Help buying a used oil tank please

Sammy101

Hi,

I would really like some advice please regarding replacing our oil tank for our central heating.

We have recently brought and moved into a large 200 yr old house in in a rural area with no mains gas.
We plan to update the house gradually and do major renovation of an attached outbuilding. As we cannot yet afford to replace all the central heating and with all the future changes it is not appropriate to replace heating yet anyway with oil or another type of heating such as LPG.
Currantly the oil tanks are old and rusting and we recently found out are probably leaking.

We have been offered a second hand tank to replace it, However I am not sure of the regulations - I dont think it is bunded - whatever that means. And also I am not sure how much to offer to pay for it - it is a 5 year old plastic tank of about 1800L. Can it be placed near to the road or does it have to be a cirttain distance away?


Any advice regarding price and regulations would be helpful.

w50nky

Hi, I am no expert and am sure someone will give you a more comprehensive answer to your question, but here goes.

You can search for the regulations online. I think oftec is the regulatory body. Plastic bunded tanks have 2 "skins" the outer one contains the oil if the inner skin is damaged. The regulations are complex regarding siting the tanks near water courses etc. I think you can build a bund around your tank to contain the contents in the event of a spillage etc. in some circumstances. This must be able to contain the volume of tank oil + surplus. You could search for oil tanks on ebay to get some idea of prices. http://www.tank-replacement.co.uk/questions.html should give you an idea.

Sammy101

Thanks v much for the info, the link was really helpful. Still not sure whether to bother getting this single skin second hand one or to go for a new one and get it installed properly into a final position. The problem is that when we do a conversion of our outbuilding it will have to be moved from where it is now.... but that might not be for another 3 years or maybe more!

moonrakerz

I would get a bigger tank if your house is "large". My last house was a reasonable sized 4 bed detached. A 600 (2500 L) gal tank was about the right size, any thing smaller than this and you run the risk of being "caught out" in the cold weather and paying the highest prices for a panic top up.