The reasons why every tank owner needs a fuel tank alarm

For every commercial property that requires on-site fuel for their vehicles or machinery, knowing the contents of your fuel storage tank is vital. Put most simply, being unaware of how much fuel you have left in your tank may lead to you running short. In addition to the cost implications of temporarily having to pay retail fuel prices, there are costs and downtime linked to potential damage to the fuel pump if it has been left to run dry.

Whilst this may be the most obvious issue, it isn’t just running out of fuel that makes it imperative you know the contents of your tank, not knowing you have too much is equally a problem if you find yourself in an overfill situation. This results in loss of paid for fuel and the environmental costs. Whilst many tanks now have an automatic overfill device installed, not all do, and therefore to prevent spillages the fuel delivery driver needs to be alerted when the tank is reaching maximum capacity.

The Oil Storage Regulations make it a requirement that above ground fuel storage tanks over 200 litres in volume must have a bund of at least 110% of the tank’s full capacity. Therefore, knowing the contents of your tank’s bund is just as an important as the tank’s fuel level, as it may indicate that there is a leak.

Whilst a fuel tank gauge can provide information as to the level of the fuel, a gauge requires someone to remember to go and check it, whereas an audible alarm can solve this issue. The above issues are example why a fuel tank alarm system is required by all commercial diesel tank owners.

The CTS multi-compartment fuel tank alarms are industry renowned models designed to act as a solution to all of the above scenarios. These fuel tank level alarms accurately detect and alert the user of a combination or all of the following tank states:

• High fuel level to avoid further filling and an overspill
• Low fuel level to prompt a fuel delivery to be ordered
• Fluid within the tank's bund which may indicate a leak

Upon activation of a zone, a 90db alarm sounder and flashing orange strobe kick in to alert of a potential problem, and the zone in question then lights up so that it can be dealt with accordingly.

To make our diesel tank alarm system as versatile as possible, we offer the box alone as standard, giving you the option to select the probes you require. This means that only one alarm box is needed to be stocked to cover all requirements:

• Single probe - For high level, low level or bund warning
• Double probe - If two level alert combinations are required e.g. high/low, high/high, low/low
• For all three functions you would need a double and single probe

Some tank owners however may find the multi-compartment diesel tank alarm over specified if they don’t need warning of all three of the above alerts. They may instead want just a bund alarm or just a tank level alarm. A simple and cost effective solution here is the CTS single channel fuel tank alarm, which comes with a single probe that can be set to alert of high, low or bund.