Is there a difference between heating oil and diesel?

Answer 1

There are different grades of diesel fuel and heating oil but in general they have similar qualities including the flash point. The flash point is the temperature at which the fuel ignites on its own, without a spark.

Diesel fuel used to only be available along truck routes. Before diesel fuel became easily available everywhere, people with diesel engine cars would use heating fuel, but would have to make sure it is clean, passing it through a filter to remove foreign particles.