oil burner electric motor efficiency and power savings?

ron

the circulators now are ECM and give a significant efficiency boost and electrical savings... the old taco 007 was 75 watts whenever running? Its ECM counterpart a max of 45 watts and brochure states uses up to 85% less electricity.

On the oil burner, i.e. Beckett or Carlin, what is the wattage comparison between the igniter and the blower motor?

For the burner motor (blower and oil pump) what type of AC electrical motor is it? Is there any improvement on them like there has been with circulators?

I mean it runs a fan at a single high speed and then you choke off the air with the baffle to get combustion right, seems like there can be a more efficient way that could save on the electric bill?

When will we see something like an automobile O2 sensor... combustion CO2 sensor? ... in the flue with a feedback to the burner computer that controls combustion air to give optimal combustion all the time?

seems like that's a better idea than blanket banning gas stoves in America

Jamie Hall

Oil burner motors are usually capacitor start and often capacitor run AC induction motors, intended to run at a constant speed (which they do). The current draw of such a motor is closely related to the load, and so long as the load is reasonably closely matched to the motor (which most of them are) Efficiency is good, though not great. In an oil burner, there are two loads on the motor: the fan, which does vary with the air setting, and the oil pump -- which does not.

Reliability is outstanding.

Cost is cheap.

ECM motors are more efficient, especially at part load, and can easily have the speed of the motor varied to meet whatever the load requirements are. But -- they are more expensive.

SuperTech

As far as the  igniter/ignition transformer goes the best way to save electricity is to equip your oil burner with a modern primary control setup for interrupted ignition. This will shut of power to the ignition components once the flame is established. Older controls such as tbe Honeywell R8184G keep the spark going the entire time the burner motor is running. 

I'm not sure if the new electronic igniters use less power than the old ignition transformers but with interrupted ignition I'm pretty sure electricity consumption is minimal. 

EdTheHeaterMan

When the old burners pre 1960 oil burners operated at 1725 RPM those motors were split phase motors. There was a start winding that was connected to a centrifugal switch. Once the motor was up to speed the run winding would take on the entire job of maintaining the motor speed at 1725 RPM. When Flame retention burners needed higher static pressure they used the same motor at a higher speed. 3450, Double speed. In fact the Carlin model designation CRD stood for Carlin Retention Double-speed. Eventually the split phase motor was phased out (no pun intended) for the slightly more efficient Permanent Split Capacitor (PSC) motor.

So since the 1920s the oil burner motor has evolved a little.

Jamie Hall

One of the minor tradeoffs there -- a cap start or cap start cap run motor is about as simple and reliable as they come. The only two failure points are the capacitor or capacitors and the centrifugal switch. 20 or 30 years is still young... overvoltage, undervoltage, surges, miserable power quality. They don't care -- they just run. I've seen 60 year old cap start motors running just fine.