Oil Burner Ignition
Gas systems need either a hot surface or a pilot light to get started, but not oil systems. Why the difference? It boils down to the fuel being fundementally different. Fuels like propane and natural gas enter the combustion chamber in a gaseous state. Once part of that material is lit on fire, it will conduct the heat and light the entire fuel stream. This doesn’t work for oil. The Major Difference Oil enters the combustion chamber as a liquid and it requires extreme heat to light. This makes a pilot light nearly pointless, as it would be just as easy to light the main burner as the pilot. A hot surface igniter would be a viable option except it needs to be in the path of the fuel stream, where it would endure the direct-heat of the flame throughout operation. Oil as a fuel source is a completely different beast, unrelated to gas heating. These problems all stem from heating oil’s chemical make up. It’s a cousin of diesel fuel used in over the road trucking, but thicker. It shares some of diesel’s inherent safety. Heating oil and diesel require either extreme heat or extreme pressure. This is why diesel trucks don’t have sparkplugs. At least for an engine’s needs, a spark wouldn’t work well in the long run. They generally remain in a liquid state as well, rather than readily becoming gasses. A Really Big Spark […]