NPGA Achieves Success in Unvented Heater Code Battle

For the past five years, the National Propane Gas Association (NPGA) has been fervently defending against a standard proposal that would severely restrict the installation of unvented gasfired heaters and fireplaces in residential spaces. A large portion of these heaters operate on propane gas and have been very popular in many states for propane marketers. The proposed addendum “A” to the Standard for Ventilation and Acceptable Indoor Air Quality in Residential

Buildings, ASHRAE 62.2-2016, would have resulted in a size restriction on the maximum heating input rate (i.e., 1065 Btu/hr. per 1500 cubic feet) that would effectively ban the installation of an unvented heater.

Addendum “A” was initially released for public review in September 2017. However, NPGA worked closely with industry partners to develop strong technical and procedural arguments during the ASHRAE development process. Part of that effort included the filing of a successful appeal that was acted upon by the ASHRAE Board of Directors (BOD) in June 2019. Since the Board action last year, efforts to revive addendum “A” by some factions within ASHRAE continued.

In January of this year, NPGA engaged in an effort to develop a compromise proposal that would be far less restrictive and more acceptable to industry. In June, the ASHRAE 62.2 Committee met and accepted the compromise proposal. It is now expected to go through the process and be issued for public review in the coming weeks. However, at the same time, there was a parallel effort to recommend to the ASHRAE BOD that it reconsider and approve the original addendum “A” for publication.

On July 1, 2020, the ASHRAE BOD considered a request to reconsider its previous action and to approve the publication of addendum “A.” This time the President of the Board quickly ruled the motion to reconsider out-of-order. Several procedural errors were cited for this ruling, the most significant being that when the Board rejected the addendum last year, the addendum itself was abolished and no longer officially “existed.”

Although this is a big win for the propane industry, we fully expect that more involvement will be needed before the issue is fully resolved.

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