I've been in the garage this morning, and realised two things;

1. It's damn cold!!
2. I have lots of bottles of used engine and gearbox oil that I need to dispose of.

I normally take my oil down to the local tip and dispose of it properly, but then I thought about whether it's possible to use it in a heater of some kind. I did find something called a SWOB (small waste oil burner), but then reading a bit more I saw they cost a fair bit, and there are now regulations around their use.

Is there anything locost that could be done to make use of the oil as a heating fuel?

Can't help with regards to the heaters, but the first step I'd take is to remove drafts and insulate the space. If you do heat it keeping the heat in will make a big difference.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/ethanol_motherearth/me11.html NTDWM.

If you do a google search you'll find designs for DIY waste oil burners. However they are notrious for being difficult to control and getting out of control. I'd say "setting fire" but they're supposed to do that, just not everything else around them.
Burning waste oil is controlled (EU reg I think) but there has been an exemption for small scale burners however that is supposedly about to be (or has been) abolished and a registration and licencing scheme brought in for them (then delayed...).

If you buy a new waste oil burner you have pay a yearly fee to your local authority as long as happy with where it's being used if you can get hold of a secondhand one that's up to you !!! Thermobile ones Are very good efficient and amazing very clean but in a garage if it's less than 600 sq ft it's a bit of an over kill and they burn approx 3 to 5 litres an hour

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Originally posted by nick205
Can't help with regards to the heaters, but the first step I'd take is to remove drafts and insulate the space. If you do heat it keeping the heat in will make a big difference.

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Procomp have one in their garage. I was picking their brains about it. It was a good few years ago that I went but IIRC daddy procomp (its a father son business) used to design and install them. Their one heated the garage and part of the house.

I think it run on a perpetual evaporation principle which was prewarmed by a gas burner. They had a gravity fed tank and a valve that regulated the drip flow, so it used very little. The drips would hit a hot plate that then evaporated the oil causing a flamable gas, this would ignite warming the plate for the next drip. The exhaust was funnelled up to a CH heat exchange.

I guess it was a bit like fat from a burger dripping on hot coals.

[Edited on 16/3/17 by bi22le]

http://garagewire.co.uk/news/garages-face-dilemma-ahead-of-small-waste-oil-burner-reg-changes/

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Originally posted by loggyboy
http://garagewire.co.uk/news/garages-face-dilemma-ahead-of-small-waste-oil-burner-reg-changes/

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My mate knocked one up using a waggon brake drum for the oil to drip into, and a stainless burn tube, the drum is force fed air from the side by a fan from an old gas boiler, which creates a vortex up the burn tube.

The flame goes up through a fabricated and welded jacketed heat exchanger which is filled with a water/antifreeze mix and then exits through a 5" stainless steel chimney tube to above garage apex height. After 4 or 5 minutes any black smoke disappears completely.

The boiler is outside the garage in a purpose built attached brick built storage cupboard with a bunded bottom and steel doors. Its piped up to several radiators inside the garage running from a header tank and domestic circulation pump.

Works a treat, but as said they do use a fair bit of oil, and even though there is no visible smoke, he does sometimes get little soot particles settling on cars etc. In the depths of winter he has to mix some oil/diesel to get it started, but once burning it self heats the oil supply as the feed copper pipe is wrapped round the heat exchanger.

Totally illegal but works well for him as he has no neighbours, just surrounded by fields. Probably wouldn't be a good idea if you liv e on a housing estate.

I converted my home made wood burner (old gas bottle) to burn waste oil, using an A/C peristaltic pump, it worked great

It's surprising how much oil they burn though, I was taking 20l tubs of used cooking oil from the Restaurant next door to work to use but it got too much.
It's also smelly, dirty and makes a mess with even a few drips.

It's back burning wood now

If you give it a go I wholeheartedly recommend using a peristaltic pump, it was the only way I could work out how to keep the flow steady whether using cold sludgy oil or thinner stuff as it heats up.
Mine was eventually controlled by an arduino using temp sensors but TBH was a faff and not needed.

Mine was as simple as using a length of brake pipe that fed into the stove and dripped into a stainless pet food dish, it worked very well indeed. Pro tip, keep the end of the brake pipe clean, if it gets blocked with carbon, the pressure builds up and you'll have permanent oily splashes on your shed walls and ceiling

[Edited on 16/3/17 by UncleFista]

I have a thermobile AT306 heating a double garage, it burns 2ltr/hour and after a couple of hours you can work in a t-shirt if you please, uninsulated garage. It burns absolutely clean, apart from the heat haze it's impossible to tell if it's burning or not. It's a radiant heater so it doesn't fill the air with moisture and cover everything in condensation. I love it.

Dealing with waste oil on a large scale is very messy if you don't have a decent sytem to handle it, you inevitably drip/spill more than you think you will. Even at 2ltr/hour you burn quite a lot of oil, it's not the type of heater that you light for an hour or so as the lighting and cleaning is a bit of a faff and has mess potential.

Cheers
Davie

Here's an incredibly technical drawing I made of my waste oil burner.....I changed it so the burn plate was attached to the door so when you opened the door, the plate swung out with it..