Saturday, February 16, 2008

Queens inventor heats home for free

He came up with the idea after enduring several years of skyrocketing heating bills at the family gas station he manages. The steep jump in oil prices was unbearable and it got him thinking.

Local Man Heats Home Using Free Vegetable Oil

Aliahmad recalled that while he wondered what to do to reduce his heating costs, he looked at the waste oil his gas station collected from oil changes and observed how similar it looked to the oil he was buying.

He questioned why he was paying more and more for deliveries of heating oil while at the same time paying fees to get rid of the waste oil collected. He decided to find a way to recycle the waste oil as a fuel for his burner. By the middle of that winter he had retrofitted his boiler so that he was using half waste oil and half heating oil. Soon enough, after working out all the glitches, he was burning all recycled waste oil and his heating bill was down to zero.

Aliahmad considered obtaining a patent, and while talking to an attorney friend about the issue, he was asked about the possibility of using vegetable oil in his system. A light went off in his head and by early spring 2007 he had retrofitted his home boiler to burn used vegetable oil that he could get for free from the restaurants near his home on Rockaway Boulevard.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

There just damn well better be no trans-fats being used to heat that house!

I command that!

And I am the Commissar!

Anonymous said...

give that man a cigar, but not while his contraption is on, which might explode!

(A seriously great invention, though.)

Anonymous said...

This actually does work. A friend of mine has a vegetable oil fueled Mercedes. Two problems with it -
1. There is a rather limited supply of vegetable oil.
2. When the government finds out there will be hell to pay. I heard of some guy being jailed of avoiding the taxes he should have been paying on regular diesel.

Anonymous said...

Currently as things stand, you need a permit
for your fuel oil tank that stores the #2 heating oil used to heat your home.

The government, no doubt,
will charge you a higher fee if that
same tank is holding veggie oil!

Then you've got to have a pumping system
in your SUV or pickup truck
to collect and deliver all that recycled oil to your burner.

That would also require a permit
and you'd probably need a special license
to convey this flammable material.

I'll stick to getting hosed by my
oil company and heating with natural gas
runs about the same.

But kudos for an ingeniously good try!

Anonymous said...

What do you suppose the total BTU output
of the New York City Council would be
if we were to recycle their flatulent speechifying?

Maybe I can heat my home
with C.M. Liu's or C.M. Katz's greenhouse gases.

But surely Speaker Quinn might prove to be
my most efficient fuel choice,
given that she's a powerhouse of hot air!

H-m-m-m, I almost forgot,
and then there's Mayor Mike.

Anonymous said...

Wonder if DOB has checked his boiler or if he's a licensed plumber allowed to tinker with a boiler?

Anonymous said...

I'm sure they'll be up his ass now!

Anonymous said...

why should the government prosecute you for doing something environmentally friendly? it's a conspiracy for the oil companies to turn huge profits...

Anonymous said...

"Necessity is the mother of invention."

Thanks for the push towards creative solutions OPEC bitches!

Anonymous said...

Because governments were designed
for the main purpose to f--k us all
no matter if our intentions are in the best interests
of our planet!

Any further questions ?

Anonymous said...

Brillance and balls - great combination!!

Anonymous said...

The original diesal engine was created to run on a form of vegetable oil and I've heard of retro-fitted cars burning vegetable oil. If he can burn this without blowing up his house, he can save $$$ and help restaurants save $$ as well as protect our water quality and sewers.

Anonymous said...

No here's soneone who truly deserves the Key to the City and front page new coverage. Instead, these honors are given to a football team and assorted celebs. What have they ever done to improve our society?