Oil Storage Tank Room Lighting

[richanton]

As far as I can find, a heating oil (#2,#4, or #6) above ground indoor storage tank(10,000 gallons) is not considered a hazardous location. I don't see any advantage to putting in a vaportight lighting fixture which is something that has been done in the past by other engineers at my firm. I may post this over in the electrical side also, but thought I'd ask here.

 

[peebee]

I agree. A decision should be made whether or not you want to consider the room XP, and then design the entire room accordingly. All XP or all general purpose.

I laugh every time I see one of these rooms with big $$$ XP lights installed, with general-purpose switches controlling them, and all of this mounted next to general-purpose phones, pump starters, fuel monitoring systems, leak detection systems, fire alarm devices, security systems, clocks, etc., etc., etc. Not to mention there's no conduit seals anywhere, and everyone's walking around with general purpose flashlights, radios, pagers, cellphones, and PDA's.

I guess those lights must make somebody feel safe, though. And they kind of look cool. Maybe that's why they put them in.

 

[peebee]

By the way, I'm under the impression that diesel fumes would tend to accumulate low in the room, not by the ceiling. So if anything in the room should be XP, it'd want to be the receptacles, not the lights, similar to the requirements for an automotive repair shop.