Jim Katen

Because it never works well. Things expand and contract, the caulk fails, and water gets behind the siding.

Don't the termites just build tubes around the metal?

Hell no. Termites will chew through that plastic like a puppy chewing through a new carpet. Does anything work as a termite barrier in your area? Around here, they just go around whatever barrier we put up.

By going to a truss manufacturer, you get your engineering - essentially - for free. This is what those guys do, every day, all day.

Take your desired design to a truss manufacturer and ask their designer to fix you up with a scissor truss package.

If you're doing a frost-protected footing that's 4'-8' deep, why not just build a basement while you're at it? It would be the cheapest square footage in the house.

I really don't know. In fact, I'd forgotten about this discussion. Now I'll have to go back to the auto store, find those lamps and start messing with them again.

Thanks for the clarification, Mike. Yes, a 120v/240v circuit is, by definition, a multiwire circuit as well. So that slightly simplifies the answer to Johnny-A's question. The difference between a MWC and a 240-volt circuit is that one will have a neutral and one won't. (Well, that and the circuit sizes.)

I see a 3-d printer in their future . . .

Good question. You can't always tell. It's just a guess. In most cases, however, a regular 240-volt circuit won't require a neutral and the installer won't waste money installing a cable with an unnecessary neutral wire. So most 240-volt circuits will re-identify the white wire and use it as one of the "hot" wires. They could be 120v/240v circuits - where an appliance uses both voltages. Those would be indistinguishable from a multi-wire circuit when viewed from the panel. However, there aren't too many 15-amp or 20-amp 120v/240v appliances. (Electric ranges come to mind - they often need both 240-volts for the elements and 120 volts for the controls, but they're almost always 40 or 50 amps.) If you were inspecting the house, you'd be able to tell for sure simply by observing what electrical appliances were installed. The overwhelming likelihood, though, is that they're MWCs, which are very common and which, until relatively recently, required no handle ties.

The filter (or filters) will be somewhere in the return air stream - they could be anywhere. Start at the furnace's blower compartment and work your way back to the return-air grille. If you don't find the filter, hire an HVAC contractor to install a filter housing for you.

I'm in Oregon - no where near as cold a climate as you - and I occasionally see heavy condensation at the rim joists; it's just not cold enough here for it to freeze . Every time I find this, I find a corresponding high moisture condition somewhere in the space. Aside from your main question, I'm curious. Around here, foundation footings are supposed to be placed below the frost line. How do you cope with that in your environment? Do you just have super deep crawlspaces?

I suspect that there's a complementary rule that's part of the UL listings for various products. That's why virtually all space heaters, toaster ovens, etc have limited power ratings.

Remember that 210.23 only applies to "multiple-outlet branch circuits." When a branch circuit has two or more outlets, then any one piece of equipment can't exceed 80% of the branch circuit amp rating. Designers and installers need to keep this in mind when designing and installing the electrical system. This part of the code applies to them. A manufacturer can still make a piece of equipment with a standard 15-amp plug that uses more than 12 amps but it should only be used on an "individual branch circuit" and, of course must not exceed 15 amps (per 210.22) Same goes for a dryer on a 30 amp circuit. That's why some appliances include instructions to power them only from dedicated (individual) circuits.

I doubt that there's an industry standard. It's a rare enough specialty that you can do whatever you want. I've only done it once; the pre-inspection took far longer than the post inspection, but I charged the same for both. No one quibbled.

If you have butterfingers, what's to stop you from dropping a notebook or laptop? Why not invest in a rugged case for whatever you use?

A filter? (WAG)

That's one of my more tame shirts. We missed you.

It was great to finally meet Marc and his wife, we've been having fun.

I'm curious, does yours have the "advanced flow control feature." If so, does it work well? If not, do you get temperature swings when you turn multiple fixtures on and off? What did it do to your electric bill?

Yes. Each unit had a 175-amp service with what looked like oversized feeders. When the water heaters were running, the meters spun furiously. They could easily accommodate two showers at once, but when you added the dishwasher & washing machine, they just dribbled.

I didn't write it. Our inspection was on Thursday & Friday and I left for IW first thing Saturday. One of my partners will be writing it this weekend. If I were to write the report, I'd include it as an FYI note: These water heaters have an “Advanced Flow Control” feature. It ensures that the hot water temperature doesn’t fluctuate very much (a common problem with many other on-demand water heaters), but it does this by reducing the flow of water when too many fixtures run at once. For instance, if a resident runs the dishwasher and the washing machine (on hot setting) while taking a shower, the shower flow will be much lower than it would be if the other fixtures weren’t running. Consider telling the residents about this at their orientation to avoid complaints after they move in.

I'm reviving this discussion because I just finished inspecting 30 units that were all equipped with Stiebel Eltron Tempra 36 water heaters. (36kw fed with three 50-amp breakers.) We were going through the units with 3 inspectors so we had the kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine (set on a hot cycle), showers, and sinks all running at once at times. I was amazed at how steady the hot water temperature was. It hardly fluctuated at all. However, it did this with their "Advanced Flow Control" technology. As we piled on fixtures, the water heater simply cut the water flow to maintain an even temperature. So when everything was running, only a trickle of water was coming from each one. I imagine that the residents will quickly learn how far they can push it and still get the shampoo out of their hair. (Any two fixtures at once were fine, but after that, the flow started to choke down.)

Welcome to the world of heating with electricity. Electric heating is already 100% efficient. All of the electricity is turned into heat. You can't make it more efficient. You can conserve energy efficiency in other ways, but we can't tell you what those are without knowing where you are, how old your building is, and myriad other details about your building and your unit. Is there a possibility of installing mini-split heat pumps? Can you improve the seals on your windows? Are there other electric hogs, aside from the baseboard heaters, that might be sucking up energy? Why not consult with a local energy retrofit contractor?

There is no possible way to name the mold without testing it. The world is awash in mold testing companies. Just google mold testing in your area and you should find a few. As for the health effects, very few have been proven, aside from allergies. That said, no one wants that much nasty stuff in the air. It gross, even if it's not toxic. If you're getting that much accumulation of gunk with a regular cleaning schedule in place, then your cleaning schedule sucks. Up your game. Aside from cleaning the water, you need to clean the air that comes in contact with the water. Mold spread via airborne spores. Install air cleaners.