Jim Katen

Plumber's grease?

Is this a transfer panel?

You just read replies from three experts, all saying that it's just asphalt applied to paper. Brand new insulation has exactly the same thing on it. It's harmless. Why on earth would you remove it?

This must be a mini split. A conventional heat pump that works at -5 degrees will be wildly over sized in the heating mode.

It rings like bullshit.

Her IP address suggests Connecticut or Massachusetts.

Haven't you been seen by a doctor about this? If not, go see one. When I suggested a blood test, I was thinking of carbon monoxide poisoning. Headache & nausea are its primary symptoms.

Lots of words, but no useful information. Where are you? How many people live in the house? Does anyone else in the house experience physical symptoms? How old is the house? Does the boiler run on oil or gas? Replacing a boiler because of "zoning issues" and "carbon monoxide leaking" makes absolutely no sense. IAQ assessment contractors are generally morons and IAQ testing is generally worthless. The symptoms that you describe correlate perfectly with carbon monoxide poisoning. Have you thought about getting a blood test when the symptoms are at their worst?

No idea.

I think you could easily get that much condensation inside a long uninsulated duct - especially given the cold weather we had a few weeks back. That much stale urine would have taken on a cloudy appearance after only a few days and it would seriously reek.

Don't worry about it, Tantor. If this is the *big problem* in your life right now, you're doing better than most people on the planet. Be thankful that you have the privilege of obsessing over individual asbestos fibers.

You've got to be a millennial. Asbestos fibers are not good to breathe. But at the level that you're talking about there is essentially no risk. Just live your life until you get the test results back. If there's asbestos in the sample, just use a regular old paint brush to put regular old paint over the scraped area. Your phone is a far greater threat to your health than the ceiling is.

Popcorn ceiling texture has a much deeper pile and is, generally, quite delicate. You can scrape it off with your thumb. Some popcorn ceiling texture had asbestos in it and some didn't. The stuff in your picture is a textured finish, just not one that I'd characterize as popcorn. It might have asbestos in it and it might not. The drywall behind it might or might not contain asbestos and the drywall finishing compound used to finish it might or might not contain asbestos. Asbestos was used in over 3,000 building products and in countless other consumer products. Stand on a busy street corner today and take a deep breath - you'll be inhaling asbestos fibers from older brake pads and clutches. The reason that people should be concerned about asbestos popcorn ceiling texture is that it's delicate. If you rub it, you release fibers into the air. The stuff in your pictures is encapsulated by paint - several layers by the look of it. If you brush up against it, nothing will happen. You're more likely to leave some of your skin on the ceiling than the other way around. Remember that one of the solutions to popcorn ceilings is to simply paint them. Whatever is on your ceiling is already well painted. As long as you're not planning to cut into it, scrape it with a knife, or gnaw on it, it's just fine the way it is. If you are planning to do any of those things, first cut out a little bit, put it on a ziplock bag, and have it tested. This will not harm you. I promise. We're not talking about polonium here.

That's not a popcorn ceiling. If there's any asbestos in the ceiling texture, it's behind several layers of paint. Have a coke and a smile and stop worrying about it.

Asbestos was certainly used in some flooring mastics, but my recollection is that all those mastics were black. The yellow stuff is more modern. If you want to be sure, just scrape a bit into a baggy and have it tested. The testing is cheap and it'll give you peace of mind.

Hi Mia, Mold creates black stains that are not mold, but still black. So the black areas might not be mold. Any mold testing company can easily test those areas and tell you precisely what molds are or are not there. But why bother? If there's mold there and the area stays dry, the mold will not grow and will never cause anyone any problems. If you clean up every molecule of mold and then let the area get wet, new mold will grow again. That's why Mike Lamb was telling you to check for moisture. That's *way* more important than obsessing about whether or not the black areas are mold. That said, the restoration company did a crappy cleanup job. Mold or no mold, you really want to remove much more of the adhesive residue. If it were my house, I'd use a chemical paint stripper to dissolve it and then scrape up the goo.

I don't understand what Austin's water problems have to do with your heating system. The Aqua Therm system doesn't use up any water - not one drop. It just circulates the water that's already in its pipes.

Around here, they give the customer a questionnaire to fill out.

That's exactly what it looks like. But I've walked on a lot of hot roofs and never had tabs do that when I was walking on them. Maybe the crew was getting down to Chubby Checker or something.

Looks like somebody smacked the handle tie, breaking off the ends of all 4 handles. The left pole will only provide half the intended power because one of its breakers is switched off. If that's a 200-amp panel, it's unlikely to be an issue because few homes will actually draw 100 amps from one pole at any given time. And if the house tried to draw much more, the other breaker will just trip. Of course, the entire main breaker should be replaced.

That's a regular P trap. A running trap wouldn't be serving a single fixture, it would be a trap in the middle of a long run of pipe, without any particular relationship to a specific fixture. A whole-house trap is a running trap.

As far as I can tell, those are just regular tandem breakers. You shouldn't use a single tandem breaker for a multiwire circuit because both sides tap the same pole. You'd have to put each half of the MWC on adjacent breakers (the bottom of one breaker and the top of another. Multiwire circuits don't require simultaneous tripping, just a simultaneous disconnect.

I have no idea why there's a second thermostat. In general, the thermostats use the term "auxiliary" when the heat strips are supplementing the heat pump. They use the term "emergency" when the heat pump is locked out and only the heat strips are heating the house.

If it's 6 degrees outside, the heat pump won't be contributing much, if any, heat to the system, though it might still run. Feel the suction line with your hand. If it feels hot, then the heat pump is actually still heating (I'll bet that it just feels lukewarm). If it runs for a while before satisfying the thermostat, it'll go through a defrost cycle where the outdoor unit fan stops spinning and the compressor keeps running. After a minute or two, you'll hear a whooshing sound, the fan will kick back on, and a large billow of steam will rise up and out of the unit - that's normal, don't freak out. After you open the furnace door, you might have to remove a cover to see the heat coil connections and count the heat coils; they're generally 5kw each except for Rheem & Ruud, which are, I believe, 7kw each. If you turn the system to the emergency setting and crank up the thermostat, the coils should all come on in sequence. Use a clamp-on amp meter to make sure that they're all working. In the upper midwest I suspect that those coils get a heavy workout and it wouldn't be unusual to find that one or more are broken. Also just look at the wiring. I often find toasted wires and connections. You really can't test the heat pumpness of the heat pump when it's that cold out. I'd explain that and tell them to have the whole system serviced when clement weather returns. Also tell them that the single best thing that they can do for their heat pump is to keep the filter clean, keep the outdoor coil clean, and don't let dogs pee on it. Jim Katen

Is the heat pump paired with an electric furnace or a gas furnace?