Small ammounts of Paraffin/kerosene

huwwatkins

Hi
I've just bought a paraffin inverter heater and Im trying to find somewhere in Bedfordshire or Hertfordshire that will supply paraffin or kerosene in 25 or 50l quantities. Does anyone know of such a place? All I have found so far is pre packaged paraffin at 6.99 for 4 litres!

Thanks

fishybusiness

I had two of the those heaters, amazing for heating space, but expensive on fuel.

There are forum threads dotted around the internet debating the use of alternative fuels, one person saying they have used their neighbours fuel oil without ill effect.

Personally I'd use the paraffin extra if using indoors or in closed spaces as I wouldn't want to be breathing in any nasties.

Cheapest I ever found was at Dryitoutdotcom

huwwatkins

Hi Yes- I've seen quite a few people using kerosene/heating oil and thats what I'm going to try.

I live in the Luton area and finding small quantities is difficult.

Gloomendoom

A few years ago, I tried using kerosene instead of paraffin in my workshop heater. I stopped because it seemed to make my eyes hurt and my throat tickle. A bit of research revealed that paraffin is actually a more refined version of kerosene without the sulphur and other aromatic nasties.

I certainly wouldn't use it where I have to breathe the fumes. It would probably be ok in a greenhouse though.
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chris1973

huwwatkins wrote: »

Hi
I've just bought a paraffin inverter heater and Im trying to find somewhere in Bedfordshire or Hertfordshire that will supply paraffin or kerosene in 25 or 50l quantities. Does anyone know of such a place? All I have found so far is pre packaged paraffin at 6.99 for 4 litres!

Thanks

Ring around all of the heating oil brokers, chances are you'll find one who has a forecourt pump. These are becoming more common place now since the fiasco during the long cold snap in 2010, where many oil fired households ran out and the tankers couldn't keep up with demand, so in some area's people had to top up with small amounts just to get by until a tanker could deliver a bulk quantity. More often than not you'll find at least one broker with a pump who is set up for oil fired customers to buy small amounts in an emergency.

Also look for oil brokers in farming area's, as farmers use a lot of Kerosene for heating / growing purposes, in addition also look at any Agricultural suppliers in rural areas as these sometimes have pump facilities.

Failing that, spread the word amongst friends etc to see if anybody uses oil fired central heating, as they may be willing to let you syphon 25 litres or so from their tank. If you don't know anybody, then an appeal on Freecycle or Gumtree may find somebody who can help.

Also look out on Ebay and the online classifieds for people who are changing over to Gas or other alternative forms of heating, and are selling off the remaining quantity of heating oil in their storage tanks.

Caldo oils handle a lot of the distribution of Kero and Paraffin in the UK, and so they may be able to give you the name of a bulk supplier nearby

http://www.caldo.co.uk/


If you are unable to source heating oil, then class C1 paraffin will also work. A good bulk source of this are allotment societies / clubs (Google them)

28 second Heating oil (Kerosene), is of course the cheapest option, followed by standard (class c1) paraffin and then the more expensive Premium Paraffin (Paraffin Extra) which is the stuff with the low sulphur and which costs a small fortune.

I've run two inverter heaters now on standard heating oil Kerosene for around 18 months as a main source of domestic heating, with no adverse effects to either myself or the heaters. Its worth noting that in Japan where these heaters are a popular form of household heating, they are routinely used on bulk heating oil Kerosene, and in most countries there is no such thing as 'paraffin' because basically what we know as Paraffin, is routinely known as Kerosene in the U.S and they are pretty much exactly the same thing

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kerosene

In fact, Kerosene, Paraffin and Jet A1 (used in Helicoptors, Light Aircraft and some Diesel vehicles in cold climates) are all of the same thing, and from the same family, the only thing really that differs between them are slight differences in refinement and their flash point, but in the majority of non critical applications they can be used to replace each other.

Because Kerosene (Heating Oil) is generally kept in underground tanks, it does get subject to moisture, dirt and rust, and for this reason I filter all of my heating oil through a 'Mr Funnel' which removes any trapped water and dirt from the fuel. More recently, i've also added some Exocet Additive which is designed for oil fueled Aga's and is supposed to help with a cleaner burn and better combustion and negates the need to use premium packaged fuel (at the premium price)

http://www.midlandfueloil.co.uk/exocet.php

I hope that the advice and prospective from somebody who actually uses these heaters as their main form of heating, may put paid to some of the rumours, scaremongerers and bandwagon jumpers. Of course all of the most knowledgeable 'experts' out there, are of course the people who have never actually owned the appliance which is under discussion!.

I tried using kerosene instead of paraffin in my workshop heater. I stopped because it seemed to make my eyes hurt and my throat tickle

Used in what? a bog standard industrial space heater, a standard paraffin heater or one of these Inverter Heaters?. There are huge variations as to the design and build quality between all three.

Unless its the same design of heater which myself and the OP are using then your experience is, with due respect, totally irrelevant. Inverter heaters are designed for indoor use in enclosed room sized spaces, they are also designed for a country and market where there use is entirely within houses and apartments and where they are as common a form of space heating as Gas Central heating is in the UK!. This sets them apart from standard greenhouse / workshop heaters, and even industrial space heaters, which simply don't use the same technology or design.

These heaters have many safety features, including air quality sensors and CO2 detection, if the Air Quality fails (eg noxious fumes) then the heater switches off and displays a warning code. Despite using these heaters for upto 12 hours a day at the weekend, i've never experienced any of these coded shutdowns or the physical symptoms which you describe.

All I can say, is that I would never recommend anything to anybody which I hadn't already done myself, and in this case I can speak from experience. Of course running these on Kero rather than premium paraffin extra, will invalidate your warranty and you do of course do so at your own risk.

huwwatkins

Thanks - ill ring around oil depot suppliers. I actually found one with a pump not far from me, but they wanted £1.20 per litre! for kerosene 28