City of Lawrence

Building Code Board of Appeals Meeting

April 17, 2008 minutes

 

MEMBERS PRESENT:

 

Mike Porter Janet Smalter Vice-Chairperson, Mark Stogsdill, John Craft,  Neal Ezell

 

 

 

MEMBERS ABSENT:

 

None

 

 

 

STAFF  PRESENT:

 

Margene Swarts  Assistant Director Development Services

Guess Present :

 

None

Ex-Officio

 

Adrian Jones

Attachments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting called to order at 12:08

 

Reviewed minutes from August 16, 2007

Stogsdill stated he thought there was a meeting last fall in December that Tim Pinnick served as the ex-offico. He thought it was a very a short meeting, but he could not remember what was discussed.

 

Smalter said she thought it was in December but could not remember the topic. 

 

Jones asked if the board recalled reviewing the minutes from August 16, 2007 at the December meeting.  No one on the Board remembered reviewing the minutes.

 

Craft stated that in reading through the minutes he is surprised there were no motions.

 

Smalter said the meeting was mostly discussion of previous minutes on the topic of air conditioning sizing.

 

Jones said the main point of the discussion was that Queen wanted it known and recorded in the minutes that at the previous meetings it was his understanding the J-sheet was required by the code.

 

Porter motioned to accept the minutes of August 16th, 2007 as written.

 

Craft stated that before he seconded the minutes he wanted an update on this issue.

 

Jones said that the City adopted the I-Codes. There is no requirement in the code that required the contractor submit a Manual J sheet.  It is the policy of the Development Services that a Manual J sheet is included as part of the submittals for new single family and any additions to single family homes.  Enforcement of this provision has gone rather smoothly except for outdoor design temperature.  The entire concept of the Manual J sheet is to properly size the heating and cooling equipment.  This is the first time that a performance standard has been implemented for HVAC installation but it has been implemented as part of the Energy Code.  Oversized equipment wastes energy by cycling on and off and undersized equipment wastes energy by struggling to keep up with the heating and cooling loads.  Another problem with oversized air conditioners is the continual cycling on and off reduces the life of the equipment and fails to remove the humidity from the home.  The Manual J methodology uses different parameters to size equipment.  One of those is outside air temperature.  The Manual J design temperature for this region used to size cooling equipment is 93 degrees.  The design temperature for some cities in the desert southwest may be 100 degrees.  Initially mechanical contractor were submitting Manual J sheets with equipment sized for temperatures as high as 105 degrees.  The City has limited the design temperature to 95 degrees. This has met with some resistance from the mechanical contractors.  Staff has pointed out that raising the design temperature defeats the whole concept the Manual J load calculation.  Jones stated that he advised contractors that system efficiency is not only equipment sizing but also the efficiency of the building envelope and duct design.  Mechanical contractors oversize the equipment to prevent callbacks on extremely warm days.  The Mechanical Board met last week and forwarded a recommendation to the City to allow an outside design temperature of 95 degrees plus or minus 2 degrees. The City has accepted that recommendation.

 

Porter said there has been a lot of research that has gone into the sizing of mechanical equipment.

 

Craft said that Jones is correct in that the new code is looking at the structure as a system. If the contractors do everything else right, such as seal the building, seal the ductwork and use energy efficient components the equipment should work perfectly.   

 

Porter said this is a big change for the contractors. There is enough scientific evidence that says it’s going to work.  If contractors have been designing one way for twenty years and it’s always worked and then someone comes in and says do it another way. He can see why they would be suspicious.

 

Ezell asked if there was a way to design for interior conditions such as computer equipment.

 

Jones says that he has seen different type of software and some are more sophisticated than others. He has not seen any that accounted for appliance heat loads.

 

Motion to approve the minutes seconded by Craft.   Motion passed 5-0     

   

Elect new chair and vice chair.

Stogsdill nominated Porter as the chairperson of the Building Code Board of Appeals. Craft motioned to close nominations. Seconded by Stogsdill. Motion passed 5-0.  Vote was 5-0 for Porter as Chairperson.  Craft nominated Smalter as Vice-chair.  Porter motioned to close the nominations. Craft seconded the motion to close the nominations. Motion to close the nomination passed 5-0. Vote for Smalter as Vice-chairperson was 5-0.

 

 

 

 

Discuss interpretation of amendment to Table N1102.1 

Jones said a question had come up during the enforcement of the slab edge insulation. Did the amendment to table N1102.1 allow the elimination of just the slab edge insulation or the entire footing and slab edge insulation.  It was the staff’s interpretation that installation of a high efficiency furnace only allowed slab edge to be eliminated. Staff wanted to make sure it was correctly applying the intent of the Board.

 

Ezell said there was no advantage to insulating the footing and not the slab edge. All of the heat goes out the slab edge.

 

Porter said that if the slab edge insulation was eliminated, below grade insulation would not make very much of a difference.

 

Smalter said the issue is what was the intent of the Board at the time of the amendment.

 

Craft said there were two issues. What was the original intent, and since this is on the table what does the Board want?

 

Stogsdill said his recollection was that the board reviewed tradeoffs of a high efficiency versus the slab edge.  His understanding of Rescheck is the footing insulation and slab edge insulation cannot be separated. 

 

Porter said that would not be inconsistent with his memory.

 

Smalter said that she remembers that all of the illustrations represented the slab and footing insulation as one piece. 

 

Porter said he believes the board does not agree with staff’s interpretation.

 

Smalter agreed.

 

Swarts asked if it was the Board’s interpretation that when the Code states slab edge insulation it means slab edge and footing insulation to be considered as one.   She added that at least three of the four members on the Board at the time recall the intent as applying to footing and slab edge. Instead of trying to amend the Code to clarify the intent it will be sufficient to provide staff with the board’s interpretation.  

 

Craft asked at the time the amendment was passed what were gas prices and what are they now? Does it still make sense to give this giveaway?

 

Porter stated that if there were a proven way of economically insulating the slab edge he would be for eliminating the amendment.  As of this point he is not aware of any method of economically insulating the slab edge.

 

Jones said that he has seen some methods used by builders to insulate the slab edge. He has only seen one commercial product and it is very expensive.

 

Craft said he has insulated about 12 slabs to this point.

 

Porter asked about insects. That was one of the main concerns.

 

Craft replied that insects were a concern. He flashes over the top of the insulation and under the treated plate. Craft said the price on a 1400 square home is approximately $300 to $500.  Craft said that his position is given the rather smooth transition to the I-Codes he would recommend the Board leave the amendments as written.  If some new technologies emerge that makes it cost competitive to insulate the slab edge he would want the Board to go back and look at rescinding the amendment.

 

There was general agreement by the Board to Craft’s statement.

 

Porter asked if the City provided a source of information about energy conservation.

 

Swarts responded there may be useful information through the Recycling and Energy Conservation Board.

 

Porter suggested staff could take place pictures on the website on how to insulate the slab edge. That may be useful to builders and homeowners. 

 

Meeting adjourned 12:45