Using Biodiesel To Heat Your Home
by Justin Thomas, Virginia on 11.11.05
Wired Magazine has an article about biodiesel becoming a popular choice for heating homes this winter. Previously, biodiesel was overlooked as a heating fuel because heating oil was cheaper, but now that prices for conventional heating oil have doubled since 2001, it is looking more attractive. As a result, the National Biodiesel Board's website now lists 19 companies that supply biodiesel-blended heating oil, known as BioHeat, to residential customers, and the list is growing.
Most companies provide BioHeat blends that contain 5 percent, 10 percent or 20 percent of biodiesel (known as B5, B10 or B20, respectively) mixed with conventional heating oil, all of which can be used in existing oil-burning furnaces.
They also mention Jesse Parris, who converted his oil furnace to accept biodiesel that he creates at home. He has started a group
on Yahoo that has grown to almost 2,000 members.
:: Wired Magazine via Groovy Green
Maybe John Laumer should jump in here, but I thought diesel and fuel oil were pretty much identical but diesel has a dye added so that truckers cannot fuel up with fuel oil and beat the road taxes. Can road-tax free home heating oil actually be more expensive than biodiesel?