Waste Oil Heaters

[jp116393]

We are looking into installing a waste oil heater here at the dealership and are early in the research process.

I was curious what some of the opinions were...good, bad, etc.

Thanks,
Jason

[ZOOM1]

A lot of maintenance-frequent cleaning and adjusting.Also,not intended for synthetic oils.Very temperamental,especially if coolant should find its way into your waste oil tank.After paying for all the required maintenance and repairs,savins was about equal to what natural gas/electric would have been.

[Richard]

The main problem is storing oil all summer to use in the winter, and we still run out.
Much cheaper than gas for us though, we just have a few weeks that we have to go easy, or run out. Synthetic Oil doesn't cause the problems coolant does, at least not for us, but we don't do that many synthetic oil changes. Diesel enriched motor oil burns fine though.

We have about 10 of the bulk/cage containers to hold used oil, besides our normal holding tanks.

[This message has been edited by Richard (edited 09-03-2008).]

[capsgs]

Make sure you have someone designated to work on it as what the previous Posters have stated is dead on. It takes a lot of messin with. It has saved us money though!!!

[azracing]

If your running out at the end of the winter you can buy some from the same guy that some dealers sell to.

Aaron

[sp7128]

for the price we get for used oil...$1.53/ gal.......it's not even worth starting the (labor intensive, time consuming, electric burning, air compressor using, soot making) waste oil furnace this season.

[Jon]

We bought a brand new unit in February, I think that the technology has improved greatly over some of the earlier units that some of you have had experiences with. We had zero problems in the 4+ months we've used it so far. A couple of filters a year and maybe a nozzle, really not much more attention than you have to give your home burner using #2 fuel oil (at $4+/gal). Ours also monitors coolant in the storage tank, we have the waste oil guy take a half tank when it gets bad enough and suck it off the bottom to get the coolant and sludge. Synthetic oil is no problem, gasoline in the oil is OK as long as you don't pour it straight in and get the percentage of gas vs. oil too high.

We've got about 500 gallons to start the season and generate it just about as fast as we can use it. We idled 4 natural gas unit heaters and the shop is comfortable even in the bays near the overhead doors, 385,000 btu's is a lot of heat in a 15 bay shop.

Do your homework, check out what the facilities in your area are using and you can probably save a lot of money on your heating costs.

Jon

[sp7128]

Jon

When you say "We idled 4 natural gas unit heaters", you actually turned them off or they are set low for supplemental heat? And do you know approx how many gallons of waste oil you burn a month and what your NG has been reduced a month. I am trying to do a comparison as to what NG vs waste oil use a month. We currently generate 2000 to 2500 gallons of waste oil a month and at $1.50 that's approx $3000.00 I can sell to our waste oil company.

[Jon]

sp7128:

We set the thermostats as low as they go on 3 of the gas unit heaters and turned the power off altogether to the other one, it needed a control to get it working right anyway. The gas unit heaters could come on if the waste oil unit didn't cycle for some reason, we have that on a day/night 7 day thermostat so it can run 24 hours a day as needed, just 15 degrees cooler at night and on Sunday.

I don't have a fuel usage comparison to share, the unit is the primary responsibility of the service manager as it is used for the shop only. ( Strongly consider ducting one to cover other areas if your building layout allows it. ) The parts department is still using a gas unit heater and there are 3 gas fired hot air furnaces for the general office area, showroom and service department write up area. There is cross flow from the shop into the service write up area so that furnace does not run during the day when the waste oil unit is heating the shop up to tee-shirt temperature even though it's 10 degrees outside.

We are getting $ .95/gal here for waste oil so it's not as good a deal as you are getting. We generate 500-600 gallons a month, I think, which was enough to keep up with the output of the waste oil burner running 11 hours a day, 6 days a week at the upper setting.

I wish I had the fuel usage data you asked for. I'm sure it's a substantial saving, even though natural gas is still relatively cheap, but it's also a huge comfort issue for the tech's, and happy, warm tech's are productive tech's. I think that we will review the usage after a full season this year and consider adding another unit to heat other parts of the building.

Jon

[topshop]

We bought one of these 3 years ago:

http://www.energylogic.com/heaters.html

Each fall we buy the maintenance kit ($75)and follow the instructions. That has been our only maintenance/repair expense. We shut off the gas furnaces in the shop...no need for them any more. If you spend a bit more you can just about totally automate the handling of the waste oil (drains, tanks, pumps, plumbing, etc.).

Today we save thousands each year (paid for itself in 2 years), have a warmer shop, and could not be happier. Waste oil furnaces (the newer ones, used correctly) are a slam dunk when it comes to shop expenses. Massive savings almost hassle free. Every shop should have one (or more).

And, since we are on the subject, your shop air conditioning can be supplemented with a waste oil A/C.

http://www.econoheat.us/air.html



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Tom Ham
AutomotiveManagementNetwork.com