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Messages - Ronmar

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User Projects & Pictures / Re: help with my waste oil heater
« on: December 24, 2014, 02:30:21 pm »
Quote from: cowkllr on December 23, 2014, 05:14:18 pm
The two videos above this post is some testing I did today.  The primary burner in both videos has on 3 half inch holes and the half inch pipe thread hole that the oil drips in.  One is with the secondary burner with hole and another without.  Looks I got less smoke out of the tube without the holes.

Those videos look the same(have the same address also:)).

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User Projects & Pictures / Re: help with my waste oil heater
« on: December 23, 2014, 07:03:34 pm »
That video with the flame burning well above the pipe looks like you are making too much vapor for the ammount of air being admitted down at the bottom(running rich). Once the vapor leaves the top of the pipe, it has access to all kinds of fresh air.  How can it be smoking when it has access to all the air it can possibly want?  Answer: it is being overly cooled:) that and the air cannot reach into/mix with all the vapor before it cools below it's flame point. That is one of the reasons the Babbington burns so completely, it has air(and a lot of turbulence) inside and outside the fireball. That unburnt gas is just going to condense back into carbon in the exhaust and inside the main heat chamber.

Like any fluid that changes states, a tremendous ammount of heat energy is transfered in releasing the vapor(same as boiling water).  As an example the ammount of heat lost from an open topped water tank thru evaporation is many many times greater per square foot compared to the heat lost thru the uninsulated wall of the tank for the same surface area.  That oil vapor is carrying away a lot of heat before it burns to generate/release more heat. All That flame up there above the tube has nothing to catch or reflect the heat it is releasing from the gas, so that heat dosn't help to warm the incomming air and enhance combustion.  Ideally you want all the visible flame to be below the top of the pipe. That way all the heat released helps power the process.

One way you can easilly reduce the fuel vapor produced in a flat bottom pan is to add structure to the bottom of the pan that is tall enough to break the surface of the oil puddle. A handfull of large nuts or ball bearings comes to mind.  This will reduce the ammount of vapor produced so you can match it to the airflow. 

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User Projects & Pictures / Re: help with my waste oil heater
« on: December 21, 2014, 07:22:20 pm »
Yep, it is a tricky balance between airflow and fuel/gas produced.  Not only is the volume of air important, where it is applied, and how it mixes with the fuel is also important.  And of course more is not better as this can cool down the burner and effect how the gas is produced.  One thing I figured out pretty quickly is you better have the finished flue in place to experiment with.  Any changes to the flue mean that all that trial and error you did getting it to burn right probably just went out the window.  That is one of the best parts the gentelman in the above linked videos points out.  I think it is also good to plan on covering/enclosing the burner section in a box with a single air inlet that can be ducted to the outside. Depending on how well the building into which this is being installed is sealed, whether doors and windows are open and how far can really effect the draft in the flue.  If you duct in the combustion air, the state of windows and doors will have no effect on the burn.  It will also help keep the draft from one of these monsters from pulling cold air in thru evey leak in the envelope of the space you are trying to heat.  IT is also safer, if you work on vehicles and accidently spill fuel, the vapors on the floor are going to be drawn to this heater and could possibly be ignited by the burn pan, blowing off the aformentioned doors and windows in a gross and viscious fashion:)   

I have been playing with this type burner lately and it has been tricky to get it to burn consistently without adding forced air.  The main advantage of the forced air is the turbulence it can be made to create.  That is where the holes seem to work the best over other air inlet methods, They create more turbulence.  Some swirl in the burn also helps, but too much dosn't:)  What I found is the more noise it makes, the better it is usually running, but making changes is real hit and miss as it can be a lot of drilling just to find out it dosn't work any better, or works even worse... 

One thing I found is that a curved bottom burn pan is usefull.  Since the gas produced is a factor of the temperature and the size of the oil puddle in the pan.  In a curved bottom pan, the size of the puddle can be varied by flow rate to help taylor the gas produced to the available airflow for a clean burn.

Fuel flow can also be a problem.  Most of these I have seen have a jug feeding the burner from a shelf or bench.  Gravity while readilly available is not very consistent when powering a fluid that changes viscosity and flows better as it gets warm...  I ran into this when building my babbington.  As it warmed up, it would run away and required constant throttle adjustments.  I didn't want to use a fuel pump so I settled on a lightly pressurized fuel tank on the ground.  It seems to give me much more consistent oil flow as the garage warms up.

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User Projects & Pictures / My garage heater(babbington)
« on: December 20, 2014, 01:02:30 am »
New here, here is a project I built 2 years ago to heat the garage. Runs great, very clean burn when tuned properly.


The burner shoots down the center of a 6' long finned pipe and the exhaust exits out the short chimney.
The blower outside forces air along the outside of the 6' finned pipe to deliver warm air(300F) to the inside.  The burn tube is at a lower pressure than the fresh air around the outside so if there are any leaks they will allow fresh air to be forced into the burn pipe instead of the other way round.



The large regulator on the left is a Low Pressure regulator and is used to regulate fuel pressure(less than 1PSI) and fine tune the flame.  The small regulator on the right regulates air pressure to the nozzle(around 20 PSI).  There is a quick connect where I attach shop air when I am running the heater.  I took a door panel out of the overhead door and the door closes down over the metal plate. These pics were taken while I was adding fuel to the tank.


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Welcome Center / Hello
« on: December 20, 2014, 12:41:51 am »
Just found this place.  I have been researching and experimenting(mainly with babbington) for a few years now.  I made a forced air heater for my garage with a 6' long finned heat exchanger.  The burner is on the inside of the garage and shoots down the center of the finned 6' tube.  A blower on the outside of the garage pushes outside air along the outside of the heatexchanger pipe.  It outputs about 300F air into the garage and gets the temp from 30F to comfortable in about 1/2 hour or so.  I also pull in outside air with a computer fan to supply secondary air for the burn down the inside of the heat exchanger.

I built the babbington using a standard fuel oil nozzle with the filter and diffuser removed.  I don't use a fuel pump.  I put the fuel in a 3 gallon air pressure/compressor tank.  I have 2 regulators attached to the top of the tank.  One feeds the 25PSI to the nozzle. the other is a LP regulator and it pressurizes the airspace on top of the fuel.  I use a ball valve on the bottom of the tank to turn fuel on and off, and regulate air pressure in the tank to control fuel flow(less than 1 PSI) to tune the burn... I only deliver the ammount of fuel to the nozzle that it sprays and carefully position the stream so that there is no fuel bypassing the air jet(if there is, something is wrong:))  I have a small container to catch any that does.  Been running this setup for 2 years now and it heats the garage great.
Once I have a handle on attachments, I will post some pics.
Here is a link to a youtube vid of when I was developing the burner. Still gravity fed, before I came up with the pressure tank feed.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=3ACukFExR4I

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