Heating oil is, as the name suggests, oil that is used for heating. Usually, the oil heats a vat of water which travels via a network of pipes to heat a home.
Heating oil is essentially diesel. The only difference is that heating oil usually has a tiny bit more sulphur than the diesel you would put into your car or other vehicles.
Table of Contents
What is Heating Oil?
Heating oil is a form of petroleum. However, it’s a slightly different type of petroleum than the one used to power our cars.
The process starts with crude oil extracted from the earth (these days, from oil fields or underneath the seabed). After extraction this oil is then placed into a “fractionating column”, a giant metal cylinder that allows different products, which condense at different temperatures, to come out.
Heating oil (which is a more popular alternative to Kerosene) condenses at around 482-662°F.
What is Heating Oil (at a Molecular Level)?
You probably don’t care about heating oil to this level or extent but if you do…
All products that come from crude oil are Carbon-X. The X for crude oil represents any number between 14 to 20.
All carbon atoms have six protons and six electrons. However, the number of neutrons depends on what number X is. For example, carbon 15 has 6 protons and 9 neutrons. It’s called carbon-15 because it has 15 sub-atomic particles in its nucleus.
Diesel is also carbon-14 to carbon-20. However, the difference between diesel and heating oil is more legal than scientific. Usually, it depends on sulphur content.
Eco-Heating Oils
As people become more environmentally conscious, even those who use heating oil look for more environmentally friendly alternatives.
Usually, eco-heating oil is combined with regular heating oil to find a balance between cost and environmentalism.
Eco-heating oil is also carbon-14 to 20. However, it comes from recycled organic matter rather than crude oil. This organic matter can be soybean oil, cooking oil, corn oil, tallow, or algae.
Despite coming from different sources, and being more expensive, at a chemical level, eco-heating oil is the same as crude-oil heating oil,
Kerosene vs Heating Oil
At the start of this article, we mentioned that heating oil is a more popular alternative to Kerosene. The main reason is that it’s much safer.
Heating oil is a type of diesel fuel. It has a low flashpoint of 140°F, which practically eliminates the risk of a fire or explosion.
Kerosene, however, is a light fuel with a much higher flashpoint. If your furnace or boiler uses Kerosene, it needs to be equipped for much higher temperatures and have adequate carbon monoxide disposal mechanisms.
Carbon Monoxide is a toxic gas that kills when inhaled.
How does Heating Oil actually Heat?
A small chamber within the furnace will ignite the oil. This ignited oil creates hot gases, which heat a copper wire. The heat from the copper wire travels into a vat of water, which is thus heated.
Like any boiler, hot water is pumped throughout the home to provide heating via a network of pipes and radiators.
What makes heating oil ignite?
Within any flammable carbon product, you have molecules called hydrocarbons.
As the name suggests, hydrocarbons are made of the elements hydrogen and carbon. The hydrogen to carbon ratio determines what kind of hydrocarbon it is and how flammable it is.
Within the hydrocarbons are multiple covalent bonds, where different atoms share the same electrons. And covalent bonds have lots of energy.
These bonds react with the oxygen from the fire to form carbon dioxide and water. In doing so, they generate a lot of energy, which is used to heat the water tank.
Heating Oil vs Gas
Although a lot of homes now use gas rather than heating oil, both have benefits and disadvantages.
The first is efficiency; less oil is needed to get your home to your desired temperature because oil burns hotter than gas.
Secondly, the prices are more reliable. The cost of gas fluctuates a lot. It can be costly at the start of the year and very cheap at the end. The price of heating oil, however, is usually more constant. (Please be aware that prices are even more unreliable at time of writing in 2022, due to the war in Ukraine)
It can also be beneficial for places that do not have access to a gas supply. For example, mobile home and trailer park settlements which are not connected to any state or national gas network.
However, that’s not to say that oil is better for everyone. For a start, gas produces less carbon dioxide in its extraction and burning. Plus, because many homes are part of the gas network, getting gas installed within your home is usually much easier than oil.
–
That might’ve been more science than you bargained for but we like to be experts in our field!
For everything else home heating related, stick with CosyWarmer.com