John Kogel

It could be tinned copper or Aluminum. Can't tell from here.

Right, it's a generator panel. Usually, a few lighting circuits and the freezer circuit are separated from the rest of the circuits for when the generator is used. The critical thing to look for there is a proper isolation switch, two breakers in the main panel which are tied together, so that power from the utility is off when the generator is on. If that is missing, the installation is FUBAR. About half of the ones I see are wrong. Without the isolation, a linesman could get shocked by the home owner's generator and that would not bode well for either of them.

Now that we know you have a boiler and radiators (convectors), we can help you better. How many thermostats does your system have? You should be able to turn some areas down, rooms you don't use. A programmable thermostat can be set to turn heat up and down automatically according to the time of day, rather than the temp, and they are less than $100. Ask your oil supplier who they can recommend for servicing. Tell them you want an old timer who understands boiler systems. You could have a direct vent (vent thru the wall) propane water heater installed in the garage. A propane leak in the garage will be less likely to fill your basement with propane. That water heater could be plumbed to supplement the oil burner. Add to the insulation in your attic, replace door weatherstrips, replace the windows if they're old. In my neck of the woods, I would suggest an electric fireplace in the living room. They are safe and efficient and run on 15 amps 120 volts. Heat pumps are getting better all the time. Don't be surprised to see more of them in your area. Mitsubishi makes indoor units that need no duct work.

I don't know, they heard you'd be snooping around inspecting the place?

I'm not sure if the tank will allow it, but maybe with an offset adapter, it could be turned 45 degrees?

I don't really know what I'm talking about, but I have opinions on everything. In my opinion, you should not even consider a ventless gas burner, let alone 3 of them. They can't be trusted. Buy a larger direct vent unit that draws intake air and exhausts through an exterior wall. I had a wall-mounted shop heater that worked great, sold it for cheap. If you buy a used one, have it checked out for safety by a qualified gas heating technician -$100 well spent. Propane is not a cheap fuel and you need to burn a lot of it to get the same BTU's as wood or coal. But no fuel is cheap, unless you grow your own wood. Here's a few ideas - Consider saving up for a heat pump, which gives you AC in the summer and heat for at least most of the winter. The efficiency of a heat pump is said to be 300%. It could be backed up by your existing oil furnace. Expensive to buy, though. Check out pellet stoves. They have an automatic feed which needs electricity, but they are very efficient and you just make sure there are pellets in the hopper and set the thermostat. Replace the oil furnace with an electric furnace. They last forever and burn no fuel. Electricity is expensive, but you can add the heat pump later and have the electric furnace for backup. For power outages, you've got the coal burner.

OK Jim. I must need a bigger monitor. They hacked the pipe off from above. "Now it's a plumbing job to fix and we don' do plumbing." When I got out of high school, I helped my stepdad build a loafing barn for 80 milk cows. He had one end framed up, and I spent about 6 months with a skilsaw and a hammer, building the other 95%. On the last day, he came by, hammered screws in for the door hinges and called her done.

Yes, I see roof vent holes made that way, kind of a Daniel Boone tomahawk technique that they use. Pound nails with a gun, pound holes with a hammer. Getter done quick and we'll go for beers. []

One reason for metal pipe is to slow the spread of fire thru an apartment building. I think that applies to everywhere, not just NYC. I will guess that NYC required extra testing for approval of that panel for more than 100 amps, and the CH people just said screw yous, we'll just downrate the panel rather then spend that extra time and cash.

Cover it with drywall? Or some kind of new foam board?

It's a crap shooter's house so staple up plastic and shoot it full of crap. []

Agreed. The question now is what to use to cover that insulation. It's a bit too late to be hauling wallboard up there, eh? The insulation contractor screwed up, IMO. Unless the Authority is packing a ladder around with him, he didn't see it.

If you're referring to Virtual PC, no, it works fine. The software only "sees" the virtual environment. I've got a virtual PC that I can run on three different machines. My wife keeps a whole bunch of different virtual machines on her work computer so that she can run software in an environment that matches that of the particular customer that she's dealing with at the time. Thanks, I was just going on about routine XP sys use and problems. Virtual PC sounds like a good program.

OK, different versions of XP will perform differently when you try that, running the same software on two computers. You might run into grief if you try to update a pirate version of XP. XP Professional for several computers maybe no problems, but the Home edition can get cranky. If you don't upload any updates, you could be fine, but vulnerable to the later versions of viruses. If you go online with your backup machine, you could turn off automatic updates. Updating can be done, but you need to take care how you go about it. Or so I'm told. []

Norm, are you color-blind? That pipe is green. As mentioned, those are for cleanouts or access and they can be either storm drains or sewer hookup. There is nothing to write, unless you are actually inspecting the drain system. I called one out about a month ago, because they left it sticking up out of the lawn about a foot. I said to trim it down so the people can run the lawnmower over it. Somebody actually went back and did it. []

Thanks, John, Now I know why I sometimes see a shutoff on the hot side of the WH as well as on the cold. [] You said you opened all the hots. Did you turn them all off? A plumber was changing out a water heater in a condo building yesterday. He brought the old tank downstairs in the elevator, still full of water. Too hard to drain it in the apartment, or too slow. Well I guess the drain tap wouldn't shut off after he'd played with it. So he left a stream of rusty water down the hall to the elevator and then out the main entry door where he parked it to bleed out into the storm drain. Left a puddle of rust there, then a smaller trail out thru the parking lot to his truck. The good part was he left the main doors propped open the whole time, so I was able to poke around the building before the keys arrived. He also forgot to close the doors when he left.

Well, stupid comes to mind. But the sellers, a former corrections officer and a real estate agent, who have declared bankruptcy to avoid justice, can be described in all kinds of ways, too.

Are you describing an external HD, connected to the laptop by USB cord? If so, then no, that won't work. But I do recommend an external for file backup. I've survived multiple crashes with mine. An new internal HD would work, but you would need to physically install it after removing drive #1. But I'm no expert. Partition D:/ is supposed to have all that on it, but it has never been any help to me. I think you need to boot from D:/ to get anything useful from that.

I personally would like to have seen the double pole GFI's used. Rather than limiting the kitchen to 2 15 Amp counter circuits, from 4. I know they are pricey but its certainly the more elegant solution. No, it won't work. The double pole GFCI will only work with 240-volt circuits. If you hook it up to a multiwire circuit, it'll trip the first time you try to use either half. I probably would have just run two new circuits. Hell, I would have run three. Thanks Jim. That Double-pole GFCI is a 50 amp breaker. But some ad-man at Home Depot says right there on the world wide web "This breaker is especially useful for covering multiple outlets around potentially wet areas, such as kitchen countertops, bathrooms, swimming pools, hot tubs and outside a house. " In fact, anywhere you might want to install a 50 amp GFCI. [] Mis-info like that should be criminalized, eh? I tried replacing the 50 in the model # with 20 and 15 and came up blank, so we'll just have to use that one. Not.

The feet do wear out. Break down and buy a new ladder, before the old one breaks you. Like these other geezers, I tried what you do, tried it and didn't like it. Get a longer ladder for the two-storey jobs or use a pole cam. Click to Enlarge 50.87 KB I don't even do this very often. Not enough ladder to hold on to at the top, and the spread makes it awkward. My 28' extension ladder is lighter and faster to set up. And safer to get back on to. This 17 ' Jaws ladder folds down to less than 6 feet in length. I've been hauling it OK in a Toyota Corolla rental sedan. The truck in this pic is bound for the boneyard in the sky. I picked up my new Ford Ranger today. My '49 Chev business coupe had a super long trunk for traveling salesmen. I think it would haul a Little Giant or a Jaws just fine. Maybe not enough room for wrenches and parts, though.

That work was done by a home owner or contractor who probably was not a licensed electrician, so you have a valid reason to call for a licensed and qualified electrician to make repairs. As Marc pointed out, the replacement circuit, even in Canada, must be a 20 amp circuit, with #12 copper wiring installed. Otherwise, it is all wrong. BTW, only the receptacles either side of the sink need to be GFI'd in Canada. Leave the split duplexes as is on the others.

The 30 amp breaker protects the #10 conductor. The 25 amp fuses protect the unit. The installer had to work with the breaker sizes that are available. I think what he did works and there's no hazard. If the max fuse amps was 20, he could have installed a 20 amp breaker and skipped the fuse block. I see we have an agreement across the board, I think.

I do a one hour walkthrough with my clients and drag them around and thru the whole house. I use my powers of mental telepathy to tell the babbling relator to shut the fffk up. I will say something like, "Yes, they say it is a good thing to do, (diplomacy comment), BUT always remember to shut the gas (or power) off before you try to drain your water heater. If not, you will do more damage than good". You have to take control back or you can spend half the time as the realtor's audience and Yes-man. If mental telepathy doesn't work, staring at your watch every time they open their mouths might. i don't wear a watch, so I stare at my wrist. []

I see it now. The hot on the left feeds the meter and returns on the right. I wonder if there's a special penny under that little fuse?

I'm thinking that roof was done in cold weather and the membrane was stiff, so it didn't lay flat. That also means it isn't fully adhering to whatever is under that mess. The extra strip laid in the valley on the right is a warning that something is wrong there. It is a temporary fix. Time will tell how long it lasts. In all fairness, it would be hard to do a nice job on that roof. It is ugly by design.