What are these big tanks in the back of the house?

[jonnyGURU]

All of the houses in my area have these big concrete arms coming out of the back of the house. I have them, but there is nothing cradled in the arms. While driving through the neighborhood I noticed some houses have large steel (I think they're steel) fully enclosed barrels laying across the arms. What are these things for?

 

[Barrak]

gas or propain (sp) tanks?

 

[Turbopit]

How old are the houses?

As mentioned, could be propane, fuel oil, etc...

 

[jonnyGURU]

The houses are all from the 60's.

I thought about that, but in Florida you don't use heat that often. Also, the tanks only seem to be 2 or 3 feet in diameter (but about 5 feet long) like a small water heater.

Tampa has no gas service so it could be where fuel was delivered, if it wasn't for the fact that it's never cold. Maybe that could explain why they are so small. It wouldn't be for cooking because the original appliances are electric. Hmmm.....

 

[MajesticMoose]

how about some pics

m00se

 

[yakko]

Kerosine. Very tasty.

 

[GoldenTiger]

<< propaine (sp?) >>



It is spelled: Propane.

 

[thebestMAX]

Fermentation tanks, either for beer or biological weapons. RUN !!!

 

[Monel Funkawitz]

Bust one open with a hammer and a cold chisel, and find out what the hell is in 'em.

 

[SuperSix]

Propane, Jonny.. Propane..

 

[Gustavus]

You said the houses date from the 60's which was the time of a frenzy about solar energy. They could have been for a water tank to store heat collected in a collector placed on the roof -- which would have been very practical in Florida. Most solar systems installed during that time -- there were even State and Federal tax writeoffs as incentives for doing so -- have since been removed. That would be my first guess, that an enterprising contractor added solar water heating to the houses he built as a sales feature which would explain why all of the houses in his development have the stanchions you describe

 

[jonnyGURU]

Mmm.. I don't think you'd store heat in a tank. Besides, I think the solar panel craze with in the 70s and yes they were all removed because they LEAKED.

Supersix: Do you know that it's Propane because you had one? It has flat ends so I didn't think of propane. What was it used for? Water heaters?

 

[yakko]

It is for kerosine.

 

[Mister T]

home heating oil

 

[TonyG]

Hmmm, I know a way to find out if it is flammable.

high powered rifle+bottle rockets=possible explosion

LOL

 

[dennilfloss]

Bertha has big tank tops in the back of her trailer.

Benny Hill Theme (Instrumental)

 

[jonnyGURU]

yakI think yakko may be correct with his reason.

Although he's afraid to post it here, apparently he lived in the neighborhood once and the kerosene was hooked up to a furnace to heat the house in the winter time. Supposedly, some people are still using kerosene heaters.

 

[Viperoni]

My aunt has a big ole' propane tank on the side of her house...I think it's like 200liter or something....MASSIVE MASSIVE tank.

 

[phildo]

The tanks were/are used for #2 &quot;Home Heating Oil&quot;. in the years before &quot;whole house' heating and {later} air conditioning, e had a tanker truck come to the house and pump it full for the winter. The tank (usually a 55 gal. barrel) had a 1/4' diam. metal tube that ran into the house and gravity-fed a fuel oil furnace. The furnace had a little access door on the front, and you would open a valve cock to let the oil sccumulate into a little pooll in the fire pan at the bottom of the furnace. Then you would light a wad of toilet paper {good wick) and drop it in. As the fire burned the oil - slowly at firs - it woul begin to vaporize the oil as it heated up the combustion chamber, and in no time, the hallway next to the bathroom of your completely UN-insulated three bedroom/two bath concrete block house would be warm. You could not keep any interior doors in the house closed in the winter.

 

[jonnyGURU]

<< ...your completely UN-insulated three bedroom/two bath concrete block house... >>



HEY! You have lived in Florida!

The kerosene heating solution makes sense. All of the houses (including mine) in the area have patch jobs in the walls where wall units used to hang for air conditioning. Wall units, of course, don't do heat... so what's the option? You got it.

 

[crab]

its for home heating oil..AKA kerosene AKA jet fuel AKA diesel fuel...i have one too, but its underground.

 

[shadow]

kerosene diesel and JP jet fuel are all quite different

even though it's rumored that the newest jet planes will actually use cheap kerosene instead of JP fuel....

 

[yakko]

I wasn't afraid to post the whole answer here, just lazy.

 

[crab]

theyre the same...ones just cleaner than the other.
I'm a pilot too, kerosene, diesel and jet-a are basically the same