Biodiesel as a Home Heating Option: Biomass Energy: Eco20/20

Biodiesel as a Home Heating Option

If your home uses a heating oil furnace, biodiesel is an exceptional home heating fuel option. It may look intimidating at first, but it's not difficult to make, just time consuming, and if you have access to free or low-cost used vegetable oil from restaurants it can be considerably less expensive than heating oil. Or you could buy your biodiesel.

Furnaces

* An oil burning furnace is required for biodiesel home heating. Many homes use natural gas or propane instead; so if your home doesn't have an oil burning furnace you would need to buy one to make the switch.

o A furnace that burns heating oil doesn't need special equipment to burn biodiesel.

o If you are making a switch from heating oil to biodiesel in an existing furnace, the oil tank, furnace and boiler should be cleaned; and the oil filter should be replaced.

o If you've never used an oil furnace, be aware that oil furnaces do require servicing every year, sometimes oftener, because burning any type of oil produces a lot of sulfur and soot which needs to be cleaned out.

o A slapdash environmentalist or weekend survivalist might find it easier to buy a waste oil burner instead of a standard heating oil furnace. A high-quality waste oil burner is able to burn filtered vegetable oil, or other filtered waste oils, without the processing needed to make bio-diesel.

Purchasing Biodiesel

* The number of biodiesel suppliers is growing all over the world. Check around for suppliers in your area. If you don't find any, you may find you've stumbled onto a good startup business.

o Germany has thousands of filling stations supplying biodiesel.

o Biodiesel in the UK is taxed less than petro-diesel.

Home Brewing

o Be aware that making biodiesel is not an instantaneous process. It takes planning, patience, a personal commitment and storage space. It also requires a few months of waiting; and mixing with various chemicals. In fact, unless you're a chemist ,you may find that one of the most intimidating parts of the biodiesel adventure is learning the terminology.

o The internet sites that teach home-brewing processes recommend practicing with clean oils before attempting to filter and treat restaurant greases. There are many great sites providing biodiesel recipes and advice. Here is one of the best: Journey to Forever.

o Also be aware that the chemicals must be handled properly and respectfully. All of them are found in common household products; but they are dangerous. Lye, for example, is a drain-cleaner. Methanol is better known as barbeque fuel, and it's flammable.

Lastly, whether you chose to buy it or make your own, you should know bio-diesel is a lot like regular heating oil, so it does need to be protected from very cold temperatures. In colder climates it will need indoor storage or an underground tank.