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B I OF U E L S specs, try this: First of all, set your burner to 'factory set- tings' using the correct recommended nozzle. Set your head settings and air settings also to factory specifications and then close down a bit on your air setting. If you want, you can make the initial pump setting into a can and fire her up. Remember, we want to close the air gate a bit and then adjust the pump as follows. By burning B2 you have a reduced Btu input of about 8%, so if you should be operating with a 100 psi pump pressure you should actually be at 110 psi (108) to meet factory specs. If you should be operating at 125 set your pump to 135 psi and if you should be at 145 psi set it to 160 (157). Higher pump pressures in the stratosphere, in my opinion, do nothing, but correct pump pressure does wonders. After you get everything set, adjust your air to deliver a burner that operates at True Zero smoke or the low- est cad-cell reading you can get and adjust your head (if adjustable) for the lowest Carbon Monoxide (CO) level or the lowest cad-cell reading you can get (Lanthier Scale) and you're done. Now all you need is a good quality, properly filtered, additive conditioned fuel and see ya' next year, you hope! Don't forget pour points, too. Many biomixtures Figure 3 When I started, oil was going through a refining change and we watched the books change from 144,000 to 140,000 Btus as the content of a gallon of fuel oil. Today, that number is at 138,500 Btus per gallon and that's dropped down from 139,800 just since 1999. So, what about burner setups? Well, if you are burning a 2% mix of heating oil and biofuel (B2) you're burning at 129,200 Btus, not 138,500. Make it B20 and it's down to 127,259 per gallon and if you burn B100, well, first of all they don't need you anymore. At that point you are not a burner technician, you are a kitchen appliance tech and that fuel contains only 118,296 Btus per gallon. Just for the record, these numbers come from a company called Biodiesel Logic, Inc. and they should know because they make the bio distill- ing equipment. And we go back to the basement. If you are trying to get that oilburner to start and/or run and it won't, it's the fuel, period! First thing to do when it all goes to crap is to run from another source. Grab a fuel can, go fill it with clean fuel and see what hap- pens. If it now lights and runs the fuel in your tank is junk and you need to replace it, that's the Circle of Combustion, Figure 2. If you can get it to run, but the test numbers aren't any good or the adjustments you had to make vary so much from the OEM won't flow freely at temperatures that start as high as 64ºF and can cause some real problems at temperatures like 46ºF depending on the base bio ingredient, soybean, palm oil or tallow. If the tank goes cold, you will see gell- ing with biomixtures at temperatures that are normally not a problem with regular fuel oil, so even more additives will be required. Finally, if you burn oil at home, like I do, and it contains 2% bio (B-2) you'll find that heating your home with B-2 is now costing you about 8% more just to make up for the lost Btu content of Bioheat® and that's why those big clients who track fuel usage very carefully are jumping off and another reason I decided to write this article. I have a very large client where with new equipment and con- trols we cut their fuel bill 52% a few years back, they were ecstatic and did not switch as they had planned. Now, due to that 8% increase they are thinking of switching again. And oh, by the way, they are a major well known conservation and ecological group. In their opinion, the only true 'green oil' is B-100. Good or bad biofuels may be here to stay, so try my service procedure and let me know what you think of it and use a good quality pressure gauge, Figure 3, because accurate pressure set- tings have never been more important. l FON See ya. George Lanthier is the owner of Firedragon Academy, a teaching, publishing and consulting firm. He is the author of over 40 books on HVAC subjects and can be reached at 608 Moose Hill Road, Leicester, MA 01524. His phone is 508-421-3490, fax at 508-421-3477 and his website can be found at www.FiredragonEnt.com www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | FEBRUARY 2012 31