Should I fit An Oil Tank Alarm ?

How much oil do I have in my tank ?

This guide will help you choose the correct oil tank alarm for your usage and oil storage type. Knowing the amount of fuel you have in your storage tank is quite important to most people. Commercial businesses that utilise their own vehicles would refuel these onsite to take advantage of cost savings when bulk buying. Domestic oil heating users would usually store enough fuel for the winter months at their properties.  Agricultural farm vehicles would be refuelled onsite and therefore on farms you would find a fuel storage tank. In all these situations knowing the contents of their fuel storage tank is vital for several important reasons. See our post on oil tank gauges.

In conclusion if unaware of the volume of fuel left in a tank you could be left open to running out. For businesses this would incur a cost implication due to having to pay retail prices until a fuel tank is refilled. Subsequently if left to run dry, damage to the dispensing equipment could cause downtime.

In addition other issues not so obvious will arise from not knowing the contents of your tank. Not knowing you have too much fuel left is an equal problem to have and can cause huge expensive clean up bills if the tank is overfilled and a spill occurs. As a result in addition to costs of the lost paid for fuel are the environmental costs and potential fines.  While most storage tanks have an overfill prevention valve or an oil tank alarm installed not all do. A warning should sound to inform the delivery driver the tank is full and the filling procedure is complete.

Regulations

The Oil Storage Regulations state as a requirement that an above ground tank over 200 litres in capacity have a bund. A bund is a secondary containment that is capable of holding 110% of the main tank’s full capacity. Therefore there is a need to know the contents of the bund too because fluid in the bund may indicate a leak on the main tank.

Somebody needs to remember to check the level on the gauge on a tank. Whereas an audible alarm would remove this requirement. An ideal solution for commercial diesel tank owners would be a complete oil tank alarm system that monitors levels automatically.

Oil Tank Alarm

There are several types of oil tank alarms available to monitor the levels tank system.  Mains powered and battery powered versions of these alarms are available. Where there is access to mains power you would fit a mains operated alarm. Subsequently where there is no access to mains power you would fit a battery alarm.

For monitoring the oil level you would use an oil tank low level alarm or oil tank overfill alarm. A combined unit is available which includes both low level and overfill. Alternatively to monitor nothing has leaked into the bund of an oil tank you would use the oil tank bund alarm. Again, a combined unit is available to monitor both the overfill and bund of an oil tank. A choice of mains and battery is again available of this type of alarm.

All of these alarms activate by means of a float switch probe suspended in the tank. The user would set the probes to the desired positions within the tank. The Alarm will sound once the float on the probe hits these positions. i.e low level or overfill. The bund alarm probe on the other hand sits near the bottom of the bund floor. It would only activate if the bund fills with fluid and causes the float to rise. This would in turn break the connection and set off the audible alarm.

Click here for details on our oil tank alarms :- Oil Tank Alarms

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