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It does say to display it conspicuously

Old fuel-oil tank certificate issued by Boston Fire Department in 1946

French Toast reports this 1945 oil-tank certificate is still hanging in the basement of her Dorchester home.

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When you factor in inflation, $0.50 in 1945 is $7.13 today.

The current fee for the fuel tank from BFD is $90 + $40 for every 1000 gallons. So that permit would cost $130 annually today.

So yes, it has gotten much more expensive to own a home or do business in Boston.

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My former home had oil and I never heard of this fee or saw such a certificate. Do you only pay that when a new tank is installed?

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For some fun reading, check out the dozens of BFD permits. There's even one for a gain silo.

There are many types of permits for fuel and combustible storage. Installing or moving a residential oil tank also requires a one time permit. It's not clear what the permit the photo attached to this story is regarding. 55 gal would be small for residential heating oil.

It always bugs me that you (your plumber) needs a permit to change a domestic hot water heater. Given that they need to be replaced every 5-10 years but it often requires no change of piping it becomes a tax on homeowners. The permit is around $50 but many plumbers change multiple of that since it takes time and a trip.

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Kerosene maybe? 55 gallons would be about right...as a kid, ours was in a 55 gallon drum. Was used for a kerosene heater that was part of our stove.

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The regs for fuel oil are far more strict than they were in 1945, and rightfully so.

You can avoid the fee by using air source heat pumps (or ground source). Then you don't have the risk of a hazmat situation due to a leaking oil tank, or the risk of blowing your house up a la Lawrence and North Andover, or the contribution to climate change.

Just sayin'.

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from 1946 'displayed conspicuously' in my basement. It's a smaller framed permit that requires a bucket of sand be kept near the tank.

As built in 1896, my home had coal-fired central heat. The heated air moved through the duct work by convention [edit: convection; typo]; there was no motive force [no blower].

I believe that conversion to fuel oil was common immediately after WWII since, with the ending of the war, petroleum became much more available.

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I think you mean convection, though convention is admittedly powerful, and has moved a lot of hot air.

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n/t

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We have two similar permits from 1936 and 1939 still posted in our basement in Cambridge. One of the tanks referenced in those permits -- I think it was the 1936 tank, but I'm not sure -- was still in place and in use until 2010!

When the tank for our unit was replaced in 2007, the previous owner got a similar permit. She didn't post it on the wall, but left it, folded, hanging over a bar on the tank itself. It was there when we moved in, but it's not there now, and I'm guessing that one of the workers we've had for various basement and heating projects must have moved or removed it.

When we bought our unit in 2007, we still had the original-to-the-house 1906 hot air furnace, which we replaced before the first heating season began.

Interestingly, both of the 1930s permits on our wall were signed by the then Cambridge Fire Chief, and I knew his daughter when she was an older woman, but until after she died I never knew that her father had been the fire chief.

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