let the fun begin

[doug]

no smoke during start up or while running. the burner was running in all of these pics.

[Russ]

Wow, wow, wow!  Nice setup Doug.

Can you tell me a little more about the metering pump?  What type of setup is that?

It looks to me like the oil comes out of the tank into some kind of box with a pump on it.  The pump almost looks like one on the side of a burner?  And then goes through some filters and to the boiler?

Thanks for the pictures.  Very nice.

[doug]

russ,

 it's a shenandoah variable speed metering pump. i got off ebay. from a company called central ohio heaters. there is some good information at there web site.  http://www.centralohioheaters.com/Parts.html  they sell all kinds of waste oil burning equipment and customer satisfaction is very important to them. at the time i bought the metering pump it was cheaper to buy it thur ebay than thur thier web site .

russ, good eye on the pump it is a suntec a2ra-7710 pump. it has no internal relief valve.

the oil comes from the tank into a 140 micron filter, the pump is the mentioned above powered by a 90 volt variable motor and controller. there are two gauges on the assembly. the first is a vacuum gauge checking the draw into the pump. lets you know if the first filter is getting too dirty. the second gauge measures the pressure at the final filter and nozzle which normally shows 1-2lbs of pressure. this would let you know if the filter or nozzle is getting dirty. the last filter is a spin on automotive filter that is rated a 40 microns. it does have a pressure relief valve that opens at 11lbs. i have found a spin on filter that doesn't have a relief valve and when this one gets drirty i'll put that one on.

doug

[Russ]

Thanks for the info.  I will have to look into that as I just picked up a boiler myself today.  After seeing your pictures I just had to do it 

More info to come...

What brand boiler are you using?  It looks new, or pretty new if not.

[koolkris]

doug is your oil draining out of the very bottom of your tank ?

[doug]

Russ,

It's a Buderus and it's 6 to 7 years old. It was in storage about half of that time.

Looking forward to your boiler project. Is it going to be an indoor or a shed boiler set up?

doug

[doug]

Koolkris,

The supply line is connected to the bottom of the tank with a riser inside the tank so the oil isn't drawn off the bottom.


I found this on altfuelfurnace and made something like it.

The second one is mine.


doug

[koolkris]

ok thats a good way to go !!! doug i sent u a pm

[doug]

One other change from corn to waste motor oil was to change the heating loop from an open system to a close low pressure loop system. The water supply to the loop is a shut off valve, check valve and pressure valve.

[Russ]

Hi Doug,

The boiler will be in the garage, but I will be piping the hot water in the house also.  Will just be heating the 4' crawl space below the house.  I will just let the heat find its own way up and see how that works.

You mentioned going from an open system to low pressure closed.  With the boiler I will be setting up, do I HAVE to make it closed?  My thought was to maybe use a couple of 55 gallon barrels for thermal storage.  Will the circulator pump stay primed as long as the in and out of the 55 gallon barrel is below the water level.  I dont know much about the water part of it, so there is some learning to do yet.

Thanks for the info...

[doug]

Russ,

Your garage will benifit from the heat the boiler puts off. My friend/plumber that was very helpful with my project talked about installing pex pipe underneath the subflooring in a house and what a great way it was to heat. But the flooring needed to be hardwood or tile for good transfer.

You can go open or closed. I choose to go with the closed system because of less maintainace. An open system loses a lot of water thur evaporation. There are benifits to a closed system.

doug

[Russ]

Hi Doug,

Just wondering, what retention head did you use on your burner?

I hear the stock ones arent the best and sounds like the Kagi ones are the way to go.  Not sure how much they are though.

Russ

[doug]

Russ,

Made mine from an old stainless steel microwave oven that I'd picked up to take the magnets out of. I used the Kagi rentention head as a pattern to make it.

doug

[Russ]

Looks like you did a good job on it.  I ordered a Kagi on Friday.  I dont know if I have the skills to build it myself.  Thanks for the info.

[doug]

Looks like you did a good job on it.  I ordered a Kagi on Friday.  I dont know if I have the skills to build it myself.  Thanks for the info.

Russ,

There are times where you, me and others don't give ourselves enough credit as to what we can do. This really was fairly easy to make. I almost bought one myself but for the money they ask for one I thought I'd could try to see what I could do myself.

doug