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www.fueloilnews.com | FUEL OIL NEWS | JULY 2016 43 guys on a smoke, soot or fire insurance claim, Table 9.2.2.3, Metal Thickness for Galvanized Steel Pipe Connectors as shown in the Table 6-3. This may come as a shock to many of you, but as you can see even the gauge of the flue pipe is called out. It's one of the things insurance investigators go for when they don't want to pay the claim and can't find anything else to go to subrogation with. The trick is, don't let them. Do it right, every time. Some of you may also think this is new; forget that excuse, this goes back to the 1970s. Don't let wholesalers sell you their mistakes either. It is not okay to use what's available, if it's wrong, it's wrong. Keeping in mind that we are still fol- lowing the NFPA Standards, NFPA31 and 211, for this subject NFPA and I can't stress enough that ANY manufacturer's requirement supersedes anything either of us have to say. No surprise there, any code regulator or instructor always gives the manufacturer of a listed, certified or accredited product more value than the code. Nobody knows the product better than the manufacturer, FACT! TABLE 6-3 We're now going to look at two examples using tees and 90-degree elbows to make it bad, and Y-Connectors and 45-degree elbows to make it as Goldilocks always says "just right". We're also going to keep the parameters the same. The chimney is still 35 feet high and the flue pipe on the heating unit is 6 inch, but now it's a furnace and to that we're going to add a water heater with a 5-inch flue, sound familiar? Let's first do it the traditional way. In Figure 6-4 we have a draw- ing which shows a simple installation of the oil-fired furnace and the water heater. We have 6 pieces that lead from the furnace to the chimney. The lengths are 11 inches, 13 inches, 12.5 inches, 14 inch and two 24 inch pieces that total 88.5 inches or about 7½ feet, and then we add two 90-degree elbows at 11 feet each and a tee at 38 feet for a grand total of 67½ feet of TEPL, amazing. I'm not even going to worry about the water heater in the winter, but in the summer it will have to overcome 50½ feet of TEPL just by itself. In Figure 6-5, I'm using 45-degree elbows again and this time I've used a Y-Connector, Figure 6-6 to make the changes. From the furnace I now have a run of 4 inches, 24 inches, 7 inches, 24 inches and 21.5 inches for 80.5 inches or about 6¾ feet of run. Add 20 feet for the Y and you end up with a grand total of 26¾ feet of TEPL or roughly 1/3 of doing it the con- ventional way. Again, if I just look at the water heater, the burner will only have to overcome about 17½ feet of TEPL or about 1/3 of the other method. But what about that transition, does that count? Oh sure. Again a great chart from Field Controls can be found in their literature. This time there's a tricky part unless it's only one pipe size, then you use the ¾ d/D dimension. The reducer or increaser ratio (d/D) small diameter divided reducer ratio is d/D = 4/8 = ½. To estimate the equivalent foot length for the fitting, use the smaller pipe diameter for the equivalent length figure. Inches MM Inches MM Less than 6 Less than 152 26 0.019 0.48 6 to 10 152 to 254 24 0.024 0.61 12 to 16 254 to 406 22 0.029 0.74 More than 16 More than 406 16 0.056 1.42 DIAMETER OF CONNECTOR MINIMUM THICKNESS GALVANIZED SHEET GAUGE NO. Figure 6-4 Figure 6-5 HE ATING APPLIANCE WATER HE ATER Y Connector FURNACE WATER HEATER 11" 13" 48" 12.5" 16" 12" 14" Figure 6-6