Furnace Power Switch

[johnny watt]

In residential basements:

When I see oil furnaces, most of the time they have a power switch at the top of the basement stairs.

When I see natural gas or LP furnaces, most of the of the time I see power switches attached to the furnace unit, with EMT run to the height of the ceiling joist and then NM back to the panel.

I hate furnace switches at the top of the stairs. What does the code require?

 

[peter d]

Are you in one of the New England states by any chance?

 

[johnny watt]

Syracuse NY

 

[electrofelon]

Johnny,

I am also in central NY and my partner and I were just talking the other day about this issue. The "top of the basement stairs" disconnect switch must be a building code requirement because it is not in the NEC, but it is standard practice around here. I have yet to research exactly whose code it is and what exactly it states. Perhaps someone else can fill in the gaps.

 

[stickboy1375]

It's not excatly the top of the stairs, but outside of the heating equipment room, but since most installs are not in a room they end up in the stairwell...Yet I don't know excatly why I do it... :grin:

 

[johnny watt]

Years ago, I found something in the NEC or the Gas code about it.
I can?t remember exactly how it was worded. Something like, a disconnect shall be ?immediately accessible inside the furnace room?.

Whatever it said, it sure didn?t sound like it should be interpreted to mean at the top of the basement stairs.

 

[stickboy1375]

Either way, it's definitely a building code....

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

In NYS, it is in the mechanical code. The mechanical code is one of the 8 documents of the NYS Fire Prevention Code.

The actual code is for oil type boilers, not gas boilers. Somewhere someone starting requiring the gas switch as well and it seems to have snowballed into what people perceive as a requirement.

Oil Switch:
to be located at the entrance to the boiler room, which may be the top of the basement stairs if the boiler is located in the basement and there are no separate rooms in the basement. Red is color is part of the requirement.

 

[stickboy1375]

Thanks for the mechanical code correction...

 

[ceknight]

The "top of the basement stairs" disconnect switch must be a building code requirement because it is not in the NEC, but it is standard practice around here. I have yet to research exactly whose code it is and what exactly it states. Perhaps someone else can fill in the gaps.

I don't have a copy handy, but I believe the answer will be found in NFPA 31:
http://www.nfpa.org/aboutthecodes/AboutTheCodes.asp?DocNum=31

 

[stickboy1375]

I've yet to hear a story start with this... " Good thing the Emergency Switch was there... :grin:

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Something to think about:

If there is a gas unit, and the gas is leaking... would we want to turn off (open) the switch? Maybe creating a spark/arc large enough to touch of the gas.....

 

[electrofelon]

I've yet to hear a story start with this... " Good thing the Emergency Switch was there...

LOL...yeah ive thought about that. "the gun fell out of the furnace and it was spraying this flame everywhere like a out of control fire hose, luckily that switch was at the top of the stairs...."[/quote]

Oil Switch:
to be located at the entrance to the boiler room, which may be the top of the basement stairs if the boiler is located in the basement and there are no separate rooms in the basement. Red is color is part of the requirement.

Interesting, so if there is a room, does the switch have to be on the outside of the room?

 

[ceknight]

If there is a gas unit, and the gas is leaking... would we want to turn off (open) the switch? Maybe creating a spark/arc large enough to touch of the gas.....

Yep. And by the opposite token, if your basement is flooded with heating oil, you probably don't want to walk downstairs to hit the disconnect.

--

Electrofelon, I still don't have the rule book in front of me and am going by what I was taught once upon a time, but yes, if the oil burner is in a separate utlity room within a finished basement, then the switch must be located outside of that utility room.

Roseboom, eh? Man, that's out in the boonies, but at least it's out of the lake-effect snow belt. And close to a good brewery in Cooperstown.

 

[donselectric]

well depending on what town your in the saftey switches used to be
by a cellar window for the fireman to get to....

 

[Kessler4130]

In NYS, it is in the mechanical code. The mechanical code is one of the 8 documents of the NYS Fire Prevention Code.

The actual code is for oil type boilers, not gas boilers. Somewhere someone starting requiring the gas switch as well and it seems to have snowballed into what people perceive as a requirement.

Oil Switch:
to be located at the entrance to the boiler room, which may be the top of the basement stairs if the boiler is located in the basement and there are no separate rooms in the basement. Red is color is part of the requirement.

I decided to start putting the gas switched in stairwell also, I know it is not required but it gives me peace of mind I guess.

 

[Pierre C Belarge]

Jesse

Not trying to break horns...
What good is that switch really doing. If there is a gas leak, do you really want to open that switch? Or better, do you want to have that switch available for the homeowner to unknowingly open the switch?

I would think that maybe it could be more of a liability than not.


What do others here think?

 

[Kessler4130]

The way I understand it, the oil switch is more so a switch for the Fire departments use, so I assumed a gas switch of the same convenience cannot hurt. As the oil switch it is clearly marked with a red plate. All I am doing is adding a convenience above and beyond what the code book specifies, if there is a gas leak then I would certainly hope they have a carbon monoxide detector. In my opinion, if a home is supplied with natural gas they should be required to have hardwired carbon monoxide detectors.

Our government spends enough time and money passing legislation to protect people from stupidity, how about protecting them from something may not even notice ?

 

[ceknight]

What good is that switch really doing. If there is a gas leak, do you really want to open that switch? Or better, do you want to have that switch available for the homeowner to unknowingly open the switch?

When you get right down to it, if there's a methane leak in the house, every switch you can reach by habit is your enemy. The basement light switch is just as deadly as a remote furnace switch, probably more so. Get out, and don't touch anything.

But yeah, a remote switch for a gas furnace seems to me extravagant, in that it isn't serving a meaningful safety function and won't be of much use to a service worker, either. But hey, if someone wants the house wired for maximal convenience and is willing to pay for it...

 

[johnny watt]

I would still be much interested if someone could reference the exact code that is the basis for the switch location at the top of the stairs.

I doubt it is for avoiding explosions. I have been in many a home with gas leaks and have never seen one that comes close to filling the house with the necessary LEL percentage to actually explode. At least without causing the whole block to smell like mercaptin. When it gets that bad you would not want to kill the power to anything from inside the house.

It wouldn?t help for a stuck gas valve either.

It might help for a ruptured heating oil tank in the basement?but geesh that sure is pushing the limit of safety precautions.

Since I see the practice intermittently enforced I am curious if it is an interpretation issue.

I don?t care for the practice because I see no realistic safety advantage and it exposes the customer to unwittingly have their furnace turned off.