waste oil heaters

[bruce56bb]

we are thinking about putting one in our shop(automotive) and i was curious if anyone had any experience with them. there is about 3000 sq ft to heat and the doors go up and down a lot throughout the day.
my only resevation is where and how to store that much oil and how to cleanly transport it from the storage tank/barell to the stove.
thanks in advance
bruce

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

I dont think they even sell oil burners in this state, with the avaliblilty of waste oil, i think they should.

 

[Rhone]

I had to look into one for my brothers welding shop. I believe they simply use a couple regular oil tanks that houses that heat with oil use, usually 375 gallons each... you'd probably need about 3 of them. After changing the oil, you filter it and pour it in them. The waste oil heating system has a filter & a pump, that sucks the oil out of the tanks when needed. My brother got the idea from a salesrep, he'd just go around and take people's waste hydraulic fluid from companies that are just looking for anyone to take it, and also take the spent oil from all his friends & families cars in the area and use that for his heating. Here's a copy & paste of my e-mail to him:

"You need one that puts out a hell of a lot of BTU’s. For example, I can only guess your shop is 100 feet wide, 50 feet length you’d need 220,000 BTU’s/hr to heat it. Now, you want to keep it around 50/55. You have a shop and not even insulated so… ball park figure 220,000 BTU’s is the minimum I’d get for a waste oil furnace. Now, I see that one that makes 215,000 BTU’s per hour goes through 1.75 gallons of oil per hour. That’s 343 hours you can use it if you get 600 gallons of waste oil, if it goes on for only 4 hours a day that’s 85 days you could use it or almost 3 months and then you’re out of waste oil. At that rate 6 oil changes will give you about 3 hours of heat. You're not the only one that's going after companies for their waste hydraulic fluid either, we need a bat to fend off the people wanting ours. A car shop takes our waste hydraulic fluid and uses it to heat their facility along with the oil changes they do. But, you'll need some serious storage and be able to get your hands on some serious gallons."

I think it's a no brainer for you. You're in a car shop that does oil changes, how awesome is that to charge people to heat your place! Back then I calculated every 6 cars he changed the oil in, would let him use it for around 3 hours of heating. Your shop, is different and I don't know it's configuration or area but I think even if it partially heats the place it'll pay for itself pretty quick.

 

[Roospike]

we are thinking about putting one in our shop(automotive) and i was curious if anyone had any experience with them. there is about 3000 sq ft to heat and the doors go up and down a lot throughout the day.
my only resevation is where and how to store that much oil and how to cleanly transport it from the storage tank/barell to the stove.
thanks in advance
bruce

I guess you would need to know if you wanted a waste oil heater only for oil or oil added to wood kind of set up . We have a few local garages that have bought a waste oil heater that actually pull the used oil out of the barrel , cleans it and burns it with little smoke. The most work they do with it is put the drum over by the heater and put the hose into the barrel . I have seen it run but otherwise thats about all the information i have on that style. I have made about a dozen in the past for some shops that heat with wood and a steel oil line is added from a barrel to the wood stove to drip / run on top of the wood style . Most of the ones i have seen / made get purty hot so i would stay away from a "stove barrel" burning system that the stove its self is the barrel , Just not thick enough steel . An old propane tank would be a good project stove for an oil burner because of the thicker steel . It just kinda depends on how big of set up you want and how you want to burn & how much you will have to burn for a supply .

 

[Rhone]

I sure like the sounds of Roo's systems better that pumps direct from the drums. The one I saw had a huge tank built into the shop floor. They'd dump their waste into it and burn it. When it came time to try to sell the shop that's when the nightmare hit. They were required to remove the tank, I think by the EPA. That involved a jack-hammer blasting away the shop floor around a much larger area than the tank occupied because, they could not risk having the tank damaged in the process and leak oil. Once done, it had to be removed carefully, and then the ground tested for contamination. Afterward, the opening filled in and shop floor repaired. They probably wished they'd gone with the pump & filter that simply goes onto the waste oil drums instead of a tank.

You'll need a lot of oil, those waste oil heaters a small one usually burns around 2 gallons/hour a larger one around 3 because shops are generally big, high ceilings, and not insulated. Regardless, it will most likely be a very wise decision.

 

[bruce56bb]

spike, pretty sure our insurance would frown on barrel stove. right now it's between a reznor and a lanair.
interesting you should bring up the old propane tank, that was one of the things i was thinking about for storage. my idea is to have a tank outside and have it plumbed to the tank on the heater inside. any thoughts? one of my concerns is trying to pump 0* used oil.

 

[Roospike]

spike, pretty sure our insurance would frown on barrel stove. right now it's between a reznor and a lanair.
interesting you should bring up the old propane tank, that was one of the things i was thinking about for storage. my idea is to have a tank outside and have it plumbed to the tank on the heater inside. any thoughts? one of my concerns is trying to pump 0* used oil.

The tank outside is a good thought ...... who needs to take up the extra room , right . There again i think you answered your own statement on being 0° outside. Some of the bigger tanks i have seen are on the inside and are up high. normally a big tank will sit on a rack 6'-10' up in the air and the legs of the tank rack are turned into storage / shelves or such so in the end the space is not taken up from the tank. If you really wanted or had to have the tank outside then it could be enclosed to the building and vented to keep the small room warm .( just a thought )