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Miscellaneous
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This chimney has had a basement gas fireplace
added to it (bottom left). It already had the
furnace and water heater connected to it. The
chimney was not originally designed to handle
all THREE connections. The concern here is the
danger of carbon monoxide spilling back into the
house if all three appliances (furnace, water
heater & fireplace) operate at the same time.
This installation should be reviewed and
corrected by a qualified heating specialist -
NOW for safety.
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This is a set of very cleverly concealed
pipes for a buried heating oil tank. This tank
could not be inspected without an expensive
excavation. Buried oil tanks can leak oil
resulting in brutally expensive environmental
cleanups. The worst case we have heard of here
in Ontario has cost over $1 million dollars and
the cleanup was still in progress at the time.
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This is a picture of a gas water heater
installed next to a gas furnace. The opening in
the furnace ductwork, in the center of the
picture, is sucking a large volume of air into
the furnace when the furnace fan is running. The
problem here is that the air being sucked into
the furnace at this duct opening can suck carbon
monoxide from the gas water heater into the
furnace, it then distributes it throughout the
house. This is a very serious safety concern
that should be addressed immediately, for the
safety of the home's occupants. The most
annoying thing about what you see in this
picture is that the water heater was installed
barely a month before the home inspection, by
people supposedly trained in the safe operation
and installation of gas appliances.
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This picture of a furnace heat exchanger shows
the burners covered with rust flakes from the
wall of the heat exchanger. There is a very high
likelihood that this furnace is unsafe to
operate. The safety of the furnace can only be
confirmed or refuted by a qualified heating
specialist. This furnace was deemed unsafe and
was immediately replaced.
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This furnace heat exchanger is extensively
rusted and could have a hole in it somewhere.
Since the heat exchanger's design precludes a
home inspector from seeing the vast majority of
it, we recommended that this furnace be reviewed
immediately by a qualified heating specialist
for safety sake. In this particular case, the
heating technician confirmed our suspicion that
the furnace was leaking dangerous carbon
monoxide gas into the home. The furnace was 'red
tagged', which means that the furnace was
condemned and the technician shut off the fuel
to the furnace for the safety of the home's
occupants. This furnace was immediately
replaced.
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Metal chimneys typically rust from the inside to
the outside. The inside can collapse inward
'choking' the exhaust off, which then can leak
potentially deadly carbon monoxide gas inside
the home. This is a serious safety concern which
should be addressed immediately by a qualified
specialist.
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This furnace filter was so dirty that it was
sucked in toward the furnace fan and was cut up
by the fan belt. Furnace filters should be
cleaned or replaced every one to two months.
Otherwise, the furnace fan has to work very hard
and does not really deliver the heat to the
house. This results in a large part of your
heating dollar going up the chimney instead of
into the house.
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