8

My landlord mentioned that I can have a grill on my balcony as long as it is fueled by natural gas. As he is a fireman, I'm assuming he has some knowledge of the relevant laws.

But before dropping several hundred dollars on a new grill, I wanted to make sure, so I am looking at BARBECUES, PROPANE AND HEAT-PRODUCING DEVICES ON BALCONIES from the Denver Fire Department, and at the end it reads

Exceptions:
...
3.Listed natural gas appliances...
4.Listed electric ranges, grills or similar electrical apparatus...

What does "listed" mean in this context? The document has no list. But my natural gas appliance is listed on Amazon's, Lowe's, and Home Depot's websites. I assume that's not what the document means.

Turch
  • 183
  • 5

4 Answers4

10

I am not from Denver, so it may be different there, but I would think most people would take that to mean the appliance meets UL standards or other safety standards and has been certified.

Each governing body, be it a town, county, state, or country, gets to decide who can certify an appliance.

Putvi
  • 4,050
  • 11
  • 22
6

The memo you've linked refers to the Denver Building and Fire code (the 2011 edition, not the current 2016 edition, but the section numbers still seem to match up), which in turn includes the 2015 International Fire Code as amended. The "Listed" wording comes from Denver's amendments, while the definition comes from chapter 2 of the IFC:

LISTED. Equipment, materials, products or services included in a list published by an organization acceptable to the fire code official and concerned with evaluation of products or services that maintains periodic inspection of production of listed equipment or materials or periodic evaluation of services and whose listing states either that the equipment, material, product or service meets identified standards or has been tested and found suitable for a specified purpose.

If Denver has a list of acceptable organizations, I've been unable to find it.

Mark
  • 6,722
  • 32
  • 51
1

"Listed" is a term of art referring to devices tested and approved by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory. This is the list of recognized listers. Here too is a list of organizations that are not recognized. You can start an organization by submitting an application to OSHA. OSHA gets to say who is approved because of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. The requirements for becoming an NRTL are here.

user6726
  • 217,973
  • 11
  • 354
  • 589
0

As others have suggested "Listed" refers to being successfully tested by one of the national testing labs, of which Underwriter's Laboratory is probably the best known. There are others (ETL being a common alternative).

One is free to start their own testing company, but whether or not it is recognized by anyone, including the City of Denver, is an entirely different matter. The good news is that most products for which a "listing" would be required either have one, or really shouldn't be used on a balcony. This last bit is the important part -- "UL / ETL Listing" really is about ensuring a product is designed with safety in mind.

Julie in Austin
  • 129
  • 3