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26 APRIL 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com By GeorGe Lanthier* 527CMr4.00 HVAC/ HYDRONICS F irst some personal notes. In case you haven't heard, Firedragon Academy and myself are no lon- ger involved with the teaching of the Massachusetts (527CMR4.00) or National (NFPA31) oil burner codes. The list of reasons is not important, but the short version is that we've moved on to less time consum- ing and more profitable technical subjects. Our work load continues to increase supplying the education needs in the gas and oil service industries, and by dropping code work we have more time to devote to these technical subjects. We will review the codes in many of our classes and will continue to teach it in our NORA-approved Bronze Oil Burner School, but code seminars are over, for now. Everything changes, so I try not to use the word "never." A final decision has been made on continuing on with our copyrighted manual The CMR4.00 Guide. We are out of copies for now and will wait until all further changes and the merging of NFPA Standards with Mass CMRs is concluded some time in the near future, and reintroduce the guide at that time. I was asked if I would write articles on changes as they occur and so here we are. I must first mention that I'm not really sure when these changes were fully promulgated, but I have been able to find out it was in November or December of 2013. There is also a major scriber's error in the document that hopefully will be fixed, and I'll give you a head's up when and if that happens. In addition, an amendment to that clause should have been made before the regulation was put into effect. So, we might as well start with this item first. 527CMR4.04(3)(c)1 — Now requires that all primary safety controls have safety timings of no more than 15 sec- onds. In addition, these controls shall only be of the inter- rupted ignition type. The use of intermittent (formerly called constant) ignition cannot be used. This section is dated to go into effect on April 1, 2012, which makes it an error since it should be 2014 or in actuality six months after the issue of the document. There should also have been an exemption for used (waste oil) heaters, but it didn't make it on this go round. 527CMR4.03(1)(a) — Now requires that all installed and serviced oil-burning equipment shall be installed according to the manufacturers installation and operation manuals. In my opinion that's the only way to do it, but now it's official. 527CMR4.03(1)(b) — Now states that a permit is required for the replacement or upgrade of an oil line. This eliminates the confusion for many who felt it was not required. For the record, I always felt and taught that it was, and have always pulled permits for oil lines since I started almost 50 years ago — call me ahead of my time! 527CMR4.03(6)(d) — An unenclosed supply tank larger than ten gallons (38 L) shall be placed not less than five feet (1.5 m) from any fire or flame either in or external to any fuel burning appliance, nor shall such a tank be placed within three feet (0.9m) of any utility service meters, switch panels and shutoff valves. This clarifies spacing to most items oil heat installers would come into contact with, and prevents the contradic- tion of other codes. 527CMR4.03(6)(g) — All threaded joints and connec- tions shall be made tight with suitable lubricant or pipe compound. Teflon tape shall not be used. Unions and fittings requiring gaskets or packing, or compression type fittings shall not be used in oil lines. 527CMR4.04(2)(i) — Only readily accessible hand oper- ated, fusible, springloaded valves of an approved automatic type shall be installed in the oil supply line — one near each burner and one close to each supply tank so as to automati- cally stop the flow of oil in case of fire. Manual opening and ball spring check valves shall not be permitted. This finally clarifies that the only valves that should be found between an oil tank and the pump and back again should be what most of us refer to as a 'Firomatic' valve, and that the added expense of a manual valve is not required and further the dangers of ball spring check valves be eliminated. Check valves are also not recom- mended by any pump manufacturer and never have been. I've already done a couple of articles on this subject. If you are determined to use a check valve at least make it the proper one, a swing check. 527CMR4.04(3)(d) — When a boiler is equipped with an oil burner, it shall be equipped with an approved low water cut off that will shut off the power supply to any automatic oil burner in the event of low water. Said cut off shall be connected into the main burner supply circuit. Pretty straight forward that all oil fired boilers, steam or water, must now have a low-water cutoff. With today's newer