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Waste Motor Oil / Just picked up a Reznor RA235 with a junk heat exchanger... build a boiler?
« on: September 08, 2017, 02:54:45 pm »
Hey guys... new to the forum but not to waste oil.
Ive been processing waste motor oil into fuel for our trucks for years... and with our stockpile continuing to grow (nearly 2k gallons on hand), figured I might as well get some other use out of it too.
So I scored a complete Reznor RA235 with external pump for $200. Went and picked it up... guy said it worked when he pulled it down but he removed it because he was upgrading (unit is 15+ years old) and the heat exchanger had some burn holes in it.
Got it home and pulled it apart. The burn chamber itself is in good shape... but the oval tubes under the chamber are rough. All 3 tubes have holes on the fan side of the unit.
Now... I'm planning for this season, to just patch it up and get it running to make sure everything works... however the unit is WAY too big for my shop. After doing some math... it would be plenty to heat both my shop.. and supplement my home.
To do that... I'm thinking boiler. I'll have to rebuild the heat exchanger completely next year for sure... so why not pull the working parts off the unit and either tracking down a used boiler unit or building one from scratch and converting it to be waste oil fired. A simple system with a single large heat exchanger in the main air handler in the house... and another heat exchanger in the shop.
Basically, build an outdoor waste oil fired boiler similar to the add-on wood fired boilers.
Does this sound plausible?
I'm curious what direction I should go to heat the water tank if I do this... either build a burn chamber with a water jacket (roughly 200-250g tank) or a stainless coil inside the burn chamber heating a remote (heavily insulated) 250 gallon tank. Which would be more efficient?
The burner will be controlled via a water temp thermostat.
In my mind.. it seems like a simple system/idea. The shop and house are roughly 50' from each other.. I figure build a small outbuilding in between to house the boiler and water tank, pumps, etc..
Am I crazy?
Thoughts?
Thanks guys
-Chris
Ive been processing waste motor oil into fuel for our trucks for years... and with our stockpile continuing to grow (nearly 2k gallons on hand), figured I might as well get some other use out of it too.
So I scored a complete Reznor RA235 with external pump for $200. Went and picked it up... guy said it worked when he pulled it down but he removed it because he was upgrading (unit is 15+ years old) and the heat exchanger had some burn holes in it.
Got it home and pulled it apart. The burn chamber itself is in good shape... but the oval tubes under the chamber are rough. All 3 tubes have holes on the fan side of the unit.
Now... I'm planning for this season, to just patch it up and get it running to make sure everything works... however the unit is WAY too big for my shop. After doing some math... it would be plenty to heat both my shop.. and supplement my home.
To do that... I'm thinking boiler. I'll have to rebuild the heat exchanger completely next year for sure... so why not pull the working parts off the unit and either tracking down a used boiler unit or building one from scratch and converting it to be waste oil fired. A simple system with a single large heat exchanger in the main air handler in the house... and another heat exchanger in the shop.
Basically, build an outdoor waste oil fired boiler similar to the add-on wood fired boilers.
Does this sound plausible?
I'm curious what direction I should go to heat the water tank if I do this... either build a burn chamber with a water jacket (roughly 200-250g tank) or a stainless coil inside the burn chamber heating a remote (heavily insulated) 250 gallon tank. Which would be more efficient?
The burner will be controlled via a water temp thermostat.
In my mind.. it seems like a simple system/idea. The shop and house are roughly 50' from each other.. I figure build a small outbuilding in between to house the boiler and water tank, pumps, etc..
Am I crazy?
Thoughts?
Thanks guys
-Chris