I now have ten complete babington burners for sale. Manufactured under the Yellow Heat brand, these are new complete vegetable oil burning systems, capable of retrofitting most liquid fueled furnaces or boilers, or can be sold with the Yellow Heat Furnace.

Yellow Heat Burners require NO pretreatment of the vegetable oils. If its a liquid, Yellow Heat will burn it completely and cleanly. No tedious and messy oil filtration required. Yellow Heat burners require no preheating, you can operate them from as few as two standard solar electric panels. The entire Yellow Heat burner uses only 150 watts, complete with the air compressor, pump, ignitor and controls.

Yellow Heat burner is the lowest cost waste oil power burner on the market. It also can be operated on waste motor oil, hydraulic oil, or any other liquid oil up to SAE 80.

You can download the Operation Manual for free from http://YellowHeat.com

This is an evolving document and will be revised from time to time.

Yellow Heat comes with a manufacturer's warranty of 1 year. Satisfaction is guaranteed. Installation of the Yellow Heat system is available anywhere in Massachusetts for a moderate cost, local codes permitting.

Tom Leue
Homestead Inc.
413 628-4533

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very interesting! Price?

quote:

Pictures of a Yellow Heat burner matched to an omni Furnace are also included, which is for sale now on Craig's LIst at http://westernmass.craigslist.org/tls/979854222.html

Is that your advertisement?

Yes

The complete Yellow Heat Furnace is in off-season sale for $2500. plus $200 shipping in the USA. This is the recommended system.

Some people want the yellow grease burner as a retrofit. The burner alone is $1500, but some types of heating equipment require additional modifications. Contact us for details.

These are complete with the oil handling and dispensing system, as well as the Power Panel and the Fire Tube, as described in detail in the Operation Manual.

Tom Leue

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Congrats Tom! I hope it's a success.

I still remember visiting you many years ago when you were trying out a Babington on glycerin. It was very exciting to see. I'll post this thread around the CT forums and at my site.

The manual is very informative.
The pictures at the drop.io website are too small.

Price: $2K or $4K? Clarification may be required.

Hi J. Burke. Yes, its been 10 years of making and selling biodiesel throughout Western Massachusetts. Yellow Brand PREMIUM Biodiesel sells well in my 20 retail stores. Yellow Biodiesel

This new venture is something better. Yellow Heat is the first waste oil burner that can easily handle unfiltered and unheated waste vegetable oil, directly out of the fryolator. Just pour it in, hit the button and enjoy clean, safe heat. More efficient, less hassle.

The burner is a complete system, suitable for retrofit to other waste oil furnaces, or for other liquid burning applicances. It has its own oil treatment and storage system. The cost of the complete burner is $1500.

I am also selling a matched Omni brand furnace for $1500, which is about 50% off its retail price. I plan to introduce my own furnace in the near future, which is more efficient than the Omni brand, but will be floor mounted, not ceiling hung like the Omni.

The Drop.io pictures expand when you click on them. http://drop.io/YellowHeat

People are welcome to drop in and see the unit in operation.

Tom Leue
Homestead Inc.

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quote:

The Drop.io pictures expand when you click on them. http://drop.io/wvuv5vc_YellowHeat

Ooops, my pop-up blocker was on.



Thanks for the clarification. You sell a burner and a furnace.

Good luck and I hope it sells well.

Change of Plans

I'm postponing my plans to introduce a commercial waste vegetable oil burner system called Yellow Heat. The problem is too many people want to install this in their basements to save money. I wish I could accomodate, but it would not be legal or always safe in many types of basements. I must insist some applications are not appropriate.

Its not that this doesn't work well, and is a blessing in my shop, especially on a cold day like today. But without the UL Label, this furnace is not legal to install in Massachusetts, Maine, Vermont and downstate New York. I'm sure there are plenty of rules against it elsewhere.

The appropriate application is more industrial or agricultural. Locations such as greenhouses, maple sugar houses or auto shops and warehouses. Places that need cheaper heat, have enough space (including over eight feet of headroom) and don't mind getting their hands greasy. It would be good if they wanted to help the environment too.

If anyone wants to explore how this technology can burn unheated, unfiltered waste vegetable oil, they can purchase the heart of the system, the Babington Ball, from my website at

www.YellowBiodiesel.com or at the new website, below.

This is a 3" diameter heavy steel ball, hollow and tapped for pipe thread on one side, and three (3) Babington holes each 2° offset on the opposite side. The cost is $50 each plus $5 for shipping. If you want, I can help you in your quest for making this into a functional vegetable oil heater. Good luck with that.

I also have several finished burners for sale if they don't conflict with local codes. My new website is
http://YellowHeat.com

Including the Operation Manual. This manual is still being updated to make it more user friendly. I also have the other components that someone might want to make the entire system work.

Vegetable oil heating is the best kind, and hopefully someone can overcome the regulatory obstacles to get this alternative into production. Clean, safe, cheap and with no global warming impact, it beats all others I can think of.

In any case, here's hoping you stay warm.

Tom Leue

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More clarification.

A vegetable oil power burner is a new technology. No other manufacturer offers a burner capable of burning unfiltered, unheated waste vegetable oil. Or, Recycled Vegetable Oil, as I like to call it (RVO). Homestead Inc. has been working for over 8 years to get this system right. Now I can report that we have a fully functional system with a complete burner, including the oil handling, cleaning storage dispensing system and the complete mechanical system of pump, compressor, controller, ignitor, etc. This is a fire safe system, and has the same system logic as a conventional oil burner.

Yellow Heat Burner cleanly, smokelessly, efficiently burns RVO, waste motor oil, and #2 oil. We are promoting RVO because there are few, if any, regulations about burning RVO, as compared to waste motor oil, which often requires local, state and federal permits.

Burning RVO for space heating is a new technology. I compare it to the technology for lighting about 100 years ago. Kerosene lighting was a vast improvement over earlier candles, but it was not a mindless technology. We are accustomed to minimal to nearly no involvement in our convienence technologies. Most of us have no more hands-on work with our heating systems than an occassional tweaking of the thermostat. We expect heat to instantly appear at our command. I maintain that that will not necessarily be in our future forevermore.

Yellow Heat requires daily attention. RVO is a waste material that can be filled with contaminats, including water, flour, proteins, french fries, etc. Depending on how clean the RVO is, a simple and quick cleaning of the electrodes may be necessary as often as daily.

For that simple time investment, you can obtain very low cost heating in abundant quantity (up to 150,000 BTU per hour). Yellow Heat provides environmentally benign heating, with little to no global warming impact, low pollution, low electrical consumption, and a low cost capital investment.

I have been vacillating about the availability of the Yellow Heat System. The trouble is that in some jurisdictions, the Yellow Heat System is not a legal installation due to the lack of the Underwriter's Laboratory seal of approval. Many areas do not require the UL label, but you should check local codes to be sure, I cannot always advise you in advance.

Yellow Heat comes complete with a one year warranty. It is a complete RVO burning system, and in an era when petroleum is reaching its zenith of avilability, it is probably a good plan to find an alternative that can keep going when we start to run into limitations.

Again, you can see more at my site with a few pictures and the Operation Manual.

http://YellowHeat.com

Tom Leue
Homestead Inc.

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I know someone on the UL's committee currently looking at RVO as a fuel for domestic heating. There is no UL standard for domestic use of waste motor oil therefore no products on the market. Without a standard they have nothing to build to. The UL committee has been working on the RVO/biodiesel angle for a couple of years that I know of. Let me know if you'd like my contact's name to have some input at UL.

I am introducing the Yellow Heat Furnace. For pictures, go to http://YellowHeat.com


Made from 70% recycled materials, this furnace is highly efficient and safe. It has a seven tube heat exchanger, making it more energy efficient than most commercial waste oil furnaces. It can be connected to duct systems used in greenhouses or other systems. It has a two speed circulation fan for heat distribution. Our double wall construction assures a fire safe installation. It has a glass window for monitoring the fire.

Current list price is $1500. It is shippable in an easy to assemble kit. Suitable for many types of oil fired burners, such as converting most existing waste oil furnaces to operate on vegetable oil. The Yellow Heat Burner is especially designed for the Yellow Heat Furnace, as shown on the referenced website.

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If this picture is supposed to illustrate the burner in operation, then I think you have a long way to develop it into what I would expect from a commercial made product of that price range.



The flame is very "lopey" and clearly the fuel is being burned very poorly as evidenced by the streak of smoke near the bottom of the main flame which are drops of un combusted oil .

This burner to my eye would not appear very powerful at all, probably smoke and I expect would foul up in short order from the unburned oil it is spitting out.

I see from looking at your other pictures that you are using nothing more than a computer type fan ( although bigger) to supply the combustion air. I believe a worthwhile investment here would be to use a proper blower so as to obtain greater airflow, pressure and turbulence in order to get better combustion.

The burners I have made while operating on a different principle run excess air so combustion is very clean to the point where the only emissions to the nose are a warm air smell.

While it is unclear what the product actualy is as far as what you get, I would also have little faith in the compressor shown to run any decent hours before failure.
Such an appliance is going to be operated for may hours at a time over periods of moths and I can't see that style of compressor having much of an operational life in this application.

That said I am still unsure if this is actually part of what you get and there is very little info on the web site other than a few pics and an operating manual which appears to have far more detail invested in it than the actual product itself.

I'm always interested in these burners but honestly, given what I have built from pieces of scrap I had lying round the workshop and the results I got and from what I am seeing of your product, I'm afraid there is no way in hell I'd spend even 1/10th of your asking price.

I'm sure some people of the 3 thumbs on each hand fraternity whom don't know enough about these things will be impressed but I have severe reservations about this devices ability to run hours of any significance.

I believe your marketing and promotional material will create expectations the product will simply not be able to live up to and that more research and development is needed on this product before being offered for sale.

Rather harsh, but I'm glad to have some response.

I don't think you understand. Yellow Heat Furnace burns unfiltered, unheated recycled vegetable oil. It is smokeless and clean burning. No visible emissions. There is no oil processing requirements. The furnace is more efficient than most waste oil burning furnaces on the market, it is less than 1/2 of the price of any competing model. What's more it works, I guarantee it. I don't think your hot box air-atomizing retrofit gives you any basis for making a judgment on this new technology. Besides, they don't do heating in Australia, do they?

The flame in a firebox has no unburned components. It is complete combustion, entirely smokeless and efficient.

The fan is long lived, quiet and adequate for the job. Any other blower would be a greater energy user without any more benefit. Complete combustion is the goal, once that is obtained there is no benefit of making the unit more complex.

As for the compressor, there is a one-year warranty. I have many hundreds of hours on the compressor without a failure. If it should go bad, the replacement compressor is available for less than $50. Look at the competition and see their replacement parts costs. Omni, for example, charges $600 for the replacement compressor. This compressor is quiet, low power usage and adequate. Bigger is not better.

This is the only WVO burning equipment that works on unfiltered and unheated fuel. The asking price is less than half any other manufacturer's product. It works far better than the Omni brand, but that's not too hard.

Glad you have invented a better machine. Best of luck with its development. I am not going to sell to you, but you can't complain that I did not offer some value in the free operation manual. Hope you enjoy reading it.

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Yellow Heat Burner Specifications

The Yellow Heat Burner is the only power burner for liquid fuel that operates on unfiltered, unheated waste vegetable oil. Yellow Heat will also easily burn waste motor oil, etc.

The output is easily adjusted between 30000 btu/hr to about 150000 btu/hr. Matched to the Yellow Heat Furnace it operates best at around 50000 btu/hr.

Power for the burner is only 150 watts or less. It can be operated from as few as two solar electric panels.

The Yellow Heat Burner is a complete oil burning system, capable of being matched to a variety of boilers and furnaces. Contact me for recommendations at Tilapia@AOL.com

The burner includes the compressor, fuel pump, all necessary operating systems, the fuel cleaning system, fuel storage tank, fuel level indicator, and much more.

The cost is $1500. Shipping weight is 100 pounds. Shipping is on a pallet and there are freight costs involved, unless you stop in here and pick it up. I can provide operator training for free.

More information in the Operation Manual at the address given above, many times.

Guidance for Babington Ball Users

Homestead Inc. is selling babington balls for anyone wanting to experiment with building their own babington burner. Babington refers to an invention of Robert Babington who discovered that air existing a hole of 0.01" diameter has terrific shearing action, and is able to atomize even viscous oils to an ignitable spray. Using this principal, others have invented a burner that can handle all forms of normal oils and get them to burn cleanly, including waste vegetable oils. Because the oil is not put through an orifice, just compressed air, the oils do not need to be cleaned before using, a great labor saver.

Homestead Inc. has commercialized this principal in a complete oil burner, as available on our website http://yellowheat.com
We are also selling the babington ball for $50 for other inventors. Here are some tips on how to use it.
1. Use a low air pressure, 30 psi will do it. An air-brush compressor is low energy and quiet and sufficient. The balls are tapped for a 1/4" inlet, and mounting them on a piece of small pipe is appropriate.
2. The pump is often the issue. You need a small fuel stream with a steady delivery. I use a gear pump for ease of priming and steady delivery. A clock motor would reduce the flow enough. A standard fuel pump from a normal burner run at about 200 rpm delivers enough fuel.
3. Much of the oil delivered to the ball is not burned, so a return oil stream is needed. Enough height to have it flow back to the drum avoids the need to have a return pump.
4. Ignitors need to be placed in front of the fuel spray. Standard ceramic ignitors will work. Dirty vegetable oil causes a buildup of carbon on the ignitors, so make them easily removable and cleanable. Standard ignition systems deliver 14000 volts, more than standard wires can handle without leaking voltage. Use high voltage wires, or standard wires inside of vinyl tubing for extra insulation. Use a standard ignition control system for safety. I use continuous spark from a Honeywell model R8184G4009.

More in the next issue, we are text limited here.

Other development issues for making a fully functional babington burner.

1 In the Yellow Heat System, the oil storage container has a pick-up tube that floats on the surface of the drum. This is critical for our product and allows us to burn unfiltered oil. All contaminants such as water and crumb are heavier than vegetable oil, so you get the cleanest oil on top.

2 The Yellow Heat System also works on unheated vegetable oil. Some commercial waste oil burners use almost 1000 watts of electricity between preheaters and final heaters. You might as well just use an electric space heater for all the benefit that electricity provides. They do this to thin out the oil to get it to ignite. We don't need any stupid electric heaters. The Yellow Heat System starts on a small volume of conventional heating oil, or used motor oil, and that ignites far easier than would cold vegetable oil. A solenoid valve switches back to the vegetable oil after an adjustable interval of time when the flame is established. Actual standard oil consumption is about 1 gallon of heating oil per day, the rest being the much cheaper vegetable oil. This system works so well that I can startup on a day when I've shut down for several days and the vegetable oil is near solidified. By adding heat to the fuel drum from the warmed return stream, the vegetable oil starts to melt and the unit bootstraps back into full operation without any outside heaters.

Next I want to discuss used vegetable oil.

Vegetable Oil Handling

I've been collecting it for over 10 years. You'd think I'd have a lot by now, but its used up. I've built many types of collecting system, such as vacuum trucks, gear pump to a tote, and cube handling systems. Lets stick to the cube systems. These are the 4.5 gallon disposable jugs that restaurants receive the vegetable oil in, and can be induced to refill with the waste oil. They sometimes are reluctant, either because they have a large container out back, or the cube can't handle their hot oil, or whatever. Smaller restaurants do often dispose of oil in cubes.

I prefer to call waste vegetable oil "Recycled vegetable Oil" since there are a lot of implied regulations on the word waste. So its RVO for short.

Here are some handling tips from my yellow grease burning system's Operation Manual as available on http://yellowheat.com

> Don’t be a “Grease Bandit”; always get permission to collect RVO from restaurants, etc. Many restaurants will give permission to careful, dedicated collectors for little or no charge.
> Put multiple layers of newspaper down when you pour vegetable oils to catch any drips. Remove one layer at a time when they become contaminated. Use the newspapers as safe fire-starters in woodstoves.
> Allow the contents of jugs of RVO to settle in a larger container, such as an open-top drum with a bottom valve, to separate water and contaminants.
> Put all collected oil through a 40-mesh screen. See Homestead Inc.’s Product Catalog for our Straining Bucket and Drum Funnel that allows cleaned oil to be put directly into fuel storage drums. The Straining Bucket and Drum Funnel accepts a entire standard disposable oil jug of RVO at a time. Hint: order 2 Straining Buckets and Funnels so you can process RVO faster.
> Utilize settled oils from the top down: “The Good Stuff’s On Top”. See Product Catalog for our unique Floating Draw-off that always uses the best oil in any drum or oil storage tank.
> Look for oils that are liquid at 60°F or below, as opposed to thicker or solid fats. Viscous oils may need preheating to screen or pump into burner. Do not exceed 150°F to protect plastic system parts.
> Quality RVO is dark in color, while wet oils and viscous hydrogenated oils are usually lighter in color. Darker oils are generally easier to use.
> Yellow Heat handles partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, but fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and solid animal fats will need to be pre-heated and diluted with liquid oils for pumping and burner operation.
> RVO is often collected in disposable 5-gallon plastic jugs that the restaurants bought the oil in. These jugs are often not recyclable unless particularly clean. Empty jugs may be compacted in a standard trash-masher appliance for handling and disposal.
> A few state and localities may require permits for collecting RVO. Check local codes.

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New plans for the Yellow Heat Burner include a new model that is for stationary equipment. It is planned as a 250,000 BTU model (about 2 gallons of fuel per hour). This is far more than most people need in conventional space heating equipment. I am building an industrial stove to match this with dimensions of 44" wide by 65" deep by 36" tall. It will be used for several purposes, including cleaning up the paint on the recycled drums that are the heart of the Yellow Heat System. I also came into a lot of "carney oil", i.e. fully hydrogenated soy oil that is a solid at even room temperature. What to do with it? This industrial burner will handle hot oils and in turn heat the oil. It also gives me more practice with a return fuel pump system that is necessary for many types of retrofit installation where the babington burner does not burn all of the oil fed to it, and the appliance is too low to the floor to have this return stream back to the fuel tank by gravity.

If successful, I plan to install this in a commercial maple syrup production system for the next season. Certainly maple producers could use some savings.

Glad to share these developments with anyone who is interested in cheap and clean heating energy.

New item for sale at YellowHeat.com. For the first time ever the Electrically Heated Drum Funnel. The best thing ever for those vegetable oil sludges. Just pour it in and it will automatically melt, separate and add the liquid to the fuel drum. Thermostatically operated, safe. See the website for a picture.

The Yellow Heat babington furnace Operation Manual is available at www.YellowHeat.com
I had tried to make it available before, but something went wrong. Feel free to download this 28 page manual that contains detailed information about using vegetable oil for heating, and the operation of the Yellow heat Furnace. This furnace is for sale at this website via PayPal. Useful and unique componets are also available, including the babington ball, our floating draw-off, stainless steel straining bucket, drum funnel and more. Very reasonable prices, unlimited support too. See the page labelled Yellow Heat Tech.

Tom Leue