Rolling the dice on Heating Oil

[peakbagger]

Well I rolled the dice on Monday to buy 150 gallons of heating oil for my backup heating. I am in a rural area and we definitely do not get the best prices in New England as I am two hour drive from the terminals down near the coast with not much competition in the local area. One half hour east the price may be 20 cents cheaper but its over the state line and they claim they are not licensed to drive across into NH. So my cash price was $1.74 a gallon. This is about the least I have paid since I first built the house around 30 years ago. My observation is people wait to fill their tanks until a few cool nights in September and the price starts to drift up at that point so buy I it when its hot out. Time will tell if I hit the low point but expect the hurricane in the gulf will bump up prices.

Things have changed a lot in the house since the beginning. I started out with a 275 gallon tank and a Crown oil boiler with an old Fisher stove in the basement. I noticed the extreme seasonality in oil prices early on and installed a second 275 gallon tank. That covered me for an entire year. As I ramped up my wood use the yearly fills decreased to around 400 gallons per year for heat and hot water. The next big change was installation of a solar hot water system and the realization that my Crown cast iron boiler can be run as a cold start boiler (unlike many other cast iron boilers of the era). This dropped my usage to around 300 gallons a year as I ran off SHW directly from April to October with the boiler cold. Next change was my free wood boiler but that really did not make much of a dent as it just displaced my wood stove usage. I got 500 gallons storage for the wood boiler a few years later and that dropped me down to less than 100 gallons a year. I then added a cold climate minisplit and haven't bought oil for five years.

The only oil use now is winter conditions below about 20 degrees when I am away from home as my storage only buys me about 24 hours between burns when its really cold out. My system automatically fires the boiler and bypasses the storage when the storage temp drops so on rare occasions when I am out of town the boiler may run. I was down to about 50 gallons in one tank (the other is valved out) so expect this load will get me another 5 years. I do add biocide to the oil. I am tempted to remove the two standard oil tanks and put in the double contained poly 200 gallon vertical tank that take up less room but hard to justify.

Now I need to move wood my wood from the sunny side of my house into my woodshed for winter.

 

[ABMax24]

Is hauling it yourself in a tank worth while?

I used to work with a few guys from the east coast of Canada that could save enough money to make it worth while to haul themselves. A few families would go in together to buy a tank and they take turns hauling it.

When times were tough they'd even burn the heating oil in their diesel trucks, although there are possible legal issues with doing such a thing.

 

[peakbagger]

For my volume its not worth it. I think legally haul it over the road requires special incensing and insurance is required.

I have considered setting up a "plug in" separate fuel tank and return line for running heating oil in my Unimog when used off road. State troopers have hand held refractometers to look for the red dye trace in the fuel that they use to check fuel tanks. It is a big fine if there is a trace of red dye in fuel for road use. I think the additive package is different but my Unimog OM352 engine was designed to run just about anything that will burn.

 

[ABMax24]

For my volume its not worth it. I think legally haul it over the road requires special incensing and insurance is required.

I have considered setting up a "plug in" separate fuel tank and return line for running heating oil in my Unimog when used off road. State troopers have hand held refractometers to look for the red dye trace in the fuel that they use to check fuel tanks. It is a big fine if there is a trace of red dye in fuel for road use. I think the additive package is different but my Unimog OM352 engine was designed to run just about anything that will burn.

That's right, here we can haul 450 liters (118 gallons) without UN placards or falling under TDG requirements.

Supposedly they check around here for dyed fuel in vehicle tanks, although I've never heard of someone being checked let alone being caught. For the 9 cents a liter we could save it's just not worth the risk.

 

[Highbeam]

That's right, here we can haul 450 liters (118 gallons) without UN placards or falling under TDG requirements.

Supposedly they check around here for dyed fuel in vehicle tanks, although I've never heard of someone being checked let alone being caught. For the 9 cents a liter we could save it's just not worth the risk.

It's about a dollar per gallon savings here in WA from on road diesel to dyed HHO. I filled two 55 gallon drums at a time with red HHO(dual labeled as off road diesel) for use in my tractor and saved lots of money over the years. You can also buy the standard truck bed transfer tank to haul about 100 gallons at a time from wherever it's cheaper but barrels are cheaper than slip tanks and this is an occasional haul so looks aren't important.

 

[Bad LP]

It's about a dollar per gallon savings here in WA from on road diesel to dyed HHO. I filled two 55 gallon drums at a time with red HHO(dual labeled as off road diesel) for use in my tractor and saved lots of money over the years. You can also buy the standard truck bed transfer tank to haul about 100 gallons at a time from wherever it's cheaper but barrels are cheaper than slip tanks and this is an occasional haul so looks aren't important.

The newer tractors don't like off road fuel. I'm told the filters are too fine so in my John Deere 4720 I following the sticker and use low sulfur fuel.
I have a 95 4835 New Holland that for years was run on heating oil only. Surprisingly when I stopped using it and switched to low sulfur fuel it actually runs better. I wouldn't have believed it myself but I'm the only guy who has ever run the machine so its not like I wouldn't know the difference.

 

[JimBear]

Well I rolled the dice on Monday to buy 150 gallons of heating oil for my backup heating. I am in a rural area and we definitely do not get the best prices in New England as I am two hour drive from the terminals down near the coast with not much competition in the local area. One half hour east the price may be 20 cents cheaper but its over the state line and they claim they are not licensed to drive across into NH. So my cash price was $1.74 a gallon. This is about the least I have paid since I first built the house around 30 years ago. My observation is people wait to fill their tanks until a few cool nights in September and the price starts to drift up at that point so buy I it when its hot out. Time will tell if I hit the low point but expect the hurricane in the gulf will bump up prices.

I can’t speak for fuel oil but generally a summer fill on propane is significantly cheaper than waiting for fall when buying propane around here. It’s been my experience that having them come fill the tank in July/August is best, about Sept. 1 summer fill rates go away.

The newer tractors don't like off road fuel. I'm told the filters are too fine so in my John Deere 4720 I following the sticker and use low sulfur fuel.

According to the fella that delivers my brothers diesel the only difference in over the road & red dyed ( off road) is the red dye. Both are low sulfur. I also called the MFA lab & they confirmed what he said.

Supposedly they check around here for dyed fuel in vehicle tanks, although I've never heard of someone being checked let alone being caught. For the 9 cents a liter we could save it's just not worth the risk.

I know that it happens but in 10 years I have only been checked once & that was at a weight station in Broadus, MT; I was in a
1 ton pickup pulling a 35’ trailer. I have never been checked in the semi.
The DOT’s used to set up shop by a local sale barn a couple times a year, snag the fellas & check them before the got on barn property. It was mostly pickups they were checking.

 

[JimBear]

The newer tractors don't like off road fuel. I'm told the filters are too fine so in my John Deere 4720 I following the sticker and use low sulfur fuel.

As far as fuel filters go: CAT filters are very fine on the particulates. I could only run my primary about 5000 miles & it needed changing. My normal service cycle is 10k. I kept thinking I was getting bad fuel but had fueled at exclusively at only one place after the first occurrence, changed the filter then exclusively at a different place. I did this 3 times. Flushed my tank. Then had the rig in for some work at the local Peterbilt shop & inquired. They recommended not running CAT filters for the primary but did recommend them for the secondary. Apparently they were seeing the plugged primary CAT filters pretty regularly. After changing to a Baldwin primary filter I get to my normal 10k service point with no problems, no slobbering, stuttering or stalling at the most in-opportune times.

 

[Highbeam]

The newer tractors don't like off road fuel. I'm told the filters are too fine so in my John Deere 4720 I following the sticker and use low sulfur fuel.
I have a 95 4835 New Holland that for years was run on heating oil only. Surprisingly when I stopped using it and switched to low sulfur fuel it actually runs better. I wouldn't have believed it myself but I'm the only guy who has ever run the machine so its not like I wouldn't know the difference.

The red dyed HHO/off road diesel pump was labeled as low sulfur. You can't buy "regular " sulfur fuel anymore or I would have payed extra for it. Instead, I add 2 stroke oil for lubricity. My current diesel engines were designed pre ULSD and without lubricity additives, the injectors are very noisy.

 

[brenndatomu]

I add 2 stroke oil for lubricity. My current diesel engines were designed pre ULSD and without lubricity additives, the injectors are very noisy.

Some run ATF at 1 qt/15 gallons fuel for the same purpose...works pretty well I hear

 

[Highbeam]

Some run ATF at 1 qt/15 gallons fuel for the same purpose...works pretty well I hear

Atf is red. See the problem?

 

[brenndatomu]

Atf is red. See the problem?

Yeah, I suppose if its the same dye used...I don't think a quart in 15G would visibly change it though...

 

[peakbagger]

One of the arguments is the red dye stays in the system quite awhile. Reportedly fuel tankers may be used for dyed fuel one day and undyed the next day leaving some residual dye. Some folks were claiming that they were running road fuel that had residual red dye from the tanker.

 

[Highbeam]

Yeah, I suppose if its the same dye used...I don't think a quart in 15G would visibly change it though...

The fuel doesn't have to be visibly red. It's a miniscule amount of dye that can be detected in a lab somewhere and then you get a huge fine based on the size of your fuel tank in my state.

Even the previous owner of your truck could have run the red fuel and tainted the system forever.

 

[brenndatomu]

The fuel doesn't have to be visibly red. It's a miniscule amount of dye that can be detected in a lab somewhere and then you get a huge fine based on the size of your fuel tank in my state.

Even the previous owner of your truck could have run the red fuel and tainted the system forever.

Right...but do they use that same red dye in ATF? I would think they would use something unique to diesel fuel so it is more of a "gotcha" if your fuel tests hot...

 

[Highbeam]

Right...but do they use that same red dye in ATF? I would think they would use something unique to diesel fuel so it is more of a "gotcha" if your fuel tests hot...

I don’t know but the risk is big. I’ve never been checked myself but a coworker got caught.