DIY OIL WATER HEATER

[Yianie123.]

Hello, I am trying to use biodiesel to heat my house.  There a plenty of food places to pickup used oil.  The problem is that I have hydronic water heat (in floor).  So, how do I go from biodiesel to heating water for the floor in a simple but effective method?  Any help, ideas, DIY drawings, or thoughts will be Greatly Appreciated.

[Simen]

If you could get your hands on an old diesel water heater used as an preheater in buses and trucks, you would be almost ready to go. (Like those from Eberspaecher and Webasto...)

[kenl]

 You can buy fuel oil hot water heaters. #2 fuel oil and #2 diesel come from the same pipeline. Can't say I know much about the properties of bio diesel but it will burn in a diesel engine.

kenny

seemed like a good idea at the time

[Boss]

Take a look at Babington ball WVO burner
One link (no affiliation, except he is on the biodiesel.infopop.cc forums)
http://www.homebrewpower.co.uk/2009/10/babington-burner-balls-for-sale-uk.html
Lot's of info and images on the Interweb, here is one: http://www.3cyl.com/bd/

Yeah they basically drip oil on a doorknob and blow air over it, design a heat exchanger for your system

[dnix71]

What heats the water now? If it's electric you would need to replace the electric tank with a diesel/#2 fuel oil burner. Filtered WVO should burn just fine, but even if you have to mix it with fuel oil you still come out ahead.

[zaminur143]

Absolutely great idea. I had similar problem. Thanks for your support. Now I can do it. Thanks

[glort]

I built a bio powered water heater for a friend to heat up the oil when he makes bio.
It is a type of babbington affair but just mixes and squirts the air and fuel through a a somewhat flattened piece of 1/4" copper tubing instead of using a ball.

The water heater/ tank is a gas type with the gas burner assembly removed and the bio squirter put in it's place.
We usually burn a mix of unwashed bio dregs and WVO. To aid the burning, we put some bits of angle iron into the tube that runs through the centre of the heater to act as a " Glow Plug" which aids in keeping the flame stable and the the thicker oils to burn.

We have tested the temp rise / time factor of the heater and worked out we are getting over 76Kw of heat output which makes for fast warm up times of the oil.
there would be plenty of power for a Hydronic system and if large resivours were incorporated the burner could be lit once or twice a day and then the water just circulated from there.

[Madscientist267]

The babington thing is an interesting idea. He's claiming 1/3 gallon/hour too...

Why do I envision one of the 'rocket' stoves mixed with this? Similar to the design JW is using on his engine...

Steve