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Posted by Tom Stanton on January 27, 2002 at 09:06:35:
In Reply to: Anyone else concerned posted by Steve on January 27, 2002 at 06:27:15:
Are you talking about high pressure steam boilers (greater than 15 psi), where facilities are going to a lesser heating surface boiler there-by reducing boiler HP to get around license laws?
If so, I see this frequently in Massachusetts, especially in hospital plants. Because of the licensing structure in Mass, some hospitals are re-rating the big scotch boilers to low pressure and using them strictly for domestic heat, and they bring in small vertical boilers (less than 9 HP) like fulton and columbia to give the required pressure and temps for autoclaves etc. I know one hospital that brought in 7 - 8.7HP boilers to handle the load. In Mass, if you have individual high pressure boilers rated at less than 9HP you do not need a licensed engineer to operte them. As in inspector, I do have concern, but I have not seen any boilers abused yet. Personally, I believe all boilers, HP and LP should have operators with some knowledge, but as we all know the $$$$ controls those decisions.