Thread: Oil burning shed heaters

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

I bet the heaters are running hot at the moment with the cold snap.

Yep, but mine runs on wood. And the radiant heat is great.

Nice work, lovely legs and should make a great pool heater and a nice warm spot to towl of after a swim.
If you google around you'll find ozzirts / spikes web site he has pics of a nicely modified tap fitting for oil control.

Like the clamp system for the primary pan to

db

Originally Posted by db65boxer

Nice work, lovely legs and should make a great pool heater and a nice warm spot to towl of after a swim.
If you google around you'll find ozzirts / spikes web site he has pics of a nicely modified tap fitting for oil control.

Like the clamp system for the primary pan to

db

Thanks
ozzirts/spikes creation was the spark that led to all this!
I added next section yesterday, a 44gal drum with pipe down the middle.
Ran well enough but 'choofed' a lot.
I suspect that I may need to reduce some of the holes both in the bottom plate and secondary burn chamber as, unlike ozzirts, I have to maintain a pool of oil in the pan and I believe that the oil consumption is probably closer to 2lph than 1lph.
It seems to work best when there is a reasonable amount of heat and fire in the pan which is not ideal and adds to consumption. Similarly, whilst quite stable at lower oil feeds, the burn is clean but lazy, so I think some more fiddling in order.

Ralph

I know this is a commercial heater and probably does a bit better than our home built ones but I found this on the Kroll site and thought it was interesting.

http://www.kroll-heaters.com.au/file...A%20report.pdf

If any of the science boffins wanted to go through it and make more sense of it than what I have that would be good but from what I see it easily passes emissions standards of 2001 in NSW but the thing is, do the same standards remain these days and what are they in the rest of Oz.

I know that they are getting tough around here in Melbourne on disposing of waste oil, you need an EPA cert etc for anything over 20ltrs and the waste oil collection truck cost me $210 last time they emptied 500ltrs of my scrap oil (stuff that is not worth burning e.g. Bio hydraulic and contaminated oil) where they used to take it for nothing.

I would like to know roughly where I stand if some one was to complain as it does smell pretty rank when it is first started but once up and running you wouldn't know it was there.

Originally Posted by Ralph1Malph

Well,
It's nearly there!
I have it home, and have been fine tuning it.---snip---

Ralph

Lookin' goood, and I'm happy to see that you have it burning cleanly.

Originally Posted by Casper

I know this is a commercial heater and probably does a bit better than our home built ones but I found this on the Kroll site and thought it was interesting.
---snip---

I would like to know roughly where I stand if some one was to complain as it does smell pretty rank when it is first started but once up and running you wouldn't know it was there.

Last time I checked, I was told that Kroll heaters pass the most stringent European emissions standards. However they still have one major disadvantage in my view, coming from a country area where power outages can sometimes last for 12 - 36 hours, (longer if you are an a SWER line). Yes,... when the power fails in a howling storm, your heater essentially reverts to 150kgs of decorative scrap iron.

As far as smells go, when lighting up try using a little more lighting fluid or something that burns a little more enthusiastically to get the oil hot quickly. I sometimes crack open the gap at the top of the pan to allow a little more primary air in, to get it going quickly, this seems to minimise any smoke or smell, or at least it minimises the time that any smoke or smell is emitted.

Hi all,

Just new here, but am currently trying to construct one of these fantastic heating devices. Was thinking of using an old 9kg gas cylinder and hoping to put a crude heat exchanger inside to heat a tent while camping...

Anyway, a quick question, do you think the design would scale down at all? I notice that it would work without the truck drums and just a straight stack, but would it work with a thinner stack and use less oil? Say 100mm diameter? or even 50mm diameter?

Cheers

Originally Posted by bitman

Hi all,

Just new here, but am currently trying to construct one of these fantastic heating devices. Was thinking of using an old 9kg gas cylinder and hoping to put a crude heat exchanger inside to heat a tent while camping...

Anyway, a quick question, do you think the design would scale down at all? I notice that it would work without the truck drums and just a straight stack, but would it work with a thinner stack and use less oil? Say 100mm diameter? or even 50mm diameter?

Cheers

Yep,
Completely scaleable. When faffing around with this one, we built a couple of smaller ones, to prove concept. One used the bottom half of a 4.5 kg gas bottle and 50mm pipe. Worked like a champion after a bit of fiddling.

Originally Posted by ozzirt

Lookin' goood, and I'm happy to see that you have it burning cleanly.
As far as smells go, when lighting up try using a little more lighting fluid or something that burns a little more enthusiastically to get the oil hot quickly. I sometimes crack open the gap at the top of the pan to allow a little more primary air in, to get it going quickly, this seems to minimise any smoke or smell, or at least it minimises the time that any smoke or smell is emitted.

I think that because I am using such a large pan (maybe 12"-14" across) and a 150mm secondary burn chamber, I have to have a bit of fire in the pan for it to happen. I used the crappiest oil I could get on the w/e, it was from a 40000km engine and was like treacle! Took a bit to get going using my soaked rag technique (have no diesal but will try that when I get some) but even so, no worse smoke than a wood fire.
I also had to crack the pan to get some additional air with this oil, but when started, it was clean as. It is also quiet! No induction noise or whistling at all which makes me thinks that it is not quite right and is only 'idling'. It does choof badly though if I leave the wrong amount of air holes open!

I have used waste trans fluid, easier to light but not as good, and now the treacle stuff, it burns well.
As for economy, I filled a 4.5 kg gas bottle, with oil, I reckon about 5-6 litres? and got around 5-6 hours burn so not to bad. In that time it heated a 44 gal drum of water from tap to 'to hot to put ya hand in'.

I find that I do have to have a decent pool of oil in the pan though, probably a cup or two for it to work best.

Pics to follow
Cheers
Ralph