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Heating oil
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Heating oil, or oil heat is a low viscosity, flammable liquid petroleum product used to fuel building furnaces or boilers.
Heating oil is commonly delivered by tank truck to residential, commercial and municipal buildings and stored in above-ground storage tanks ("ASTs") located in the basements, garages, or outside adjacent to the building. It is sometimes stored in underground storage tanks (or "USTs") but less often than ASTs.
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Encyclopedia
Heating oil, or oil heat is a low viscosity, flammable liquid petroleum product used to fuel building furnaces or boilers.
Heating oil is commonly delivered by tank truck to residential, commercial and municipal buildings and stored in above-ground storage tanks ("ASTs") located in the basements, garages, or outside adjacent to the building. It is sometimes stored in underground storage tanks (or "USTs") but less often than ASTs. ASTs are used for smaller installations due to the lower cost factor. Heating oil is less commonly used as an industrial fuel or for power generation.
Boiler and "forced air" furnace manufacturers have perfected "retention head oil-fired burners" and "triple-pass flue" boilers that have increased theoretical oil burner efficiency to over 93%. To reach that level of efficiency, however, would require a lower flue gas temperature than most oil burners can produce. Therefore causing condensation that most oil-fired furnaces cannot handle without damage to the heat exchanger, venting pipes or outside casing of the appliance. Practical efficiency is typically around 86%.
Red dyes are usually added, resulting in its "red diesel" name in countries like the United Kingdom. Solvent Yellow 124 is added as a "Euromarker" since 2002 in European Union.
Heating oil is very similar to diesel fuel, and both are classified as distillates. It consists of a mixture of petroleum-derived hydrocarbons in the 14- to 20-carbon atom range. That is, heating oil's chemical formula is usually either C14H30, C15H32, C16H34, C17H36, C18H38, C19H40, or C20H42. During oil distillation, it condenses at between and . Heating oil condenses at a lower temperature than the heavy (C20+) hydrocarbons such as petroleum jelly, bitumen, candle wax, and lubricating oil, which condense between and . But it condenses at a higher temperature than kerosene, which condenses between and .
For efficient burning, the oil is drawn/pulled from the tank into a pump and pressurized (residential) to 800kPa (120 PSI) and then forced through a filtered (specific to appliance) nozzle, into an atomized spray pattern. It is then ignited through the use of a step-up transformer, taking 120 or 240 VAC and stepping it up to 10,000 VAC. The voltage travels down two brass conductors (buzz bars) to the metal/ceramic electrodes and produces a spark approximately 6mm (1/4 in.) across. With the airflow coming from the squirrel cage of the oil-burner, the spark ignites the oil droplets. Through the use of a combustion chamber, the flame is contained, and flue gases travel through the heat exchanger. The heat of the flue gases is transferred through the walls of the heat exchanger as they pass to the chimney, and the fan/blower unit circulates the heat of the heat exchanger throughout the house. With a cold air return generally in the center of the house supplying all or most of the cold air that is return to the furnace for re-heating .
Heating oil produces per gallon and weighs per imperial gallon (0.72 kg/l), which is about the same heat per unit mass as the somewhat less dense diesel fuel. Number 2 fuel oil has a flash point of .
Leaks from tanks and piping are an environmental concern. Various federal and state regulations are in place regarding the proper transportation, storage and burning of heating oil, which is classified as a hazardous material (HazMat) by federal regulators.
Heating oil may be blended with biofuel to create a product similar to biodiesel known as "bioheat".
Heating oil trade
Heating oil accounts for about 25% of the yield of a barrel of crude oil, the second largest "cut" after gasoline (petrol). Options on futures, calendar spread options contracts, crack spread options contracts, and average price options contracts give market participants even greater flexibility in managing price risk.
Heating oil futures are traded on the Intercontinental Exchange and NYMEX. These contracts have delivery dates in all 12 months of the year and are used to hedge diesel fuel and jet fuel, both of which trade in the cash market at an often stable premium to NYMEX Division New York Harbor heating oil futures.
United States and Canada
Heating oil is known in the United States as No. 2 heating oil. In the U.S., it must conform to ASTM standard D396. Diesel and kerosene, while often confused as being similar or identical, must conform to their own respective ASTM standards. Heating oil is widely used in parts of the country and Canada where natural gas or propane is frequently not available. Where other fuels are not available, it is sometimes referred to as the unit cost per unit (BTU=british thermal unit or BTUH / h per hour), and can be less than other fuels.
The heating oil futures contract trades in units of 42,000 U.S. gallons (1,000 barrels) and (for the USA) is based on delivery in the New York harbor.
K-factor
The degree day system is based on the amount of fuel a customer has consumed between two or more deliveries and the high and low outdoor temperatures during the same period. A degree day is defined as one degree of temperature below 65°F in the average temperature of one day. In other words, to arrive at the number of degree days in one day, the official high and low temperatures for that day must be obtained. The two figures are then averaged, and the number of units this average is below 65°F is the number of degree days for that day. For example, if for Tuesday, November 3, the high temperature is 70°F and the low is 54°F, the average is found by adding 70 and 54, which equals 124, and then dividing by 2. The resultant figure is 62, and by subtracting 62 from 65, it is determined that there were three (3) degree days that day.
To determine usage or "K" factor, first compute the number of gallons of fuel oil used in a given period. Then, using the cumulative total of degree days for the same period of time, you can figure the "K" factor, or the number of degree days that one gallon of fuel will last at the current rate of consumption. This factor is arrived at by dividing the number of degree days in any given period by the total number of gallons of fuel consumed during the same period. For example, if during the month of November your furnace burns 200 gallons of fuel oil and assuming that we had 300 degree days, your "K" factor would be 300 divided by 200, which equals 1.5. In other words, each gallon of fuel oil provides you with 11/2 degree days of heat.
The next step is to determine how many days' supply remain in the tank once it has been filled. From the total tank capacity, you can subtract a number of reserve gallons which depends, of course, upon the size of the tank. Then multiply the number of gallons of usable fuel by the "K" factor, and you have what is known as the Degree Days of Usable Fuel. Using this figure, oil companies can arrive at the degree day of your next scheduled delivery.
Retail cost
United States
In 2008, fuel oil cost was $36.20 per 1 million BTUs.
See also
Footnotes
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