WMO for home heating

[plym49]

We've got plenty of threads on running WMO in your multi and others on running WMO in your diesel, still more on running home heating oil in a vehicle, but I don't recall seeing any discussion on running WMO in a home heating system.

Some folks burn WMO in home-made 'furnaces' piped in to their home heating systems. I am sure that these systems burn inefficiently; they sure do produce a lot of slag and clinkers.

Since there does not seem to be a problem with slag, ash or clinkers when burning WMO in a multi, I guess that means that WMO can burn cleanly.

What I am wondering is if WMO is suitably filtered and de-watered - as if it were going to be run in a multifuel vehicle - could it be added to a tank of #2 HHO? It seems to me that the nozzles in an oil burner are a lot larger than a fuel injector's orifice.

Augmenting HHO with WMO would alleviate any potential road tax problem, and over the course of a year my oil burner sees more hours of operation than my Deuce. This would seem a natural - could it work?

 

[Beerslayer]

opcorn:

Cool idea. I am a bit of an oil nerd but don't really understand how home heating oil burners work.

 

[Katahdin]

You might get away with small amounts of WMO in your HHO tank but converting over to 100% WMO use will require extensive modification to your existing oil burner. This link will give you the general idea.

How to Build a Waste Oil Burner | eHow.com
(Discusses the Beckett AFG burner, which is pretty common in HHO boilers and furnaces)

 

[plym49]

You might get away with small amounts of WMO in your HHO tank but converting over to 100% WMO use will require extensive modification to your existing oil burner. This link will give you the general idea.

How to Build a Waste Oil Burner | eHow.com
(Discusses the Beckett AFG burner, which is pretty common in HHO boilers and furnaces)

Thanks, I'll check that out. But I am not thinking about using 100% WMO. I figure that from a practical perspective, I would be expecting to run in the neighborhood of 10 to 20%.

 

[Beerslayer]

I bet you could run 10-20% without modification. Especially if you could get tranny fluid or hydraulic oil. Another thing that would help is if the fuel tank is in a basement or other enclosure where it wasn't subject to arctic temperature swings like y'all get in Vermont. It gets pretty cold there in the winter.

 

[jaymcb]

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY. it would be nice to get some 1.00/gallon waste ATF and just dilute that 4/gal HHO's cost a little bit. I wonder if the ATF would take up all the crap that we all know lives in the bottom of our tanks and have it end up in the filter...or worse, the burner.

 

[m16ty]

I do have a oil burner hooked up to my wood stove in the shop but it is very inefficient. The oil is cheap though (free).

The main thing you have to worry about if you mix it with your HHO or if you get one of those factory made oil burners is clean oil. It needs to be as clean as if you were running it in the deuce if you don't want to be cleaning out your heater pretty often.

If you want to see a neat oil burning setup, Google " babington burner". You don't have to worry about dirty oil with this setup. Would be good to use oil that is too trashy to run in the deuce.

 

[plym49]

opcorn:

Cool idea. I am a bit of an oil nerd but don't really understand how home heating oil burners work.

I am not an expert, but I can describe the systems I am familiar with. A tank full of #2 fuel oil is connected to an oil burner in series with a cartridge filter (I do not know how fine). The oil burner head consists of a gear pump, nozzle, blower and ignition assembly. The nozzle has a fine orifice, although it is big by fuel injector standards, and is sized in terms of gallons of fuel per hour. The pump pulls the fuel oil from the tank and sends it into the nozzle under, I believe, fairly low pressure. The ignition setup is a high voltage transformer (around 30,000 volts) conencted to a pair of electrodes situated in front of the nozzle. The blower force-feeds air into the burner head for better combustion. When the call for heat comes in, the burner head motor starts, pumping in fuel and forcing in air, and at the same time a nice spark appears across the electrodes. There is a fuel mist spraying out, it ignites, and the house gets warmer.

The first big difference from a compression ignition engine is that the fuel oil is ignited by an electrical spark instead of the heat of compression. So whatever it is you burn has to be able to be lit off that way.

Anecdotal stories I hear from the oil burner crowd is that burning WMO will plug the nozzle. I don't understand that piece of it. Maybe they are thinking of cases where the WMO is dumped as-is into the tank. I would be prefiltering mine as if for the Deuce.

I guess the other big issue is ensuring that the mix will light off. I can't see a 20% mix causing problems here, but I don't know for sure.

I once looked at a commercial waste-oil heater for my shop, and they pretty much followed the logic contained in the link provided above. They do preheat the WMO, and they use compressed air to pressurize the fuel going through the nozzle. They claim 'very little ash', they do need to be cleaned every year, but they also take the raw WMO just as it is drained from the sump.

 

[plym49]

I bet you could run 10-20% without modification. Especially if you could get tranny fluid or hydraulic oil. Another thing that would help is if the fuel tank is in a basement or other enclosure where it wasn't subject to arctic temperature swings like y'all get in Vermont. It gets pretty cold there in the winter.

My oil tank is in a small enclosed utility room that also houses my furnace. The temp is usually up around 90 degrees in there, just from the waste heat. So at least that is in my favor.

A friend of mine has a shop and only gets .20/gallon for his waste oil. It is WMO and WATF mixed together. He said I can have it as long as I don't spill any.

I would like to get some, get filtering as if for the Deuce, but use it in my home heating system since I don't really drive my Deuce that much.

 

[supermechanic]

I've been mixing waste motor oil with #2 fuel for use in a conventional burner for quite some time.
It works well if you are strict about what goes in your tank.
Beware of any source of 'free' or cheap oil, as it often contains water, antifreeze, and other crap.
Dual line system seems to work better, this is where a return line goes back to the tank, a great portion of oil gets recirculated as the burner runs, helps to mix the oil.
In my experience, about 25% used oil is the max for continued ,reliable ignition, more than that and you may need a nozzle heater.
Oil burner has 3 levels of filtration.
First is at the tank filter, next is the strainer inside the pump cover, final is the filter built into the nozzle.
Nozzle filter is an area of concern, as the sintered type filter will not take much gunk, find the nozzle that uses the fine metal mesh filter.
Next item to address is the tank filter.
General, model 1a-30 is the standard tank filter, upgrade to the General model 700, which is the commercial filter, it is about three times larger.
If you buy your tank filters in case lots, they can be had for around $3 each.
Filter inside the pump cover washes out with carb cleaner, if you are careful, you can re-use the same gasket at the pump cover many times.
Hope you find this helpful.

 

[Blind Driver]

To run 100% wmo, you'll need a preheated oil tank at 180* and a custom burner assembly. There's a Guy that makes it all turnkey, but I don't have his info available. I was going to do this mod by now, but I lucked in and got 120 gallons of offtoad diesel for free

 

[doghead]

If I were to supplement 20% of my heating oil with UMO, it would save me about $400/year in fuel expense.

To do this would cost additional money and time and effort(and mess). Factor in the desire to have a very reliable heating system, and I just don't see it being worth it.

If time and labor were not such an issue, making bio-diesel and supplementing with that, would be my first choice(better choice IMHO). But given the time, mess and expenses involved, the savings would be even less that using UMO, so you would need to supplement at least 50% of your annual fuel consumption to make a reasonable savings.

Manufactured waste oil furnaces/boilers/heaters are out there. Most are well designed and function well, but the fuel(UMO) still needs to be water free and filtered. I've never seen one that was as care free as a normal fuel oil system.

 

[spicergear]

A buddy of mine is an HVAC guy and totally heats his massive shop's radiant heat system with a boiler firing on WMO. It took him some trial and error but he's got it set now. Nice working on something with a warm cement slab under ya.

 

[plym49]

I've been mixing waste motor oil with #2 fuel for use in a conventional burner for quite some time.
It works well if you are strict about what goes in your tank.
Beware of any source of 'free' or cheap oil, as it often contains water, antifreeze, and other crap.
Dual line system seems to work better, this is where a return line goes back to the tank, a great portion of oil gets recirculated as the burner runs, helps to mix the oil.
In my experience, about 25% used oil is the max for continued ,reliable ignition, more than that and you may need a nozzle heater.
Oil burner has 3 levels of filtration.
First is at the tank filter, next is the strainer inside the pump cover, final is the filter built into the nozzle.
Nozzle filter is an area of concern, as the sintered type filter will not take much gunk, find the nozzle that uses the fine metal mesh filter.
Next item to address is the tank filter.
General, model 1a-30 is the standard tank filter, upgrade to the General model 700, which is the commercial filter, it is about three times larger.
If you buy your tank filters in case lots, they can be had for around $3 each.
Filter inside the pump cover washes out with carb cleaner, if you are careful, you can re-use the same gasket at the pump cover many times.
Hope you find this helpful.

That is really good advice, thank you very much. I anticipate running an unknown (percentagewise) mix of ATF and motor oil. There will be some incidental water or antifreeze. I plan on preparing the WMO as if I were going to run it in my Deuce. Does this sound ok?

 

[doghead]

The deuce will tolerate and has measures already in place(3 filters with drains and other cylinders to keep it running).

When your oil burner cad cell sees no flame, it shuts down. No limping by the bad spot.

You'll need to eliminate all water before adding the oil to your tank. Time and gravity in an alternate tank, is a good choice for water separation.

 

[Blind Driver]

That is really good advice, thank you very much. I anticipate running an unknown (percentagewise) mix of ATF and motor oil. There will be some incidental water or antifreeze. I plan on preparing the WMO as if I were going to run it in my Deuce. Does this sound ok?

You'll have to remove the water.

 

[plym49]

You'll have to remove the water.

Yes, preparation will entail filtering to 1 micron and water separation.

 

[m16ty]

I've never actually seen a HHO system. We don't have them around here. Natural gas only. Must be a northern thing.

I would look into it though if I could burn WMO.

 

[derby]

Your pump in the burner only runs at 80-120 psi. I think your idea would work, but I would not run that in my home furnace or my oil tank. I would experimented on a test furnace before you gunk up your primary source of heat. Your home oil burner should be serviced every year, a properly cleaned and adjusted oil furnace can get about 83% eff. and drops off as it gets dirty.

I have worked on the WMO burners at one of the local GM dealers. Let me tell you about ash... I almost filled a 35 gal drum full. It was a service nightmare ,it was always braking down (no it was not me) It might have had to do with the cat litter or cig butts and antifreeze in the tank and pancake filter.
What ever you do that fuel has got to be clean and no water.

Report back with pix!

 

[plym49]

Your pump in the burner only runs at 80-120 psi. I think your idea would work, but I would not run that in my home furnace or my oil tank. I would experimented on a test furnace before you gunk up your primary source of heat. Your home oil burner should be serviced every year, a properly cleaned and adjusted oil furnace can get about 83% eff. and drops off as it gets dirty.

I have worked on the WMO burners at one of the local GM dealers. Let me tell you about ash... I almost filled a 35 gal drum full. It was a service nightmare ,it was always braking down (no it was not me) It might have had to do with the cat litter or cig butts and antifreeze in the tank and pancake filter.
What ever you do that fuel has got to be clean and no water.

Report back with pix!

I am familiar with the WMO-only service station burners you are talking about. And yes, they produce a lot of ash but then they also take the nasty stuff as-is with out the fine filtering/water removal we are talking about here.

Nevertheless, I have always wondered why there is no ash when you burn WMO in a multifuel engine. Is it just better combustion? The prefiltering? Or, does ash indeed form but just get blown out?