Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Fuel Oil useage

I was using way too much fuel oil.

 Even when I went on vacation and had the heat turned down to 40 deg the oil consumption was still high.
So where is the problem. The heater works fine the furnace is operating smoothly.
 Seems the pump pressure is too high, it should be just above 100 psi but mine is almost 130psi so im pushing more fuel through the furnace than necessary. As i turned down the pressure she started to run very erratic. Why.?
Seems i have a single line to the burner and when the tank gets low or there is an oil delivery it stirs up the fuel and air gets into the line causing fuel interruption and the burner wont start, so you end up making a mess by bleeding the pump.
 The simple solution was to turn up the oil pressure, this solved the problem, By turning up the oil pressure i was using more fuel. Not good.
I went on line and found an Oil de-aerator  called a TIGERLOOP for about $90.00  and some installation time. It will require that you buy 2 additional 1/4 inch flex lines  from the tigerloop to the pump, make sure you purchase bio grade oil line, NOT water line that is sold at HomeDepot, a plumbing supply store will have this, 24 inch is fine for most systems. All fittings come in a package. Dont forget the 1/8 inch allen wrench plug that must be inserted into the return side of the pump.
This device  basically recirculates the fuel back through the loop ,removes any air that may be trapped and delivers it back to the pump at the proper pressure that i have set. The pressure is now about 110 psi or ten lbs above the tested nozzle rating . According to the chart this reduces my flow rate by 20 percent , that's a lot.
The unit mounts to the outside of the furnace . Comes with an extra safety valve. You can also buy the one with a filter attachment ,but since i already have a filter in the system i felt the extra $60.00 was not worth it
I have to buy 2 extra hoses and do the installation tomorrow.
The pump on the furnace also needs a small modification to make it work properly. You must insert a small male Allen wrench plug into the bypass port. without this you will build up too much pressure and blow the seals on the pump and having to replace it.
Total cost to me is just over $150.00 plus 2 hrs of installation time.
Once the system is hooked up and turned back on you will notice no fuel flow into the de-aerator , but the minute you push the reset button on the furnace it immediately fires off and you can see the fuel flow through the system along with the large amount of air in the fuel. I was very surprised at this volume. Basically foam for the first minute. This did not interfere with the operation of the furnace. She fired right off.
You can now turn down the pressure to just over 100 lbs. This should drop to 80 lbs static when the furnace shuts off. If it bleeds down to nothing the regulator valve is not functioning properly and the pump must be replaced.
You can now also readjust the air flow and flame , I would recommend a service tech come in and put the tester to the system to get the max efficiency out of it. Or as I did rent one for a few hrs .
Lets see what happens over the next week. My last delivery was over $4.00 per gallon so any savings will be a great help.








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