The Sietch Blog

Feb 21
Saving Money

Written by Rt

I bet there’s nothing like living on a farm to learn the meaning of “waste not, want not”. Sure, the kid read about global warming. He also read about using waste vegetable oil to make diesel. He also knew the fuel bill at the farm was getting out of control.

Dear dad wasn’t about to let him muck about with the car engine to run on used vegetable oil, but if the kid wanted to try his hand at chemistry that would be ok. I think this is an excellent “kid does good” story but there is also a deeper “we never quit trying” theme in there as well. No timeframe is mentioned but I be this took some time and learning to get this far. I wonder how the harvesting of the kitchen grease works.

What prompted a kid to get his dad to spend about £10,000 for all the equipment - six huge tanks, pumps, etc. - to make biodiesel using the tank settling method?

“I was worried about global warming and climate change,” he said. “And it saves quite a bit of money.”

Even though the waste oil is free, and the Henderson’s don’t sell the biofuel, they still have to pay 27.1 pence tax on each liter they make. Still, the family saves between £300-400 a week compared to buying diesel at the pump. Also, Steven pumps hot water from the barn processing facility into the house; now the family’s hot water bills have dropped to nothing.