Diesel to heat greenhouse?

[otherclive]

I have just been to Focus for some paraffin to heat the greenhouse and was shocked to find it was priced at £5.99 for 4 litres. Given that road diesel is taxed at 70% it still seems something of a bargain. Would diesel burn okay in a 'blue flame' ( round cotton wick that sits in a tube) greenhouse heater? I think I might try a fill and if it's no good pour the remainder into the Sorento.

Cheers

Other Clive

 

[Chrisbee]

If you do decide to use diesel, don't use DERV. Go for Red Diesel, because of the tax on road fuel red is considerably cheaper.

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Other Clive,

I seriously doubt whether burring diesel in a paraffin heater is a good idea. I am pretty certain that diesel need quite specific conditions to allow it to burn cleanly under normal atmospheric conditions.

My Mother has an oil burning Rayburn, and that is very sensitive to set up. Despite its regular servicing, the chimney does become heavily sooted. The same is likely to occur in your geenhouse. The cold glass will condense some of the tars and sulphurs and the rest will contaminate the plants.

 

[Damian]

Paraffin is a Light Oil, Diesel is a Heavy Oil.

Diesel will NOT burn cleanly in a wick fed heater, so unless you want a greenhouse full of black, sticky soot and all your plants killed into the bargain, stick with Paraffin.

 

[rob_jax]

Hi,

I'll disagree with Damian - there isn't a lot of difference between a paraffin oil and diesel for road vehicles - they are both a light gas oil.

Paraffin oil (for lamps and greenhouse heaters) is a kerosene fuel - used for jet aircraft - except it's cut at the refinery to give it a higher flash point (so the bulk of the liquid won't catch fire) - and a narrow boiling range

Diesel is a similar viscosity fuel, except it's a wide boiling range cut - so it's flash point can easily be lower than a paraffin oil

So I doubt if there are any real differences in performance - but I have a safety concern over the flash points.

For example, the flash point of diesel is usually around 60

 

[Gafferbill]

Damian is correct........

Heating using diesel fuel is infact quite complicated.

The experts are Eberspacher for small heaters in vehicles and marine applications.

If you are interested this is their website

http://www.eberspacher.com/products/
You will see it is not cheap..... stick to your pariffin heater