Author: admin Date: July 27, 2009

How Oil Heating Systems Work

An Overview: Similarities Between Hot Air and Hot Water Systems Unless youre living inside a microwave oven, your home is heated by either hot air or hot water. In terms of producing heat, furnaces and boilers function the same way: both a hot air furnace and a hydronic boiler (hydro is Greek for water) burn heating oil to generate heat. It is only when you get into distributing heat that the systems di er. Before getting into those di erences, lets take a look at the similarities: 1) The fuel in both cases is heating oil, and the fuel is drawn from your homes oil storage tank. 2) The process begins when your homes thermostat (the brains of your heating system) instructs the furnace or boiler to produce heat. A temperature sensor monitors the air temperature. When it drops below the level youve set, the thermostat signals for more heat. When the air temperature reaches the programmed level, the thermostat instructs the heating system to stop producing heat. That is why you hear your boiler or furnace turn on and o during the day: your homes temperature is constantly dipping below the level you set (which triggers the heating system to produce more heat), then rising above the desired temperature (which turns the heating system o ). A traditional bimetallic strip thermostat (top right). The strip consists of two metals layered together (second from top). The metals expand and contract with temperature, but at di erent rates. The amount of expansion or contraction tells the temperature. A digital thermostat (second from bottom). Many digital thermostats use a thermistor (image: wikipedia.org) (bottom right), which is an electrical coupling whose resistance to electricity changes with temperature. This change in resistance indicates the temperature. The thermostat tests the temperature at the thermostat. If it is in a particularly cool place-

CATEGORIES: HVAC, HEATING OIL, HEATING OIL EQUIPMENT

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in a drafty spotor a particularly warm onesuch as in a sunbeam from a southern-facing window, or near your oventhe thermostat will register your homes temperature as either higher or lower than it is. If you know your thermostat is in either a particularly cool or warm place, you should bear that in mind when setting it. 3) In response to instructions from the thermostat, a fuel pump draws heating oil from your tank into the furnace or boiler. The oil is drawn through a lter to screen out dirt or other impurities that would a ect how well it burns, or possibly clog lines or nozzles in your heating system. 4) Oil is sprayed into a combustion chamber as a ne mist, where it mixes with air to get it ready for burning. The combustion chamber is the equivalent of the pistons in your car or truck or where you stack the wood in a replaceits where combustion, or burning, actually takes place. Note that unless heating oil is mixed with air in the right proportions, it does not burn e cientlyand might not burn at all. One of the reasons that oil heat is so safe is that unlike propane or natural gas, heating oil does not ignite all that easily. A gas leak in a home can lead to an accidental explosion; an oil leak just leads to a mess. 5) Finally, the burner ignites the oil/air mixture, producing heat. Whats in a namewhat is the di erence between a furnace and a boiler? Not much, actually. A furnace is a device used for heating, and can include giant industrial furnaces

(image: howstuffworks.com)

(image: wikipedia.org)

(image: wikipedia.org)

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as well as the basement furnace that heats your home. A hydronic boiler is basically a specialized furnacea device for heating water. In terms of home heating applications, the only real di erence is whats being heated: air (furnace) or water (boiler). (In many ways, the term boiler is a misnomer, since only steam-heat systemswhich are not common in private homesactually boil water.) Hot Air Heating In an oil furnace, next to the combustion chamber is a heat exchanger. This is a compartment into which cooler air is drawn, heated by the adjacent oil ame, and then sent back out into a network of ducts. The heat exchanger is completely sealed o from the combustion chamber to prevent combustion products [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combustion_Product]the exhaust from the furnace, which includes carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and water vaporfrom contaminating your homes air. Instead, the exhaust gases are vented to the outside, through a ue that connects with an exhaust pipe or chimney.

(image: howstuffworks.com)

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In the diagram above, the plenum is a chamber which helps maintain the proper air pressure for ecient operationas you might know from a replace or grill, ame generates drafts, aecting the ow of air; the ue connection is the vent to the exhaust pipe or chimney; and the return air connection is where air that has been circulated throughout your home, giving up its heat to raise your houses temperature, returns to the furnace to be heated again. Note that there are two blowers in a typical furnace, performing dierent duties: the combustion blower mixes heating oil with air and sprays it into the combustion chamber, while the other, larger blower forces heated air throughout your home. The most common kind of oil heating system in the United States is forced air heating. It is called forced air because a fanthe bloweris used to force the air throughout your home. There are also gravity fed air heating systems which work the same way as forced air systems, except there is no fan. Instead, the system relies on convection: hot air rises, and cold air sinks. If the shape and placement of the air ducts is designed properly, this natural movement will circulate air and heat. There is no fan to maintain, and no fan noise. On the other hand, because there is no fan to force the air along, circulation is slower. This means that a gravity fed system will not heat up your home as quickly as a forced air system. Whether the air is moved by the laws of physics or by a fan, it travels through ductslarge, square-sectioned pipesin your oor and walls. There will be two sets of ducts in your home: one takes hot air away from the furnace, the other takes cool air back to it. The openings to the ducts will be located on the oor, typically on opposite sides of a room. Hot air rises from vents on one side of the room, to the ceiling. At the same time, cold air sinks through vents on the other side of the room. This dual action causes air to circulate throughout the room, rising on one side, traveling across the ceiling, then, as it gives its heat up and cools, sinking down the other side. This improves ventilation and distributes heat as evenly as possible. A hot air furnace will run more often than a hydronic boiler to maintain a
Movement of hot and cool air in home heated by convection. (image: howstuffworks.com)

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given temperature. This is because water has a much higher speci c heat than air and holds heat much better. This is why boiling water, which is 212 degrees Fahrenheit, can give you a second- or even third-degree burnwhile 212 degree air (around 30 degrees hotter than a sauna) will not. Water takes more energy to heat upbut once its hot, it holds onto its heat for longer. This means that the hot water in the heating system will continue to give o heat and warm your home even after the boiler is turned o while the hot air in a forced air system gives up its heat immediately, leaving nothing to maintain the temperature. At night, a desert cools o much faster than a beach, because the beach has nearby water giving up its daytime heat, while a desert doesnt. In the same way, a hot water system maintains its heat better than forced air. Adding to the natural advantage that water already posses, hydronic systems often include large amounts of iron, aluminum, and copper, which also retain heat better than air. The residual heat in the water and other materials in a hydronic system help maintain your home at a comfortably warm temperature without constantly burning oil. On the other hand, forced air systems heat your home up more quickly after having been o for awhilefor example, if you kept the thermostat low during a winter day while you at work. Since air has a lower speci c heat than water, it warms up more rapidly. Add to that the fact that the warm air directly warms you and your room, instead of having to rst heat up something else (a radiator, a baseboard, or ooring; see below) which then warms the space, and you can see that while forced air systems maintain a given temperature less e ciently, they will be quicker to reach that temperature in the rst place. Hot Water Heating Hot water systems burn oil to heat water. Water circulates though metal tubes that pass through the boiler. The water is heated, then circulates throughout your home to give o heat. Unlike furnaces, hydronic boilers have gallons of very hot water, often under pressure, running through them. Just like old time steamboats or steam locomotives had safety valves to release excess pressure, so do home-heating boilers. This is not to imply that hydronic boilers are unsafelike all central heating systems, they are very safebut it is worth noting that hydronic boilers have to handle hot, pressurized water, which hot air furnaces do not.

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(image: howstuffworks.com)

In the diagram of a hydronic boiler above the circulating pump performs a function similar to that done by the main blower in a hot air furnaceit circulates the heated substance (in this case, water) throughout your home to distribute heat; the hot water coils perform a similar function to a furnaces heat exchangerthey are where the substance (water) used to distributed heat is warmed up; the cold water return pipe plays the same part as a furnaces air return connection; and the stack is similar to a furnaces ue connectionits where exhaust gases are released. The elements unique to a hydronic boiler are those concerned with regulating pressure in the

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water owing through your heating system: the expansion tank provides a buer for the water in the system; it helps maintain the systems pressure at the correct level; the ow control valve, pressure relief valve, and blow o valve all help maintain the correct pressure in the water pipes going throughout your homeor provide a way for excess pressure to vent safely; and the water supply shuto valve is how you would shut o the water to the boiler in the event of an emergency (like a major leak) or for maintenance. There are three dierent ways for hot water systems to warm your home. What they all have in common is that they rely primarily on radiation, not convection, to provide heat. Radiation simply means that heat is transmitted without direct contract and without relying on the movement of hot gases or liquids. In a hot water system, hot water is simply the mechanism for getting heat to a roomit is not the actual heating element (so to speak). Instead of being released directly to raise the temperature, the way forced air systems release hot air, the hot water heats up some other material. This other material then radiates heat into the room. In essence, it is a two-stage processheat the water, which then heats something elserather than the single stage of hot air heating. By the way, how hot is the hot water used to circulate heat? Except for steam radiators (see below), the water is usually 20 40 degrees below the boiling point, or around 180 200 degrees Fahrenheit. The steam in a steam heat system by denition is at or above the boiling point (212 degree Fahrenheit). Distributing Heat with Radiators One of the original hot water heating systems was the steam radiator, which is still commonly found in many older (pre-WWII) apartment buildings in New York City. Steam is, after all, just very hot waterwater that has been heated to the point that it undergoes a phase or state change from liquid to gas. Radiators can also operate o of hot water instead of steam. Radiators, whether steam or hot water, are less common in private homes nowover the years, many of them have been converted to the second type of hydronic heating system, baseboard heat. The traditional radiator was made of cast iron, and resembled a large accordion of iron pipes. As anyone who cooksor watches Food Networkknows, cast iron holds heat well and then releases it slowly and evenly. More modern radiators might also be made of aluminum, which heats up more quickly, but also cools o more quicklythey get going faster than cast iron radiators, but dont maintain heat as well.

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application of hydronic heating technology. But for the ancient Romans, underoor heating was old hat. Wealthy Roman homes were heated by hypocausts, in which the oor of the room was raised around two feet above the foundation on a network of posts, creating a system of under oor ducts. Hot hair from a furnace was circulated through these ducts, warming the oor and the room. Over two thousand years ago, the One room's radiant heating system, a series of red plastic tubes, before floor installation. (image: z.about.com) Romans had comfortable central heating. Modern radiant systems have much better technology, of course, but operate according to the same basic principal. Its true what they sayeverything old is new again!

This article was posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Articles, HVAC, Heating Oil, Heating Oil Equipment To read more articles like this one visit HeatingOil.com. Canal Street Station Box 1547 New York, NY 10013 2009 HeatingOil.com LLC

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application of hydronic heating technology. But for the ancient Romans, underoor heating was old hat. Wealthy Roman homes were heated by hypocausts, in which the oor of the room was raised around two feet above the foundation on a network of posts, creating a system of under oor ducts. Hot hair from a furnace was circulated through these ducts, warming the oor and the room. Over two thousand years ago, the One room's radiant heating system, a series of red plastic tubes, before floor installation. (image: z.about.com) Romans had comfortable central heating. Modern radiant systems have much better technology, of course, but operate according to the same basic principal. Its true what they sayeverything old is new again!

This article was posted on Monday, July 27, 2009 at 12:38 pm and is filed under Articles, HVAC, Heating Oil, Heating Oil Equipment To read more articles like this one visit HeatingOil.com. Canal Street Station Box 1547 New York, NY 10013 2009 HeatingOil.com LLC