Curious about how heating oil works in a home.?

Question

Born and raised in CA, and I have no idea how this works. Do you burn it to run a furnace, heat water for radiators? What if you live in an apartment?

Answer 1

You can learn a lot about this quickly if you check out a few episodes of "This Old House"- try their website or check out a few episodes on your local public broadcast tv channel.

Answer 2

Samething, the oil burning furnance heats water for the radiators or some form of heat exchanger.

Answer 3

I had a direct fired oil furnace.  The oil is delivered seasonally and kept in a 250 gal tank in the basement.  The oil goes from the tank to an ignition pump that injects and atomizes the oil into a refractory combustion chamber as it is lit with a continuous high voltage spark.  Efficiency is around 75% to 80%

It's noisy, stinky and messy... especially if the tank runs dry during a cold spell, pulling in sediment from the tank, and you have to take the pump apart to clean and prime it.

It sounds like a small jet engine when running

Answer 4

there is a lot to explain best bet would be to get a simple book on plumbing and heating. but the basics are that you have a fuel, be that gas or oil. this is burned by the boiler to heat the water in the boiler. the water in the boiler is then pump around the radiators and around your hot water cylinder if the boiler is not a combi. the water in the cylinder is heated indirectly by the water in your heating system. if you have an apartment the system can be communal where every one is heated by one big boiler or every apartment has its own boiler depends on the designed of the building!

Answer 5

There are forced air oil furnaces just as there are gas furnaces.  They work basically the same except for the fuel source.  Since gas is under pressure it flows easily into the burners.  Oil however has to be mixed with air to atomize it so it burns more efficiently.  The radiators are part of a heating system in which a boiler heats water by burning oil or gas.  Pipes carry hot water to the radiators to heat the rooms.  They do not get hot enough to burn you if you touch them.  Oil is delivered by truck to your home and it is stored in a tank.  Most apartments I'm familiar with use gas or electric heat.