Industry warns council that proposed mechanical-code exception could conflict with federal SNAP rules

Industry commenters at the Sept. 25 meeting urged the Building Code Council to reconsider proposed mechanical-code language that would allow alternative compliance paths for certain refrigerants and referenced IEC 60335-2-40 as an option.

Tom Deary of the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute told the council the proposed exception could circumvent federal requirements and raised enforcement and safety concerns. "This would not just be circumventing industry standards. This would be circumventing federal regulations," he said, adding that there are "hundreds of national differences" between the IEC and UL standards and questioning who would define and enforce any "defined duration" for demonstration approvals.

Vikas Mehta of Chemours raised technical interoperability concerns: even if IEC product standards are adopted as an alternate, he said there is no corresponding, compatible installation standard in U.S. practice and asked which installation framework would govern resulting equipment.

Council members and staff acknowledged the technical issues and said they would review the merits and implementation details before final adoption; Ben (a staff/council participant) noted the topic had been discussed in multiple work sessions and agreed to further review to understand operability and enforcement implications.