Does anyone here have a waste oil furnace to heat a shop? Between all of our vehicles, equipment, and toys I accumulate a lot of used oil. I’d like to find a way to use it around the place here but I also don’t want a ticking time bomb like some of the DIY setups I’ve seen.
Currently, I don’t have the “need” for one but if I started saving all my old oil now I’d probably have a heck of a reserve by the time I get one. I’ve got plenty of 55 gallon drums to store the oil in in the meantime.
Thanks in advance, folks.
My shop had one when I got it. A Lanair. It has an 80 gallon tank. It’s simple to operate, thermostat works like a regular heat pump. We keep it set at 36 degrees in the winter unless I’m working in there. But, you gotta have a lot of oil. This one is older and doesn’t like synthetic oil, which is what I run in my trucks. It burns about a gallon an hour and I don’t generate that much oil. I have to buy #2 fuel oil and this winter it was outrageously priced.
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That was gonna be my next question. I run synthetic in almost everything. I’ll do some more reading and see what I find out on oils.
A gallon an hour seems high but I’d probably supplement with #2 fuel oil as well. I want to have options so I will also have a wood burning setup to use.
Have you ever had any issues with it over fueling? Read some horror stories about guys unknowingly over fueling and then things go boom.
I think the newer models can burn synthetic with no problems. Never had an over fuel problem. It really only kicks on occasionally. I just don’t want it to freeze inside. When I’m working in the shop in the winter and run in it heats the place quickly. It would not have been my choice, but it was already here.
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An 80 gallon tank is not that big unless you have a lot of oil on hand to keep it topped off
What would you have gone with instead? Traditional HVAC heat pump system?
Yes, 80 gallons wouldn’t be enough. Doesn’t get brutally cold here but still pretty dang cold for me. I just dropped off 20 gallons of used oil from the last couple rounds of servicing stuff but I think I could start saving it now and then have it for the future.
Then on the flip side, I don’t know that I would want the hassle of messing with it. It’s easy to just flip a thermostat from heat to cool lol
I don’t have a/c in the shop, just the office. The office heats off of propane. That’s what I would have put in the shop
