carbon monoxide detector setting

If inspectors and audit personnel ...

"If inspectors and audit personnel are shooting for 35 in the flue they would shut off just about every Mod/Con made."



Can you explain that for this non-professional? Do you really mean in the flue? I may be confused because my boiler has no draft hood.



I have a W-M Ultra 3 in my garage. The garage has two louvered vents that apparently pass code for running an oil boiler that gets its air from the space it is in. At least, the inspector never complained about it. Not sure how swift the inspectors are around here. I bet it does not really pass the code, since the high one is more than 12 inches from the ceiling, and the low one is higher than the top of the boiler, not within 12 inches of the floor. If the low one was within 12 inches of the floor, it would be below the snow level much of the winter.



My Ultra 3 gets its air from outside and it exhausts to outside. PVC pipe. It seems to me that even if the boiler is misadjusted and is putting out 1000 ppm of CO, I should be OK (except for my gas bill and what I am doing to the enviroment), unless the exhaust piping leaks. Spec says the combustion should be adjusted so that the CO is less than 60 ppm.

Thank you.

As I suspected, then, my house probably violated code in several ways from when it was built until I had the old oil burner removed: Unless there was no code in about 1950.



1.) No pressure relief valve in boiler.

2.) No Low Water Detector on boiler.

3.) No anti-backflow valve in the supply. There was a pressure reducing valve, and what I thought would be a pressure relief valve (an assembly, painted red, with a big tag saying that valve was NOT the pressure relief valve required by the code).

4.) Boiler got its make up air from the room (garage) it was in, and the vents were improperly located. Furthermore, I never checked if the vents were large enough. And the former owner blocked off the lower one next to the boiler so the cold air coming in would not freeze the old style expansion tank. Since the new gas boiler is the sealed combustion type, the inspector said it might not need such big vents, but said I was not to close them off. I would not have bothered anyway.



That boiler, a downdraft GE, did not have a draft hood. Sometimes a technician would put in one of those things with a flapper so air from the room could be sucked in when the boiler stopped firing so the draft up the chimney would not cool off the boiler. At other times, the technician would remove it because he said a downdraft boiler did not require it (smoke pipe came out the bottom of the boiler).

JDB all that is in the past, I hope

you are happy with your gas equipment.



However to answer perhaps your past concerns # 2 and #3 were not always required and so due to its age may not have been code at the time.



I have a feeling the "Red" thing was a relief valve just not sized correctly perhaps for the boiler.



The fact that your oil boiler was in the garage presents other issues that thank goodness are not an issue with the new unit. That is that equipment installed in garages is required to be 18" off the floor. I do not know if that always applied to oil systems and just how far back it goes.



"That boiler, a downdraft GE, did not have a draft hood.  OIL BOILERS DO NOT USE A DRAFT HOOD ONLY GAS.Sometimes a technician would put in one of those things with a flapper so air from the room could be sucked in when the boiler stopped firing so the draft up the chimney would not cool off the boiler. At other times, the technician would remove it because he said a downdraft boiler did not require it (smoke pipe came out the bottom of the boiler)" THE THING WITH THE FLAPPER WAS PROBABLY A BAROMETRIC SINGLE SWING FOR OIL. I AM NOT SURE WHAT THE SPEC ON THAT REVERTIBLE FLUE BOILER WAS FOR OIL BUT FOR GAS CONVERSIONS WE HAD A SPECIAL ADAPTER WE INSTALLED INTO THE FLUE CONNECTION TO INSURE DRAFTING.



Wish you well with the new gas installation.

Jim this BPI thing has come up several

times recently with inspectors doing energy audits and shutting off Mod/Con equipment with over 35 PPM air free. Now the National Grid people are doing the same thing. I have had several calls from factory reps wanting to know what I teach. I tell them 100 PPM or less is still my standard. Is someone mistakenly using the OSHA workplace standard for an eight hour period rule?