On January 25, APGA submitted joint comments, along with the American Gas Association (AGA) and National Propane Gas Association (NPGA), in response to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR) on the Safety Standard for Residential Gas Furnaces and Boilers.
In the NOPR, CPSC preliminarily determined that there is an unreasonable risk of injury and death associated with residential gas-fired central furnaces, boilers, wall furnaces, and floor furnaces. To address this risk, CPSC proposed a rule that would require gas furnaces and boilers to have an internal carbon monoxide (CO) sensor that shuts off the gas supply and alarms when the CO level exceeds a certain threshold. The proposed rule's intent is to detect and prevent dangerous levels of CO production and leakage from these types of appliances. The proposed rule would also require gas furnaces and boilers to have a label that warns of the dangers of CO poisoning and directs how to respond to such alarms.
While APGA and its members have a long history of supporting provisions in safety standards that provide improvements with effective methods and components that add protection for consumer products, this requirement fails to add such protection. Instead, the Commission is proposing a rule that will not help address the underlying safety concerns, which are actually already being addressed by many states through building codes. CPSC's cost benefit analysis supporting this rule also falls short, and the rule could ultimately result in the unintended consequence of increased nuisance outages that will only subject consumers with added heating equipment maintenance calls.
Accordingly, APGA’s comment letter urges the CPSC to withdraw the NOPR. To see what was submitted, click here.
APGA will continue to work on this issue and will inform members of any future actions by the CPSC. For questions on this article, please contact Sydney Novoa of APGA by phone at 202-464-0834 or email at snovoa@apga.org.