Heat Your Home With Biodiesel

Make the switch to a direct substitution for polluting fuel oil.

By Greg Pahl
Published on December 1, 2003
article image
Adobe Stock/josemiguelsangar
Woman with her feet resting on a radiator to warm them up by the cold of winter and energy saving

Heat your home with biodiesel in situations where an electric heat pump system is not a good fit and your home currently uses fuel oil. A biodiesel blend easily can be added to your fuel-furnace storage tank.

Heat Your Home With Biodiesel

Although it has been promoted mostly as a fuel for diesel-powered vehicles, biodiesel is perfectly suited as an additive or replacement fuel in a standard oil-fired furnace or boiler.

When used as a heating fuel, biodiesel is sometimes referred to as “biofuel” or “bioheat.” Made from new and used vegetable oils or animal fats, this fuel also has the advantage of being biodegradable, nontoxic and renewable: While fossil fuels took millions of years to produce, fuel stocks for biodiesel can be created in just a few months, and the plants grown to make biodiesel naturally balance the carbon dioxide emissions created when the fuel is combusted. What’s more, the resulting fuel is far less polluting than its petroleum-based alternative.

Biodiesel: A Hot Idea

The idea of using vegetable oil as a fuel source isn’t a new one: In 1900, Rudolph Diesel, a German engineer for whom the diesel engine is named, used peanut oil to power one of his engines at the World Exposition.

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