Providing Adequate Ventilation

AIR FOR COMBUSTION AND VENTILATION

Providing Adequate Ventilation Determining Fresh-Air Flow for Heater Location

AIR FOR COMBUSTION AND VENTILATION

Continued

The following are excerpts from National Fuel Gas Code, ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54, 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 4 through 6 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 continuous water vapor retarder with a rating of one perm (6 x 10-11kg per pa-sec-m2) or less with openings gasketed or sealed and

b.weather stripping has been added on openable win- dows 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 additional fresh air. See Ventilation Air From Outdoors, page 6.

If your home does not meet all of the three criteria above, proceed to Determining Fresh-Air Flow For Heater Loca- tion, column 2.

Confined and Unconfined Space

The National Fuel Gas Code, ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54 defines a confined space as a space whose volume is less than 50 cubic feet per 1,000 Btu per hour (4.8 m3 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 1,000 Btu per hour (4.8 m3 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.

*Adjoining rooms are communicating only if there are doorless passageways or ventilation grills between them.

DETERMINING FRESH-AIR FLOW FOR HEATER LOCATION

Determining if You Have a Confined or Unconfined Space

Use this work sheet to determine if you have a confined or unconfined space.

Space: Includes the room in which you will install heater plus any adjoining rooms with doorless passageways or ventilation grills between the rooms.

1.Determine the volume of the space (length x width x height). Length x Width x Height = ___________ cu. ft. (volume of space)

Example: Space size 20 ft. (length) x 16 ft. (width) x 8 ft. (ceiling height) = 2560 cu. ft. (volume of space)

If additional ventilation to adjoining room is supplied with grills or open- ings, add the volume of these rooms to the total volume of the space.

2.Multiply the space volume by 20 to determine the maximum Btu/Hr the space can support.

__________ (volume of space) x 20 = (Maximum Btu/Hr the space

can support)

Example: 3,168 cu. ft. (volume of space) x 20 = 63,360 (maximum Btu/Hr the space can support)

3.Add the Btu/Hr of all fuel burning appliances in the space.

Vent-free heater		_____________ Btu/Hr
Gas water heater*		_____________ Btu/Hr
Gas furnace		_____________ Btu/Hr
Vented gas heater		_____________ Btu/Hr
Gas fireplace logs		_____________ Btu/Hr
Other gas appliances* +		_____________ Btu/Hr
Total	=	_____________ Btu/Hr