Stay warm and save money

Want to keep warm without burning a hole in your pocket? Ted Dyck has a plan for you.

“There's no shortage of used oil in the world,” Ted says. Ted's invention, or rather, re-invention, is an oil burner which he converted from an old oil furnace to run on waste oil. “I've used old motor oil, gear oil, diesel oil - the thickest, blackest oil you can find - I've tried everything except cooking oil, but I'm sure that would work too.”

Ted says his first prototype is still heating his shop, and other than regular maintenance, there's never been a problem with it. In fact, he's set up a boiler that provides radiant floor heating for his home and even preheats water for his domestic hot water tank.

Plans for Ted's waste oil furnace are available at www.tmdenterprises.ca . He's received orders from as far away as New Zealand, but the majority come from the Midwest United States, with the oddest one coming from South Carolina.

“I asked why someone in the southern U.S. would need heat - he said it was to cook meat for his alligator farm,” Ted says. “I guess there's a use for it everywhere.”