CH4Ohio
Veteran Member
Residential fuel oil tanks typically just sit in a corner of the basement along an outside wall so they can be filled from the outside. Getting rare in this part of the country but still very common in the Northeast.
No problem at all. As others have mention home heating oil tanks are usually in the basement or crawl space of the home and have been for decades.23 years ago I had a 150 gallon bulk diesel tank in the barn on rollers because I was painting it. I went to work and the bulk driver filled it there. It's still there and a 90 gallon tank on rollers next to it. Concrete floor; nice new pole barn and 42x60x 14'H.
I never saw a problem since only a few lights, not much going on and power off most of the time. Now, however, I plan to insulate the barn and put up a propane heater. Maybe keep it 55' away--but still inside the barn--- since I only want the barn at 50 degrees most of the time.
Any problems with this?
The whistle sounds as soon as they start pumping fuel into the tank, it stops whistling when the tank is filled to the bottom of the whistle.I'm getting off-topic, but . . .
The heating oil companies' worst nightmare is when a customer converts to another fuel and has someone remove their tank and DOESN'T remove the fill piping. Also doesn't alert the oil company or else their records don't get updated. It's negligent on the part of the person that removes the tank, but not uncommon. It's a disaster waiting to happen.
Every now and then you hear about an incident where a delivery person pulls up and starts pumping fuel oil into an outside fill-pipe, but the whistle never activates. After several hundred gallons are pooling on the basement floor (and maybe even being pumped out by a sump pump) they go inside to discover that the tank is gone. Usually the HVAC person or plumber just goes bankrupt but the heating oil company and their insurance catches the bulk of the damages. Often they buy the house. I think this is the primary reason that they're getting stricter about procedures regarding deliveries -- their insurance companies are requiring them to build in safeguards to prevent these mistakes.
The whistle sounds as soon as they start pumping fuel into the tank, it stops whistling when the tank is filled to the bottom of the whistle.