Used Oil Furnaces & Boilers
(Waste Oil Furnaces)
With the ever-rising cost of natural gas, heating oil, and electricity, Used Oil Furnaces are becoming the environmentally friendly solution to combating high heating costs. Used Oil Furnaces and Boilers provide the user with an environmentally safe manner for recycling used oil, and they can eliminate high heating bills, and they can also eliminate cradle-to-grave liability from hauling used oil. Anyone who produces waste oil is a potential candidate for owning a used oil furnace. From your small auto repair shop, to large auto dealers or rental yards, or anyone operating a fleet of vehicles or heavy equipment, people are realizing what an economic and environmental benefit owning a Used Oil Furnace can be.
Used Oil Furnaces come in various sizes, with entry-level furnaces designed to heat 1500 sq. feet, to large industrial units that kick out 500,000 BTU’s. The payback cost of ownership of a Used Oil Furnace is usually less than two years, and the payback is often achieved in eighteen months or less, depending on what the user is currently paying for heat, and what they are paying to get rid of their waste oil.
A typical gallon of used oil contains 140,000 BTU’s of energy, which can be converted into heat or hot water depending on what the desired outcome is. One need to look no further than to watch the Natural Gas Futures in the Wall Street Journal to realize that the price of Natural Gas is not going to come down anytime soon. Recycling your used oil not only makes good business sense, but it is also the environmentally responsible thing to do. Many people are still paying a hauling company to haul off their oil, which means they pay a middleman to haul, and re-sell their oil. These people are not realizing the true monetary potential for their used oil. Even if someone is getting paid for their used oil, they are not getting the true value for the oil, or what it is really worth! Whoever is hauling the oil, is getting paid for their efforts, and then they usually sell to a third party. People are often surprised that when converted to heat, used oil is worth over three times as much as they often are getting paid for it!
Quality Used Oil Furnaces can burn used motor oil, brake fluid, gear lubricants, automatic transmission fluid, industrial oils, and dirty diesel fuel. Oil is filtered from a holding tank and goes into a pre-heater, which pre-heats the oil for an optimal burn temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. A quality Used Oil Furnace will come equipped with an on-board air compressor, which will add air to the flame (burn) to achieve the most efficient optimal burn possible. After reaching the optimal burning temperature, the oil goes thru a nozzle block and is ignited by electrodes as the combustion air travels thru a flame retention head causing the flame to burn in an elongated controlled fashion. As this flame travels thru the combustion chamber, it heats the Heat Exchanger. (Quality units will also have a stainless steel heat exchanger to maximize the efficiency ratio of the heat rise.) The blower fan then pulls in cool air and forces the air over the heat exchanger, where the air warms up before leaving the unit. The heated air is then exhausted from the louver panels to the shop area. Many units come with adjustable louver panels so you can direct the airflow. You can also duct the heat to a different portion of a shop, thus allowing flexibility in the placement of a Used Oil Furnace.
If you are a large producer of used oil and you have a large shop to heat, then you will want to invest in an auxiliary storage tank. Some auto dealerships or heavy equipment service shops will use a 10,000-gallon storage tank to store oil in during the summer months. That way they have ample supply to run multiple heaters during the coldest winter months. The payback here can often exceed $500,000.00 over the 10-year warranty life of the heater. Most Used Oil Heater suppliers can calculate your rate of return and your heating cost savings for you if you are interested in purchasing a unit.
As with any product, you usually get what you pay for. Lower cost units often sacrifice efficiency, reliability and durability, which can impede your lower cost of ownership. Warranties can vary depending on the manufacturer, so you will want to check that out before making a purchase. Also, many distributors will offer a preventative maintenance plan, where they will come out annually to clean and inspect your burner unit. A quality Used Oil Furnace burner unit should be able to burn for 800-1000 hrs before needing a cleaning or preventative maintenance. Lack of maintenance, or leaving the pre-heater on during the summer months (which bakes the oil on the burner all summer) are the most common problems with a Used Oil Furnace.
In short, energy reclamation using a Used Oil Furnace or Boiler is a safe, efficient, economical, and environmentally responsible method of managing used oil.
