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Fuel Oil News - November 2016

The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding

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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | NOVEMBER 2016 41 BY GEORGE LANTHIER HVAC/ HYDRONICS M A N Y O F U S H A V E H E A R D t h e expression: They don't make them like they used to. In this industry, it has been said: They don't build ignition trans- formers and ignitors like they used to. In the past it was not unusual to see a 30- or 40-year-old oil burner with the original ignition transformer, and now it seems they just don't last. Is it the fault of the manufacturers or have there been changes in our servicing policy over the years? Let's take a look at that old burner. First-generation oil burners were pretty crude by today's standards. One of the biggest problems with those burn- ers was keeping the flame stable. In many cases a good cure all was called constant ignition. The industry has been calling it intermittent since 1975, but some people never change. The next design to come along was the Shellhead and its clones. Those of you who have serviced Shellheads know that this burner had a flame shape that was quite defined and controlled and that the preferred ignition operation was referred to as "intermittent" back then (today we call it "interrupted"). The motor on those older burners is low-speed (1725 rpm). The air coming down the air tube is really not moving with a lot of velocity. Not much chance of blowing the spark out, right? Oh, sure, but first you have to get it to light. And oh yes, finally look at this if you will, the burner is operated by a stack-mounted relay, what most of us call a stack switch, Figure 1. Now before you think that I'm crazy in bringing this all up, remember that this is not high-tech, this is low-tech, but it works. Many of the old timers will say the damned guy is right, but this is 2016! Finally, the high speed, high-velocity, flame-retention head burner. In the meantime, and more than a few years ago, 1975, constant ignition becomes a gas pilot, intermittent ignition becomes constant ignition on power burners and interrupted igni- tion is born, or maybe just picks up a new name. Are you confused yet? Read on. M a n h a s g o n e t o t h e moon, he can go across the Atlantic in three hours and w e c a n m i c r o w a v e a h o t dog in minutes but we can- not get a transformer to last more than two or three years. What in the blazes is going on here? How would you feel if you had just purchased a new burner two years ago and six months into the deal the serviceman had to come and reset the electrodes? At the annual cleaning, he had to adjust them again. And now, two years and five ignition adjustments later the transformer and electrodes have to be replaced. This is reliable, safe, and efficient oil heat? Well, as it turns out it's not all the transformer's fault and all is not lost. You may not believe this, but the problem is probably the primary control you are using that's killing all these transform- ers and electrodes, Figure 2. Remember that reference to the stack switch. That's the key to the puzzle. While working as a burner rep many years ago I was respon- sible for coming up with ways to teach the product which were technically cor- rect but would show the advantages of that burner over the others on the mar- ket. By the way, electrode tips should be like a sharpened pencil to produce a lot of surface area and the resulting heat from a good strong spark. It's that heat that lights the oil, not the spark. It was at that time that I found that I might have stumbled across a secret formula. Back in 1990 I worked on a new text for the industry (The Petroleum Marketing Education Foundation's Oil Heat Technician's Manual, 1990 Edition) which also became the NORA OTM and includes this secret formula. Let me give away "the secret." We've updated some of the numbers and burn rate since 1992. Let's say that we have a residential oil- burner, which consumes 800 gallons of oil per year through a .085 gph nozzle. Further, to produce both heat and hot water, the burner will start about 2,800 An Update on Ignition Systems Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3

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