Converting a fuel oil furnace to burn waste oil? Possible?

[allessence]

I filmed the starting of the furnace and steps..

Some of the my favorite things about the setup..

Will burn anything.. Wood, coal (hard and soft) and of course use oil..

I love the remote thermostat.. Has been flawless and can use temperature gradients to keep one aspect burning..

If wood or coal is running and the fuel runs out, the furnace will automatically switch over to oil or gas if a gas burner is installed.

I have it set for a 5 degree difference so if the thermostat is set for 65F and it drops to 60 the oil burner will automatically come on..

Here is a link to the video.

Still processing but it's a short video..

One of the things I'd love to fix is a fuel cutoff that will wait till oil pressure has fully built up and when the burner shuts down it would be nice if the fuel nozzle and tube would self purge..

Because oil will boil as the burner comes up to temperature it will spit oil out the nozzle.. This is a problem if the nozzle is set back to far in the burner holder tube of the furnace.

https://youtu.be/eH48H35rOjQ

[toprecycler]

Thanks for posting the video Jennifer.

If I understand it correctly, the clave burner only starts the oil preheater when it calls for heat, hence the delay for starting?

My burner has the heater always on, as long as I have it plugged in. I have been told that to make sure I unplug it in the summer so it does not cook the oil, which ends up making the burner tube dirty.

I like the multi fuel setup. I have long thought of building something similar for over 20 years. Long before I knew they actually made one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[gimpyrobb]

I use used oil in my military trucks. I have seen many folks go to great lengths to use used oils. For me, I let mine settle as I get lots of oil often. Every time I pump the oil it goes through a 5micron water block filter. For the most part, this is good enough for the trucks. I have found a centrifuge but the dish is setup for test tubes or vials. I will be making a different dish for it sometime.

I have learned that in the long run, pre heating the oil to cook off moisture and then spinning it is the best route but it is expensive up front. A lot of people don't realize that the longer you use a centrifuge the more economical it becomes.

Thanks for posting up Jenn as your Info confirms the research I have done.

[allessence]

Originally Posted by toprecycler

Thanks for posting the video Jennifer.

If I understand it correctly, the clave burner only starts the oil preheater when it calls for heat, hence the delay for starting?

My burner has the heater always on, as long as I have it plugged in. I have been told that to make sure I unplug it in the summer so it does not cook the oil, which ends up making the burner tube dirty.

I like the multi fuel setup. I have long thought of building something similar for over 20 years. Long before I knew they actually made one.

The burner shutting down is a half truth.. Not a full on lie, but very much not the whole truth..

I thought the same thing..

The way the burner works is it's basically a self contained unit except for the air source..

If connected to a Boiler the aquastat will shut off all power to the burner. Any burner..

On a furnace there is no Aquastat.. So the burner does not shut off ever even when not running.

I had to install a special relay that shut the burners power off when there is no demand for heat on the oil circuit.

So that is why I call it a half truth..

IN reality the burner is always powered as is the heater when plugged in.. It has no PID internally to shut off the burners heater when there is no call for heat.

This is something that would be a great installed item..

But if I ever get around to it, I'd design a burner to me just like a regular #2 fuel burner like a Beckett AG2.

Originally Posted by gimpyrobb

I use used oil in my military trucks. I have seen many folks go to great lengths to use used oils. For me, I let mine settle as I get lots of oil often. Every time I pump the oil it goes through a 5micron water block filter. For the most part, this is good enough for the trucks. I have found a centrifuge but the dish is setup for test tubes or vials. I will be making a different dish for it sometime.

I have learned that in the long run, pre heating the oil to cook off moisture and then spinning it is the best route but it is expensive up front. A lot of people don't realize that the longer you use a centrifuge the more economical it becomes.

Thanks for posting up Jenn as your Info confirms the research I have done.

Military trucks are a different breed..

my Ford 7.3L would not run long if the oil was not super clean.. They have enough injector problems running on modern diesel..

I will mix about 25% used oil in the tank when I think about it.

The Centrifuge makes sense in a long term for sure.. That and the fact that it makes oil nearly instantly useable..

There are a couple of things that make settling the oil a way to go with a starting tank..

The oil pumps aerate the oil as does the Centrifuge.. So having a settling tank feed the centrifuge would be the best..

What I have found is the water is mainly removed with the heat and centrifuge.. But with the gear pumps it seems to chop up and mix a small percentage of water that remains in the oil even in use.. Be great to see what the percentage actually is.

With the current oil I'm cleaning, there seems to be about 6 oz of water per 55gallons of oil.

[Scratch]

Originally Posted by allessence

Be curious as to what you put together.. They have kits now that anyone can retrofit a Beckett burner into a waste oil burner.

This is what I built using a 40 gallon water heater. I cut two large rectangle holes near the bottom, lower one for air intake upper one is for the burn bowl. Mounted a donut shaped piece of 14 gauge steel between them to hold the burn bowl. Air comes in through the bottom hole then up through the donut and into the burn bowl. The burn bowl has a cut off fire extinguisher welded to it.

Then I set a cut off SCUBA tank over that with 1/2" holes drilled in it for the air to go back down and come out of. I set a brake rotor on top of that to keep the flames and heat as low as possible and not go out the chimney.

Oil drizzles into the burn bowl from the side through 1/2" steel pipe.

I drilled and welded in six 3" round pipes to act as heat exchangers and have a squirrel cage blower behind it to push the hot air out of the stove.

Works well, but I'm sure yours works much better.

[allessence]

Originally Posted by Scratch

This is what I built using a 40 gallon water heater. I cut two large rectangle holes near the bottom, lower one for air intake upper one is for the burn bowl. Mounted a donut shaped piece of 14 gauge steel between them to hold the burn bowl. Air comes in through the bottom hole then up through the donut and into the burn bowl. The burn bowl has a cut off fire extinguisher welded to it.

Then I set a cut off SCUBA tank over that with 1/2" holes drilled in it for the air to go back down and come out of. I set a brake rotor on top of that to keep the flames and heat as low as possible and not go out the chimney.

Oil drizzles into the burn bowl from the side through 1/2" steel pipe.

I drilled and welded in six 3" round pipes to act as heat exchangers and have a squirrel cage blower behind it to push the hot air out of the stove.

Works well, but I'm sure yours works much better.

That is a super nice looking unit you have there.. I betcha it works a treat.

I've seen where some will put a blower to add more O2 to the fire..

Thanks for the photos..

As to being better.. I don't know.. Each burner is different..

They both heat..

Drip oiler burners are old tech.. With that said.. Oil burners are old tech..

Bunker oil is some really neat stuff..

I've learned a lot since I started the journey.. Used oil has more BTU's than #2 heating fuel..

On the list for heating its right up there..

[allessence]

So last summer I purchased a 275gal double wall tank supposedly filled about 3/4 of the wY.

Guy was renting a shop to use for maintenence of his equipment.

Just pulled the tank off the trailer and decided to pull oil from it.

Dang if there isn't grass or some other fine type product. Might even be saw dust.

My transfer pump pulverized the stuff fine enough that it would instantly plug up my intake filter to feed the centrifuge.

This meant I have to double filter it before going into the centrifuge.

I'm using a fried oil cleaning machine with 3 filters installed. 1 filter around the intake filter then a filter bowl with screen.

This feeds oil into the centrifuge feeder tank and from there it's centrifuged and goes into the furnace feeder tank.

This is were having a settling system with gravity feed becomes a very strong method.

Gravity feed doesn't chop stuff up. Just plugs the line.

I've been looking for a very large filter unit. All the gear pumps I have have screens but the screens are not enough.

Something that has enough surface area to draw the oil thru is paramount.

[allessence]

Something like this.

TQSHOoP 304 Stainless Steel Filter Bag Housing, 2 Bag Filter Housing 150PSI High Pressure Filtration System 30t/h 2" NPT Industrial Process Filter Housings in/Out High Pressure Tool https://a.co/d/2jnSRvA

[Scotts]

The hydraulic shop may help you out with filtering the oil. there are shops that have portable filter units that will hook to your tank and circulate the oil in large filters to clean up the oil.

https://www.amazon.com/Parker-Hannif.../dp/B092MZL84V

You might just get out with purchasing the filters and rent the machine. I do not know what it would cost as I have never done it before.

Check with your hose place and see what they have. if you have never used a bag filter like you posted they really can be problematic with thicker oils and fine filter bags.

If you are looking for filter housings like that you could save a little money by not using stainless steel. You may have posted that for reference so all good.

Scott

[Whitetrash]

I'm wondering if a couple old Lubrefiiner filter setups from a semi tractor boneyard would work.