Propane pressure test requirement

[noway2]

Guess we’ll put this one in the garage, though I am no sure there’s a better place. Queue @1075tech ith a propane question. A year ago, I redid the HVAC on my house and added a propane furnace that kicks in at 35F over the heat pump. They got it working then. Now we’re concluding a renovation, including adding a 500 gallon propane tank. They ran the line directly to to furnace, but didn’t test it I’m sure. The HVAC company installed a manifold (with an extra unused tap that will go to the water heater we’re going to replace electric tank -> Rinai with recirculation). I heard mention of signing a pressure test affidavit for the county. From what I’m reading a pressure test takes 24 hours, no way that happened. I know the crew was on site at 7pm doing soap bubble testing of the connections.

Did they just pull a fast one?


As an aside, when we built my parents house, the propane lines were pressurized, but then stuff added. The pressure guage on the system was at zero. We pressured it up with a pancake compressor and then had the inspection > 24 hours later.

 

[1075tech]

I heard mention of signing a pressure test affidavit for the county. From what I’m reading a pressure test takes 24 hours, no way that happened. I know the crew was on site at 7pm doing soap bubble testing of the connections.

Your County could require a 24 hr test.

Testing with bubbles is an approved method for testing minor repairs, not for new service or branches.

Any new gas line installed requires a pressure test with an inert gas (oxygen prohibited as a test medium). The test pressure is a minimum of 1½ times the working pressure but no less than 3#. It must hold for 10 minutes for a typical system. Systems larger than 10 ft³ - 500 ft³ require a minimum of a 30 minute test.

The test is done without appliances attached to the piping.

Often confused with a pressure test, is a leak check. This is required for any interruption in service before the system is restored. (Out of gas, tanks turned off, for example).

For reference, it's NFPA 54 - chapter 8 that covers inspection and testing.

ETA: Whoever ran the new gas line for the furnace would have been the one responsible for pressure testing the system IAW code. If a permit was pulled for the work, the inspector should have required this. If the HVAC company only made the connections at the new furnace, the soap testing of the fittings "could" be acceptable.

 

[1075tech]

I redid the HVAC on my house and added a propane furnace that kicks in at 35F over the heat pump.

What furnace did you go with? That's on my list of things to do with my lottery winnings.

I swapped out my 50 gallon electric for a Rinnai earlier this year.

 

[Mirac]

Piedmont Gas ran a line around our family room to the gas logs. They had to hold pressure on it until an inspector checked it
<24hrs. Later. The inspector put a tag of ‘passing’ insp.
Id believe you should have had the same.

 

[noway2]

ETA: Whoever ran the new gas line for the furnace would have been the one responsible for pressure testing the system IAW code. If a permit was pulled for the work, the inspector should have required this. If the HVAC company only made the connections at the new furnace, the soap testing of the fittings "could" be acceptable

They were doing a bubble check at the end of the day, around 7pm. Thecwork involved disconnecting the existing propane line, run only to the furnace, and installing a manifold that connected to the furnace, and then capped taps for the fireplace and range. The Rinai hasn’t been installed yet. I don’t know what they did for an earlier pressure test, but it didn’t require a physical visit by the county on this job or the previous (install last year).

What furnace did you go with? That's on my list of things to do with my lottery winnings.

I am pretty sure we went with the Trane S92V, two stage either 30,000 or 60,000 BTU. Getting the house back up to temperature was about the only time I’ve seen it go to the second stage.

 

[1075tech]

If all they did was build a manifold, then the soap test should be fine. Depending on the length of the run from the manifold to the water heater, a soap test could be acceptable there as well.

Personally, I'd want a leak check at a minimum. Your propane supplier could do that for you.

Shortly after I installed my Rinnai, my company made a deal with them. I could buy 1 at cost + $50 shipping. Would have saved me about $250 which is what the roll of CSST cost me.