Best Of

One of the first things I caught from Jim that caused me to highly respect him was his unabashed recognition that blind adherence to some codes, standards and mfrs. instructions can kill or at least result in subpar performance, shortened equipment life, and operating malfunctions.

I sit on multiple cmtes. that write national codes and standards. I have grown weary of the ignorant peacocks who get on these boards and don't know which end of a chimney to light. In general, I find codes, stds. and mfrs. roughly 20yrs behind the times- at minimum. They promulgate ideas that are not only unproven but, more often, proven bad or contrary to the intent. Sounds like our government?

I have a reputation of teaching and preaching codes, stds., and mfrs. instructions. Much of that was born out of my work for a major hearth appliance mfr. as a regional quality assurance mgr. I worked in the test labs, met with inspectors and investigators on cases and dealt daily with corporate attorneys and risk reduction cmtes. Here are a few points to ponder:

If you violate codes, stds. and PMI, it's not a problem until its a problem

If there is an Oops!, someone will try to pin it on you.

To provide negligence, you must prove all 4- duty to act, loss, act or omission, and proximate cause.

To prove failure to warn, you only need to show the contractor failed to fully communicate the hazard, the risk of not confronting that hazard, the consequences of failure to mitigate or correct and the sequelae of that failure. Failure to warn relies on sentiment much more than facts. It's a subjective issue whereas negligence is based on facts and circumstances.

If you are trained, certified, and experienced in a field but fail to warm over a hazard that is clearly visible or should be expected under the conditions of use, REGARDLESS of what you're there for, you're toast.

If you follow The Rules but there is still a loss, you still incur liability.

So, the bottom line I've come to recognize is to follow the rules to the extent reasonably possible but in ALL cases, doing what works trumps what you "should" do. If you set the manifold pressure on a gas combination valve to 4.0 wci. instead of 3.5 but nothing goes wrong, there is no premature failure of the equipment and no one gets hurt, is it a hazard to the public trust? Compare that to setting at 3.5wci, testing and recording high CO but leaving it in service because you set it pmi? Can you live with someone losing their home or life because you "followed the rules"? THAT is why we all should be testing to prove we're leaving stuff in a condition suitable for continued use under the intended conditions and application.

I never met an appliance that could read a damned code book, std. or mfrs. instructions. I've met many that are going to do what they want under the conditions of use. I figured out it was up to me to take control of those conditions and not leave it up to a machine that can and will eventually fail.

Yes, it's the return temperature that controls the condensing at the boiler. So low SWT, or a wider delta can help keep you in condensing mode.

So run condensing mode as often as possible, use modulation, enable and configure step delay, outdoor reset for long even cycles.