What is ABSA and why do I need boilers to be checked?

The Alberta Boiler Safety Association (ABSA) is one of ten technical councils within the Safety Codes Council in Alberta with offices in Calgary and Edmonton, and administers the legislation for boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure piping systems within the province. The Safety Codes Act is stated “preservation of life and property by ensuring the best in design, construction, installation, inspection, operation, repairs, alteration, and supervision of boilers, pressure vessels, and pressure piping systems.”

For certain heating (and power) plants, there is a requirement for the boilers to be inspected once or twice per day, if the building is occupied. There are certain caveats that may require a building to have its heating plant checked per a schedule, supervision is suspended for a period of time, or not required. With a quick tour and a look at some paperwork, EPIC can help you determine what is needed. Boiler Safety Tests (depending on the type of boiler) such as the low water cut off, high limit, flame sensor must be completed weekly/monthly along with other preventative maintenance such as blowdowns, chemical treatment.

For heating plants under 750 kW, an individual with a power engineering designation is not required but there may still be a need for the boilers to be inspected.
For heating plants over 750 kW but under 3000 kW, a 5th Class Power Engineer or up would be required to inspect the boilers twice per day.
For heating plants over 3000 kW, a 4th Class Power Engineer or up would be required to inspect the boilers twice per day.

Click here to a link to a blog POST that will further explain some common questions.

Do Power Engineers and EPIC only check the boilers?

Some customers choose EPIC to support only the mechanical side of their operations to ensure ABSA guidelines are met as they may have their own maintenance team or outside contractors for preventative maintenance. Many customers choose EPIC to only provide support for the weekends and holidays, or for temporary vacation/sick relief.

Power Engineering is only one aspect of Building Operations and EPIC can provide any level of support needed for a facility. EPIC makes all proposals flexible and accommodating if there are any changes needed, and will tailor the support needed to help you succeed.

My heating plant is unsupervised as per ABSA. Should I still have my boilers checked?

If money was not a concern, a daily inspection of any plant or equipment can save thousands of dollars in costs for a boiler that went off in alarm, a pump seal that broke, or a chiller that did not start. A boiler inspection does not just include the boilers but a tour of the mechanical room to ensure no issues are found before departing site or taking the corrective action as per the customer’s guidelines and needs.

There are certain situations a check of the mechanical equipment may be prudent. Many new residential constructions have been installing high efficiency condensing boilers that lower the kilowatt rating of a heating plant but also are quite expensive and must be maintained properly. They also may be controlled off a local controller and not on an automation, or the automation does not send out alarms if there is sudden temperature drop. An inspection could help catch any issues and reset alarms before anyone knows – with a follow up to ask what happened and how to prevent it in the future.

Is ABSA or Power Engineers only concerned with the boilers?

Absolutely not. Though boilers would be the claim to fame, Power Engineers would be responsible for all mechanical systems within a building, especially those with pressure vessels requiring inspection from ABSA (usually inspections are every 1-3 years depending on the buildings maintenance levels).

Domestic hot water tanks, heat exchangers, chillers, and expansion tanks are a few examples of equipment that would need to be inspected by a Power Engineer as per the building’s needs to ensure they are all working safely and efficiently.