about the kind that run off waste oil.

This technology sort of a real niche-oriented thing.  More business should have them.  Especially the ones that generate any medium to large quantity of waste motor oil.

I got an waste oil boiler for my shop because that is the system my garage and home was running on.  Most large garages will actually a forced air set-up to heat their structure so they will be more interested in waste oil furnace heaters.

No matter which kind you get, be it a boiler or a furnace, you must  come up with a system to filter the oil.  I used to pass all my oil through several different types of 20-20 micron filters but they would always clog up and a couple times a had some light to medium spills.

Now I employee a WVO waste oil centrifuge and it does a marvelous job at filtering my oil before it goes into my holding tank.  It gets everything, including all the moisture, completely out.  The oil going through my nozzle is almost as clean as when it was brand new out the bottle.

It is precisely because I am so strict on the filtering process that I have not had any, not even one, problem with my heating system.  I have never had to get my boiler repaired because I get it checked out and cleaned yearly and I make sure everything that goes into it is as clean as I can get it.

As Always, Hope this Helps

Wesley

]]> http://oilburnerguide.com/where-to-buy-oil-burner-and-maintain-it/feed/ 1 http://oilburnerguide.com/oil-burner-repair/ http://oilburnerguide.com/oil-burner-repair/#comments Tue, 05 Jan 2010 01:39:39 +0000 Newyork204 http://oilburnerguide.com/?p=543 Sometimes repairing an oil burner can be extremely easy and everything will go smoothly.  Other times it can be highly frustrating to no end.

No matter what brand you have servicing your oil burner can be really frustrating.  The basic functionality of this heating component is really simple.  And yet, for some reason, repairing and maintaining your oil burner can be the biggest pain you could ever imagine.

It makes no difference if you have a Beckett, Wayne Home Equipment, or Carlin oil burner.  All brands can be hard to work on.

I also believe you should start with the nozzle on the oil burner system.  It can become clogged or damaged easily.  So start off by changing this if you experience problems.

But if after doing this, and it runs smooth for a while, and then you get nothing its time to try something else.  Check the transformer.  Use extreme caution when doing this!  Is it throwing sparks?  What about the protectorelay? Is everything else in good shape?

Its annoying because sometimes the motor starts up and stops like it should.   Maybe you even have a combustion analyzer and it is showing that the flame is burner great. So what do you do at this point?
If you want to save money you can try to fix the problem yourself.  You may or may not be able to do it.
What I would recommend at this point is to call a certified boiler or furnace technician out for a service call.  He will have the special tools to properly see what is going on.  He can hook a specialized monitor to your oil burner and it will track the component that did not work when it does not light like it is supposed to.

When oil burners fail its oftentimes in intervals and not continuous at all.  This drives the most experienced and talented service techs crazy!  These guys take pride in not being a parts changer, they want to fix the problem.  But sometimes it is just extremely difficult to find that source of the problem in some situations.
Be patient.  I would like to remind you that you are not alone if you are in the situation where you cannot figure out the exact cause of the problem with your oil burner.

I have a friend who installs and repairs oil burners for a living and he has fixed tons of every kind you can think of.  Sometimes a problem takes twenty to thirty minutes and other times it takes several days.

Get A Tune Up

You do not want to go several years without getting a tune up on your oil burner.  This applies to everyone no matter if they have a furnace or boiler.  You need to get an inspection at least once every two years and it needs to be done right.

There are a lot of hidden “energy hogs” that could be costing you a lot of money in extra heating bills every month that you are not aware of.  The price of natural gas and heating oil is not going down, if you have not noticed, so you want to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck.

They have the right tools and knowledge to scan your whole system, check your spark (or transformer), nozzles, pump, or wiring.  Unless you have been trained on these things there is no way you could do this by yourself.

Get Your Tank Cleaned

If you have a holding tank, which you will if your system runs of heating oil, than you need to get it cleaned every so often.  How often, I really do not know, but moisture does build up in there and it can clog your nozzles.

Sometimes they take care of this when you get a tune up for your oil burner and sometimes they do not but you should make certain it gets done.

Get Quality Replacements

When you replace your nozzles or actual burners from time to time I would recommend you get quality replacements and not the cheapest thing you can find.  I am a huge fan of Beckett oil burners because they have been around the longest and their stuff rarely breaks down (unless it was not maintenanced properly). Weil Mcleans are good as well.

There are other really inexpensive models on the market and you might save a little on the front end but on the back in they will cost you hundreds maybe thousands.

Make Your System More Effiecient

There is a tool that I love called the Beckett Heat Manager that will make your whole oil burner system run a lot better.  This little device that you can get for under $200 will decrease your fuel consumption by anywhere from 10% and can be as much as 20%.  I personally saw a 15% decrease in fuel consumption.  Keep in mind I have a waste oil boiler so your results could be a little different but the process is the same.