Oil Burner Guide

The main reason why I started this blog was because of how excited was about my initial purchase of a waste oil boiler.  When I bought it I had no idea how good it was going to pay off.  The only thing I knew at the time is that I had a bunch of used motor oil that I was bringing in from my business and I needed to get rid of it, somehow.

I think that it is absolutely amazing that used motor oil can provide a person with free heat for his entire life.  It is a concept that should have taken off decades ago and for some odd reason most people today still are aware that this technology even exists.

My house was equipped with a boiler prior to this purchase so that is the reason I ended up going with a waste oil boiler.  If my house would have been set up with a furnace I would have purchased a waste oil furnace. 

As I have said before I purchased mine from a local Northwest Energy Logic waste oil burner distributor.  The company was called Nuera Heating (owned by a man named Steve Ransom).

I did not buy the premium model but it was close to that.  Energy Logic has three to four types of waste oil boilers and I bought the one a bit higher than the medium model.  Looking back this particular model was a lot more than I needed but at the time I wanted to make sure that I had more than enough capacity to heat my home and large garage I had just built.  To this date I have never even come close to using half of its total capacity throughout a single day.

My waste oil boiler was a little more than $11,ooo.  You might spend a little less or more depending on where you live in the country.  Keep this in mind.  Not only did I have to pay extra for the installation but I had to ship my unit to 1,400 more miles than most people.  The actual price I paid for my waste oil heater system was a little more than $8,000 and I negociated a 250 gallon holding tank to be added into that package.

Different representatives will throw in extras depending on how much they like you, how many quotes they think you have gotten and how well you negociate with them. 

I was fortunate.  In addition to really feeling that I got a great deal on my boiler I had the privilege of having the actual distributor install it for me.  After it was installed I had one of my expert handymen (John Naz) hook the system up to the rest of the house.

It is amazing that the whole idea, which I was apprehensive about, worked out the way it did.

Here is what I was thinking when I purchased this device.  I believed it would work, but, to what extent, I was unsure.  I just wanted to rid myself of all the excess oil I was bring in from my fleet business.  I have a mobile oil change company (one of three that I own) and I was generating over 30 gallons of used motor oil per day.

I needed some relief because I was having to pay to get rid of it.  It really was not much (the cost to get rid of it) but the hassle factor was unbelievable.  The company that picked up all my used motor oil was never on time and I would have to hours for their guys to show up with their huge noisy trucks to come around (my shop is in a residential neighborhood) to suck up my four full drums of oil.

If my waste oil burner system would have saved me 30% of my heating bill I would have been happy. When I bought it I was not looking to really eliminate my heating bill as much as I did not want to deal with the hassle of waste oil disposal any longer. I was looking for a way to get rid of all my oil, get some energy savings, maybe obtain a tax write off, and oh course tinker with a new toy.  Huge fan of new machines and I love making them more efficient!

Needless to say my waste oil boiler did not lower my monthly heating bill.  It totally eliminated it!

I have already stated that the natural gas company in my area was suspicious I was tampering with the meter.  Not once but twice.  I cannot blame them.  When you live in Alaska, its -20 for almost the whole month, and when you have a resident who is on your grid and his heating bill is almost nothing (just a $10 hook up fee), you would be skeptical as well.  I am really not angry with them and thought it was funny more than anything.

To end, here is a quick recap.  Boilers, as you may know, do not work like furnaces.  These machines heat water that circulates around your house.  Water goes to your boiler and through the combustion process it is heated at a very hot temperature (over 180 degrees).  Most of the water actually turns into steam. The hot water runs throughout the walls of your house and through radiators, underfloor heaters, and hot water tubes.

Most boilers run off natural gas, wood pellets, or heating oil.  This is the material used to create the combustion.  These are very expensive energy sources.

Waste oil boilers operate the same way except they run off waste motor oils.  Instead of using the energy sources just mentioned they run off a waste product.  They have a waste oil burner in them which produces free heat.

Like I have said before if you can afford the initial capital outlay of cash you will get your money back in two to three years. Other factors like the size of your house and average yearly temperatures will also affect ROI.