I was wondering about the various BTU output of fuels. Here you go:
Wood: 6,500 BTU (assumes 25% moisture in wood)
Coal: 8,500-15,500 BTU
Kerosene: 135,000 BTU
Gasoline: 125,000 BTU
Diesel: 138,000 BTU
Fuel oil: 140,000 BTU
LPG (propane): 91,500 BTU
LPG (butane): 103,000 BTU
Natural gas: 100,000 BTU
Alcohol: 65,000 BTU
Charcoal: 12,600 BTU
Its cheap, stable, long lasting and throws out a goodly amount of heat..all hail kerosene!
Which would be why I heat my house and my water with fuel oil 🙂
In a pinch you can also apparentyl run a diesel truck on it……..
Yep, our emergency heaters are all kerosene (but I still want a woodstove).
Actually, trucks run exceptionally well on heating oil, as long as it is good “clean” heating oil. (notice the BTU output)
Home heating oil and off road diesel are both #2 fuel oil. Both have higher sulfur content than “on road” diesel. Funny note: Sulfur is bad (relatively speaking) for furnaces/heating equipment, but engines love it. Its especially good for the fuel pumps.
Trucks also run better on Heating oil/off road diesel (notice the higher BTU content). The only problem is that the off road/heating oil fuel is *usually* dyed with some wicked red dye that is VERY hard to get out. Its only a problem if someone from the fedgov inspects you. Being a private citizen and not a business, I doubt this would be an issue … *Grin*
What’s the unit of measurement? Gasoline is 125,000 BTUs per what, pound? Gallon? Natural gas is per pound, gallon, cubic meter, kilogram?
Units of measure are missing. I’m assume that you meant per pound and per gallon for the various solid and liquid fuels respectivelly.
To the best of my knowledge, diesel and kerosene, are very similiar distillates. I can’t really determine the primary differences with basic research. Different reference sources refer to either as being the lightest petroleum distillate. I do know that most diesel engines will happily run off of kerosene, diesel, or jet fuel, which is a high-grade kerosene with a few additives. Diamond Aircraft makes a couple diesel-powered planes certificated to operate in the US off of either Diesel #2 or Jet-A. Given the high standards for reliability and power output in the certification process, the fact that either fuel is allowed suggests that there’s little difference between the two. Another cool thing about diesels is that they can be run off of vegetable oil and its derivatives (bio-diesel)