Mark P

I searched and could not find any rule against it, so I did not write it up. I also could not come up with scenario in which it would be an issue. I was watching holmes on homes a few weeks back and he moved and ac becuase the furnace exhausted directly behind it....

The one on the left is from a powered vent on a water heater. The one on the right is from a furnace. I was thinking there might be an issue with the corrosive nature of the exhaust causing damage to the ac fins; however, it is 10 years old and no signs of an issue.

This exhaust pipe that is directly behind the ac (on left) is from a water heater. Does anyone know of a rule regarding this? Click to Enlarge 37.39 KB Click to Enlarge 42.3 KB

Thanks Chad, Jim Marc I appreciate it. It would make life easier if we all used the same language. Reading the code is like translating Japanese sometimes.

Thank you. Can anyone provide a reference supporting this.

Okay I?ve been down this road before but I can?t find anything in either the NEC, or the ?Electrical Inspection of Existing Dwellings (By Hansen) that gives me a clear definition of when a panel is a sub-panel. I know I?m going to get push back on an issue and I want supporting reference material. The house was built in 1972 with several additions. Scenario 1 ? There is a disconnect on the outside of the house next to the meter. Directly on the other side of the wall, inside the garage, there is a panel filled with breakers, but with no single disconnect. Is this a sub-panel requiring the separation of the grounds & neutrals? Scenario 2 - There is a disconnect on the outside of the house next to the meter. Somewhere in the garage there is a panel filled with breakers and also has a single disconnect (in addition to the disconnect on the outside of the house). Is this a sub-panel requiring the separation of the grounds & neutrals? Scenario 3 - There is a disconnect on the outside of the house next to the meter. Way way far away on the other side of the house there is a brand new garage. There is a panel with breakers and a single disconnect (in addition to the disconnect on the outside of the house). Is this a sub-panel requiring the separation of the grounds & neutrals?

Any visible hole / crack in a heat exchanger gets written as unsafe and I recommend the furnace be replaced.

This was in a town with a population of 550, no code enforcement now and I'm sure there was none in the past. The home was built around 1930 and was the happy home to an elderly lady for many years until recently. On one hand I know what needs to be written up; on the other hand I approach the situation with the realization that no one in this town has a lot of money. Every repair or upgrade ever made on this home was done by friends or relatives that were well intended, but not always the most qualified. I grew up in a family that did things for themselves regardless of if they new how to do it or not. If we did not know how, we figured it out. Rules and code were for people who had money. People without money just made it the best they could and if that means sticking an indoor electrical panel on the front porch then fine. This home has many many issues that need improvement and they got written up, but while I was working on the report one fact kept coming back to me: a lady raised her family and lived to grow very old in this house and despite all the ?safety concerns? and improperly installed components she made it out alive.

I don't ever recall seeing a panel like this in a screened porch. A wind driven rain will get it wet. I assume this is a type 1 panel suitable for indoors. I have not looked inside the panel yet, I do the inspection tomorrow. I saw this when I was dropping off the radon test. I'm going to try a research this some more, but figured I'd ask the brain trust what would you say about this? The house is in a tiny town and I doubt there is any code enforcement. Click to Enlarge 39.29 KB

I have a Bussiness Owners Policy that covers my tools in addition to other stuff.

Everytime I get in my van and enter an address into my GPS it shows me how many miles to that address. I then write that number down on the top of my appoitment sheet and later enter it in an excel spreadsheet I use to track everything.

That is funny.

And when I say shatter, I don't mean it cracked - it shattered into numerous pieces and pretty much the entire bottom of the sink was gone. Of course I don't blame the sink, I don't expect it to withstand such forces. I like the sink and replaced it with the same sink - I have no complaints, except with my son.

Look like the same sink I have, bought at lowes. It is some form of hard plastic, like corian I guess. The color is not just on the surface of the material but all the way through. If a teenage boy throws a cermanic bowl in the sink out of anger both the sink and the bowl will shatter.

I've renovated and sold 2 homes and renovated and rent out 3 homes. The article say "But it's not as easy as it seems on TV" - that is for damn sure. I hate those shows where the fliper acts as a general contractor, doing little or none of the work himself and then shows a big proffitt at the end. I think those cases are the exceptions. From my experience you have to do the vast majority of the work yourself and it takes many many months, not days or weeks.

I have nothing to add to the technical discussion, but I'm not sure that the sentence above says what you meant it to say. You are correct. I wrote the opposite of what I intended. Modifications have been posted.

Today I was inspecting a 1986 Lennox furnace. It had 3 ribbon gas burners and an IID (Intermittent Ignition Device) I asked the buyer to go up and adjust the thermostat. I removed the front cover and the small flame shield held on by 2 screws. I do this so I can see a bit of the heat exchanger and the flame pattern and color. So the IID was click click click clicking away and I was squatted down about 4 feet from the front of the furnace. About the time I suspected something was not right because the pilot had not ignited, the pilot ignited and the gas valve opened. Two of the three ribbon burners ignited but the one on the left had no flame. About 2 seconds later flames blasted out the front of the furnace. This was not just a little flame role-out this was a small explosion. The husband and wife screamed and I reached forward to hit the power switch on the side of the furnace cabinet when another small explosion shot flames right in my face. That was the end of the furnace inspection. I could smell my burning hair, but just played it cool and finished the inspection. It was not until several hours later that my face and eye lids started hurting / burning like I have a sun burn. I?m not really injured its just my face is not use to flash burns. I write this just to remind us all to be careful. I thought 4 feet was far enough away to avoid a problem. If I had been closer I would really have been hurt. In the future I will be on the side (not directly in front) and on the side with the power switch so I don?t have to reach in front of the furnace to flip it.

So I asked the realtor what happened with this. She said they had an HVAC company come out and they said everything was working normally. I suspect the HVAC company did not see my report or pictures. I suspect they came out and fired up the boiler, checked the pump, etc and said it is working fine. I suspect they were not told what the specific problem was. Kinda gets my hackles all worked up.

A holding tank for a well?

These were the only valves and I was not about to turn any of them - no way. Thanks Kurt that was helpful. At this point I'm just going to report what did, what I discovered and tell them I don't know why there is no floor heat in that room. I'll punt to a company that has experience serviceing and maintaining these system. Most days I don't find anything with my IR, but sometimes it earns its keep.

This house is heated by a hot water boiler that circulates the water through pipes in the slab foundation. After running the boiler for around 30 minutes I could see the loops in the floor with my IR camera. Except in the living room, there was no heat at all. Looking at the manifold one of the loops is clearly cold. Every room had heat, except the living room. My questions is: Looking at the manifold, is there a way that the zone could have been closed? If so how? Do you use a screwdriver or is there a handel that is attached... I'm just trying to figure out why only the living room was cold. Click to Enlarge 44.07 KB Click to Enlarge 33.36 KB

Not even 8am and I've learned something new already. It is going to be a great day.

The outside temp makes no difference on if I fire up a furnace or not. In your situation I would probably have asked the occupents if starting up the furnace for 60 seconds, just to make sure it works, would affect anything.

Around 75 give or take. The more problems I find the more pictures I take.

Again I'm pretty sure, almost postive that these devices are not EPA approved for use by a radon measurement professional. There are a lot of rules your supposed to follow when doing a radon test. One of those rules is the test equipment is to be placed in the breathing zone (at least 20 inches off the floor) these things plug into wall outlet and most wall outlets are less then 20 inches off the floor. There are other issue as well such as calliberation. The canisters are cheap, but I would never use one in a real estate transaction. No one is going to want to wait a week for the report, to much room for error and cheating.... Get a CRM, Radalink or one of the other companies.