Trouble with local inspector

[Paver56]

Heres my story-short version.
I built a house 2 yrs ago. I have a Triangle Tube propane boiler and radiant heat in the entire house. My wife has a salon in the basement. Thanks to our wonderful government that makes my house a commercial property. I have 20 acres, zoned ag, a commercial basement and the rest of the house is residential. Since it is a commercial property, I fall under the scrutiny of Labor and Industry. I have recentyly ordelred a Froling 40/50 boiler. I was planning on using two 500 gallon propane tanks for storage. I know my L&I inspector (he used to go to my church) He does not at this point think the Froling will be able to meet PA's standards. How do I prove him otherwise? He also is not liking the idea of using propane tanks. My storage plans seem to be down the drain unless I use an open expansion system. I would have to put a tank in my attic for expansion. I do not like that idea too much. I am worried about getting air into my system. The inspector will approve a non pressurized storage tank with heat exchangers. My question is whether that type of system is as efficient as a pressurized system? I have been through way too much grief with my local government throughout the entire building process. My wife is a sole proprietor with no employees. The fact that they can dictate to me how I want to heat my home is the icing on the cake. I am sick of fighting them and want to go with the easiest, least expensive way to please the inspector.
Anyone been in a similar situation? Any advice or opinions would really be appreciated.

 

[DaveBP]

You might check with Tarm themselves for strategy and probably some documents. I know they have waged some careful, diplomatic campaigns recently with various boards.

 

[Paver56]

I do have Tarms number and will be calling them. I then plan on giving their number to the inspector and letting him call them. PA will not accept any commercial boiler without an H stamp. The frustrating part is that I know how well built and how high the quality of the Froling is. One way or another, this thing is getting installed. I have over 10 acres of woods and am tired of paying for propane.

 

[Willman]

Put the boiler and storage in a closely located out building with wood storage.

Will

 

[Singed Eyebrows]

The Froling is for all practical purposes an H stamp boiler, it's just European H stamp. See if you can get a copy of EN-303-5 from Tarm. See if you can dig up an ASME specs for a small solid fuel boiler. When confronted with the superior EN-303-5 maybe they will relent, Randy

 

[Paver56]

Thanks for the ideas. The problem with putting it in an out building is that I have the perfect setup in my basement. When I built, the township made me put in a cistern. I put it under my patio. It is a 14x16 room with a concrete deck. I have cut a 5.5'x6.5' hole in the concrete wall. It is located right next to my mechanical room. I have an access door in the ceiling which I plan on using to drop down all of my firewood. I will have room for the boiler, storage tanks and a lot of wood. The walls are 12' of concrete with double rebar. I got rid of the cistern because all that they made me hook it up to is the outside spigets. I plan on burrying a 1000 or 1500 gallon tank to take the place of the cistern. The crazy thing about my origional cistern was that it was supposed to hold 14000 gallons of water. To me that is insane and quite an added expense to building my house. I had the idea of getting rid of it the minute the local inspector gave us our occupancy permit. On a side note, everyone needs to stand up for what is right in America and stop allowing our government-local, state and federal abuse the power that they think they have. I know we need rules and regulations but we have allowed common sense to get thrown out the window.

 

[jimbom]

Speaking of your side note. You need to run for the town council and under the radar get like minded people to run in the other wards. Local government can be changed and made responsive. Sometimes it needs to happen.

 

[bigburner]

The problem is that most of the regulations are protected from any kind of reasonable recourse and it isn't by accident ---- it's been pushed by the vocal minority for decades! A good thing to come out of this bad economy is a slowing of the craziness at a local level anyway.

 

[jimbom]

The problem is that most of the regulations are protected from any kind of reasonable recourse and it isn't by accident ---- it's been pushed by the vocal minority for decades! A good thing to come out of this bad economy is a slowing of the craziness at a local level anyway.

Every state is different. Cities are creatures of the state. However, never buy the story city government can not be changed. You would be surprised how local government can be arranged to suit the local residents. Here in Missouri the state constitution and statutes have plenty of room for cities to tailor local government to suit local needs. But it takes people willing to volunteer a few hours to sit on local boards and run for local offices. Find out what the people in your ward/city want and get their support for your candidacy.

 

[Chris Hoskin]

sorry to hear about your problems Ben. We have found that if you happened across a reasonable-type inspector, they will often recognize EN 303-5 as a valid substitute for ASME. As a quick side note, both VT and NH have recently recognized this as a matter of law (code). If you happened to have a letter of the law kind of inspector, it is unlikely that you will change his mind. If that turns out to be the case, setting up the FHG with open expansion is a pretty reasonable thing to do. We have had that set up in our (commercial building) here for years and there are many many wood and pellet boilers installed out there. I appreciate your concern about getting oxygen into the system, but that can be minimized/eliminated. Give us a call and we would be happy to speak with you about the various options. Hang in there. Chris

 

[mapratt]

14,000 gallons of water... Did they also ask you to put in spigots a fire truck could connect to? Sounds like they wanted access to enough water to douse your house if it caught fire...

 

[Paver56]

14,000 gallons! I could not believe that when they told me I needed it. Since I never used that much water all of the overflow was piped down to the stream in my woods. Ironically, that is the same place it would have ended up if I had no cistern at all. Glad I spent all the money on it!