John Kogel

Thanks Mike. That's a good drawing, but it raises a question about spacers behind the ledger board. There is no longer any friction between the board and the wall, so all the weight transfers to the bolts or screws (I call the pointy ones screws []). Is it not a stronger construction detail to have the ledger board tight to the wall?

apparently not bx cable? There could be some, but the grounding can be unreliable with BX, so it would be false security, IMO. Not Jim: The GFCI receptacle in this case is installed ungrounded in the first outlet of the circuit. They say it will still offer some protection, better than none. And it covers the use of 3 hole receptacles in a clumsy way. You are right, pulling a grounded feeder to that first outlet would be a big improvement. That is known as a "bootleg" ground. It uses the neutral, which is grounded back at the panel, to supply a false ground to the third pin. However, the neutral often carries some current downstream of the panel, so it is very wrong to do that. Remove any that you find. Another point about 2 wire systems is that surge protectors for electronics don't work without a ground. So it is always best to install a few grounded circuits at least, and always run grounded circuits to the kitchen and bathroom, so that the GFCI's can be correctly grounded. It is not that hard to pull new wire into old houses. For one thing, the walls are usually hollow. Ballooon framing is pretty common. Big wide baseboard trim can be cut to receive new outlets. Then you use those holes to access the basement.

I was checking that gizmo out after Xmas came and went and I didn't get one. [] There's a catch or two. People who've tested them say: It don't fly so good in the wind. It will only fly until the battery expires. Then it simply stops flying. It will fly out of range of your iPhone with uncontrollable consequences. Maybe Santa did me a favor. I'd still like to play with one, though.

The neutral bus grounding strap has also been hot, and it is right next to that burnt neutral. There could have been a massive power surge on a neutral. I wondered about lightning as well, or a high tension lead striking the service drop. Maybe a transformer blew. If a surge hit the neutral service, it could have taken the grounding strap back to ground. I wouldn't have messed with it at all. Best to let the electrician see the panel in it's unaltered state. Good catch, Reuben.

Is that a code requirement or a requirement for home inspectors? If a home inspector requirement, who makes that rule? Is the rule nationwide or does it vary by province or city? - Jim Katen, Oregon Jim, don't listen to dat goofy Canuck. Nothing is required. I call for GFCi's in the bathrooms of old houses. Not the kitchens. Know why? 15 amp split duplex wiring makes it a royal PITA. Eli can do whatever he wants. No licensing in la provence du Quebec.[] We have licensing in BC now, but no SOP attached. I think it's just a token license and a cash grab. We may see changes in the near future.

Yes it’s a wood burning fireplace. There's a set of gas logs in there now. I agree with you it looks restricted. I wish I could’ve accessed the cap and looked down it but it’s a pretty steep slate roof and it was raining today. Thanks, Kiel For gas, they could drop in a metal liner, connected to a proper gas fireplace, problem solved.

If I were inspecting the house, I'd just tell them to make sure that it's GFCI protected. Moving it a few inches away from the sink won't change the risk. - Jim Katen, Oregon That's what I said in the first place. I said that i'd recommend a GFCI! (If it's not already present). Then, I have no clue of what the hell happened in here! lol, someone said to not listen to the Canadian, who, I think, was right! Sorry Jerry. I think you got your answer(s). Eli, you said either move it or install GFCI. In the US, the code requires all new kitchen receptacles to be on GFCI's, no matter where you moved it to. In Canada, yes, you can move it away from the sink 1.5 meters and not put in a GFCI. We are scary that way. Just making sure you got the code rules straight. GFCI breakers in the panel are required only on the Canadian 15 amp split duplex circuits within 1.5 meters of the sink if the kitchen is being renovated, therefore, if new code rules come into effect in an old kitchen. New kitchen, you will see 20 amp circuits installed using the much cheaper GFCI receptacles.

No way the hole in the first skewed block can be in line with the lower ones, so there's a constriction there. Wood-burning fireplace? That's a real pain for the chimney sweep, eh?

Like I said, Don't listen to the goofy Canuck. []

Eli is a Canadian. Don't listen to him. [] No kidding, Canadian rules are not the same for the kitchen. We only need a GFCI within 59 inches of the sink. Also, we can now use either 20 amp or 15 amp split duplex outlets. 20 amp only if the wiring is #12 gauge. Older kitchens in Canada used #14, so they must remain 15 amp split duplex. If it's a kitchen reno, then they would need 15 amp GFCI breakers on each leg in the panel. In Canada, that double receptacle would not be allowed. The left half is above the sink.

I'm not an engineer, but that deck doesn't look like a heavy structure to me. I would like it to have some diagonal bracing. There are no cracks around the AC unit. I think the weight of the brick, two storeys worth, along with some typical settlement and shrinkage, may be the main reason for the crack. In other words, the crack may have appeared anyway, without the deck and the AC unit being there. I think I would be reporting what is there and not speculating much further beyond that.

The EPA claims that the use of textured finishes was banned in 1977, but this is incorrect. The manufacture of textured finishes containing asbestos was prohibited starting in 1978. There have been popcorn (acoustic, cottage cheese) ceiling finishes that have tested positive for asbestos fibers into the early 1980s. Same as lead paint - I can remember that. Lead gives you heavy blood. It's the Aluminum in the cookpots you forgot about it. [] For the older homes, I put an info sheet in the report - Possible sources of asbestos. I rarely mention the popcorn ceilings unless they are flaking. Asbestos tape on furnace ducts, I will comment on that stuff if it's obviously loose and flapping. Vermiculite insulation - you bet. That stuff can affect you big time financially, just from public perception.

That is a good point, Sir Douglas.There are, as usual, varied opinions as to what type is best,and where they should be placed. If you read this article, you will come away with no real answer to the question of nuisance alarms, other than "try moving the alarm to another location". http://www.firesafetycouncil.com/pdf/re ... tchens.pdf Robert, since your clients are cooking with gas, they really should have a proper range hood fan that blows to the outside. The fan should be a quiet one, so that they will actually use it. Without the exhaust fan, they are leaking NG into the house every time they light a burner.

cockroach treadmill?

I will assume that the 5% loss is that voltage drop which occurs outside the insulation boundaries of the house and is lost to the consumer. With unity power factor, power varies as the square of the voltage. 5% voltage loss leaves 95% remaining for the consumer's use. 0.95 squared is 90.24% which is the percentage of listed power developed by the consumer's heater. That comes out to 1,354 watts A 240V, 1500 W heater with otherwise similar design would lose only half as much voltage, 2.5 % leaving 97.5% of listed power for the consumer to heat his house. Repeating the calculations with the new percentage yields 1,426 W, an improvement of 72 Watts, about 5.3%. Regardless of which calculation is correct, it is significant after all. Marc Now that you mention it, there could be some losses in the wall wiring, alright. But it's tek cable, good stuff, and a tidy job of clamping it. [] Click to Enlarge 49.28 KB Somebody got rid of their oil furnace and hired a guy to install baseboard heat. Click to Enlarge 33.47 KB

Thanks for that. Now I wonder if I should step up the voltage to 480V? I have a box of old power transformers, old tube amp stuff. I could easily run a small heater on 400+ volts and have even better efficiency? Actually I could just plug all my old radios and amps in and turn the baseboard heaters off. []

I may never have seen a properly installed EPDM membrane, because I've never seen it glued down so that it can't move. There are special glues available, but the roofers keep forgetting that little detail. Here's a couple of pics of shameful use of EPDM roofing. Click to Enlarge 96.04 KB Click to Enlarge 23.06 KB

See Jim's correction above.No I think you should compare a 120v 1500W to a 240v 1500W. The 240 volt unit uses half the amperage to produce equal heat. That means cooler wiring. And less heat loss. And if that is correct, then 240 volt baseboard heaters are more efficient heaters than 120 volt light bulbs, which answers my question.

OK. We have Hydro electric up here, so there is no fuel burning to produce electricity. (You would think it would be cheap, produced by gravity, but not the case, which is another subject) So I'm not comparing different fuels here. If I used plug-in 120 volt heaters in place of the 240 volt wallmount baseboards, I think I would need twice as many heaters plugged in, drawing double the current. There would be doubled losses in the wiring, which is heat lost in the wall. Thanks, Steve, I'll take a look at that.

I believe that electric heat is more efficient than fuel-burning furnaces, because about 100% of the electrical input is converted to heat energy. I've also been told that a 120 volt heater is no less efficient than a 240 volt heater. I'm not sure about that one. So why use a 240 volt heater? Because you would need to run twice the current through a 120 volt device for an equivalent heat and that requires big wire. I think that's the reasoning there. If a house is heated by electric baseboard heaters with thermostats, does it make any sense to turn off lights that are not being used? Light bulbs give off heat, keeping the room warm. It seems to me turning the lights off will just cause the baseboard heater to come on sooner, expending the same amount of electrical energy. By the same logic, the new fluorescent lights they're forcing us to install are simply going to increase the loading on the electric heat circuits, with no power saving, at least in the winter months. ??

So what's the verdict. Do I need one or not? Let me think about it for a minute. Not. [] I kinda like the harmonics, but I can't hear the low notes as well as I used to. []

But as far as we know, they were hatched from eggs. [] The piping may have been in place, but the meter could have been installed to the right of the elbow. I'd blame the gas company.

The compression rings are not like any I've ever seen on normal PEX. I didn't look at the linked pages, but I would say that is a different product.

That's sad. Looks like it might have been a great old house if they'd kept the people in it.

The grounding or lack of it should not be related to the doubled neutrals except for one thing - both are signs of amateur attempts at wiring. I'd call for a qualified electrician to inspect the whole setup.