Anyone burning WVO?

[whatsnext]

I think I have developed a pretty good source for WVO. I realy don't want to become a chemist to make biodiesel and a stationary powerplant to cogenerate heat seems kind of complicated when heat is what I'm after. A friend in the HVAC buisness suggested a oil fired boiler or furnace, running continuesly to heat and keep the fuel warm and then using my hi eff furnaces as extra heat on the coldest days. Has anyone seen this done?

TIA, John....

[tiastot]

what's next,

Boilers have a lot more mass at temp than a hot air furnace.  You can pull longer burns and keep the temps in the proper operation range for your equipment.  A 3/4 in stream of water can move a lot more btu's than a much larger stream of hot air.  You can move hydronic energy a long ways with just a few watts of circulator power.  You can heat several buildings on the same lot with buried insulated hydronic lines. Need I continue?

Old oil fired boilers can be had for little or free.  Ask the dump guy ( most landfill operators enjoy redirecting stuff back into use ) ask a local HVAC contractor.  They enjoy not having to cart the old boiler off.

One word of caution, WATCH FOR ASBESTOES!  This can be a nightmare depending on your local government.  Run away if you suspect it's used to seal your potentially free boiler.

-tiastot

[drdongle]

The danger from Asbestos in that situation is greatly exaggerated, it's only dangerous when fine enough to drift in the air.

Carpe Vigor

Dr.D

[tiastot]

Dr. D,

I'll agree the hazzard is pumped up a bit, but the career of local and state officials are carried on ANY AMOUNT of Asbestos they can detect!  More paper and citations issue = more job security.

-tiastot

[Ungrounded Lightning Rod]

I'll agree the hazzard is pumped up a bit, but the career of local and state officials are carried on ANY AMOUNT of Asbestos they can detect!  More paper and citations issue = more job security.

Right.  The hazard of asbestos, from our standpoint, is the government intervention costs, which dwarf any actual hazard from the material itself.

I dread the day when the bureaucrats figure out that fiberglass insulation is just as bad, lung-tissue wise.

[robotmaker]

If you have the source, I have developed the burner for you.  If you just do a search on my name here, I think the archives will yield the posts of the crankcase oil burner I built for last winter.  I can use wvo in it just as well.  The only thing I found different was the pre-heating of the bulk storage of the fuel.  WVO tends to get very viscous when the temperature drops, but the pre-heater and then the subsequent warming of your space should keep that from being a problem.  I currently use wvo to melt aluminum in a very simple drip feed burner design, using a GM heater blower motor across a battery, and the burner design you see in the couple sketches I posted.  Matter of fact, I am heating my pool with this method too.  This winter I am going to switch from a forced air arrangement, to putting sprinkler tubing (that black vinyl tubing) under a floor in my shop and just circulate heated water from it.. from this stove.  I can't get the water in the pool warm enough to go swimming all winter, so it may as well go towards heating the shop.

Anyway, bottom line, if you need more info on that burner, or can't find the old post.. let me know.

rj

[KHB1]

NOT BURNING WVO YET BUT PLAN TO.

Worked with asbestos all my life (all the old safes used it mixed with cement for insulation) took 50 lb bags of asbestos pulled out by hand and mixed with cement to repair safes, dug to the bottom of bags at arms length alwayse breathed through my nose and blew often. so what did i get when older hart trouble and prostate cancer, at other end from any thing asbestos could cause.

Have a great day.

KHB1

[troy]

There are a couple of discussion groups that deal with exactly that question.  They are a good resource.

1.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vegoilburners/

or

2.  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/altfuelfurnace/

I am taking the route you don't want to go down, converting wvo to biodiesel and burning that in a home-brew cogenerator based on a 650 lb Lister diesel hooked up to two heat exchangers, one for coolant and one for exhaust.  I also drive a VW diesel Jetta wagon, so I have other uses for the biodiesel.

Good luck and have fun.

troy