Posts Tagged ‘waste oil boiler’

Oil Boilers Create Self Sufficiency

Friday, July 17th, 2009
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My Gas Bill February 2009

My Heating Bill For February 2009

As you can see from my natural gas bill statement for February 2009, the coldest month in Anchorage, I paid just $10 to heat my home and business (which is just as big as my home and attached to it) with the help of my waste oil boiler.

I love the feeling of self sufficiency!  In our society we are so dependent upon large companies to supply our basic needs.  And they are fully aware of this.  Its for this exact reason they are able to jack up their prices whenever they feel like it, give us an explanation that makes no sense at all, and fully expect us to accept it and send them a check.  If you look closely at my heating bill you can see that they raised everyone’s cost by 22% the previous month.  Various people did the numbers and their costs did not go up by 22%.  We are working through a recession, people have lost their jobs, and their solution to helping out families is raising their prices by 22%.  Gotta love it!

Front View of My Oil Burner


As long as you have a decent supply of used motor oil you can heat your entire house, business, or garage for next to nothing.  The most you will have to pay is a couple bucks plus some change in taxes for the hook up fee.  This is to ensure that if something were to malfunction and your waste oil burner were to go down for several days you would have the ability switch back over to natural gas.  But $8-$10 is nothing compared to the $250-$300 (very conservative number considering the area I have to heat) I would have to pay if I did not have a waste oil boiler.  I saved over $2000 just this last winter.  I have had my machine since 2007.  That translates into $6,000 saved just calculating what I would have spent in heat for the last three winters.  That figure does not include the rest of the year.  Has my investment paid off for me?  I’ll let you decide.

I am showing these numbers to impress upon the people reading this that the savings waste oil burners produce is amazing.  I am surprised that more people do not have them.  You are guaranteed to get back whatever you spend of them in 1-2 years.  As long as you clean your boiler out when you are supposed to and make a concerted effort to filter your used motor or vegetable oil I can  promise you that your device will be problem free (as long as it was not made on a Monday).

There are several companies that manufacture these machines for you to chose from.  The model you will need will depend on how much you want to spend and how much area you need to heat.  The basic concept is the same for all of them.  Do yourself and your “pockets” a favor by checking them out.  If you live on the East Coast or close by  there is a company called Alternative Heating Systems, based in PA,  that not only has some more information about oil burners but have several used and refurbished used boilers in a lot of models you can take a look at.

The idea of turning a material that is considered waste into something valuable should be a really fascinating concept for a lot of people.  There are millions of gallons of waste oil generated every week and a lot of it is discarded and thrown out.  A lot of it is turned into asphalt but not nearly enough of it is recycled or re-refined the way it should be.  This is what makes the whole concept behind owning an oil burner so appealing to me.  There is all this so called “waste” that’s literally an afterthought to everyone or business who produces it and with this machine you can turn it into an asset.

Oil Burner Annual Cleaning

Monday, July 6th, 2009
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I just bought a 10 year old oil burner from one of the busiest quick lubes in town.  They have had it since they went into business a decade ago and felt like it was time to get a newer more efficient one.  The owner gave me a screaming deal on it which came out to be 95% bellow market rate even for a boiler this old.  I was a Buderus with a Wetzlar motor.

What Are you Going to Need to Clean Your Waste Oil Burner

You are going to need just a few things.  They are the following a) masks b) chimney brushes c) broom d)shop vac (optional but nice if you have it) e) large piece of cardboard f) brake parts cleaner

Items You Will Need

Items You Will Need

Step 1- Cleaning the Oil Boiler Chamber and Door

You are going to need to lay the large piece of cardboard by the entrance of the boiler.   If you do not than ash is going to get all over the place and believe me its extremely hard to clean up.

Waste Oil Burner Before Cleaning

Waste Oil Burner Before Cleaning

We always like to start off with the door.  These oil burner doors usually have an asbestos gasket on them so you want to use a brush with softer thistles like a broom and not the chimney brush which would be way to hard on it.  Please wear a mask while doing this.  Remember that this machine burns waste oil and you have no earthly idea what was actually in it.

You want to brush the door off really well.  Ash is going to be flying all over the place. Inspect the opening of the chamber where the actual burner assembly goes.  Look for buildup and burn marks.  If there is a lot of build up than the boiler has probably not been shutting off like its supposed to.

Oil Burner Door Being Cleaned

Oil Burner Door Being Cleaned

You are then doing to want to clean the actual chamber.  Again, I respect, make certain you have your mask on.  Take the chimney brush and start scrapping away all the ash and debris out.  This is going to take a good 20-30 minutes alone.  You want to brush out as much ash and soot as you possibly can.  A tenth of a millimeter of of extra ash or soot can reduce of efficiency of your oil burner by alot.

Take the shop vac at this period of time and vacuum up all the other loose dust that you missed.

The goal is really to get the chamber as clean as you can.  The boiler chamber is what transfers the heat to the water and if its dirty its not going to do a good job of this.

Cleaning Oil Burner Chamber

Cleaning Oil Burner Chamber

Step 2- Cleaning the Actual Oil Boiler Assembly

Okay so here is the hard part.  Up to this point we have just cleaned the chamber.  Now we are actually going to clean and adjust the device that ignites that oil and produces heat.

So I like to start off with the burner gun.  Its usually coasted with ash.  Clean off with a brush.

Oil Burner

Oil Burner

Continue to the flame retention head.  Brush off what you can.  You are going to have to use a flathead screwdriver to scrap off the excess ash.

Scaping ash from burner gun and flame retention head

Scraping ash from burner gun and flame retention head

Disassemble the whole assembly.  You can start anywhere but you are going to have to wipe off and clean all the major components within the oil burner.  You want to get them as clean as possible.  You may want to start by removing the pre-eheater and shroud off.

Burner Ignitor

Burner Ignitor

When you start to take the shroud off you are going to see the nozzle with the two ignitors right above it.  This is the heart of the boiler.  The way it works is that the waste oil comes out the nozzle mixed with air and is then ignited to produce a mass amount of heat.  You can clean the ignitor and nozzle off with brake part cleaner.  It usually melts the ash and soot away.  Honestly there is most likely going to be a lot of grime that is going to be caked on so you are going to have to use gasoline to melt it away.  You can see from the picture that we were forced to go this route.

Cleaning oil boiler with gas

Cleaning oil boiler with gas

Gas Melts Ash and Dirt Off Waste Oil Boiler

Gas Melts Ash and Dirt Off Waste Oil Boiler

After you do this you can put everything back together.  Your burner is now clean and ready to run.  You fill find that it runs a lot more efficient and better than when its filled with dirt.

Oil Burners Have Great Cost Benefit

Saturday, June 6th, 2009
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A waste oil burner is a truly a good investment for anyone who can afford it.  I must admit that these machines are quite expensive to purchase and set up.  But, if you maintain your boiler the proper way and have a good oil supply then you will experience tremendous savings starting with your second year of ownership.  In addition to that an oil boiler will allow you to have a great measure of independence from the natural gas companies who in my opinion continue to gauge the public year by year.

Just this year alone the natural gas company Enstar increased their prices in my city by 22%.  You are going to tell me that in one year their costs of doing business has risen 22%.  That is complete nonsense!  They are just using that as an excuse.  But those are the games that utility companies are playing across the US.  I know all about inflation, in fact can even write a long 700 page book about it, but nobody can sit and look me straight in the eye and tell me that their prices have increased by 22% in one year.  I own 34 mobile homes that I rent out and I have no control over this.  It upsets me to no end because I have a deal with 1/3 of my tenants in which the price of the heat is included in their rent.  While this is a pain for me many of the tenants I have cannot get the gas in their name due to bad credit and if you have rental properties you know this but even if the renter has it in their name the gas companies switch it back to my name if they do not pay.

As much as I hate it I have no control over that.  I have to manage that annoyance  as much as possible.  As for my own house and my own business I do not have to do that any longer.  My waste oil burner allowed me to be free from Enstar from the second I bought it.  I was free from the dependence on natural gas.  As far as that goes the gas company can raise the prices as high as they want and my gas bill stays at $8 per month.  I just pay for the hook up free.  As I stated in a previous post I have had several managers come to my house and talk crazy to me because they thought I was tampering with the box.

More than the savings an oil burner will give you is almost total freedom from certain individuals who think they have a complete monopoly over the pubic and suffer no backlash or recourse when they ripe consumers off.

As long as you can get a decent oil supply from a good source or several small waste oil quantities from several sources than you simply cannot loose.  I do not see how in our day this machine cannot pay for itself in two to three years max.

There are several companies in which you can purchase a waste oil burner.  Some are better than others.  The main factor in these devices, I believe, is proper maintiance.  I have seen people get the most expensive model and have trouble all along the way and I have seen people get the cheaper model and never have anything remotely go wrong.  What was the difference.  One took care of his boiler and the next guy dropped the ball.

An oil burner is a must buy for anyone with a large house or a big garage.  It will be one of the best things you ever invested in.

Wes