Is there a new federal CO standard???

Paul_3

I was told through a third party that the federal government now requires no more than one hundred parts per million Carbon Monoxide in the flue gases of a gas fired boiler. I was wonderig if anyone could confirm wether this is true or not. I tried calling the state plumbing board but had to leave a message on voice mail and they may or may not get back to me, so here I came.

rudy_2

Not to my knowledge

I checked around with my sources and nobody has heard of a change in any federal standards for allowable CO in flue gases but I'll definately keep my ears open and let you know if I hear of anything.
Presently, the standard (AGA) for gas fired equipment is 400ppm's as measured on an air free basis.
The reality, however, is if any equipment, gas or oil fired - commercial or residential, is running over 100 ppm's air free (except maybe on light off), something is not properly set up.
I've got two oil burners in my own home and both spike at about 40 ppm's on light off, then settle down to under 10 ppms (air free) within about 20 sec's.
If you haven't seen it yet, you might want to check out the web page I do related to combustion and CO. I've done a bunch of updating in the past month including a section for homeowners. Several HVAC companies have already put a link to the homeowners section from their own company's web page to explain the importance of testing (to their customers) and to increase the value of the services they provide.
Also found some 'historical' documents on Herman Bacharach and put that up. It's pretty interesting, for example, did you know Bacharach made gun sights for cannons during WWII as well as supplying the navy with CO2 test kits? The url is www.bacharach-training.com .
Hope this is helpful, rudy

j_4

CO flue gas standard

for national & sf bay area standards check out

www.baaqmd.gov/planning/resmod/baas.htm

national stds: 35 ppm

california stds: 20 ppm

[Deleted User]

i dont think this chart is flue gases

but atmosheric thresold values i think.....far as i was taught was to look for a maximum level at 400 ppm air free and if using a regular meter that doesn't give an air free reading but just a CO reading,,,100 ppm max.

Unknown

I do not believe those are flue gas

standards. Those standards are a time weighted average (TWA) in the environment(or room) of air free CO. That is for a given time. The flue gas standards are typically set by ANSI. To the best of my knowledge it remains 400 ppm for boilers, furnaces and water heaters. The OSHA standard of maximum allowable concentration for an eight (8) hour period in the workplace is 50 PPM. Most fire departments and authority having jurisdiction allow only 35 PPM. To bring the level to flue gas testing the 100 ppm standard is the cutoff usually on gas furnaces, space and water heaters for leaving them on. Anything in a flue sample above 100 is reason to leave the equipment off. It depends on location as to what you do between 100 ppm and 400 ppm. Nothing should ever be left on over 400 ppm.