4th Annual IAPMO WDC Summit: November 12
The International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) will be holding their annual Water Demand Calculator (WDC) summit virtually on November 12 from 8am-12pm PST. The timing couldn’t be better as the 2021 Seattle amendments to the WA State Energy Code will become effective a few days later on November 15.
Within that code will be a provision mandating the use of the WDC (UPC Appendix M) for estimating water demand for dwelling units in R2 occupancies. See Section C404.3.3 of the 2021 Seattle amendments to the WA State Energy Code for details.
Both Duane Jonlin from Seattle's Department of Construction and Inspections and Dave Price from Public Health – Seattle & King County will be guest presenters for a portion of the summit. As a thank you, IAPMO has created a special discount code: WDC24-Jonlin-Price that can be used for 25% off of registration. If you are interested, register here.
Overflow drainage for fire water storage tanks
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publication 22 – ‘Standard for Water Tanks for Private Fire Protection’ includes a long standing requirement to provide adequate drainage for any overflow from a fire water storage tank. The design fill rate of a fire storage tank in a high-rise building is so immense in relation to the rest of the plumbing system that it has traditionally been considered impractical to provide sufficient drainage to accommodate it. An overflow drain is typically provided, but not one large enough to convey potentially 1,000-1,500 GPM or more. In many cases, the building drain itself will not handle this amount of volume.
Because of some recent incidents with fire tank overflows in high-rise buildings in Seattle however, the Seattle Fire Department is now being more diligent in enforcing the NFPA 22 requirements. This may come up when a project goes through fire protection plan review.
The intent of the requirement is for the full overflow volume (fill rate) of the fire storage tank to be either routed to a drain of adequate size, or to a sump equipped with pumps of sufficient size to avoid flooding any hoistway, fire pump room, electrical service infrastructure (transformer vault, electrical room, etc), or other life-safety related facilities, or to be captured in a holding tank with a volume large enough to contain the full inflow rate of the storage tank for long enough to allow someone to be alerted and address the overflow condition before any flooding occurs.
Our plan review group will review the overflow mitigation strategy on a project as it relates to the plumbing drainage system but will not comment on the validity of any particular overflow mitigation strategy or whether or not it meets the intent of the NFPA 22 requirements. That determination will be made by the Fire Department.
If you have questions about how to assign DFU loading to a fire tank overflow drain, or how and where to connect a gravity drain serving a fire water storage tank to a gravity building drain, please feel free to contact us at planreviewinfo@kingcounty.gov.
Inspection of combination fire/domestic water service lines
If you are working on a project with a combined or shared fire & domestic water service line, be aware the service line will need to be inspected by both the Fire Marshall and the Plumbing Inspector.
If you are given permission by only one entity to cover and conceal the piping, don’t do it! Make sure you have permission from both the plumbing side and the fire side first.
By Dave Price, Assistant Chief Plumbing Inspector, Public Health - Seattle & King County
I was fortunate enough to attend the 2024 American Society of Plumbing Engineers (ASPE) convention earlier this month in Columbus, Ohio. The exposition is a great way to talk to manufacturers directly on the show floor and ask questions like “What standard is this product listed to?”, and “Where does the listing for this product begin and end?”. It is helpful seeing these products in person and speaking with highly trained and experienced factory representatives that are able to answer most questions without a lengthy email exchange.
Heat pump water heating market & Energy codes
One item of note is the number of manufacturers that are increasing their presence in the heat pump water heating market. In Seattle, we are ahead of the curve with heat pump water heating given our relatively ambitious Energy Codes. Many attendees lamented the decline of gas-fired and electric resistance water heating and questioned why the industry is moving in that direction. I was surprised to learn that the ASPE Legislative Committee was not focused at all on Energy Codes and the impact these codes have on the required design of plumbing systems. Energy Codes are becoming an increasingly important part of plumbing design and that trend is bound to continue into the future. It is in the best interest of all parties advocating for the advancement of the plumbing industry to keep a close eye on developments related to Energy Codes.
Technical session highlights: 2024 UPC
A technical session I attended focused on the upcoming changes to the 2024 UPC. The overarching change that struck me the most was a noticeable trend in citing various standards rather than listing a specific set of requirements. For example, instead of “..drains shall have a waterway at least…”, the new text reads “…drains shall comply with ASME A112.18.2…”.
This is a somewhat disconcerting change from the recent past, in which a plumber or contractor could study the Uniform Plumbing Code and have a reasonable chance of successfully installing a code compliant system. However, we are now rapidly moving into an era where each design professional will need to have access to the applicable Plumbing Code and Energy Code, and an ever increasing library of NFPA, ASME, ASSE, NSF, ASTM, and IAPMO standards to understand compliance. These standards are also updated on a regular cycle, so you can’t just buy them once. On the plus side, this transition is making the model codes a bit easier to read because text can be referenced instead of repeated. It also makes revising model codes easier from cycle to cycle.
Codes & standards: the next subscription service?
Since subscription services seem to be the new norm, I can imagine it won’t be long until you can sign up for some all-inclusive database of Codes and Standards that are always up to date. There are some organizations that do this now, but they tend to focus only on a single entity’s published works (NFPA for example) and do not include everything a designer or engineer will need to design holistic plumbing systems in the future. Of course if you have connections with a knowledgeable product rep, you could just ask them to select a product for you that meets all of the relevant standards and call it a day, but that can be a risky proposition and subject your firm to extra liability.
As usual, we will all adapt. Hopefully by mentioning this trend now it will better prepare our customers and partners for what is coming.
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