Waste Oil Heater Forum - Your definitive source for burning waste oil for heat.
Waste Oil Heater => Fuel Oil Boilers => Topic started by: superduty_59 on November 27, 2015, 10:31:50 am
-
I have been reading here for at least a year. I joined Yahoo alt fuels furnace and have read a lot there. I have been planning in my head and need to make a move this year. I need some help with some of the design. I will build a 12'x14' shed the house a converted fuel oil boiler. I am craigslist shopping for a good used deal. Hopefully a good used (the more the complete the better) system. I am a diesel tech. I'm not totally ignorant when it comes to this stuff. I understand the basic stuff but maybe I'm forgetting something of a way to do it better.
1) build shed about 30-40' from the house. Trench about 48" down to run the pre-made insulated boiler pipe. 2x 1" pex insulated inside a 4" field tile. Probably need an electrical run and 2 communications wire run.
2) heat exchanger for using my existing forced air furnace and ducting. I want to use boiler as the primary heat source and my LP furnace as a back up.
3) purchase a used boiler and use a CK kit to convert to waste motor oil.
Is there any sites to look at for all the little stuff that I need? I need help with knowing all the other stuff. Pumps, closed system? expansion tanks. aqua-stats. mixers. ect.
any help would be awesome!
-
my local plumbing shop helped me with the closed system, expansion tank, air bleeders, aqua-stat. most of the other stuff is from outdoor wood boiler set ups. pumps, mixer valves thermostat control.
-
Thanks Doug. I kinda figured it would be similar to an OWB. I bet all those items add $ up to more than the used boiler. I do have a few pumps that I scavenged from some big (750-1250 kw) generators. Doug, what would be the minimum features in a basic system? Like aquastats, expansion tanks, ect. I'm trying to do this on a budget. I will not skimp on quality but may take longer to collect parts.
-
heat exchanger, aqua-stat, expansion, a couple air bleeders, and pump I have two ball valve for water lines in and up. water supply for closed loop system you'll need water valve, check valve, pressure valve. does your boiler have a pressure release valve?
are you planning heating your domestic hot water?
what kind of boiler did you buy?
welcome to the site.
-
Greetings superduty_59! Glad you stopped by to chat.
You can check my boiler project out here:
http://wasteoilheaterforum.com/index.php?topic=208.0
I tried to list as many of the parts and prices as I could, but see I missed some, like the expansion tank, air separator, etc... mostly plumbing parts.
I bought most of my plumbing supplies from the former Pex Supply, now Supply House:
http://www.supplyhouse.com/
A lot of the other items were purchased off of ebay.
If you dont mind sharing, start a thread in the User Projects & Pictures category. We would love to see what you put together.
Doug has a few years under his belt with some good experience with his boiler. If you have any other questions let us know and hopefully we can point you in the right direction.
Good luck and be safe!
-
Life happens! I got busy and a little lazy so the boiler project never got off the ground (still in the back of my mind) but never got started. Also I got a new project that took some of that time. I found a 100kw diesel 6bt Cummins generator as back up power for my house, cheap. I may use it to run as prime power (part-time).
I never did find a boiler. I almost got a few but either I was too late or it wasn't worth it. I'm still at step 1), finding a boiler. They are getting harder to find around here used. Everybody has switched to NG or LP. 2) I have an unlimited supply of used (diesel 15w40 and some syn natural gas 5w30) oil and I can control the quality of the oil. 3) Beckett burners are very common and cheap. I have seen a lot of good stuff on Riello burners and I think are easier to convert to waste oil. Tightwad Nik had a thread on the Riello but I don't think he has been on here in a while. I was hoping to see pics or video of his system. 4) It's that time of year again (cold and not looking forward to paying big $ for LPagain this year).
-
Hey, I hear ya. I usually dont get real interested in working on the boiler until it gets cold out. It hit -10F here last night, so I suppose that qualifies.
I always keep an eye out for boilers on craigslist, but like you said, they seem to be harder to find lately. I am waiting for that Buderus like Doug has to show up one day ;D.
It sounds like you have your supply figured out! Good luck on the search!
-
I also have been on the look out for a Buderus. I have heard it's the BMW's of boilers. What are some other best brands? Crown, Weil Mclain, slant Fin, Burnham, ect. What wouldbe second best? What state or area are you located in Russ. I'm in the northwest ohio region.
-
I like the Buderus because of its deep chamber which is good for waste oil burning. Most of the other brands are similar to my Burnham in shape, so I would imagine the burn chamber is similar as well. The one think I do like about my Burnham is that it has a swing open door that works well for cleaning. Take one bolt out and I have access to the nozzle for cleaning.
I am located in central Minnesota. At least we wont be competing for the same boiler on CL! ;D
-
one of the reasons i bought my boiler was the efficiency. when mine showed up on c/l a 400 plus mile trip there was a no brainer. super, your second choice maybe what you find available. super, if your west of Toledo we're not to far from each other.
-
Russ is your Burnham steel or a cast iron boiler?
Doug, yes I assume whatever brand of boiler comes along first and is a good deal will be the deciding factor. I probably will have to travel a good distance to find a good boiler but that's fine. Doug I'm a little south near Kenton.
-
I think it is cast iron, but I'm not for sure on that.
Not much for fuel oil furnaces or boilers on CL lately. I wonder if fuel oil being economical is the reason for that? Back when it was higher priced there were several to be found.
-
https://chautauqua.craigslist.org/for/5865049670.html
https://akroncanton.craigslist.org/for/5899035716.html
https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/bfs/5915942313.html
found these on c/l.
-
Doug, I saw the first two last night but that third one whooo mama that is a good deal but overkill for my house. Doug or Russ would you think the Riello would be just as easy to convert as a Beckett? I have heard that they are a very good burner.
-
the last one is really overkill. it's a great price. if your planning on using a ckburners heating block I would contact them and ask them about a riello burner.
i'm north of williams county
-
Doug, I contacted Craig at CKburners. He does not do kits for Riello burners. So now we know and can plan accordingly. Thanks
-
that's good to know about the riello and ckburner. hope ya find something soon. with the access to the amount of oil you can get it's too bad your not heating with it now. it's a great way to heat.
-
I hear you Doug. It's frustrating to know I have basically an unlimited supply of good quality used oil and can't take advantage of it yet and to top it off I just put $600 in my LP tank.
-
pm sent..
-
I found some 330 gallon IBC totes. I tought that if I had 2 of them they would make great waste oil storage tanks! Anybody think of a reason why these would not be a good idea? Thanks
-
I used one for a while, but it was too big for my needs. A friend of mine uses several. They seem to work well if you have the space and means to move them around if need be.
-
That's good to know Russ. I am planning to put at least 2 maybe more in my shed. The boiler will help preheat the oil to room temp. They will be semi-permanent. No need to move just fill. Judging by Doug's boiler he uses between 800-1200 gallons so 2-3 330 gallons totes will be a good start. Still just napkin drawings at this point. Still no boiler!
-
I found this on youtube! Russ feel free to move this to another section if you would like. Alomst exactly what I want to do and very similar to Doug's boiler system. He has parts for sale too.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QDYVOzWcvQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QDYVOzWcvQ)
-
That is a nice setup. Clever constant level tank. They are using a pump and the excess just flows back into the tank. Do you have email contacts for these people? We should invite them to this site. We need more people!