OK, I continue to beat my head against the challenge of wanting a large storage reservoir, while facing the constraint of having an older house where the cellar, where the boiler will be located, is accessible only by a bulkhead hatch, which rules out most of the options that I might otherwise use.
End of day yesterday, I spoke with a fellow who's with a company that fabricates stainless bolted-together tanks for Ag, industrial & municipal applications, and after I explained what I was aiming for, and the constraints faced, he agreed to do some thinking and figuring and get back to me.
He called me back mid-day today and it sounds like it'd be possible to do a bolted sectional __rectangular__ tank where all the pieces are at most 2ft wide in their skinniest dimension, with the lengths matching the length of the side of the tank that they'll be used for. Edges of these sheets are folded into flanges, which is how they then bolt together.
The rough ballpark costs he gave me on that concept-type-level are far from cheap, but actually not as astronomical as I was thinking when you figure the cost I found out the other day on the Haase tanks, or, for that matter, the ingenious but still kinda kludge-ey STSS tanks. Using 409 stainless rather than 304 would keep cost more moderate, and the apparent only disadvantage of the 409 is that it tarnishes, which I won't care about, since it'll be under insulation. (the top of my barn is stacked with a bunch of 4" polyiso sheeting that I scrounged last summer from a roofing contractor who was getting rid of it).
Is this sounding interesting to anyone else?
Perhaps a "group buy" from a bunch of us might help bring down the per-tank fabrication costs. Costs for a one-off single tank are sounding-- very ball-park- so far, in the rough area of $5k for a rectangular 1350 gallon 6x6x5 tank (including an attached cover, also stainless, strong enough to stand on) made with 409 stainless
Suggestions, Ideas, Others who may be interested?
End of day yesterday, I spoke with a fellow who's with a company that fabricates stainless bolted-together tanks for Ag, industrial & municipal applications, and after I explained what I was aiming for, and the constraints faced, he agreed to do some thinking and figuring and get back to me.
He called me back mid-day today and it sounds like it'd be possible to do a bolted sectional __rectangular__ tank where all the pieces are at most 2ft wide in their skinniest dimension, with the lengths matching the length of the side of the tank that they'll be used for. Edges of these sheets are folded into flanges, which is how they then bolt together.
The rough ballpark costs he gave me on that concept-type-level are far from cheap, but actually not as astronomical as I was thinking when you figure the cost I found out the other day on the Haase tanks, or, for that matter, the ingenious but still kinda kludge-ey STSS tanks. Using 409 stainless rather than 304 would keep cost more moderate, and the apparent only disadvantage of the 409 is that it tarnishes, which I won't care about, since it'll be under insulation. (the top of my barn is stacked with a bunch of 4" polyiso sheeting that I scrounged last summer from a roofing contractor who was getting rid of it).
Is this sounding interesting to anyone else?
Perhaps a "group buy" from a bunch of us might help bring down the per-tank fabrication costs. Costs for a one-off single tank are sounding-- very ball-park- so far, in the rough area of $5k for a rectangular 1350 gallon 6x6x5 tank (including an attached cover, also stainless, strong enough to stand on) made with 409 stainless
Suggestions, Ideas, Others who may be interested?
