(A) The board of building standards, established by section 3781.07 of the Revised Code, shall:

(1) Formulate rules governing the design, construction, and installation of power, refrigerating, hydraulic, heating, and liquefied petroleum gas, oxygen, and other gaseous piping systems. Such rules shall prescribe uniform minimum standards necessary for the protection of the public health and safety and shall include rules establishing the safe working pressure to be carried by any such systems; a program for the certification of the welding and brazing procedures proposed to be used on any such system by the owner or operator of any welding or brazing business and for quinquennial performance testing of welders and brazers who work on any such system; and measures for the conservation of energy. Such rules shall be based upon and follow generally accepted engineering standards, formulas, and practices established and pertaining to such piping construction, installation, and testing. The board may, for this purpose, adopt existing published standards, as well as amendments thereto subsequently published by the same authority.

(2) Prescribe the tests, to ascertain the qualities of materials and welding and brazing materials used in the construction of power, refrigerating, hydraulic, heating, and liquefied petroleum gas, oxygen, and other gaseous piping systems;

(3) Make a standard form of certificate of inspection;

(4) Prescribe the examinations for applicants for certificates of competency provided for in section 4101.081 of the Revised Code and performance tests to determine the proficiency of welders and brazers;

(5) Certify municipal and county building departments to inspect power, refrigerating, hydraulic, heating, and liquefied petroleum gas, oxygen, and other gaseous piping systems and adopt rules governing such certification;

(6) Establish the fee to be charged for an inspection made by a general inspector and for the filing and auditing of special inspector reports, and collect all fees established in this section.

The fee for the quinquennial performance tests shall be fifteen dollars and the fee for certification of welding and brazing procedures mentioned in division (A) of this section shall be sixty dollars, except that the board of building standards, with the approval of the controlling board, may establish fees in excess of these fees, provided that the fees do not exceed the amounts of these fees by more than fifty per cent. The fee for each welding and brazing instruction sheet and procedure qualification record shall be fifteen dollars. Any moneys collected under this section shall be paid into the state treasury to the credit of the industrial relations operating fund created in section 4101.021 of the Revised Code.

(B) Piping is exempt from the requirements for submission of applications and inspections and the necessity to obtain permits, as required under this section and section 4101.084 of the Revised Code, or under rules adopted pursuant to those sections, for power, refrigerating, hydraulic, heating, and liquefied petroleum gas, oxygen, and gaseous piping systems if the piping is used:

(1) In air cooling systems in residential or commercial buildings and if such systems do not exceed five tons (sixty thousand British thermal units per hour) per system; or

(2) In air heating systems in residential or commercial buildings and if such systems do not exceed one hundred fifty thousand British thermal units per hour per system.

(C) The board of building standards may, by rule, exempt from the rules adopted pursuant to division (A)(1) of this section any pressure piping systems which pose no appreciable danger to the public health and safety.

Amended by 119th General Assembly, SB 359, eff. 12/22/1992