Posted: 8/6/2008 5:27:49 PM EDT
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Right now, I have 6 5 gallon jerry cans. That gives me an extra 30 gallons of gas on hand. Assuming I refill promptly when I empty the last one, I have an average of 15 gallons waiting at any given moment. I would like to store substantially more, but I am unsure about the best way to do it. My ideal would be some sort of gravity fed system from 55 gallon drums. Is there any way to do this economically? Part of the appeal of my storage system is that I can drive to the cheapest gas station in town once or twice a month, and thus save money compared to just filling up when the car gets low. If I have to pay hundreds or thousands to get a storage setup, it is much harder to justify. Could I get a used 55 gallon drum, clean it out, and use it? Is there some sort of small tower that I could lift (with a winch) the barrel out of the bed of my pickup for use at home? |
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Around here plenty of people heat with oil furnaces, and when they swap to heat pumps you can get thier old fuel tanks, complete with stand, for little or nothing. Last one I got for $50 and it had around 40 gallons of fuel still in it. Farmers around here use the same tanks for diesel and gas. High enough to gravity feed. I would be leery of keeping 275 gallons of gas anywhere near the house, however. Or any structure. |
| NFPA code severely restricts the amount of flammable liquids that may be stored in various structures. For domiciles and attached garages, the NFPA 30 specifies a maximum allowable quanitity (MAQ) of 10 gallons of gasoline, excluding what is in the tanks of a vehicle. For other structures, like perhaps a detached accesory building, that quantity is increased to 120 gallons. If you have sprinker systems or approved flammables cabinets, the quantities may be doubled. The NFPA code is likely given force of law in your state via the regulatory process for the building codes, which will nromally invoke the NFPA code by reference. Diesel and heating oil have significantly higher limits due to their higher flash points, which results in a classification of combustible vs. flammable. State law may also set regulations for heating oil storage seperately from the NFPA code as an exception. Incidentally, NFPA 58 for LP gas limits a person to two 1# disposable propane cylinders inside any domicile or attached garage. No cylinders larger than 1# disposable cyclinders may be stored indoors, even in the garage. |
Yep. That, and common sense, are why all the farmers around here keep thier free standing tanks away from homes and other structures. Some have them under a small roof, but open on all four sides, but most just have them sitting out. |
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I've just got my drums outside of my shed... covered with a tarp, and in the shade. If you build a rack ( I used treated 4x4 lumber ) about a foot off the ground, you can just siphon gas into the 5 gallon cans... if they aren't elevated, you can siphon the drum down to about 1/3 full. If you get 4 more 5 gallon cans, you can just fill the drum with the gas cans, then re-fill the cans when a storm gets close. |
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Well, since someone covered NFPA, I'll cover the IFC. In Minnesota, you can have up to 10 gallons stored in a garage if you can justify it. Also, be mindful that unless you are on a farm or construction project, you cannot have a dispenser attached to the tank. The MN Fire Code requires a 50 foot setback between a UL 142 (single/double wall) or UL 2080 (fire resistive) tank and the dispenser. Just to beat everyone to the punch, this is probably the most violated fire code as you can see these setups everywhere. |