Storage Tank

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jjhpf

New Member
Dec 6, 2007
16
Michigan
Anyone thought/using old 250 gal gasoline tank for storage?
What mods would one have to do?
 
As Joe Brown pointed out in another thread about possibly using old heating oil tanks for hot water storage, it's hard to get the petroleum residue out of the tank. He said that when you heat it to 180 or 200 degrees, lots of volatile and nasty stuff appears, presumably creating a host of problems in the rest of your system. Hopefully Joe will elaborate.
 
I think the biggest problem is that you would probably want several of them - three or four. By the time you get and install that many, it's getting to be a non-trivial system. I don't think they're designed to be pressurized either, so that adds another circulator at the least.
 
250 gal non pressure - first year tank for learning ?
One 3/4" X 60'coil from Manards ?
 
You're thinking of cutting a hole to insert the exchanger?

Unless you have radiant, the amount of usable heat storage in a 250 gallon tank will be disappointing. If you can heat it to 170 (optimistic) and use the heat down to 120 (reasonable for baseboard heat), that's about 100,00 BTU of storage - an hour's output or so, and enough to heat the house for two or three hours.
 
nofossil said:
You're thinking of cutting a hole to insert the exchanger?

Unless you have radiant, the amount of usable heat storage in a 250 gallon tank will be disappointing. If you can heat it to 170 (optimistic) and use the heat down to 120 (reasonable for baseboard heat), that's about 100,00 BTU of storage - an hour's output or so, and enough to heat the house for two or three hours.
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I was thinking of cutting the top of and run one coil into tank, it would sit in garage which is
unheated. Would not be a real learning experience since no coil will be in tank to extract heat,
just a big floor radiator.
 
I have 2 275gal horizontal new oil tanks for more storage in a crawl space in my basement cut into my supply line between the garn and the flatplate hx. Most have a ul tag for 5 psi., i called the manufacturer ,he said a home oil tank will distort at 12psi and you are on your own at 15psi however they periodically test to burst some make it to 35+psi. My non pressureized system runs at 7 psi, i had a pressure relief valve made for 9 psi and installed in one of the tank bungs
 
jjhpf said:
nofossil said:
You're thinking of cutting a hole to insert the exchanger?

Unless you have radiant, the amount of usable heat storage in a 250 gallon tank will be disappointing. If you can heat it to 170 (optimistic) and use the heat down to 120 (reasonable for baseboard heat), that's about 100,00 BTU of storage - an hour's output or so, and enough to heat the house for two or three hours.
-------
I was thinking of cutting the top of and run one coil into tank, it would sit in garage which is
unheated. Would not be a real learning experience since no coil will be in tank to extract heat,
just a big floor radiator.

the same coils that put heat into tank also take it out. I have no specific heat in or heat out coils.
 
Tarmsolo60 said:
jjhpf said:
nofossil said:
You're thinking of cutting a hole to insert the exchanger?

Unless you have radiant, the amount of usable heat storage in a 250 gallon tank will be disappointing. If you can heat it to 170 (optimistic) and use the heat down to 120 (reasonable for baseboard heat), that's about 100,00 BTU of storage - an hour's output or so, and enough to heat the house for two or three hours.
-------
I was thinking of cutting the top of and run one coil into tank, it would sit in garage which is
unheated. Would not be a real learning experience since no coil will be in tank to extract heat,
just a big floor radiator.

the same coils that put heat into tank also take it out. I have no specific heat in or heat out coils.

____________________________________________________________________________

I'm on the bottom of the learning curve here
I thought one coil came from boiler to heat storage and another coil pulled it out supply hot water to house.
I thought the 250 tank would be easy to get up and running - learning experance for this season
I salvaged over 100' of 3/4" copper finned base board system - no trim
Someday I will lay out 40-50' of it in garage
Pick up my Solo 40 tomorrow from Alegeny Peliot in PA
Thanks - jim
 
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