An oil-fired, forced-air heating system consists of:
- a burner fed by fuel oil from a storage tank;
- a heat exchanger;
- a circulating fan; and
- cold and hot air ducts.
How it works
- Hot combustion gases pass through the furnace, where they give up heat across a heat exchanger.
- A circulating fan draws cool air from the house over the furnace heat exchanger.
- The warm air circulates to the hot air ducts and throughout the house.
- Gases from combustion exhaust to the outside through a flue pipe and chimney.
You should have a your oil-fired appliance serviced annually by a certified technician. Improper adjustments and parts replacement can put your health and safety at risk.
An oil-fired boiler or hydronic heating system consists of:
- a burner fed by fuel oil from a storage tank, firing into a combustion chamber in the furnace;
- a heat exchanger;
- a circulating pump; and
- distribution pipes and a radiation system.
How it works
- A heat exchanger warms the water flowing through it.
- A circulating pump pushes heated water through the distribution pipes and the radiating system.
Hot water heating provides a more constant heat than forced air heating.
You should have a your oil-fired appliance serviced annually by a certified technician. Improper adjustments and parts replacement can put your health and safety at risk.
Water in storage tanks can cause corrosion. Over time, sometimes less than a year, corrosion may cause small holes on the bottom of the oil tank. Oil leaking out of the tank creates an environmental hazard that can be expensive to remediate.
A simple test can confirm if there is water in your fuel tank:
- Use a clean 3-metre-long wooden dip-stick or pipe.
- Coat the bottom few centimetres of the dip-stick with water-sensing paste. This is available at most hardware and building supply stores.
- Insert the dipstick into the tank via the fill spout until it touches the bottom of the tank, then remove it.
- The paste will turn colour if water is present in the tank, but fuel oil will have no effect on the colour of the paste.
If you detect water
- Talk with your fuel supplier on how best to have it removed.
- For small amounts of water, a water displacer or biocide additive may remove the water. Adding a biocide or water displacer a couple times a year will help keep any water inside the tank in check.
- Have a certified technician inspect your fuel tank during the annual inspection of your home heating system.
A complete home heating system includes the:
- fuel storage tank and its mounting;
- fuel lines to the furnace;
- fuel filter assembly;
- burner appliance;
- combustion air supply;
- in-house heat distribution assembly (ducts); and
- chimney (venting) system.
Have the complete furnace system inspected annually by a certified technician.
Residential fuel oil tanks are now required to meet new building code standards. These standards reduce the chance of tanks tipping over due to ground settling or earthquake effects.