Introduction
At Bottini Fuel, we know that there are other fuels besides propane for heating your home. We do tend to focus on propane as it is our best seller. Of all the clients we have, the majority of them use propane. However, we do have a few customers that use oil to heat their home.
We know they are not the only ones doing so. We also know that there is very little on the internet in regard to oil heating. For that reason, we have decided to do this article for the people looking for more information on oil-base heating issues.
Gelling
The reason that oil fell out of favor in much of the northern climates is that it did have a few issues. Gas and propane have a very low freezing point and therefore became the best fuels to use to heat the home. Well, gas is not used to heat the home, but it does run cars and is not susceptible to freezing. The one thing that is a downside to heating with oil is something called gelling.
The basics of gelling are that when the temperature begins to drop, the oil starts to solidify. This is why you have different weight oils in cars depending on the climate you live in and the time of year. The problem with oil used for home heating is that it only really comes in one weight. The reason for that is because there is not a huge market for oil heat in the United States.
Therefore, they take the average temperature of all the areas in which it is popular and set it at that weight. It is the Goldilocks story. Some climates will see a lot of issues, some climates may see some issues, and then there is the climate that is just right for the oil.
However, we have devised a way for you to have your cold weather climate and your oil heating. We use kerosene to thin out the oil. Since kerosene has a lower freezing point, it allows for less or very few incidents of gelling.
Effects of Gelling
You need to make sure that your oil does not gel as is will do damage to your heating system. To start off with, your tank will become filled with sludge. It will look a bit like molasses in there and you will not ever really be able to clean it all out. It will lead to replacing your tank. From the tank, it will infect the lines leading to your heating units.
They too will need to be replaced as they will get clogged and unable to forward oil to the units in your home. As with all units, there is a filter that is associated with your unit. This will become gummed up and unable to properly filter particles that could damage your system out.
Conclusion
If you are looking for a way to keep warm this winter, Bottini Fuel has a number of ways that you can accomplish that.
We sell all different types of heating fuel and as we mentioned the most popular is our line of propane and propane tanks.