The British countryside offers far more than rolling hills, red phone boxes, country cottages and quaint pubs. If you know where to look, you will find a sight as common in rural locations as pillar boxes and thathed roofs - domestic oil storage tanks.

Tucked away in the corner of gardens, behind well manicured hedge rows lies the humble oil storage tank – the life blood of rural central heating systems across our green and pleasant land.

Traditionally oil storage tanks were made of steel. Nowadays oil storage tanks are mainly plastic, green in colour to blend in with their rural surroundings.  

Oil Storage Tanks contain the fuel that feeds the thousands of oil boilers up and down dale. Oil central heating is more popular than you might think – 1.5 million homes use oil for heating and cooking in the UK. For those homes without access to mains gas, oil heating is an obvious choice. Oil heating is cheaper than LPG and cleaner than solid fuel.

Oil Tank Regulations

Stringent regulations regarding the installation and location of oil storage tanks have recently been introduced. Covered in the goverment’s building regulations include;

1. Most new oil tanks should now be bunded and all oil tanks over 2,500 litres must be bunded.  
2. The correct positioning of tanks with emphasis on potential fire.
3. The use of bunded oil tanks in locations where enviromental damage may occur in the event of oil spillage.
4. A properly designed and constructed base to support the oil tank
5. The correct installation of pipework between the tank appliance (boiler or cooker)
6. Fire-shut-off-valve properly located and installed    

Oil storage tanks come in all shapes and sizes – See the full range here