Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008 - (Page 52)

Codes & Standards Plumbing code update Recent proposed code changes to the International Codes include water heater burner controls, pressures at fixtures, and grease interceptors. BY RON GEORGE, CIPE, CPD, President, Ron George Design & Consulting, Newport, Mich. T he International Code Council (ICC) held its code hearings in late February in Palm Springs, Calif. The hearings, which took place Feb. 18 through March 1, were conducted in two tracks and covered all of the ICC’s family of codes. Notable changes to the plumbing code include increasing the minimum required water pressures at various plumbing fixtures and code changes addressing grease interceptor requirements. During the energy code hearings, a surprise code change occured that may have been under the radar for many in the plumbing industry and for manufacturers of water heaters. These proposed changes in the energy code hearings concerned water heater burner controls. Water heater ignitions The committee passed energy code change #EC79-07/08, which requires all gas water heaters to be equipped with pilotless electronic ignitions, and aims to eliminate standing pilots on water heaters. The reason statement said “the water heater accounts for about one-third of the energy use.” The statement went on to say that “pilotless ignitions on gas ranges save about 30% of gas usage over the constantly burning pilot light, so therefore the same energy savings could be attributed to pilotless water heaters.” The problem with this code change is that it’s similar to comparing apples to oranges. The heat and combustion products from the standing pilot on a stove is a ventless application, and the standing pilot does not contribute to cooking the food, whereas the standing pilot on a vented atmospheric combustion water heater can contribute to maintaining heat within a water heater stor- AT A GLANCE The ICC code family includes: • International Building Code • International Fire Code • International Wildland Urban Interface Code • International Energy Conservation Code • International Existing Building Code • International Fuel Gas Code • International Mechanical Code • International Plumbing Code • International Private Sewage Disposal Code • International Property Maintenance Code • International Residential Code • International Zoning Code age tank. The stove and water heater are two different applications with little relationship to each other. The proponent also said that the payback for installing a pilotless heater would be about 2 years based on 30% energy savings, which may be a flawed statement. Other testimony from the proponent indicates standing pilots waste energy, which is true for the stove example, and that banning standing pilot lights for gas burners on water heaters would save energy. The problem with this change is that eliminating a standing pilot on an atmospheric water heater will probably not save much energy, because standing pilots generally are used on atmospheric-type equipment. Based on the code change, you may now have an atmospheric-type water heater with an electronic ignition, which means that when the burner is off, the water heater will allow cool air from the floor to draft up through the flues. It makes the water heater act as a water cooler and therefore less efficient. It appeared the proponent and many of the well-intentioned energy code committee members did not have a thorough understanding of the various construction types for atmospheric versus sealed-combustion burners or flue and draft hood configurations for water heaters. One opponent of the code change testified that the loss of energy from the standing pilot on a water heater was almost negligible, because 75% of the heat from the pilot goes into the water. One code committee member responded, “I want the other 25%.” That comment indicated that he did not understand that the other 25% was going up the flue as exhaust mixed with room air in an atmospheric combustion process and without the standing 52 Consulting-Specifying Engineer MARCH 2008

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Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008 Contents Viewpoint Letters News M/E Roundtable Grade A HVAC When UPS and Gensets Have Issues Ignite Opportunities To Mentor Fire Protection Engineers Cooling People, Not Buildings Codes & Standards Case Study New Products Equipment Lifecycles Advertiser Index Green Space Pure Power Supplement Edison Institute Honors Recovery Efforts Canada Launches Clean Energy Software Climate Change Drives Increased Investment Critical Power for R&D Heating Calculations for Electrical Duct Bank Submetering for Energy Profiling New Products

Consulting-Specifying Engineer - March 2008

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