We all know what a stitch up it is to pay £6.90 for four litres of paraffin at B&Q and there have been a number of posts about alternatives. Someone in the forum has suggested heating oil in the past so decided to try it on my vapalux, Hipolito, and Tilley lamps and it burns just as well, as it does on my Hipolito stove. it is considerably more smelly and so are the fumes but as these are used outdoors I won't complain especially at about 30 pence a litre compared to B&Q's price of £1.72. Heating oil is normally delivered in large quantities so its a question of asking a friendly neighbour with oil fired central hating if you could siphon a few litres.
Nope. We don't all know that. Probably just people in Britain. But I think we all can relate to a similar situation you describe in our countries respectively, just with some different alternatives for fuel. E.g. what we use as heating oil wouldn't work well in a paraffin lamp. It's more like diesel.
We have two types of oil used for heating in the UK. Fuel oil/35 Sec Oil, which is essentially Diesel (rare to find anyone still using it) and Heating Oil/28 Sec Oil which is Paraffin that meets the 'C2' specification laid down in law related to grades of paraffin. C1 is what is supposed to be used in home appliances, but it's hard to get except for those little four litre containers from B&Q. C2 has a higher char value and a higher sulphur content, resulting in a bit more carbon build-up and a stronger smell, which I don't mind While it is cheaper to get it from a neighbour, most depots will sell 20 litre 'emergency' barrels, I paid £14 for my last one when heating oil in bulk was 37p, not as cheap as a neighbour, but comes in a handy barrel. I'm not sure where Jet A sits in terms of purity, it's usually more expensive than Heating Oil and cheaper than Pre-Pac, but you generally need to be near a small non towered airfield to have any chance of finding an unmanned pump dispensing it.
Tacho - as you are in Norfolk, try some of the boatyards as some boats use kerosene heaters. Or if you are over King's Lynn way, Freebridge Garage has a forecourt pump - Link Terry
I did ask a neighbour about jet A as he worked at Norwich Airport maintainance for a while. They do empty aircraft tanks and they then use the kerosene in their heaters. but they are reluctant to give/sell any away as it contains many carcinogenic additives.
The kerosene I buy from the petrol pump at a nearby petrol station is Jet fuel. If you look up the material specification sheets for jet fuel and home kerosene you can compare the additives. Jet A is pretty straightforward kerosene. Tony
Thanks Terry, will try Freebridge when next in that direction. The boats here on the Broads use mostly diesel heaters or in my case woodburners.
Tony is right, Jet A1 seems to be pretty similar to Paraffin C2. At small airfields handling light aircraft Jet A1 from a self service pump is usually just Jet A1 with no additives. Pilots will add their own additives if they want. At larger airfields and airports fuel can be ordered with additives and most large private aircraft and commercial aircraft do use some.
