IIAR Achieves a Mechanical Code Milestone

On March 6, 2020, the International Code Council published the 2021 edition of the International Mechanical Code (IMC). 2021 IMC includes a noteworthy change that all ammonia refrigeration industry stakeholders should celebrate. Instead of including prescriptive requirements for ammonia refrigeration systems in Chapter 11, as previous editions had done, §1101.1.2 now requires that “Refrigeration systems using ammonia as the refrigerant shall comply with IIAR 2, IIAR 3, IIAR 4 and IIAR 5 and shall not be required to comply with this chapter.”

This small sentence has huge implications as it now allows IIAR to control the ammonia refrigeration industry’s destiny. The Uniform Mechanical Code (UMC) adopted identical language in 2018 UMC §1102.2, so now both major model codes used in the United States defer to IIAR Standards for mechanical code compliance.