[hindy]

Oops, sorry to have not replied for a while, haven't visited the page for a bit
Absolutely, definitely NO! Diesel burns hotter than kerosene and will roger your burner in short order. You can get a burner for diesel for your boiler but it's nearly the same cost as a new boiler!

Hi Browser.
Its not for home heating that I want to use if for, but for a small wick heater in the greenhouse

[DD.]

I may not be the sharpest tool when it comes to fuels, but I seem to remember that diesel needs pre-heating to combust, unlike other distillates like paraffin & petrol.

Someone please correct me, but surely in a heater designed for paraffin, you would not put diesel & expect it to light?

Conversley, you would not put petrol in it and expect it NOT to light.

I think the moral is - as with most things - if it's not designed for it, unless you are a qualified expert, don't try something else with it.

[R Tallentire]

I did a short spell on boiler maintenance when I was an apprentice fitter and there were three types of heating oil used. Bunker fuel which resembled crude oil and was only used in giant furnaces to heat a whole factory. Gas oil, which was red diesel by another name, and was used in smaller factories. Furnaces using gas oil had to be cleaned out by hand every six weeks or so as ash and the red dye settled in the flues during combustion. The other fuel was 28 second heating oil, which is used in some factory furnaces and almost all domestic boilers as it burns clean. This oil is similar to Paraffin (Kerosine) but smells slightly different. I can’t see gas oil working correctly in a paraffin heater but I think central heating oil will.
On a related topic I dimly remember a catalogue for an Army surplus store listing greenhouse heaters using drip feeds of waste engine oil and water, back in the 1960s. Has anyone got one and do they work?

[DD.]

Let's take it back to basics.

We are talking about what will burn cleanly when it's soaked though a wick and you put a match to it.

Forget about heating in large boilers or engines by compression or glow plugs.

We are talking simple, in the greenhouse stuff here.

What will work?

Me ? - Electric heater & thermostat!

[mumofstig]

Me ? - Electric heater & thermostat

can't use leccy as garden is other side of public path (spose i could garotte a few of the trouble makers further down the terrace....nice thought ) so have just ordered single burner parafin stove. Will just have to practice getting a clean burn

[Gwiz]

In answer to the original question.
No.
Don't use anything other than that which is sold as paraffin.
The cheapest way to buy paraffin is in large quantities ( very large quantities)
I'd really go down the "no heat" road, as the price of fuel becomes ever more expensive in the near, and indeed, far future.
you really should only use fuels that the heaters are designed to burn, and keep the wicks trimmed to avoid excessive fumes.
no amount of small saving on fuel costs, is worth endangering yourself, or those around you, whether it's inside, or outside the home.

[hindy]

Thanks for all your input guys.

I think I'm gonna stick with the Paraffin (or Kerosin if I can get it)
Beside winters nearly over for this year.
Going to go for non heated next year.

Andy