Is my furnance placed wrong?
cristobalceballos
| Posted in Energy, Heating & Insulation on
I just bought a house in Chicago and have already been called out on something. We had an inspector come out and check our house before we bought it and it was all good. This past weekend we had people’s gas come in and check the meter. Our meter is in the house in the basement. He checked around and he saw a flaw. We have a bathroom in the basement. If you go inside the bathroom and look to your left, we have one of those folding doors. If you open it we can access the furnance to change the filter and what not. The People’s Gas company said that we need to have that door sealed off because it is a code violation. Does anyone know if this is true or is the Gas company try to screw me over?
Replies
Doubt It
Code violation?
That doesn't make any sense.
Furnace clearance to combustibles is only an inch or two on the sides. Front is usually a bit more.
Single wall metal vent pipe combustible clearance is 6"
If the furnace is in an enclosed room when the door is closed, I would be more concerned about the lack of combustion air.
Different codes in different parts of the country. In most areas having a sealed area for the furnace is not a requirement, but Chicago has always (since an incident with a cow a few years back) been a bit obsessive. So this may indeed be a Chicago code thing.
All nationally-recognized fuel gas codes (IMC, UMC, NFPA 54) prohibit furnaces from being located in bathrooms or bedrooms unless the furnace is of the sealed-combustion type, meaning the the burner is not open to the indoor atmosphere. This means that you would have a high-efficiency furnace with plastic vent and combustion air piped directly into the fire chamber of the unit.
This code requirement is not new--it dates back at least 30 years, or more.
Some codes allow you to get around this by installing a tight-fitting door between the furnace room and the bathroom or bedroom. The door must have an automatic closer, and have weather stripping and threshhold to make it tight, and, in addition, the furnace must have all its combustion air piped in directly from the outdoors.
Thanks for the Info
What is the purpose of the code?
Oxygen deprivation?
I would guess a bathroom would be a hazard because any bathroom without an operable window is required to have a vent fan, even in the very old codes. And the vent fan can create a backdraft.
Thats probably it....although I have had a couple of kids that fall asleep on the toilet!
Depleted oxygen and/or dangerous combustion gases that could fill a small bathroom or bedroom while the occupants are asleep--these are the reasons for the rule.
This is a long-standing prohibition in the code, dating back to days when furnaces were not equipped with hi-temperature cutoff sensors in the flue and in the supply plenum. While the danger from appliances has been decreased by such safety controls in recent years, the danger can't be entirely eliminated. The codes do list a number of exceptions to the rule that would allow certain fuel-burning appliances in baths and bedrooms, but none of them apply in your case, except the one I mentioned about closing the furnace room off from the bath and piping all the combustion air in there directly from the outside.
Maybe, but minor
If your furnace takes combustion air for the surrounding space (ie. doesn't have two PVC pipes, either 2" of 3", connected to it) and is only open to the bathroom, then the gas company is correct.
If the closet that holds the furnace is surrounded by a large open area, put a grill in the wall and a solid door between it and the bathroom and your are now in compliance.
This based an odd section of the code, that dates back when sewer gases were less efectively vented and gas burning appliance had standing pilots. Created an explosive environment, potentially.