Desa VMH10TPC - Manual (Page 7)

www.desatech.com 112462-01F 7
AIR FOR COMBUSTION
AND VENTILATION
WARNING: This fireplace shall
not be installed in a confined
space or unusually tight construc-
tion unless provisions are provid-
ed for adequate combustion and
ventilation air. Read the following
instructions to insure proper fresh
air for this and other fuel-burning
appliances in your home.
Todayʼs homes are built more energy efficient
than ever. New materials, increased insulation and
new construction methods help reduce heat loss
in homes. Home owners weather strip and caulk
around windows and doors to keep the cold air out
and the warm air in. During heating months, home
owners want their homes as airtight as possible.
While it is good to make your home energy effi-
cient, your home needs to breathe. Fresh air must
enter your home. All fuel-burning appliances need
fresh air for proper combustion and ventilation.
Exhaust fans, fireplaces, clothes dryers and fuel
burning appliances draw air from the house to
operate. You must provide adequate fresh air for
these appliances. This will insure proper venting
of vented fuel-burning appliances.
PROVIDING ADEQUATE
VENTILATION
The following are excerpts from National Fuel
Gas Code. ANSI Z223.1/NFPA 54, Section 5.3,
Air for Combustion and Ventilation.
All spaces in homes fall into one of the three fol-
lowing ventilation classifications:
1. Unusually Tight Construction
2. Unconfined Space
3. Confined Space
The information on pages 7 through 9 will help
you classify your space and provide adequate
ventilation.
The air that leaks around doors and windows may
provide enough fresh air for combustion and ven-
tilation. However, in buildings of unusually tight
construction, you must provide additional fresh air.
Unusually tight construction is defined as
construction where:
a. walls and ceilings exposed to the out-
side atmosphere have a continuous
water vapor retarder with a rating of
one perm (6 x 10
-11 kg per pa-sec-m 2 ) or
less with openings gasketed or sealed
and
b. weather stripping has been added on
openable windows and doors and
c. caulking or sealants are applied to
areas such as joints around window
and door frames, between sole plates
and floors, between wall-ceiling joints,
between wall panels, at penetrations
for plumbing, electrical and gas lines
and at other openings.
If your home meets all of these three
criteria, you must provide additional
fresh air. See Ventilation Air From
Outdoors, page 8.
If your home does not meet all of the
three criteria above, proceed to Deter-
mining Fresh-Air Flow For Fireplace
Location, page 8.
Confined and Unconfined Space
The National Fuel Gas Code, ANSI Z223.1/NFPA
54 defines a confined space as a space whose
volume is less than 50 ft 3 per 1,000 Btu/hr (4.8 m 3 /
kw) of the aggregate input rating of all appliances
installed in that space and an unconfined space as a
space whose volume is not less than 50 ft 3 per 1,000
Btu/hr (4.8 m 3 /kw) of the aggregate input rating
of all appliances installed in that space. Rooms
communicating directly with the space in which
the appliances are installed*, through openings not
furnished with doors, are considered a part of the
unconfined space.
* Adjoining rooms are communicating only if
there are doorless passageways or ventilation grills
between them.