Heat leaner and cleaner with biodiesel
Did you know you can heat your home with biodiesel through Green Energy Consumers? Virtually all of our participating heating oil dealers provide a fuel mix that includes some biodiesel – from 2% to 20% – in every delivery they make. Any heating oil system can burn up to 20% biodiesel without any modification of your oil burner.
What Is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel, sometimes called biofuel or bioheat, is most commonly manufactured from soybeans or recycled restaurant grease, instead of petroleum. When heating your home, it produces less sulfur dioxide, hydrocarbons, and air toxics, making it a cleaner heating solution for your home and community.
All home heating oil is now cleaner than ever thanks to laws limiting the sulfur content. This means you have less and less soot build-up in your burner than you did even 3 years ago. Biodiesel burns even more cleanly, so you get more heat from the same amount of oil. Because it produces less soot, using biodiesel may also allow you to stretch out the time between your tune-ups. What used to be a yearly mandate, may now be stretched out to once every 700 to 900 gallons, saving you time and money.
Potential Problems with Biodiesel
Some consumers have experienced problems using biodiesel, especially after their first delivery, or if the mix they received was greater than 20% biodiesel. If you have an older tank, especially one that is not kept full during the summer, you may have accumulated sludge in the bottom of your oil tank. Biodiesel, which is a solvent, can loosen up this sludge and allow clots to flow into the fuel line where they can clog filters or the nozzle. This is often a one-time issue. 100% biodiesel also starts to congeal around 45 degrees, so those with outdoor, above-ground tanks may see problems if the concentration is greater than 20%.
Also, because biodiesel is most often manufactured from soybeans, there’s potential for negative environmental effects of growing feedstock for biodiesel that might outweigh the benefit of reducing the petroleum in heating oil.
Feel free to call or email us if you have questions about biodiesel.