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There are different types of heating oil. The main type of heating oil used in most homes and commercial applications is “number two” heating oil. Number six heating oil is rarely used and is being phased out of use because it contains a lot of sulfur and other pollutants. Number two heating oil is designed to work with your oil furnace or boiler.
Heating Oil Types
There are six different types of oil used in heating applications. Number two heating oil is used in most residential and commercial heating oil systems and it shares the same classification as diesel fuel. Number 1, number 2, and number 3 fuel oils are referred to as distillate fuel oils because during the refining process the oil is heated until it evaporates and then condensed into liquid fuel used in heating. These oils are distilled from raw crude oil. Number 4 fuel oil is a blend of distilled oil and heavy or residual fuel oils like number 5 and 6 fuel oils. Number 6 fuel oil is often the residual of what is left over after refining gasoline and the distilled fuel oils.
Heating Oil Types
Residual fuel oils are the least common fuel oil used today for pollution reasons and because it requires that the oil is heated to 150 degrees Fahrenheit before it can be pumped from the holding tank to the boiler while residual fuel oils are still used today for generating electricity and heating applications like oil boilers and oil furnaces.
Fuel oil is produced at refineries and is a byproduct of petroleum. Once processing is done the heavier oils are separated from the thinner oils and many different refined oil products are produced including heating oil, gasoline, and other oil products. The oil is then put into pipelines or loaded on delivery trucks to be delivered to their final destination. Sometimes this is a large storage facility and other times it goes directly to the consumer fresh from the refinery.
Heating Oil Types
