“The original intent was to supplement our gas-fired furnaces, so this has been a nice surprise.”
Eric Smith
City manager
ENGLEWOOD — The city has yet to turn on the heat at its Service Center. Instead it has burned around 2,000 gallons of used motor oil to heat the huge service bays and offices.
“It’s not toasty warm, but even during that cold snap in January it stayed in the 60s,” said Al Butler, the city’s service director.
The center does have electric heaters for the office area.
Last summer, the city spent $20,000 to install two waste oil burning furnaces. Since November, the city has saved $3,235.74 in heating costs compared to 2009.
“It will have paid for itself in two or three years,” City Manager Eric Smith said.
The service center has storage for around 3,300 gallons of used motor oil — black, gunky stuff that comes from your lawnmower, snowblower, pickup or car when you change the oil.
Residents have been dropping off their waste oil at the service center for years.
Much of the waste oil comes from the city’s trucks and heavy equipment. In the past, the city has had to pay someone to periodically haul away and then recycle the oil, Smith said.
Now it burns it with little or no emissions.
“It’s been a good deal,” Butler said. The 2,000 gallons burned so far this winter has been replaced with residential dropoffs and city waste.
“We tried the same thing about 20 years ago,” Smith said. “We installed one of the first units, but from a maintenance and performance standpoint it didn’t work well at all. These new furnaces, however, have none of those problems.
“The original intent was to supplement our gas-fired furnaces, so this has been a nice surprise.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2290 or dpage@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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