Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Why not Oil Fired Central Heating?

Oil Fired Central Heating??

With the un-believable, un-satisfactory, un-stable, un-regulated, un-focussed state of the wood -pellet heating market in Ireland, I have decided to NOT go ahead with an installation just yet.

I was thinking of other possible alternatives, WHEN the bulb above my head suddenly illuminated very brightly and even flashed a couple of times. I knew then that I had had an "idea"!!!

Vegetable Oil

The idea struck me that vegetable oil in bulk is a darn site cheaper than heating oil right now. The supply also is most probably more stable. Heating oil is on 70+cent a litre right now and rising - while cooking oil can be purchased in bulk at 55cent a litre. There is the possibility of utilising used oil from chippers and hotels etc.

It would not take rocket science or too much of a re-build to tune an oil burner to burn cooking oil. I would need a pre-heater and possibly some extra filtration, and it would need a different nozzle in the burner unit to vaporise the oil - but I am fairly sure it could be achieved with moderate ease. Maybe there is already such a unit abailable somewhere?

If it were possible to purchase a modified burner unit for existing central heating systems, it would be a very cheap option to convert an existing boiler, grant or no grant. A standard burner unit can be purchased for about 500 - 700 Euro, a modified one should not cost much over 1100 - 1400 Euro?

Would anyone reading this Blog have any ideas, contacts or information along this line??

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