Forum:
Filling up a 20 litre plastic barrel with diesel today, I had a run-in with the bod at the supermarket fuel station.
The lady with the loud voice, a little authority and no knowledge insisted that the fire regs didn't allow me to fill the container with diesel. Now, as it 'appens, this container once had 20 litres of cooking oil in it, which we all know is just as inflammable as diesel, and, if you are naughty, and haven't processed it, can run a diesel just fine and dandy.
I didn't push the point, but decided to look up the regs via a search engine. Basically, the 1928 and 1929 acts, as ammended by the 1982 act allowing plastic containers, tells you all you need to know.
The really good one is that the act allows you to store 60 GALLONS of the stuff in proper containers of less than 10 litres each in a storage area open to the air, which is more than 6 metres from a dwelling or a public highway. I think I've just found a use for that old lambing shed at the far end of my paddock.
I going to have fun telling the old bat at the garage that juicy little fact.
Unfortunately you are wrong,
Unfortunately you are wrong, there are regulations to which fuel containers muct comply, and yet again its predominantly down to European legislation and its a nightmare.
Under the Petroleon Spirit regulations garages are only allowed to sell petrol or diesel fuel to customers with fuel cans which comply with these regulations, that is they must be clearly marked as fuel cans and marked as EU approved. Unfortunately she is correct from her perspective as she cannot allow any container to be filled with diesel or petrol, but for paraffin you can use any suitable container at the discretion of the site owner.
Current fine for breaching these regulations is £10,000 per breach. For petrol sales this is a maximum of 20 litres per approved container, yet you can fill as many of these as you like, but under Road Traffic Regulations you can only transport petrol or diesel inside a vehicle in an approved container, and your limit is 10 litres. You can carry as much diesel as you like in a trailer, in the tank of another form of propulsion, this may be a boat towed by a vehicle, motorbike, quad, or anything which has its own fuel tank.
If you carry fuel in a container in a vehicle it must have a steel bulkhead between the boot and passenger compartment, and you can only carry it in the boot, so people carriers, 4X4's, hatchbacks, and many other vehicles cannot legally carry any fuel even in an approved container as they have no solid steel bulkhead. Fortunately this is rarely enforced by the Police.
On the issue of petrol storage at home, you are indeed correct with up to 60 gallons, this was recently amended (2010) and each planning authority sets the regulations, so basically it depends on where you live as to how much you can store. To store above 25 litres you either need a licence as a trader (car sales) vehicle repairer, or other valid reason which would be the commercial storage, and not domestic storage of fuel.
Basically, the maximum fuel you can store at home is 25 litres for most populated areas, some remote areas planning authorities allow more, but the general concensus is to check with your local planning authority first as some areas are as low as 5 litres in an approved container. Where I live its 10 litres.
Great fun isn't it, used to have exactly the same problems when I owned petrol stations.
Thanks for that.
I suspected that the 1928 regs were just the tip of the iceberg.
As usual, logic seems to have gone out of the window, especially the paraffin anomaly which, if anything, is more volatile than diesel.
As for local authorities getting in on the act, then heaven preserve us from these jumped-up little functionaries. If the balls up of them losing the building inspection records of a never-completed extension on a house I considered buying is anything to go by, then I'm not surprised that the UK is in the pig poo.
You can see what we had to
You can see what we had to deal with, basically its like a tag team wrestling match.
Petroleum Spirit Regs V Local Planning Regs V European Regs V Construction & Use Regs V Anything else thrown into the mix.