AIR for Combustion and Ventilation

AIR FOR COMBUSTION AND VENTILATION

WARNING

WARNING ICON

G 001

This heater shall not be installed in a confined space unless provisions are provided for adequate combustion and ventilation air. Read the following instructions to insure proper fresh air for this and other fuel-burning appliances in your home.

Today’s homes are built more energy efficient than ever. New materials, increased insulation, and new construction methods help reduce heat loss in homes. Home owners weather strip and caulk around windows and doors to keep the cold air out and the warm air in. During heating months, home owners want their homes as airtight as possible.

While it is good to make your home energy efficient, your home needs to breathe. Fresh air must enter your home. All fuel-burning appliances need fresh air for proper combustion and ventilation.

Exhaust fans, fireplaces, clothes dryers, and fuel burning appliances draw air from the house to operate. You must provide adequate fresh air for these appliances. This will insure proper venting of vented fuel-burning appliances.

PROVIDING ADEQUATE VENTILATION

The following is excerpts from National Fuel Gas Code. NFPA 54/ANSI Z223.1, Section 5.3, Air for Combustion and Ventilation.

All spaces in homes fall into one of the three following ventilation classifications: 1. Unusually Tight Construction; 2. Unconfined Space; 3. Confined Space.

The information on pages 5 through 8 will help you classify your space and provide adequate ventilation.

Unusually Tight Construction

The air that leaks around doors and windows may provide enough fresh air for combustion and ventilation. However, in buildings of unusually tight construction, you must provide additional fresh air.

Unusually tight construction is defined as construction where:

a.walls and ceilings exposed to the outside atmosphere have a continu- ous water vapor retarder with a rating of one perm (6x10-11per pa-sec- m2) or less with openings gasketed or sealed and

b.weather stripping has been added on openable windows and doors and

c.caulking or sealants are applied to areas such as joints around window and door frames, between sole plates and floors, between wall-ceiling joints, between wall panels, at penetrations for plumbing, electrical, and gas lines, and at other openings.

If your home meets all of the three criteria above, you must provide addi- tional fresh air. See Ventilation Air From Outdoors, page 8.

If your home does not meet all of the three criteria above, proceed to page 6.

Confined and Unconfined Spaces

The National Fuel Gas Code defines a confined space as a space whose volume is less than 50 cubic feet per 1000 Btu per hour (4.8 cubic meters per kw) of the aggregate input rating of all appliances installed in that space and an unconfined space as a space whose volume is not less than 50 cubic feet per 1000 Btu per hour (4.8 cubic meters per kw) of the aggregate input rating of all appliances installed in that space. Rooms communicating directly with the space in which the appliances are installed, through openings not furnished with doors, are considered a part of the unconfined space.

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