Diesel for home heating oil #2

ch352

Hi

we have a home with a steam system using #2 fuel oil, we're at the boom of our oil tank not enough to turn on the heat i called a few oil company's all said cannot deliver for another 2 days!! i found one place that may be able to help for tomorow. 



so the question is can i go to the local gas station and pick up a few gallons of diesel untill the delivery? i understand it has some kind of red dye to it too, will that efect the boiler? is there anything to watch out for or to be sure of?



Thanks

SWEI

The red dye

is actually in your heating oil, to indicate that it has not been taxed for on-road use.



#2 Diesel and #2 heating oil are essentially the same thing.  They used to literally come out of the same pipeline.  I'm a bit less certain about how ultra-low sulfur Diesel relates to current #2 heating oil, but it will certainly burn OK.

Ron Jr._3

ULS

is being use in NYS for heating oil now . You can also use kerosene but that's kinda pricey ! 

ch352

off Road Diesel?

did not have Internet access earlier but Thanks for the response, still no oil until Monday! we are using space heater not very comfortable but now that i know, tomorrow i will g-d willing get some diesel (#2) to run the boiler.



I'm just not sure (may sound silly  forgive me if it is) about the "on road" or "off road" diesel, are they both good for home heating? are they the same thing just different tax prices? are they both standard at gas stations?



now just out of curiosity (i do not plan on doing this...) but it seems from SWEI that using diesel on a regular basis instead of oil should be perfectly fine, is that correct?

STEVEusaPA

yes...........but....

Where are you located that you can't get a heating oil delivery for 4 days in the fall?  Just curious.

As stated above, ULSD, clear & dyed are the same product.  Dye is injected at loading so you can purchase it without the road taxes.

ch352

Brooklyn!

well... i ordered oil for Friday.  it was already getting late so i called up insisting to find out what's going on, was put on hold then I'm told "O actually the truck came by and called the house and the cell numbers but no one answered so your rescheduled for Monday" i was pretty annoyed and told them straight up its not true, 1)was home 2)none of the phones have any such missed calls. but that obviously did not help me get my oil:(

my guess is that on friday some streets near our home were closed for a few hours  do to the president driving through to the P-TECH school. so the truck driver was probably to lazy to figure out how to get around it and just lied!

anyhow then i started calling about 5 or 6 other company's i know to be reliable, some were not open through Monday and some said they only do "emergency" deliveries on the weekend for costumers and would not do it for me.

i did not have the time at that moment to keep calling, also i don't feel comfortable getting some random company but probably could have found something.

so tats how it happened

icesailor

Road Diesel:

Taxed road diesel works fine in oil burners.



My son's father-in lay has a trash hauling and construction business. Hw hauls fuel for his equipment and uses it in his oil burning equipment at the business and his family homes. I call it "Yellow Oil". It is legal to do so. I have found that burning ULS road diesel keeps the boilers running in an almost "like new" condition. Last week, I cleaned one boiler, a Weil McLain WGOT-5 that I cleaned last time in 09/2010 and like the time before, there was a thin brown layer of ash. Strangely, there was little noticeable sludge in the Garber spin-on at the tank but the inlet side of the Gerber at the burner was heavily sludged up. That was after three years running though.