John Ghent

Thats a speed telegraph unit. Instead of doing dits and dots up and down, these units allow the operator to use a side to side motion to send much faster code.

I hope you charged an extra $20 for that. Are all the panels 3phase?

Could this perhaps be a modular home trucked to the site and assembled? Hard to tell whats going on just with a roof shot.

These are Elm tree stumps and parts that the builder buried on my property in 1960 when the house was built. The cross street is named "Old Elm". They were discovered when I was having a curtain drain installed in 2011.

That was probably due to Unions. Most big cities used mostly copper for that reason.

Benign is a word most closely associated with Malignant (as in tumor). If an "easy" report is B9 is a tough report Malignant? Poor word choice.

According to Burnham it is a steam unit. https://www.amazon.com/Burnham-Portable-Electric-Steam-Radiator/dp/B00QP522HS

Yes, I did that a few times.

Mike: My parents built in the 50's and these low voltage lighting systems were sold as a security feature. But our system had both interior and exterior lights. There was a master control in the master bedroom with numbers up to (I think) 12. Each number on the dial corresponded to a light and if you heard a noise in the night you could dial the number and turn on a light. There was also an all on position. Not sure if the solenoid switches are still available.

$1769 at amazon.

Could it be the group of guys back from Vietnam who went into training to be carpenters and then became builders? Still a little high from the good stuff? Lotsa screwed up heads. The time line works.

Condo Boards, (HOA's) are responsible for maintaining the property. The inspection that is done for an HOA normally only deals with the things the board is responsible for. Most cases they do not include (at least the one's I have done) individual interior apartment conditions. The board needs to maintain a reserve fund for future repairs and maintenance for their areas of responsibility. Roofing, Siding, etc. They usually want present condition and remaining life projections. It is not difficult if you sit with them and determine just what they need, hire a few experts to assist and give them the report they want. This appears to be slightly different because they are taking it over from the builder and will probably just want to make sure the builder did things correctly and there are no potential construction problems. But that should have been taken care of by the local building authorities when they gave a CO to the complex. A properly drafted agreement for the inspection indicating what is and is not to be inspected becomes your hold harmless.

So? Your chance for a big buck job. Find out what they want, create a standard check list for their needs and charge a ton. Oh, by the way, do a hold harmless letter. The biggest one my company ever did was 280 units. Nice coin.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/osucommons/3724229854/

That was the "as built".

Which author requested a critique?

tis early on a Sunday morn and I have only had two cups so far. Please splain to me how you can have a supply and return in the same chamber? The supply on that furnace should be at the top rear. The view port is in the combustion chamber, which is the inside of the heat exchanger.

Water can't flow uphill. Wish it could. The device on the bottom looks like a flow control from a hydronic system and (pic not clear) as mike said it would make sense to limit the flow back from a tempering system set up this way.

For what it's worth, the homes built with this type heat in my area were very well put together, tight, and had very well installed insulation. The comments above will give you other information.

Thanks to my piqued interest in this I found the following: The tank is a solar storage tank designed with electric backup. (two covers) Unfortunately, it is being used as an indirect water heater. And, unless blazenuts comes up with some additional pictures showing where the circulated water is coming from, then I stand by my statement that it is not properly installed. http://www.bradfordwhite.com/products2. ... uct_id=169

Granted that there are two element covers, but what are the two pipes going to? I have an indirect that has three bottom connections. Boiler water in/out and cold domestic water in. Blazenuts needs to step in with more pictures.

O.K. I threw a bunch of stuff into the mix for the picture. The most important thing, one that I did not mention, I will describe here. We all know how a domestic water coil in a boiler works, right? (Please god, say yes) Cold supply water enters one side of the coil and comes out hot and goes to the domestic supply. That is a continuous flow of water. It's a simple "gozinta" "gozouta" situation. The coil, immersed in the boiler water, provides the heat. One usually suspects the coil has become inefficient when there is an indirect water heater present. We all together on this? Look at the picture. The water heater has two pipes attached to the domestic coil. Supply and Return. Gozinta, gozouta. These water heaters are normally tapped into the boiler. The boiler receives a continuous supply of water from an automatic feed so the boiler pressure stays constant. The circulator on the water heater is tied to a thermostat that regulates circulation of the boiler water as needed to heat the domestic supply, which is on top of the heater. Cold water in, circulated through a coil, picking up heat and coming out hot. The way this system is piped cannot work for long if it is even working now. There is no supply of water to recirculate through the boiler coil. Whatever amount of water that was in the pipes is not being replaced as it dissipates. Eventually this water will compress and will not be present and could lead to a steam condition that may burst a fitting. To try to be more clear, the indirect heater circulator is recirculating a small amount of water through a boiler coil, without any form of make-up water. The only water supply I can see in the photo is on the the boiler supply (top) at the rear. This whole setup needs to be redone by a plumber and it needs to be done soon. If anyone cannot follow the above then please let me know. Take a good hard look at the plumbing.

First boil a pot of pasta water and time it. Then boil a pot of water but keep taking some out and adding fresh cold water and time it. The answer is yes, a leak will cause the use of more fuel by causing the boiler to run longer. But this may not be the cause of a large amount of fuel use if it is a small leak so it is best to know what is common in the area.

To do a simple test on the in floor system, When you arrive mark or note the water pressure on the boiler and then turn up the thermostats for more heat. Turn off the boiler water feed valve. Do some other inspecting things like looking at the crappy tile or ugly paint. When you finish the other inspector things check the boiler pressure. If it is significantly lower, (one or two lbs.) there is a leak in the system which would cause a high use of propane. But the advice to call a local propane guy to find out the normal usage in your area is the first thing you should do.

I have a small wood stove that we use infrequently. One day I heard a noise and it seemed to come from inside the stove. Without thinking I opened the door and out flew two sparrows coated with soot and ash. Of course, before I got the door open for them to fly out they bumped into every white wall they could find and left beautiful charcoal images of themselves with wings spread. Screen got repaired the next day.