What is a waste oil furnace? A waste oil furnace is a homemade (or purchased) burner than can save money by burning waste oil instead of home heating oil. Waste oil is the oil that is discarded when you change the oil in your car. Crank case oil usually has to be discarded in accordance with strict local regulations (that is, you can’t just toss it out or out it on the ground because of the pollutants in the oil), but when you burn it, it can create a substantial amount of heat. So you solve two problems at one: You dispose of your waste oil efficiently and legally, and you generate heat at almost no cost.
You save a lot of money with a waste oil furnace. Right now, the price of a gallon of home heating oil is very volatile but has been hovering between $3 and $4 a gallon, and it may go up substantially at any time due to supply issues. Compare that to waste oil, which many auto garages still give away for free or for pennies a gallon. You spend as much carting your own waste oil to the legal dump as you will obtaining waste oil to burn in your waste oil furnace.
Waste oil furnaces have two benefits:
They produce a significant amount of heat at very low cost. They burn waste oil that would normally be sent to a dump or landfill that creates minimal pollution. Basically a waste oil furnace recycles crank case motor oil so that you get two uses out of it; one use is crank case lubrication, the other use is heat for your home or garage.
You can build your own waste oil furnace for very little money if you are mechanically inclined. Many plans can be found online for building a waste oil furnace, but a good place to start is Mother Earth News magazine, which for many years has provided plans for all kinds of do-it-yourself money-saving devices that increase self-sufficiency. You can find plans for building your own heater by going to motherearthnews and typing "waste oil burner" in the search box.
If you feel nervous about building your own waste oil furnace or feel confident about building one but not about installing one safely in your home, you can purchase a waste oil furnace for between $2500 and $7000 depending on the size of the furnace and which manufacturer and distributor you choose. Keep in mind that the initial cost of the waste oil furnace will be quickly offset by the drastic reduction in heating costs. You will be saving money with your waste oil furnace almost immediately, especially if you current burn home heating oil. A single winter’s home heating oil costs can exceed $3000 easily, so if you buy a waste oil furnace on the lower end of the price range you will see savings the very first year.
Many people save money with a waste oil furnace by installing it in their garage, but although it might seem counterintuitive, waste oil heaters do create smell and mess when used to heat your residence. Waste oil burned in a correctly designed waste oil furnace burns cleanly and without smoke and smell. Many good distributors and manufacturers of waste oil furnaces can be found online. Check out wasteoilboilers.
