science

Heating oil

Heating oil is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Heating oil rather than just read about it. In short: Heating oil is any petroleum product or other oil used for heating; it is a fuel oil. Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers for home heating and in other buildings.

Key takeaways

Heating oil belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Heating oil to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Heating oil from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Heating oil is any petroleum product or other oil used for heating; it is a fuel oil. Most commonly, it refers to low viscosity grades of fuel oil used for furnaces or boilers for home heating and in other buildings. Home heating oil is often abbreviated as HHO. Most heating oil products are chemically very similar to diesel fuel used as motor fuel; motor fuel is typically subject to higher fuel taxes. Many countries add fuel dyes to heating oil, allowing law enforcement to check if a driver is evading fuel taxes. Since 2002, Solvent Yellow 124 has been added as a "Euromarker" in the European Union; untaxed diesel is known as "red diesel" in the United Kingdom. Heating oil is commonly delivered by tank truck to residential, commercial, and municipal buildings and stored in above-ground storage tanks ("ASTs") located in the basements, garages, or outside adjacent to the building. It is sometimes stored in underground storage tanks (or "USTs") but less often than ASTs. ASTs are used for smaller installations due to the lower cost factor. Heating oil is less commonly used as an industrial fuel or for power generation. Leaks from tanks and piping are an environmental concern. In the United States, various federal and state regulations are in place regarding the proper transportation, storage and burning of heating oil, which is classified as a hazardous material (HazMat) by federal regulators.

Technical characteristics Heating oil consists of a mixture of petroleum-derived hydrocarbons in the 14- to 20-carbon atom range that condense between 250 and 350 °C (482 and 662 °F) during oil refining. Heating oil condenses at a lower temperature than petroleum jelly, bitumen, candle wax, and lubricating oil, but at a higher temperature than kerosene, which condenses between 160–250 °C (320–482 °F). The heavy (C20+) hydrocarbons condense between 340–400 °C (644–752 °F). Heating oil produces 137,500 British thermal units per US gallon (38.3 MJ/L) to 138,700 British thermal units per US gallon (38.7 MJ/L) and weighs 7.2 (7.38) pounds per US gallon (0.95 kg/L). Number 2 fuel oil has a flash point of 52 °C (126 °F). Historically, the legal difference between diesel and heating oil in the United States has been sulfur allowance. Diesel for machinery and equipment must be below 15 ppm sulfur content while heating oil needed only stay below 500 ppm sulfur. However, most heating oil in the United States is now "ultra-low sulfur heating oil" (ULSHO) and meets the same 15 ppm standard.

United States and Canada

Heating oil is known in the United States as No. 2 heating oil. In the U.S., it must conform to ASTM standard D396. Diesel and kerosene, while often confused as being similar or identical, must each conform to their respective ASTM standards. Heating oil is widely used in both the United States and Canada, with U.S. residential use most common in the northeastern states of New York and Pennsylvania and in New England, collectively accounting for 85% of total U.S. residential heating oil use. In the United States, biodiesel blends of B5 (5% biodiesel) and B20 (20% biodiesel) are available in most markets as a lower CO2 and cleaner-burning heating fuel. The heating oil futures contract trades in units of 1,000 barrels (160 m3) with a minimum fluctuation of $0.0001 per US gallon ($0.026/m3) and (for the US) is based on delivery in New York Harbor. The US Department of Energy tracks the prices homeowners pay for home heating fuel (oil and propane). There are also a number of websites that allow home owners to compare the price they are paying with the Department of Energy data as well as other consumers in their area. Likewise the US Energy Information Administration collects heating oil price statistics and maintains historical price data for all major US markets during each heating season. The Department of Energy also supports research and development for heating oil technology through the US National Oilheat Research Alliance. Additional information about biodiesel heating oil use can also be found at the US National Biodiesel Board's site.

Heating oil is mostly used in the northeastern and northwestern urban United States and a strong market presence in rural areas as well. Most of the northeast's heating oil comes from Irving Oil's refinery in Saint John, New Brunswick, the largest oil refinery in Canada.

Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland Heating oil is the most common fuel for home heating in Northern Ireland due to the late development of a natural gas network. Common suppliers of heating oil in Ireland are Maxol, Patterson Oil and Emo Oil.

England, Scotland and Wales In England, Scotland and Wales, there are two types of heating oil: commercial heating oil – referring to gas oil, i.e. red diesel – and domestic heating oil – meaning kerosene, specifically BS 2869 Class C2 kerosene. Heating oil is used for home heating in England, Scotland and Wales, typically in premises away from mains gas. There are around 1.5 million people in Great Britain using oil for home heating. The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) have referred the UK oil market to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) for review. The OFT has resolved to look at the structure of the market, with a view of the fairness for consumers and alternative energy options for off-grid consumers such as heat pumps.

Heating oil storage regulations in the United Kingdom

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Heating oil

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Heating oil claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Heating oil before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Heating oil ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Heating oil

In research: Heating oil appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Heating oil in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Heating oil is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Heating oil, Oils, Petroleum products, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Heating oil outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Heating oil in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Heating oil means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Heating oil out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Heating oil in simple terms?

Why does Heating oil matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Heating oil?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Heating oil.