hausdok

D'oh!

Is it latex paint? Wasn't latex paint originally designed as a fire inhibitor? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

This wire is hot hanging loose in the panel (we moved it toward the front to make sure it didn't short to the can). The lug got so hot that the plastic that was holding it in place melted - the connection to the breaker failed and there you have a hot wire ready to nail you. Always be very careful when you remove a panel cover! Merry Christmas to all! Jim P. Simmons (Mr. Electric 360-705-4225 Olympia 360-426-7600 Shelton 360-458-4002 Yelm 253-203-0104 Tacoma)

For permission to use the article on another site, you need to contact Working R.E. Editor, David Brauner, at OREP. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Agreed. If I had to swag how many air exchange fan timers I've found turned off, disconnected or with not tab settings, I'd have to say it's at least 65 to 70% of what I look at that's equipped with those systems. People are their (and the house's) own worst enemy. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike P.S. Although there was that brand new house two winters ago. I was called in March. The couple were from Cali. They'd bought the house without getting it inspected the previous October - new house, they figured it would be perfect (Yeah, riiiggghhhht). The wife was getting headaches and nosebleeds; they suspected a problem because she had verified (by a doctor) allergies to common airborne fungi. First, I found that though an intake duct and actuator were connected to the HVAC system in the basement, and the tabs on the timer up in the laundry room were correctly set and the switch was in the correct position, the system wasn't coming on. When I opened the attic hatch, the smell just rolled out into the house - it literally smelled like the inside of a cowbarn in winter. Up in the attic, the underside of the roof was covered with a fine mat of green fungi that is just about the same shade of green as the kelly green work shirts that I wear. In the attic, the cardboard baffles had been collapsed and were blocking air from the eaves, ducts were disconnected from the roof and were venting interior bathroom air into the attic, there were too few jack vents and they'd installed gable end vents that were short circuiting the airflow up under the roof. The house is located in a narrow draw with high hills on both sides and the gable end vents are oriented perpendicular to the draw and the prevailing winds so they were basically useless. Very tall trees surrounding the house keep it shaded all the time so the sun never reaches the roof to warm it up and initiate strong convection to dry out the deck. It was the perfect storm of screw-ups. I recommended they get the whole house air change system fixed, tear off that rotting OSB deck, pull out and discard all of that insulation, treat all of the exposed framing with borates, re-roof, install full-length ridge vents, close the gable end vents and then reinsulate - making sure that the baffles weren't collapsed that time. The client was a lawyer with one of the largest firms in the country. Since I haven't heard another peep out of anyone about that house in about two years, I'm assuming that the builder came back and bit the bullet hard on that one. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Brad, I agree with Michael, they should have continued to condition the air in the house. Built in 1999, it should have had an air change method present and they should have had it on. Houses are permeable boxes sitting on soil, which itself is a big water wick. When people live in them, they constantly open close windows and doors, add heat, remove heat and are constantly modifying the interior atmosphere of the house. When they leave, and some idiot at a bank makes the decision to try and cut their loses further by turning the heat off or waaaaay down, such as in the house I did yesterday, they just create problems that are going to increase the depth of their loss. Here's an idea; the next time we have training seminars, let's provide some training for bankers that deals with how to close and maintain properties without increasing their losses. Bet there's a market for it. What did you recommend? ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Yeah, That makes sense. Maybe a previous owner was a GI that had been stationed in Europe and he brought a European stove back with him. My wife wanted me to haul back a complete kitchen complete with appliances, cabinets and counters. I declined. OT - OF!!! M.

Go here for the BIA industry standard. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I agree with Mongo. It's a European 220V receptacle. The metal clips are not current carrying, they're the equipment-grounding lugs. I'll bet that homeowner had a dual-voltage rig with a european plug on it and that is some kind of adapter. I used to have a vacuum cleaner like that which I'd brought back from Germany. We did it the other way; we had an adapter that stayed on the end of the cord. It's the same idea though. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Marc, You are looking at the chapter for Mechanically-drafted systems; Category I induced-draft furnaces are not considered mechanically drafted and same way that the Category IV furnaces are. Out this way, nearly all of the non-induced-draft Category 1 furnaces are gone and on probably 90% of all forced-warm-air systems we see the furnaces are induced-draft, located in garages and are sharing the same vent with a gravity-vented gas water heater. This does not violate the prohibition against connecting mechanically-vented and gravity vented systems on the same flue because these inducer fans just don't have that kind of power. The scenario you envision just doesn't happen unless there is a blocked flue. This is from the 2003 IRC. The chapter and verse number has probably changed in the 2006 and 2009 codes. G2427.10.4 (503.10.4) Two or more appliances connected to a single vent. Where two or more vent connectors enter a common gas vent, chimney flue or single-wall metal pipe, the smaller connector shall enter at the highest level consistent with the available headroom or clerance to combustible material. Vent connectors serving Category I appliances shall not be vented to any portion of a mechanical draft system operating under positive staitc pressure, such as those serving Category III or IV appliances. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike Edit: Looks like RobC got there before I did.

All, Listen to this lady! The folks that have will tell you that she's been able to help them achieve miracles. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi All, My apologies; I just realized that I'd forgotten to attach the list of links to various HPWH products that I'd put together. It's now at the bottom of the OP. Marc, these work best in climes where there are long warm seasons and the unit must be indoors in a room large enough that won't be over-cooled by the unit. OT - OF!!! M.

Just be sure to calibrate it.For that I recommend a nitrile glove. OT - OF!!! M.

Jim and Brandon have pretty much nailed it. Big cold stack with a single-walled connector on a gravity type flue - Condensation central. OT - OF!!! M.

Hi, Well, Les had a very unique idea: https://www.inspectorsjournal.com/forum ... C_ID=10895 OT - OF!!! M.

Five houses over three months. OT - OF!!! M.

Just secure a dead ferret in series in the circuit. It'll carry the juice fine for a while but then begin to heat up and eventually will separate at a hip or shoulder joint and cut the power. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

I occasionally drop off samples for testing at a local lab. There's often some guy standing at the counter that works for one of the local remediation companies turning in samples. I've never seen them charge more than $35 per sample. As far as I'm concerned, $600 means either that they are taking a hell of a lot of samples or they are just ripping off the client. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I don't know what the average inspector gets in the L.A. area, but I do know that some California inspectors get some of the highest rates in the country because of the amount of risk they have to assume working down there where everyone sues everyone else at the drop of a hat or if they don't like your smile. Coming on here, you might have someone from the deep south quote you a price that's less-than-half of what some very experienced California inspectors would charge. That price difference for the same work would be perfectly normal and it would be wrong to then take that lower price quote and expect a California inspector to match it. Shopping for a good home inspector based on price is a fool's errand; it's like walking into a jewelry store and expecting them to sell you a Rolex at the same price quote that you'd received for a Bulova brand lookalike. Ask around, find an inspector that friends and relatives have used and liked, check him/her out to verify qualifications, ask for a sample of one of the inspector's reports, ask for a list of references, talk to some of the folks on that list of references and then, once you've made your choice, pay whatever the inspector you choose demands. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi Tom, Well, I wasn't actually trying to do that. If I'd wanted to do that, I could have done it in that thread. It is a generalization that I hear, or read, way too often. In fact, 14 years ago I would have agreed 100% with that statement. However, since moving out here, I've learned that quite a bit of what I thought I knew about how wood and houses behave in response to weather and moisture has been less-than-accurate. I'd probably meant to throw up something about P.T. lumber at least a hundred times but kept putting it off, and off, and off..... ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Heat Pump Water Heaters Most homeowners who have heat pumps use them to heat and cool their homes. But a heat pump also can be used to heat water—either as stand-alone water heating system, or as combination water heating and space conditioning system. How They Work Heat pump water heaters use electricity to move heat from one place to another instead of generating heat directly. Therefore, they can be two to three times more energy efficient than conventional electric resistance water heaters. To move the heat, heat pumps work like a refrigerator in reverse. While a refrigerator pulls heat from inside a box and dumps it into the surrounding room, a stand-alone air-source heat pump water heater pulls heat from the surrounding air and dumps it—at a higher temperature—into a tank to heat water. You can purchase a stand-alone heat pump water heating system as an integrated unit with a built-in water storage tank and back-up resistance heating elements. You can also retrofit a heat pump to work with an existing conventional storage water heater. Heat pump water heaters require installation in locations that remain in the 40ºÃ¢â‚¬â€œ90ºF (4.4ºÃ¢â‚¬â€œ32.2ºC) range year-round and provide at least 1,000 cubic feet (28.3 cubic meters) of air space around the water heater. Cool exhaust air can be exhausted to the room or outdoors. Install them in a space with excess heat, such as a furnace room. Heat pump water heaters will not operate efficiently in a cold space. They tend to cool the spaces they are in. You can also install an air-source heat pump system that combines heating, cooling, and water heating. These combination systems pull their heat indoors from the outdoor air in the winter and from the indoor air in the summer. Because they remove heat from the air, any type of air-source heat pump system works more efficiently in a warm climate. Homeowners primarily install geothermal heat pumps—which draw heat from the ground during the winter and from the indoor air during the summer—for heating and cooling their homes. For water heating, you can add a desuperheater to a geothermal heat pump system. A desuperheater is a small, auxiliary heat exchanger that uses superheated gases from the heat pump's compressor to heat water. This hot water then circulates through a pipe to the home's storage water heater tank. Desuperheaters are also available for demand (tankless or instantaneous) water heaters. In the summer, the desuperheater uses the excess heat that would otherwise be expelled to the ground. Therefore, when the geothermal heat pump runs frequently during the summer, it can heat all of your water. During the fall, winter, and spring—when the desuperheater isn't producing as much excess heat—you'll need to rely more on your storage or demand water heater to heat the water. Some manufacturers also offer triple-function geothermal heat pump systems, which provide heating, cooling, and hot water. They use a separate heat exchanger to meet all of a household's hot water needs. Selecting a Heat Pump Water Heater Heat pump water heater systems typically have higher initial costs than conventional storage water heaters. However, they have lower operating costs, which can offset their higher purchase and installation prices. Before buying a heat pump water heating system, you also need to consider the following: Size and first hour rating Fuel type and availability Energy efficiency (energy factor) Overall costs. If you're considering installing an integrated water heating, space heating, and cooling heat pump system in your home, also see our information about air-source heat pumps and geothermal heat pumps. Installation and Maintenance Proper installation and maintenance of your heat pump water heating system can optimize its energy efficiency. Proper installation depends on many factors. These factors include fuel type, climate, local building code requirements, and safety issues. Therefore, it's best to have a qualified plumbing and heating contractor (or geothermal heat pump system installer/designer) install your heat pump. Do the following when selecting a qualified professional: Request cost estimates in writing Ask for references Check the company with your local Better Business Bureau See if the company will obtain a local permit if necessary and understands local building codes, etc. Periodic water heater maintenance can significantly extend your water heater's life and minimize loss of efficiency. Read your owner's manual for specific maintenance recommendations. Improving Energy Efficiency After your water heater is properly installed and maintained, try some additional energy-saving strategies to help lower your water heating bills. Some energy-saving devices and systems are more cost-effective to install with the water heater. Other Water Heater Options Conventional storage water heaters Demand water heaters Solar water heaters Tankless coil and indirect water heaters Printable Version Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy - Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Additional Links: Home Energy Magazine article about heat pump water heaters Ruud Heat Pump Water Heaters Rheem Heat Pump Water Heaters GE Heat Pump Water Heaters E-Tech Heat Pump Water Heaters NOrth Road Technologies Geyser Heat Pump Water Heater Wattersaver Heat Pump Water Heater Air-Generate Heat Pump Water Heater

This is cute. It was sent to me by Jim Simmons (User Name: Mr. Electric). Click to Enlarge 66.24 KB OT - OF!!! M.

Try googling FEMA Flood Remediation Guidelines I seem to remember coming across some kind of document put out by FEMA wherein they addressed this issue. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

In another thread, I saw where one of the brethren told an inspector that all pressure-treated wood is designed for ground contact. That's a fallacy and is simply not true. Some pressure-treated wood that's designed for use in fences, balustrades and deck surfaces is not adequately treated for ground contact and should not be used in applications where it might come into contact with soil. Other pressure-treated wood is designed for ground contact and the choice of fastener is going to depend on whether it's going to constantly stay very wet or whether it's not expected to stay continuously wet and will dry out somewhat between wetting. Keep in mind that treatments don't always protect all of the wood anyway. When you cross-cut a piece of P.T. wood, you'll find that only about the outer 30 to 35% of the board is actually treated and that the rest at the core is untreated; so it will still absorb moisture and that moisture still cause it to eventually rot and become insect infested. Treating the end grain and waterproofing P.T. lumber will help to slow down degradation but it's still going to eventually rot, even if it never comes near soil. Sometimes it's possible during an inspection to know what concentration of preservative has been used. Just look for the tag left nailed to the end of the lumber. I find them all the time. Here's some helpful information I scarfed up from the Simpson site: For Above Ground use/exposures the following retentions are typical: (i.e. wood not in contact with soil) 0.25 pcf for ACQ, CCA-C, MCQ 0.20 pcf for CBA-A 0.10 pcf for CA-B For Ground Contact use / exposures the following retentions are typical: (i.e. wood in contact with soil) 0.40 pcf for ACQ, CCA-C, MCQ 0.41 pcf for CBA-A 0.21 pcf for CA-B For wood with actual retention levels greater than 0.40 pcf for ACQ MCQ, 0.41 pcf for CBA-A, or 0.21 pcf for CA-B (Ground Contact), Stainless Steel connectors and fasteners are recommended. Verify actual retention level with the wood treater. To read an excellent FAQ section about P.T. wood on the Simpson site, click here. ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike

Hi, I was cadre at the MP School at Ft. McClellen in the mid-1980's and attending ANCOC (Advanced Non-Commissioned Officers Training) when the Army began the arduous task of trying to re-train all NCO's and Officers to convert from passive writing habits to active writing habits. It was a battle royal and it had to be repeated with every single new NCO and Officer. It still must today because even our high schools are still teaching students to write passively. Here are a few references that might help. Yeah, I know, nobody wants to read a military text but these are really quite good and shouldn't be ignored simply because they are military texts; after all, the military uses our tax dollars to hire the best folks in the business to write their materials for them. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/p600_67.pdf http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/awc ... tyleguides http://www.carlisle.army.mil/LIBRARY/bibs/comart03.htm http://www.afwriting.com/docs/afh33-337.pdf ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!! Mike