@@ericyea6603 actually some concrete, dependant on it's mixture, lime etc,, can possibly eat through the copper line. Don't panic it's kinda a rare thing, but it can happen, , just be sure that your floor where the line is isn't Staind! I would suggest if you have the money replace it with an "encased" oil line, preferably 1/2 over 3/8, but 3/8 is normal!
Im 52yrs old and embarrassed to say i didnt know til recently heating oil and diesel were the same! I always thought heating oil looked kinda like motor oil. Lol
For the folks that don't know, heating OIL is actually Diesel or some may call it Off Road Diesel. I'm a Hazmat Truck Driver, and I have delivered this product for many winter seasons here in Maryland!
@@ZKRITTEX in the US red diesel is the same as heating oil. theyre both just diesel fuel dyed red to indicate its not taxed for highway use. Kerosene is usually only used as a supplemental heating fuel in the US.
fun fact, around 20% of all german homes are heated with heating oil. even 40% in bavaria and some other states. Also the red dye nowadays is mostly there for differentiation. to counter tax evasion the additive "Solvent Yellow 124" is added, which cannot be removed easily and can be detected in very small quantities. prices in europe fluctuate with the global oil market around 40-90 euro-cents/liter of heating oil, which is around half to one third the price of diesel for cars and trucks.
Fun fact. In Poland which is Germany neighbour less than 0,01% of homes uses heating oil. In 1999-2003 people were tricked to buy oil burners by low oil prices. After 10 years additional taxes were put on oil and the oil price were doubled. People returned to coal and some moved to gas. This year gas prices raised about 70% and people are being tricked into heat pumps. Waiting for electric energy prices to sky rock 🤣
@@lucian0221 I don’t know about Germany, but as an owner and driver of a truck in the United States, over the road highway trucks they rarely check. But trucks used for agriculture where they have access to large amounts of off-road diesel they check them more often. The thing about trucks driving across multiple states, is that you have to Report to IFTA the amount of fuel you’re buying in each state and how many miles you drive in each state. You also must keep the fuel receipts on file as proof. So if you ever get an audit they would be able to see if you purchase off-road fuel. If you don’t buy enough fuel in a particular state For the amount of miles you drive In that state you must pay fuel taxes for the Fuel you should’ve bought based on the mileage. I’ve never heard of them checking fuel in cars,but unlike Europe we don’t have many diesel cars.
Was an oil burner tech for over 25 years and have worked on natural gas for about five years. Have not worked on any systems running on gasoline. Oil, natural gas and propane are safe and, if the oil burner is set up properly, both run clean. The only thing you can really adjust on today’s gas systems is the gas pressure unless you are using a power burner. On oil you can adjust the pump pressure, air gate and in some, the draw assembly. Oil systems are pretty much customizable. You buy the boiler and then choose the burner, circulators, zone valves or flow check valves. High or low voltage thermostats. On furnaces the burner is usually the only choice made. If you know what you are doing you can really dial oil in to great efficiency, although condensing systems in oil aren’t as popular as gas units. But condensing systems are designed to work with lower temperature water. So you have to install radiant or new more efficient terminal units in your home. If you are using your old baseboard the retuning water will be well above dew point and all will have is a real expensive non-condensing boiler. So like I said, the adjustment ability really makes oil great. But it can also make them awful. If your mechanic is setting the flame by eye instead of a combustion tester you will waste oil by running to lean or too rich, too rich and you will be living in soot city. And it will make excessive CO wether set too rich or too lean. 80% gas units are pretty much set it and forget it. The combustion test still needs to be done but it will most likely hit the numbers it’s supposed to right out of the box. Condensing gas units are harder to dial in than oil because gas guys don’t do it. You need the right mixture gas and oxygen to be right or you are back to an expensive non-condensing system. As far as which one is cheaper you need to do some math. Divide price of a gallon of oil by around 130,000 btus and divide the price of a therm of gas by 100,000 btu (both gas and oil btus are an estimate.) Both are very safe. If the oil system fails to light a safety will shut it down in between 5 and 90 seconds depending on the type of safety. The gas will try for only a few seconds and then recycle. Any gas that comes out will be drawn up the chimney unless it’s propane. If it is propane it will fail and not restart until you reset I. It’s possible for your gas system to fail while your sleeping and restart before you wake up. You wouldn’t even know you had a problem…yet.
Great explanation. I have been working on hvac equipment for about 15yrs. Haven't done a lot with fuel oil furnaces. They are not very common in the st louis area any longer. I have removed a lot of them and worked on only a handful.
I live in PA and do my own oil burner service (clean soot out of chamber and pipes, change filters at tank and pump, clean/replace nozzle, clean/replace electrodes, drain radiators and refill). Companies charge like $300 for annual service. I don't do combustion test but what I lose in efficiency I more than make up for saving the $300.
I wonder if the issues from running overlean (if the system is otherwise running correctly) could be corrected by having a secondary combustion chamber or something. Also, wouldn't an advanced oil burner with a way to sense the air density (i.e. temperature, pressure and humidity) at the intake be able to burn at the correct mixture all the time? I suppose it could, but nobody's ever done that because it can be static adjusted and be 95% right, 95% of the time.
@@mattfoley6082 If you can get an exhaust tester I'd consider it. Or at least somehow rig up an automotive wideband oxygen sensor, if you know how to read one.
technically, diesel and heating oil are the same, but nowadays, the diesel fuel is much more refined than heating oil and most car companies won't accept warranty repairs if the engine was fed heating oil.
One thing I like about home heating oil is you get more heat per gallon and you can burn a lot of other things in there besides (usually. Check your manual first). This is nice in an emergency. Same for a wood burner. What I _don't_ like about it that if you are storing it for more than two years time it can go bad. It's also pretty toxic compared to LP gas. This is what I like about propane. Propane is good in storage for decades. It also burns a _lot_ cleaner. But it's more expensive and less energy per gallons.
@@FJB2020 That is an excellent point. I know you can get Oil Furnaces as high as 90% but if you don't maintain the furnace it looses efficiency. In some areas you can't even find anyone that will work on them. HVAC guys hate the soot
@@FJB2020 gas only wins with condensing systems and most people with boilers don’t upgrade their terminal units. Gas is a winner when it comes to condensing furnaces. But only if the gas/oxygen mix is right. Too much air turns them into very expensive non-condensing furnaces.
@@FJB2020 Factor in that you'll need a new gas furnace every 10-15 years when the heat exchanger rots or cracks. While oil furnace will last your life time and a monkey could rebuild/service a beckett burner. All parts at hardware store or Amazon, almost everything interchangeable on different burners. I can go to the gas station at 2 am if i run out of fuel. I'm also going to smell exhaust before carbon monoxide gets me and no explosion hazard like LP. To each their own though.
I bought my first house 10 years ago that has heating oil. I have a 500 gallon tank. I have a woodstove insert and i usual offset the use of oil with it. I burn wood from noon till bed time. Have oil set to fire when inside house temp gets to 70 which is usaly about 2 or 3am.. In summer when your not using oil heat its best to top off your tank. That way condensation will not build up inside of tank and rust the inside of tank out.
I used to deliver home heating oils in Alaska. There they use both #1 diesel (jet fuel) and #2 diesel (regular pump diesel) Jet fuel has a much lower gel point than regular diesel, sometimes we do a mix.
Lol heat for a year... I have one tank and in the coldest part of winter it would probably last 3 weeks (I have it filled in 2 weeks to keep it from being too low). But great video!
Really depends where you live, if you dont already have one look into an outdoor reset, best $200 you can spend that saved me about 25% of my oil every year
I have customers that will only use one tank a year, rare, but it happens, some burn wood so in some cases that's a big difference, others are just cheap, etc.. lol Then there are some places that I have to go every two weeks, great for the oil man bad for the customer, lol. I've never heard of a trooper pulling over a truck and testing the tank 4 color around here, but, at some of those weigh stations I've heard that at times there's someone actually from the internal revenue department that sticks the tanks, if there's Red fuel, you have to get a certified person to remove it and put the proper diesel in, then they fine you I think per gallon plus whatever else they can add-on. Rare but there's been times I've run out of diesel with the oil truck,, and trust me, I'm not walking with cans looking for a diesel station. I'm sure you understand what I mean! lol Normally I do always fill up and pay the tax. Thank you so much for the video, you hit it right on the money every step! Looking for a job? 😊
Used to have oil in previous house and can't be more happier to have NG in the new house. Oil was always way more expensive and I could smell it in the basement (yes it was an updated system). Not to mention it requires more maintenance and level monitoring/ delivery process is another thing to worry about
We have Rinnai NG wall heaters. Very little maintenance, and far, far cheaper than red diesel. I lived in Maine for 5 years, and heating a home was cost prohibitive on red diesel, it was the second largest bill next to rent. Having been from Montana, and living here again, red diesel isn't a thing here, nobody uses it for heating. NG is literally 1/4 or less the cost of red diesel. It's combined with your electric bill, which can be set to a stable average monthly payment, and doesn't need to be physically delivered by truck. Red diesel heat is keeping a lot of northern New Englanders poorer than they need to be.
I use a 220,000 BTU torpedo heater for my shop. I used to use diesel to run it, but it ejected a very small amount of soot, but most annoying were fumes and the cost. Clear kerosene was not an option at 9.00/gal. Found out heating oil, (stove oil in the pacific nw) is about 3.75/gallon. Since you are burning fuel there are fumes but the shop is large and doesn’t have insulation so not too bad. Will run it to break the chill then shut it down. Not ideal, but it’s cheap and it works in a pinch. Been doing this for three years so no, I’m not going to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
it's not the CO that's the problem. These oils give off ultrafine particulate that goes directly through your lungs into your blood, and appears to cause heart disease.
Funny story from Hungary: it was the same dying process here until the 90s, (amd heating oil eas cheaper than diesel) then criminals started to “bleach” the heating oil to make it the same colour as the diesel fuel, and sold it. It became a serious crime with thousands of people involved. Then after these years: there is no cheaper price for the heating oil anymore, both are priced the same. So basically nobody uses oil for heating here anymore. More here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_bleaching
That was an international issue. Same here in Slovakia and same kind of fraud was popular in Czech rep. I am nod familiar with the current situation and pricing. I believe however that even agricultural vehicles were allowed to use the so called red diesel fuel.
Iron Fireman units were Bit coal burners, weren’t they? I put in a dual fuel Keystoker in 2019, I burn oil for hot water in the summer and Anthracite in the winter.
Thank you very much for posting this video! Finally! someone has stepped up to the plate and exposed the dangers of heating with gas. I'm a licensed Oil Heat technician, and have been working with Oil Heat systems for close to 35 years, and I tell my customers to never switch to gas. I'm going to refer them to this video and send them a link so they can watch it. Again, thank you very much for posting this video. As a side note, I can add a few more reasons why people should stay with Oil Heat, but that's for another day and time.
why would I ever use petrol to heat? methane and propane are a little more dangerous, but also they'll work in cookstoves. have you ever heard of a diesel cookstove? i could make one, but you won't like it.
Fun fact. You can add used filtered diesel oil into red dyed diesel to make it black 🙂 also during a state of emergency (usually lasting a month) red dyed diesel is allowed to be used in on road vehicles.... The dye will last many tanks later. 🙃
Now tell the viewers that it costs about $400 a month to heat a family home in a cold northern state with red dye and diesel fuel, vs. about $60 a month for natural gas. You also have to schedule deliveries rather than it being piped into your home continuously. No thanks. I'm not giving up an extra 20% of my income and have to worry about running out, when the delivery man can make it, having to remember to check a gauge on a tank frequently, calling people, etc. Nope. Been there, done that. Worst heating method ever. It's part of the reason why people in New England live paycheck to paycheck. One more reason to dread winter. One of the worst aspects of living somewhere that doesn't have natural gas. I can't imagine ever going back to that.
Right. Growing up in NY I remember the tanks in the basement and my dad working extra shifts to get that sucker filled. We usually ended up using the kerosene heaters because it cost so much to fill those oil tanks . This was late 70s early 80s.
I rented a farm fresh out of college with a oil tank. Never again, it cost nearly half my pay during the winter to heat it. I sealed most of the house up and used the buck stove rather than feed that bastard another winter. Significant reason that fuel oil is a deal breaker on homes for me.
@UCWpMzxMMRNYLZk_RVA16-PQ $2,000 a year is an insane amount to pay just for heat. That's 12 months of heat/electric and water combined for me, in a house built in 1887 in Montana.
We just moved from an apartment with natural gas to a home with oil and the oil is still at half a tank and I bought the house with 5/8 of a tank and I've been here almost 10 months. Hula paying very high bills in the apartment with natural gas
@SaltMinerOU812 The natural gas is probably also heating the water and maybe even running the stove. You're running them on electric (more expensive than gas) and oil is only heating the house. You must not live in a cool climate. Are you sure you had natural gas and not propane before?
I had a yr 1971 oil fired boiler. In 2005 I put in a new Becket burner like the one in your video. Increased efficiency and saved $$. Should have done it long before then!
I was able to get cheap heating oil from HVAC companies. When they changed out oil to gas, heat pump or propane, I would buy all the oil they pumped out of the old tanks they delivered to me. I had 750 gallons of storage.
Screw using heating oil, if you can afford to buy an alternative method like a mini split ot heat pump go that route. Oil price is going to be through the roof. Find a better thing to heat the house . In other countries they are using it and is far better.
I don't disagree about cheaper options, I have a small heat pump I put in here th-cam.com/video/kEWzIfnIhUw/w-d-xo.html ideally if I could add solar that would be one of the best options of all.
Well. I installed two heat pump at home and that has been my primary heat source. I kept on looking at the price for oil and just to add 150 gallons it will cause me a whooping 450 . So i said i will stick to heat pump till it gets super freezing . Testing mode now.
@Larry Butler True. How, there's a divide between unleaded and diesel. The demand for big trucks is not going to decrease, the demand for electric big rigs is not quite there yet. If people switch from diesel passenger cars to electric, which could go either way, diesel is already more fuel efficient, but people who drive that might be seeking fuel efficiency. Gasoline prices will drop with the increase in electric cars, if that demand outpaces reductions in available crude supply. However, decreased demand for diesel will probably lag behind decreased demand for gasoline. Unfortunately. For people who use red diesel for heat at least. Convince major trucking companies to convert to electric rapidly, and that could be a different story completely. Diesel used to be cheaper than gasoline, 20-30ish years ago. It could happen again, but not with trucking in such high demand.
I'm just 2 min in and I'm already learning crusial information about boilers. Thank you for making this vid! You're awesome! And very knowledgeable! 😎🙏🏼
I get my oil burner serviced maybe every 5 years. They vacuum out spider webs, clean the nozzle and change the filter. The nozzle definitely doesn’t need to be replaced yearly, I'm 22+ years in with no replacement.
Filter changes are the most important part. If you do nothing else, regular oil filter changes will save a lot of problems. Every 5 years is pushing it tho. I don't like seeing people go more than 2.
Do you service your oil burner yourself? Would love to see a video on that to save a lot money on something that’s not difficult at all. Just a little dirty, but I know you love that!
Very well done. Explained clearly and concisely. I learned that heating oil is the same as diesel. I thought it was a lower grade of fuel; more like kerosene.
I have an oil heating system and it runs off kerosene. I do have another tank with red diesel for my tractor and lawn mower. Kerosene is cheaper than red diesel also in the UK
@@arnoldcaines9012 Also kerosene burns hotter than red diesel,and is slightly thinner. Iam sure kerosene would kill a road car over time. Red diesel on the over hand is fine as long as you ADD a cleaning additive to the mix.BUT you would be in trouble with police over using NON TAX fuel on the road.
Heating oil systems require significantly more maintenance and costs for it to be safe. LNG and Propane has multiple failsafes in the system. While it's true that cutting a gas line inside the house can lead to an explosion, black pipe isn't going to puncture by something sharp falling on it. The same can't be said for old heating oil tanks or the line to the burner. Also, LNG is substantially cheaper than Oil.
@@doughill5487 My parent's have both. The house was built with fuel oil heating in the 60's. They added gas (propane?) many years later when converting the fireplace to gas logs. Both have to be hauled to the house as there are no pipelines. (The farm tractor is gasoline, so they just keep track of gas used in the tractor for end-of-year taxes.) Once a year, usually in the summer when oil is cheaper, the local oil company fills all the tanks.
It doesnt get safer than oil. Can literally toss matches on it...Oil burners dont have fail safes? If there is no flame, it shutsdown thanks to the 'cad' cell and controller. Maintenance? 5$ filter and 5$ nozzle and 20 minutes. A monkey could service a beckett style burner. Better than a cracked exchanger every 10-15 in your gas unit...
CL-ty6wp yep I do all my own maintenance on the Beckett burner. Changing a filter is easier than changing a car filter. I recently had to replace the controller but a friend of mine told me about a $60 one with an LED readout as opposed to $140 Howell. Just a little extra wiring involved and that's it It was worth the savings and every time it fires up it gives you the cad cell ohm reading
As a professional and certified oil heat technician, why would you not remove the electrodes when changing the nozzle? You take a large risk of breaking those porcelains by not removing them.
Truck driver here. I've been pulled over once for a diesel fuel check. The cop dipped what looked to be a clear, 2 foot straw into my fuel tank and withdrew it to reveal the colour of the fuel. Thankfully, I fuel up at commercial cardlocks and the colour was normal. If the fuel had been purple, I would have been in big trouble.
Many insurance companies won't even deal with you if you have oil heat in Canada. In fact. Where I live in northern Canada there is no company's left that will deliver oil. So anyone left on oil was forced to convert to propane. Not to mention oil is $5.70 per gallon.
I respect your love of heating oil but I will take natural gas any day. A properly piped system won't leak and petroleum spills are a big deal. Natural gas is also amazingly safe with a small flammability range of 5 to 15%. With natural gas I can heat my water and my house plus dry my clothes, cook my food and have a gas fireplace and a gas stove in the garage and in my bedroom. It is extremely versatile and I have virtually an unlimited supply and never have to worry about running out. Then there's the cost! Home heating oil runs upward of $22 per million BTU with natural gas at $5. It was $2 just last year. I think if you had a choice, and you likely don't in NE, you would choose natural gas any day.
This is all true, and natural gas is a cheaper, cleaner fuel if you have it available. However, it's been artificially low in price for a while because the US has so much of it as a byproduct of other refining. This is changing as climate agreements are made and pipelines are shutdown/not permitted. I wouldn't plan on NG being as cheap as it has been ever again. The writing is on the wall for super high taxes on fossil fuels to help pay for 'cleaner' alternatives. The best bet will probably be heat pumps with a fossil fuel backup for super cold days.
You have a good knowledge of oil burners and heating oil. Were you ever in the trade? I'm a plumbing and heating contractor and am quite familiar as well. 👍🏻
Very nice of you to say, no years ago I tried to resolve some burner issues and was never able to hire anyone that seemed to give a crap so I spent a lot of time, bought instruments, etc to do it myself. I don't recommend people do their own work for this area since it can be illegal depending where you live but these burners are sometimes on kilns, etc that may not be regulated.
Fun fact: the btu content per volume of #2 heating oil is higher than diesel. If you set the appliance up to run on heating oil, it will likely run fine on diesel, but will have too much air (lean). If you set a burner up on diesel, then switch to #2, you may have sooting problems as th fire will have too little air (rich). It may be fine either way, but there is an actual difference between diesel and #2.
Had no idea heating oil wasn't more popular, everyone on my block is oil heat. Just need to call my HVAC guy every fall to change the filter. Only downsides are burning fossil fuels and pretty big price swings year to year.
Installed a Mitsubishi four head three ton mini-split system in my house in august, 2020. Heated the house on the coldest day here on Long Island, around 15 degrees. Most of the time it was much warmer. My first summer was great but I struggled with humidity. Turned out that by running all four heads the system ramped way down and the coils were warmer so they didn’t remove humidity. This summer I only used the 1-1/2 ton head in the living room during the day and left all doors open. Humidity went from 70% down to 50%. Had to raise the temperature from 68 degrees to 73. At night we used the head in that room and shut it off when we got up. Solar panels are next. Then maybe an electric car. Will keep one that runs on gas though.
@@stephanmussehl7425 A properly installed heat pump from a reputable brand will give you 15-20 years of service. Most companies offer 10 year compressor warranty.
We got those diesel furnaces where I work. Problem is when they sit all summer, the injectors get clogged and the hvac company has to fix or replace them every winter.
Being tech savvy, I’m surprised you’ve not yet embraced ground source heat pumps. For one unit of energy to power compressors, pumps and fans, you’ll extract and move 4 or 5 freebies. Tapping the heat right under your yard! Perhaps a video on upgrading your heating, cooling and domestic hot water systems? Can all be done through the heat pumps. I enjoy watching your videos. Keep up the great work.
Back in the1980's when I was stationed in Korea we had to spend time away from our base due to a runaway closure, we were set up in "tent city" at another location and they had diesel oil heaters in the tents. Toasty warm but was always afraid that the tents would go up in flames. IT was a barrel sort of affair with a pipe out the top of the tent. Don't remember how the oil went into the heater.
I never knew anything about this this was truly helpful man I appreciate you friend!! I want to build a house and use heating oil it seems like a great substitute
Great explanation about fuel oil, but the title is how oil is supposed to be "better than gas". Not really explained. Propane can be delivered anywhere, lasts literally forever in the tank and can be made to modulate the size of the flame. Oil is almost always grossly oversized for the actual heatloss of a residential structure. Therefore it shortcycles and is much less efficient than gas...either propane or natural. Also that nice sheetmetal tank is the basement can leak and make a real mess of things. As well as taking up real-estate inside the home. Gas is either piped (natural) or is in an outside tank (propane).
Gas, especially propane, has a higher moisture content that number 2 heating oil, more moisture in your fuel equals an unclean burn, check out propane burners offer a few years completely rotten and usually in need of replacement, plus a lower BTU output than number 2 heating oil.
@@stephanmussehl7425 I am both an oil and propane heating tech. Gas equipment is made of stainless steel. Oil makes soot, plenty of it in most cases. Gas can also soot of course, but I believe your arguement is a moot point. There is more water produced from a gas flame due to the better thermal properties and lower flue temps. The byproducts of oil combustion are much more acidic, sulfuric acid with oil, vs carbonic acid with gas.
this video helped me alot because i wanted to do oil to gas conversion on my house, and the gas company is alot of hassle they jave to dig up alot and the oil company they dont have to dig up they just have to put the furnance and thats it.
@@da_blade5040 Not sure where oil doesnt burn clean comes from. Should be 0 smoke in flue or out chimney if burner has been set up correctly. If they burned dirty people with oil furnace would sweep their chimneys. They dont.
The word "gas" is overloaded. The fluid you used is petrol, usually called gasoline in the US and here in Canada. It has a high vapour pressure and can be lit easily, which is useful for Otto-cycle engines but makes it difficult to store. The word also refers to various gaseous fuels: methane, which is usually stored as a cryogenic liquid, and propane, which is familiar to urban users as being stored at room temperature and at very high pressure as a liquid in white cylinders. Alberta recently had an Arctic blast that was so cold to where propane was liquid at outdoor temperature and pressure. Both methane and propane are stored as liquids but used as gases. Petrol is technically used as a gas as well, because liquids technically don't burn, but for our purposes petrol is used as a liquid. Offroad diesel/heating oil, as you demonstrated, has a much lower vapour pressure.
Thanks for that. Can you do a video explaining all of the ball valves on the boiler and the correct positions they should be in? Maybe how to purge the lines and basic homeowner troubleshooting. Would be nice to see it from a person who doesn’t mock homeowners for trying. I have a similar setup and am afraid to touch anything.
Thanks. I live in CA where all resources used to heat a home are taxed. Electricity, natural gas and propane. I've been thinking about retiring in Michigan or Wisconsin. Its nice to learn that heating oil (kerosene) is not taxed.
1 delivery being enough for an entire year? We needed 5 deliveries a year when I was young. I got it down to 2 via energy efficiency measures before getting a heat pump installed. We were using at least 90 gallons of heating oil per year on domestic hot water.
It’s dyed diesel, aka, off-road diesel, aka heating oil. It can be used in powered units or pony motor units that are used exclusively off road. I’m a landlubber so I can’t speak about off shore.
@@ryangreenley4818 I kinda thought that was a given? Dyed diesel is regular ol diesel with dye. It’s so the ol DOT can easily see if you’re “stealing” by not paying your fair share to the legalized mob.
Some years ago, the police visited a regional farm exhibition and stuck sticks down diesel pickup trucks fuel tanks and found several trucks with red fuel.
Interested in knowing the electrical current,voltage and draw rate of the power necessary for these igniters. Do they run continuously while heating or does the fuel need constant electricity to prevent run on. As he mentioned a hot tank or plate perpetually reigniting. Also would a ballast of a temperature gradient material(steel,iron or ceramic) in the center of the tank retain some heat to augment heating?
The ignitor is a step up transformer. They put out between 10,000 volts and 20,000 volts, with very low current. Newer ones don't run continuously. Older ones do.
I have an old danesmoor 15/19 heatslave that's been in our house for years and years, always serviced regularly and has been super reliable. to go with that is a large 1200 litre tank that when full can last up to year. here in u.k though as with many countries the cost of oil is shooting up rapidly. to compensate we had an up to date room Stat installed as it didn't before so that should save a chunk in fuel.
I think buildings in Colder areas should have redundant heating. Geothermal when available, then electric backup, then oil. The good thing about heating oil is it's stable for about two years and is great if electricity is unavailable or limited.
The yearly price of electric heat is outrageous, the price of installing geothermal equipment on an already existing building is outrageous, why would those be a better solution than heating oil?
From what I've learned, heating oil furnaces take a lot more maintenance than say natural gas but they are less expensive because there's just less moving parts. Also heating oil is stored in a tank in the home so it has to be filled periodically. Natural gas is piped in so it refills forever. So basically natural gas = less hassle. Both require electricity to run the furnace but I have a non-venting natural gas heater that doesn't use any electricity to operate as emergency backup heat.
Best part about gas to the house is then you can tie in the cooking stove and water heater. Having had oil heat for years it sucks, especially if you have buried tanks and run the risk of them leaking.
@@ghost2coast296 well oil leaking in the ground requires soil remediation and is very expensive. Natural gas is mostly methane and doesn’t require remediation of surrounding areas.
Friend of mine in northern Wisconsin pays over 4 dollars a gallon smaller 2 bedroom home costing well over 2 thousand dollars a year. Go Propane cleaner and 1/3 of price
Yes because diesel and heating oil is pretty much the same thing. You can use it for off road diesel engines. Those diesel heaters will run just fine on heating oil. It is illegal to drive a diesel vehicle with red fuel.
I find it strange that you have to replace the nozzle, a metal, non-moving part, once a year. Couldn't you just clean it by soaking it in a bit of acetone or something?
Yes you can clean it, I have an oil furnace that has not run in 20+ years in my garage and it would not work so I took the nozzle out and cleaned it with brake cleaner and compressed air and now it works great.
When I was in grade school a house near the school blew up. It was so powerful it blew the front door of the hinges on the house across the street. Gas leak.
Growing up in a rural area (one of the lowest population densities in the US), almost every farmer and rancher was running ORD in their pickups. The cops really don't care.
this happened across the city from us, and it woke us up, sounded like the wind catching a heavy wooden door and slamming it, also a laundromat gas line blew up, near us too
Love my oil heat.. it's like right now hot and I've rewired the electrics so as long as I have oil in my tank, and gasoline for my generator I can have heat. My next go around I'm going to use a hybrid heat-pump/oil system just to save a little oil on "cool" days. Super bad-day plus-side is I can technically get heating oil at the gas station(diesel fuel) right by my home. Granted it's expensive but if I'm at that point, I don't care.
If I remember right, a natural gas Therm is 100KBTU, while a gallon of diesel is about 130KBTU, so compare the local prices for each, including the amortized monthly Natural gas hookup cost and the oil delivery cost.
Not really. The effort to do so would negate the tax savings. Also diesel trucks nowadays need much more refined diesel to run due to higher spec fuel systems for efficiency.
get a box of kitty litter and funnel with something like cheese cloth and pass it through that shit and it will come out clean, may take a few passes. act accordingly
Thanks for watching please LIKE & SUBSCRIBE - For an overview of a boiler fired by oil & tips watch: th-cam.com/video/5GbXgEYw5TE/w-d-xo.html
Is it okay that my oil lines aren’t protected by concrete?
Thank you!
Not tryn to be rude but that's not a "pump" it's a fuel unit, it Actually doesn't "pump" oil 😁
@@ericyea6603 actually some concrete, dependant on it's mixture, lime etc,, can possibly eat through the copper line. Don't panic it's kinda a rare thing, but it can happen, , just be sure that your floor where the line is isn't Staind! I would suggest if you have the money replace it with an "encased" oil line, preferably 1/2 over 3/8, but 3/8 is normal!
Im 52yrs old and embarrassed to say i didnt know til recently heating oil and diesel were the same! I always thought heating oil looked kinda like motor oil. Lol
For the folks that don't know, heating OIL is actually Diesel or some may call it Off Road Diesel. I'm a Hazmat Truck Driver, and I have delivered this product for many winter seasons here in Maryland!
Here in the U.k it's called red diesel and it's used for farming vehicles. Heating oil has a yellow colour and it's called Kerosene.
Yup. Whenever I run out of heating oil I'll grab a container of diesel just to survive the night.
@@ZKRITTEX in the US red diesel is the same as heating oil. theyre both just diesel fuel dyed red to indicate its not taxed for highway use. Kerosene is usually only used as a supplemental heating fuel in the US.
@@ZKRITTEX kerosene is a different chemical.
That’s what I thought it was. Red dye diesel
fun fact, around 20% of all german homes are heated with heating oil. even 40% in bavaria and some other states. Also the red dye nowadays is mostly there for differentiation. to counter tax evasion the additive "Solvent Yellow 124" is added, which cannot be removed easily and can be detected in very small quantities. prices in europe fluctuate with the global oil market around 40-90 euro-cents/liter of heating oil, which is around half to one third the price of diesel for cars and trucks.
Hast du schonmal erlebt, dass die Polizei oder Irgendjemand kontrolliert hat, ob man Heizöl getankt hat?
Fun fact. In Poland which is Germany neighbour less than 0,01% of homes uses heating oil. In 1999-2003 people were tricked to buy oil burners by low oil prices. After 10 years additional taxes were put on oil and the oil price were doubled. People returned to coal and some moved to gas. This year gas prices raised about 70% and people are being tricked into heat pumps. Waiting for electric energy prices to sky rock 🤣
You remove the dye by running it through cat litter and then activated charcoal.
@@lucian0221 I don’t know about Germany, but as an owner and driver of a truck in the United States, over the road highway trucks they rarely check. But trucks used for agriculture where they have access to large amounts of off-road diesel they check them more often. The thing about trucks driving across multiple states, is that you have to Report to IFTA the amount of fuel you’re buying in each state and how many miles you drive in each state. You also must keep the fuel receipts on file as proof. So if you ever get an audit they would be able to see if you purchase off-road fuel. If you don’t buy enough fuel in a particular state For the amount of miles you drive In that state you must pay fuel taxes for the Fuel you should’ve bought based on the mileage. I’ve never heard of them checking fuel in cars,but unlike Europe we don’t have many diesel cars.
We get natural gas here in tx for like 7 cents a gallon
Was an oil burner tech for over 25 years and have worked on natural gas for about five years. Have not worked on any systems running on gasoline. Oil, natural gas and propane are safe and, if the oil burner is set up properly, both run clean.
The only thing you can really adjust on today’s gas systems is the gas pressure unless you are using a power burner. On oil you can adjust the pump pressure, air gate and in some, the draw assembly. Oil systems are pretty much customizable. You buy the boiler and then choose the burner, circulators, zone valves or flow check valves. High or low voltage thermostats. On furnaces the burner is usually the only choice made.
If you know what you are doing you can really dial oil in to great efficiency, although condensing systems in oil aren’t as popular as gas units. But condensing systems are designed to work with lower temperature water. So you have to install radiant or new more efficient terminal units in your home. If you are using your old baseboard the retuning water will be well above dew point and all will have is a real expensive non-condensing boiler.
So like I said, the adjustment ability really makes oil great. But it can also make them awful. If your mechanic is setting the flame by eye instead of a combustion tester you will waste oil by running to lean or too rich, too rich and you will be living in soot city. And it will make excessive CO wether set too rich or too lean.
80% gas units are pretty much set it and forget it. The combustion test still needs to be done but it will most likely hit the numbers it’s supposed to right out of the box.
Condensing gas units are harder to dial in than oil because gas guys don’t do it. You need the right mixture gas and oxygen to be right or you are back to an expensive non-condensing system.
As far as which one is cheaper you need to do some math. Divide price of a gallon of oil by around 130,000 btus and divide the price of a therm of gas by 100,000 btu (both gas and oil btus are an estimate.)
Both are very safe. If the oil system fails to light a safety will shut it down in between 5 and 90 seconds depending on the type of safety. The gas will try for only a few seconds and then recycle. Any gas that comes out will be drawn up the chimney unless it’s propane. If it is propane it will fail and not restart until you reset I.
It’s possible for your gas system to fail while your sleeping and restart before you wake up. You wouldn’t even know you had a problem…yet.
Great explanation. I have been working on hvac equipment for about 15yrs. Haven't done a lot with fuel oil furnaces. They are not very common in the st louis area any longer. I have removed a lot of them and worked on only a handful.
They're safe so long as the reset hasn't been pushed 50 times and filled the thing with fuel. Then you could be in for a wild ride.
I live in PA and do my own oil burner service (clean soot out of chamber and pipes, change filters at tank and pump, clean/replace nozzle, clean/replace electrodes, drain radiators and refill). Companies charge like $300 for annual service. I don't do combustion test but what I lose in efficiency I more than make up for saving the $300.
I wonder if the issues from running overlean (if the system is otherwise running correctly) could be corrected by having a secondary combustion chamber or something.
Also, wouldn't an advanced oil burner with a way to sense the air density (i.e. temperature, pressure and humidity) at the intake be able to burn at the correct mixture all the time? I suppose it could, but nobody's ever done that because it can be static adjusted and be 95% right, 95% of the time.
@@mattfoley6082 If you can get an exhaust tester I'd consider it. Or at least somehow rig up an automotive wideband oxygen sensor, if you know how to read one.
technically, diesel and heating oil are the same, but nowadays, the diesel fuel is much more refined than heating oil and most car companies won't accept warranty repairs if the engine was fed heating oil.
Heating oil is the United States is all sold ULSF these days
@@ML-lg4ky Not true
In New York State they are exactly the same.
It is exactly the same in NYS. The only difference is the color it was dyed. In fact, in NY most places sell bio diesel which is 10% recycled oils.
There's also farm diesel. What are the differences between farm, heating and road diesel?
One thing I like about home heating oil is you get more heat per gallon and you can burn a lot of other things in there besides (usually. Check your manual first). This is nice in an emergency. Same for a wood burner. What I _don't_ like about it that if you are storing it for more than two years time it can go bad. It's also pretty toxic compared to LP gas.
This is what I like about propane. Propane is good in storage for decades. It also burns a _lot_ cleaner. But it's more expensive and less energy per gallons.
@@FJB2020 That is an excellent point. I know you can get Oil Furnaces as high as 90% but if you don't maintain the furnace it looses efficiency. In some areas you can't even find anyone that will work on them. HVAC guys hate the soot
@@FJB2020 gas only wins with condensing systems and most people with boilers don’t upgrade their terminal units. Gas is a winner when it comes to condensing furnaces. But only if the gas/oxygen mix is right. Too much air turns them into very expensive non-condensing furnaces.
@@FJB2020 Factor in that you'll need a new gas furnace every 10-15 years when the heat exchanger rots or cracks.
While oil furnace will last your life time and a monkey could rebuild/service a beckett burner. All parts at hardware store or Amazon, almost everything interchangeable on different burners. I can go to the gas station at 2 am if i run out of fuel.
I'm also going to smell exhaust before carbon monoxide gets me and no explosion hazard like LP.
To each their own though.
I bought my first house 10 years ago that has heating oil. I have a 500 gallon tank. I have a woodstove insert and i usual offset the use of oil with it. I burn wood from noon till bed time. Have oil set to fire when inside house temp gets to 70 which is usaly about 2 or 3am..
In summer when your not using oil heat its best to top off your tank. That way condensation will not build up inside of tank and rust the inside of tank out.
You can also add a water dissolving additive to your oil 😁 I do on occasion just to keep the tank clean
I used to deliver home heating oils in Alaska. There they use both #1 diesel (jet fuel) and #2 diesel (regular pump diesel)
Jet fuel has a much lower gel point than regular diesel, sometimes we do a mix.
Here in NY gas companies that sell heating oil will have it a dollar more than off road diesel. That's where they get ya
I can imagine this guys wife saying" Honey stop. Don't take apart the furnace for your video!"
That’s why he replaced the nozzle, he knew he’d need an excuse lol
Actually this video was her idea. Cymbal dreaded having it apart again
Lol heat for a year... I have one tank and in the coldest part of winter it would probably last 3 weeks (I have it filled in 2 weeks to keep it from being too low). But great video!
Really depends where you live, if you dont already have one look into an outdoor reset, best $200 you can spend that saved me about 25% of my oil every year
Thank you. That 'one tank for a whole year' statement took my attention.
we have a tank in our basement that lasts for 3 years ;-)
Also live in Mass, 5 - 6 tanks a heating season
I have customers that will only use one tank a year, rare, but it happens, some burn wood so in some cases that's a big difference, others are just cheap, etc.. lol Then there are some places that I have to go every two weeks, great for the oil man bad for the customer, lol.
I've never heard of a trooper pulling over a truck and testing the tank 4 color around here, but, at some of those weigh stations I've heard that at times there's someone actually from the internal revenue department that sticks the tanks, if there's Red fuel, you have to get a certified person to remove it and put the proper diesel in, then they fine you I think per gallon plus whatever else they can add-on. Rare but there's been times I've run out of diesel with the oil truck,, and trust me, I'm not walking with cans looking for a diesel station. I'm sure you understand what I mean! lol Normally I do always fill up and pay the tax. Thank you so much for the video, you hit it right on the money every step! Looking for a job? 😊
Used to have oil in previous house and can't be more happier to have NG in the new house. Oil was always way more expensive and I could smell it in the basement (yes it was an updated system). Not to mention it requires more maintenance and level monitoring/ delivery process is another thing to worry about
We have Rinnai NG wall heaters. Very little maintenance, and far, far cheaper than red diesel. I lived in Maine for 5 years, and heating a home was cost prohibitive on red diesel, it was the second largest bill next to rent.
Having been from Montana, and living here again, red diesel isn't a thing here, nobody uses it for heating. NG is literally 1/4 or less the cost of red diesel. It's combined with your electric bill, which can be set to a stable average monthly payment, and doesn't need to be physically delivered by truck.
Red diesel heat is keeping a lot of northern New Englanders poorer than they need to be.
I use a 220,000 BTU torpedo heater for my shop. I used to use diesel to run it, but it ejected a very small amount of soot, but most annoying were fumes and the cost. Clear kerosene was not an option at 9.00/gal. Found out heating oil, (stove oil in the pacific nw) is about 3.75/gallon. Since you are burning fuel there are fumes but the shop is large and doesn’t have insulation so not too bad. Will run it to break the chill then shut it down. Not ideal, but it’s cheap and it works in a pinch. Been doing this for three years so no, I’m not going to die from carbon monoxide poisoning.
it's not the CO that's the problem. These oils give off ultrafine particulate that goes directly through your lungs into your blood, and appears to cause heart disease.
Used oil burner.
Funny story from Hungary: it was the same dying process here until the 90s, (amd heating oil eas cheaper than diesel) then criminals started to “bleach” the heating oil to make it the same colour as the diesel fuel, and sold it.
It became a serious crime with thousands of people involved.
Then after these years: there is no cheaper price for the heating oil anymore, both are priced the same.
So basically nobody uses oil for heating here anymore.
More here:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_bleaching
Why is that labelled as being a criminal though? Isn't is all about money? How is that morally acceptable? Fuck laws if they aren't moral.
@@JackRR15 so they cheated with tax a lot, but agree
@@peterkiss7742 tax is theft
That was an international issue. Same here in Slovakia and same kind of fraud was popular in Czech rep. I am nod familiar with the current situation and pricing. I believe however that even agricultural vehicles were allowed to use the so called red diesel fuel.
@@bassam_salim a small amount of tax is alright but taxes today are ridiculous.
Good video. My company just recently stopped rebuilding parts for Iron Fireman burners. Good videos on the topic, One of the better ones.
Iron Fireman units were Bit coal burners, weren’t they?
I put in a dual fuel Keystoker in 2019, I burn oil for hot water in the summer and Anthracite in the winter.
Thank you very much for posting this video! Finally! someone has stepped up to the plate and exposed the dangers of heating with gas. I'm a licensed Oil Heat technician, and have been working with Oil Heat systems for close to 35 years, and I tell my customers to never switch to gas. I'm going to refer them to this video and send them a link so they can watch it. Again, thank you very much for posting this video. As a side note, I can add a few more reasons why people should stay with Oil Heat, but that's for another day and time.
why would I ever use petrol to heat?
methane and propane are a little more dangerous, but also they'll work in cookstoves. have you ever heard of a diesel cookstove? i could make one, but you won't like it.
One of the best random TH-cam suggestions I've had in a while!
Fun fact. You can add used filtered diesel oil into red dyed diesel to make it black 🙂 also during a state of emergency (usually lasting a month) red dyed diesel is allowed to be used in on road vehicles.... The dye will last many tanks later. 🙃
Now tell the viewers that it costs about $400 a month to heat a family home in a cold northern state with red dye and diesel fuel, vs. about $60 a month for natural gas. You also have to schedule deliveries rather than it being piped into your home continuously.
No thanks. I'm not giving up an extra 20% of my income and have to worry about running out, when the delivery man can make it, having to remember to check a gauge on a tank frequently, calling people, etc. Nope. Been there, done that.
Worst heating method ever. It's part of the reason why people in New England live paycheck to paycheck. One more reason to dread winter. One of the worst aspects of living somewhere that doesn't have natural gas. I can't imagine ever going back to that.
Right. Growing up in NY I remember the tanks in the basement and my dad working extra shifts to get that sucker filled. We usually ended up using the kerosene heaters because it cost so much to fill those oil tanks . This was late 70s early 80s.
I rented a farm fresh out of college with a oil tank. Never again, it cost nearly half my pay during the winter to heat it. I sealed most of the house up and used the buck stove rather than feed that bastard another winter. Significant reason that fuel oil is a deal breaker on homes for me.
@UCWpMzxMMRNYLZk_RVA16-PQ $2,000 a year is an insane amount to pay just for heat. That's 12 months of heat/electric and water combined for me, in a house built in 1887 in Montana.
We just moved from an apartment with natural gas to a home with oil and the oil is still at half a tank and I bought the house with 5/8 of a tank and I've been here almost 10 months. Hula paying very high bills in the apartment with natural gas
@SaltMinerOU812 The natural gas is probably also heating the water and maybe even running the stove. You're running them on electric (more expensive than gas) and oil is only heating the house. You must not live in a cool climate. Are you sure you had natural gas and not propane before?
I had a yr 1971 oil fired boiler. In 2005 I put in a new Becket burner like the one in your video. Increased efficiency and saved $$. Should have done it long before then!
Just be sure to fire the burner properly to achieve maximum savings
Can't wait for technology connections 17 part series on these bad boys
This made me laugh so much!
I was able to get cheap heating oil from HVAC companies. When they changed out oil to gas, heat pump or propane, I would buy all the oil they pumped out of the old tanks they delivered to me. I had 750 gallons of storage.
Steve Lav has taught me all I need to know about oil powered heating systems.
Steve is my hero. He’s awesome
Screw using heating oil, if you can afford to buy an alternative method like a mini split ot heat pump go that route. Oil price is going to be through the roof. Find a better thing to heat the house . In other countries they are using it and is far better.
I don't disagree about cheaper options, I have a small heat pump I put in here th-cam.com/video/kEWzIfnIhUw/w-d-xo.html ideally if I could add solar that would be one of the best options of all.
Well. I installed two heat pump at home and that has been my primary heat source. I kept on looking at the price for oil and just to add 150 gallons it will cause me a whooping 450 . So i said i will stick to heat pump till it gets super freezing . Testing mode now.
@Larry Butler how clean does it burn? Smoke comes out chimney ?? Or just a vapor??
It was the second largest bill next to rent when I had to use it. I'm surprised more New Englanders don't freeze to death each year from the cost.
@Larry Butler True. How, there's a divide between unleaded and diesel. The demand for big trucks is not going to decrease, the demand for electric big rigs is not quite there yet.
If people switch from diesel passenger cars to electric, which could go either way, diesel is already more fuel efficient, but people who drive that might be seeking fuel efficiency.
Gasoline prices will drop with the increase in electric cars, if that demand outpaces reductions in available crude supply. However, decreased demand for diesel will probably lag behind decreased demand for gasoline. Unfortunately. For people who use red diesel for heat at least.
Convince major trucking companies to convert to electric rapidly, and that could be a different story completely.
Diesel used to be cheaper than gasoline, 20-30ish years ago. It could happen again, but not with trucking in such high demand.
That’s a great explanation video. I thought fines would have been higher for using died fuel in a truck.
I agree. I figured it would be a $5k fine or more since they want to scare you but not yet I guess
How clean is it, though?
I'm just 2 min in and I'm already learning crusial information about boilers. Thank you for making this vid! You're awesome! And very knowledgeable! 😎🙏🏼
I get my oil burner serviced maybe every 5 years. They vacuum out spider webs, clean the nozzle and change the filter. The nozzle definitely doesn’t need to be replaced yearly, I'm 22+ years in with no replacement.
Filter changes are the most important part. If you do nothing else, regular oil filter changes will save a lot of problems.
Every 5 years is pushing it tho. I don't like seeing people go more than 2.
@@kyleh1974 That and should vac out the exchanger.
Do you service your oil burner yourself? Would love to see a video on that to save a lot money on something that’s not difficult at all. Just a little dirty, but I know you love that!
You always have great videos. You're like a twin of Project Farm
That is very kind of you, he is next level on me, but I really appreciate the compliment.
Shout out to Todd
Very well done. Explained clearly and concisely. I learned that heating oil is the same as diesel. I thought it was a lower grade of fuel; more like kerosene.
That's... What you took from this...
🤣
I have an oil heating system and it runs off kerosene.
I do have another tank with red diesel for my tractor and lawn mower.
Kerosene is cheaper than red diesel also in the UK
@@johnwalton1137 interesting.
@@arnoldcaines9012
Also kerosene burns hotter than red diesel,and is slightly thinner.
Iam sure kerosene would kill a road car over time.
Red diesel on the over hand is fine as long as you ADD a cleaning additive to the mix.BUT you would be in trouble with police over using NON TAX fuel on the road.
RP-1? Lol rocket kerosene.
Heating oil systems require significantly more maintenance and costs for it to be safe. LNG and Propane has multiple failsafes in the system. While it's true that cutting a gas line inside the house can lead to an explosion, black pipe isn't going to puncture by something sharp falling on it. The same can't be said for old heating oil tanks or the line to the burner.
Also, LNG is substantially cheaper than Oil.
When you factor cost per BTU, LNG isn't that much cheaper. Also, no one would have oil heat if they had access to gas.
@@doughill5487 My parent's have both. The house was built with fuel oil heating in the 60's. They added gas (propane?) many years later when converting the fireplace to gas logs. Both have to be hauled to the house as there are no pipelines. (The farm tractor is gasoline, so they just keep track of gas used in the tractor for end-of-year taxes.) Once a year, usually in the summer when oil is cheaper, the local oil company fills all the tanks.
It doesnt get safer than oil. Can literally toss matches on it...Oil burners dont have fail safes? If there is no flame, it shutsdown thanks to the 'cad' cell and controller. Maintenance? 5$ filter and 5$ nozzle and 20 minutes. A monkey could service a beckett style burner.
Better than a cracked exchanger every 10-15 in your gas unit...
CL-ty6wp yep I do all my own maintenance on the Beckett burner. Changing a filter is easier than changing a car filter. I recently had to replace the controller but a friend of mine told me about a $60 one with an LED readout as opposed to $140 Howell. Just a little extra wiring involved and that's it It was worth the savings and every time it fires up it gives you the cad cell ohm reading
As a professional and certified oil heat technician, why would you not remove the electrodes when changing the nozzle?
You take a large risk of breaking those porcelains by not removing them.
Maybe he's not a softie like you and has confidence in his hand tool skills.
@@mdlabor43 🙄
Generally only a large leak can cause a gas explosion. Concentration has to reach 4 or five percent that is unlikely unless a large Lin is broken.
Wow! Very informative. I just had my oil burner tuned up today. Your video was helpful to understand how my oil burner actually works. Thanks!
You'd be a great neighbor to have nearby because you are so knowledgeable on many topics.
Truck driver here. I've been pulled over once for a diesel fuel check. The cop dipped what looked to be a clear, 2 foot straw into my fuel tank and withdrew it to reveal the colour of the fuel. Thankfully, I fuel up at commercial cardlocks and the colour was normal. If the fuel had been purple, I would have been in big trouble.
Never knew they'd check
Many insurance companies won't even deal with you if you have oil heat in Canada. In fact. Where I live in northern Canada there is no company's left that will deliver oil. So anyone left on oil was forced to convert to propane. Not to mention oil is $5.70 per gallon.
2.95 a gallon right now in Massachusetts
I respect your love of heating oil but I will take natural gas any day. A properly piped system won't leak and petroleum spills are a big deal. Natural gas is also amazingly safe with a small flammability range of 5 to 15%. With natural gas I can heat my water and my house plus dry my clothes, cook my food and have a gas fireplace and a gas stove in the garage and in my bedroom. It is extremely versatile and I have virtually an unlimited supply and never have to worry about running out. Then there's the cost! Home heating oil runs upward of $22 per million BTU with natural gas at $5. It was $2 just last year. I think if you had a choice, and you likely don't in NE, you would choose natural gas any day.
This is all true, and natural gas is a cheaper, cleaner fuel if you have it available. However, it's been artificially low in price for a while because the US has so much of it as a byproduct of other refining. This is changing as climate agreements are made and pipelines are shutdown/not permitted. I wouldn't plan on NG being as cheap as it has been ever again. The writing is on the wall for super high taxes on fossil fuels to help pay for 'cleaner' alternatives. The best bet will probably be heat pumps with a fossil fuel backup for super cold days.
When theres a disaster of some kind you will have to worry about running out LOL
You have a good knowledge of oil burners and heating oil. Were you ever in the trade? I'm a plumbing and heating contractor and am quite familiar as well. 👍🏻
Very nice of you to say, no years ago I tried to resolve some burner issues and was never able to hire anyone that seemed to give a crap so I spent a lot of time, bought instruments, etc to do it myself. I don't recommend people do their own work for this area since it can be illegal depending where you live but these burners are sometimes on kilns, etc that may not be regulated.
@@SilverCymbal I’m sure you also learned a lot from Steve Lav, he has a ton of oil videos
@@mrpanos923 I most certainly have, he is the master of many things, but most definitely of oil!
Love your videos, they're always so informational while being entertaining!!
Very nice of you to say, I really appreciate it
Great video. So interesting and well explained. Really like the additional information about diesel fuel. I had no idea. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
So glad you liked it, thnak you for the kind words
very informative, my oil heater works very well and keeps my house warm with no problem.
So if I buy one of those Chinese diesel powered space heater, I can use home heating oil in it?
Fun fact: the btu content per volume of #2 heating oil is higher than diesel. If you set the appliance up to run on heating oil, it will likely run fine on diesel, but will have too much air (lean). If you set a burner up on diesel, then switch to #2, you may have sooting problems as th fire will have too little air (rich). It may be fine either way, but there is an actual difference between diesel and #2.
Seriously good information.
I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Had no idea heating oil wasn't more popular, everyone on my block is oil heat. Just need to call my HVAC guy every fall to change the filter. Only downsides are burning fossil fuels and pretty big price swings year to year.
Installed a Mitsubishi four head three ton mini-split system in my house in august, 2020.
Heated the house on the coldest day here on Long Island, around 15 degrees. Most of the time it was much warmer. My first summer was great but I struggled with humidity. Turned out that by running all four heads the system ramped way down and the coils were warmer so they didn’t remove humidity.
This summer I only used the 1-1/2 ton head in the living room during the day and left all doors open. Humidity went from 70% down to 50%. Had to raise the temperature from 68 degrees to 73. At night we used the head in that room and shut it off when we got up.
Solar panels are next. Then maybe an electric car. Will keep one that runs on gas though.
@@brianmahoney154 yeah, high end heat pumps will be more cost effective then any other heating solution. If only the fact was better known.
@@Dirty_Bear22 until repairs are needed, then it gets pricey
@@stephanmussehl7425 A properly installed heat pump from a reputable brand will give you 15-20 years of service. Most companies offer 10 year compressor warranty.
We got those diesel furnaces where I work. Problem is when they sit all summer, the injectors get clogged and the hvac company has to fix or replace them every winter.
Being tech savvy, I’m surprised you’ve not yet embraced ground source heat pumps. For one unit of energy to power compressors, pumps and fans, you’ll extract and move 4 or 5 freebies. Tapping the heat right under your yard! Perhaps a video on upgrading your heating, cooling and domestic hot water systems? Can all be done through the heat pumps. I enjoy watching your videos. Keep up the great work.
Heatpumps are serious buisness.
Yes, good point. It's always cheaper to MOVE heat than to CREATE heat.
@@mattfoley6082 Heat pumps are still getting hot air from the surrounding area, which can be an issue in some cases
We had oil heat until about 2004 and switched to gas backed heat pumps.
Back in the1980's when I was stationed in Korea we had to spend time away from our base due to a runaway closure, we were set up in "tent city" at another location and they had diesel oil heaters in the tents. Toasty warm but was always afraid that the tents would go up in flames. IT was a barrel sort of affair with a pipe out the top of the tent. Don't remember how the oil went into the heater.
When you were talking about it I was thinking it behaved alot like the bio diesel I made in chemistry forever ago.
I never knew anything about this this was truly helpful man I appreciate you friend!! I want to build a house and use heating oil it seems like a great substitute
look in to heat pumps
@@jadoncampbell2740 Heat pumps are only more efficent in certain climates, and they are nowhere near as reliable as a gas or oil system.
Great explanation about fuel oil, but the title is how oil is supposed to be "better than gas". Not really explained. Propane can be delivered anywhere, lasts literally forever in the tank and can be made to modulate the size of the flame. Oil is almost always grossly oversized for the actual heatloss of a residential structure. Therefore it shortcycles and is much less efficient than gas...either propane or natural. Also that nice sheetmetal tank is the basement can leak and make a real mess of things. As well as taking up real-estate inside the home. Gas is either piped (natural) or is in an outside tank (propane).
Gas, especially propane, has a higher moisture content that number 2 heating oil, more moisture in your fuel equals an unclean burn, check out propane burners offer a few years completely rotten and usually in need of replacement, plus a lower BTU output than number 2 heating oil.
@@stephanmussehl7425
I am both an oil and propane heating tech. Gas equipment is made of stainless steel. Oil makes soot, plenty of it in most cases. Gas can also soot of course, but I believe your arguement is a moot point. There is more water produced from a gas flame due to the better thermal properties and lower flue temps. The byproducts of oil combustion are much more acidic, sulfuric acid with oil, vs carbonic acid with gas.
Great job on your information.
this video helped me alot because i wanted to do oil to gas conversion on my house, and the gas company is alot of hassle they jave to dig up alot and the oil company they dont have to dig up they just have to put the furnance and thats it.
The problem with gas is, it might burn cleaner but it generates less BTUs then oil! BTUs are the measurement of heat produced when burned .
@@da_blade5040 Not sure where oil doesnt burn clean comes from. Should be 0 smoke in flue or out chimney if burner has been set up correctly. If they burned dirty people with oil furnace would sweep their chimneys. They dont.
The word "gas" is overloaded. The fluid you used is petrol, usually called gasoline in the US and here in Canada. It has a high vapour pressure and can be lit easily, which is useful for Otto-cycle engines but makes it difficult to store. The word also refers to various gaseous fuels: methane, which is usually stored as a cryogenic liquid, and propane, which is familiar to urban users as being stored at room temperature and at very high pressure as a liquid in white cylinders. Alberta recently had an Arctic blast that was so cold to where propane was liquid at outdoor temperature and pressure. Both methane and propane are stored as liquids but used as gases. Petrol is technically used as a gas as well, because liquids technically don't burn, but for our purposes petrol is used as a liquid.
Offroad diesel/heating oil, as you demonstrated, has a much lower vapour pressure.
Thanks for that. Can you do a video explaining all of the ball valves on the boiler and the correct positions they should be in? Maybe how to purge the lines and basic homeowner troubleshooting. Would be nice to see it from a person who doesn’t mock homeowners for trying. I have a similar setup and am afraid to touch anything.
We have just installed an oil boiler to replace electric heating and it is so efficient.
Thanks. I live in CA where all resources used to heat a home are taxed. Electricity, natural gas and propane. I've been thinking about retiring in Michigan or Wisconsin. Its nice to learn that heating oil (kerosene) is not taxed.
Liberals killed Cali. If you're a leftist stay put. You made your bed, now sleep in it.
@@rickfromthecape3135 Ain’t that the truth.
@@rickfromthecape3135 When I get there, I'll be sure to cast my vote. Although, I didn't bring politics into the conversation.
I heat my automotive repair shop with used motor oil. The burner is very similar except that it pre heats the oil before it goes to the nozzle.
1 delivery being enough for an entire year? We needed 5 deliveries a year when I was young. I got it down to 2 via energy efficiency measures before getting a heat pump installed. We were using at least 90 gallons of heating oil per year on domestic hot water.
It’s dyed diesel, aka, off-road diesel, aka heating oil. It can be used in powered units or pony motor units that are used exclusively off road. I’m a landlubber so I can’t speak about off shore.
No, dyed diesel is regular on road diesel with a dye.
@@ryangreenley4818 I kinda thought that was a given? Dyed diesel is regular ol diesel with dye. It’s so the ol DOT can easily see if you’re “stealing” by not paying your fair share to the legalized mob.
Cool👍 what editing softerwhere do you use?
Thank you, I use Final Cut, I honestly think Premier might be better I am just too used to Final Cut now
Some years ago, the police visited a regional farm exhibition and stuck sticks down diesel pickup trucks fuel tanks and found several trucks with red fuel.
Ok
I'm just tankful to have enough
heating oil for this winter
Energy conversion once at the point of use, more efficient than burning stuff to make electricity to try to convert to heat again.
yup, theres no free lunch.
Interested in knowing the electrical current,voltage and draw rate of the power necessary for these igniters. Do they run continuously while heating or does the fuel need constant electricity to prevent run on. As he mentioned a hot tank or plate perpetually reigniting. Also would a ballast of a temperature gradient material(steel,iron or ceramic) in the center of the tank retain some heat to augment heating?
The ignitor is a step up transformer. They put out between 10,000 volts and 20,000 volts, with very low current.
Newer ones don't run continuously. Older ones do.
I have an old danesmoor 15/19 heatslave that's been in our house for years and years, always serviced regularly and has been super reliable. to go with that is a large 1200 litre tank that when full can last up to year. here in u.k though as with many countries the cost of oil is shooting up rapidly. to compensate we had an up to date room Stat installed as it didn't before so that should save a chunk in fuel.
This is one of the safest fuel to heat your home. Way better than gas for sure.
Three years ago gas explosion took out 50 homes in Lawrence Mass.
I remember that, I heard it and some of the people I worked with lived there. Very scary!
It's sad that they banned use of oil furnaces last year in norway
thanks for the great and clear video. what's the cost comparison to run an oil furnace Vs heat pump? is the oil a lot more expensive to run?
I think buildings in Colder areas should have redundant heating. Geothermal when available, then electric backup, then oil. The good thing about heating oil is it's stable for about two years and is great if electricity is unavailable or limited.
The yearly price of electric heat is outrageous, the price of installing geothermal equipment on an already existing building is outrageous, why would those be a better solution than heating oil?
Oil or gas backup. Regular electric heat is super innefficent
From what I've learned, heating oil furnaces take a lot more maintenance than say natural gas but they are less expensive because there's just less moving parts. Also heating oil is stored in a tank in the home so it has to be filled periodically. Natural gas is piped in so it refills forever. So basically natural gas = less hassle. Both require electricity to run the furnace but I have a non-venting natural gas heater that doesn't use any electricity to operate as emergency backup heat.
Best part about gas to the house is then you can tie in the cooking stove and water heater. Having had oil heat for years it sucks, especially if you have buried tanks and run the risk of them leaking.
@@on4acres I'd much rather have an oil tank leak than a gas pipe leak but that's just me
@@ghost2coast296 well oil leaking in the ground requires soil remediation and is very expensive. Natural gas is mostly methane and doesn’t require remediation of surrounding areas.
@@on4acres a proper underground tank has a very low chance of leaking
@@on4acres If a gas line is leaking *you have to dig up the ground and fix the pipe.* just like you would dig up the ground to fix a oil tank.
Well presented, thank you!
How cleanly does it burn. In terms of equivalent co2 tons i wonder how it compares to heating a house with natural gas
Good use of time very interesting
Friend of mine in northern Wisconsin pays over 4 dollars a gallon smaller 2 bedroom home costing well over 2 thousand dollars a year. Go Propane cleaner and 1/3 of price
did not know about that fuel law... the lengths the government will go through to tax us is insane
Heating oil is Diesel fuel. It's a different color because it's dyed so that you can't use it in a car and avoid paying the gas taxes on Diesel.
Question: Those Wabasto Diesel heaters being used in RV's, Van, Semi Truck cabs, could those operate on Heating Oil?
Yes because diesel and heating oil is pretty much the same thing. You can use it for off road diesel engines. Those diesel heaters will run just fine on heating oil. It is illegal to drive a diesel vehicle with red fuel.
@@markm0000 but not unlawful
You can also put heating oil in you Diesel car maybe not an an New S6 or m550d but in your golf 1.9tdi or old Opel/ Vauxhall
Works great
Can you please do a review on your shop vacuum?
Heating oil can legally be used for agriculture use and I believe industrial in place of diesel
Yeah, that’s because they’re the same thing.
Iam thankful that I don't need heating here, we're now in november and it is 6am and the temp is 26 C°
You are LUCKY! We are getting very chilly here now and ready for a long winter ahead.
Which oil burner is better Beckett or Reilo? Are they more or less the same?
Its a Beckett, the Riello does the same thing but working on each is very different and use different pressure, etc. Riello is very different inside.
That's why you run a bit external tank with a tiny bit blocked off with reg diesel then the rest is heating oil aka off-road diesel
I find it strange that you have to replace the nozzle, a metal, non-moving part, once a year. Couldn't you just clean it by soaking it in a bit of acetone or something?
I don't think we've replaced our nozzle in 20 + years and the heat still works 👍
Yes you can clean it, I have an oil furnace that has not run in 20+ years in my garage and it would not work so I took the nozzle out and cleaned it with brake cleaner and compressed air and now it works great.
When I was in grade school a house near the school blew up. It was so powerful it blew the front door of the hinges on the house across the street. Gas leak.
Nobody heats with this in the south …interesting video
I can totally understand that, from other areas oil heat looks very unusual.
Growing up in a rural area (one of the lowest population densities in the US), almost every farmer and rancher was running ORD in their pickups. The cops really don't care.
The cops probably do it too lol
Lots of people do that here in rural Maine.
Its almost like heating oil is diesel fuel but with a red dye in it. Weird.
That’s exactly what it is. You can pour heating oil in your diesel truck and it will run just fine.
However if you have red diesel in your truck you will get a huge ticket. Don’t do it.
In a shtf scenario fuel oil would run any diesel vehicle
@@robertthompson3447 That’s just straight alcohol. Don’t put that in your car.
Which one is more affordable?
Oil furnaces are the shit, I’m putting one in my work shop
this happened across the city from us, and it woke us up, sounded like the wind catching a heavy wooden door and slamming it, also a laundromat gas line blew up, near us too
It is scary when it happens. In Andover mass a few years ago they had a major accident you could hear it nearly across the state.
Great video!!
... you did your experiment with spraying the oil NEXT TO DEAD PINE NEEDLES? HAVE EVER HEAARD OF FIRE SAFETY?🤣
Don't worry I had some water nearby if needed: th-cam.com/video/1tfvtJyucHc/w-d-xo.html
Love my oil heat.. it's like right now hot and I've rewired the electrics so as long as I have oil in my tank, and gasoline for my generator I can have heat. My next go around I'm going to use a hybrid heat-pump/oil system just to save a little oil on "cool" days.
Super bad-day plus-side is I can technically get heating oil at the gas station(diesel fuel) right by my home. Granted it's expensive but if I'm at that point, I don't care.
How does heating oil compare to natural gas in terms of heating cost???
Depends where you are.
If I remember right, a natural gas Therm is 100KBTU, while a gallon of diesel is about 130KBTU, so compare the local prices for each, including the amortized monthly Natural gas hookup cost and the oil delivery cost.
So heating oil is just off road diesel?
Is heating oil just red diesel? Which in the UK I believe you can use legally for farming equipment and boats
Yes and mixed with kero usually in the winter to stop gelling.
I wonder if there's a way to easily remove the dye. If there is, I wonder how many people don't let this dye stop them from using it.
Not really. The effort to do so would negate the tax savings. Also diesel trucks nowadays need much more refined diesel to run due to higher spec fuel systems for efficiency.
get a box of kitty litter and funnel with something like cheese cloth and pass it through that shit and it will come out clean, may take a few passes. act accordingly