Good day fellow inspectors! I recently inspected a furnace that was installed in the crawlspace. I was unsure if the compartment, in attached photos, was missing a filter.
That looks like exhaust. If so, no filter should go there. The intake is where the filter is installed.
Did you remove that cover?
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Even if a filter was there, not a great idea to have air being drawn in from the crawlspace. But I agree with Brian, looks like an exhaust due to the flue.
No, found it exactly like that.
Thanks for the help
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A cover missing?
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It is possible the cover is missing, which might be a safety concern for gases entering the living space depending on the design. Do you have the model number? We could look it up.
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Unfortunately I don’t, there was a mat under the unit with feces on it.
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Often the filter will be in the wall, behind a return grill, in the home.
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That’s a draft hood for an atmosphere vented flue.
Is that a floor furnace? Make sure you check the flue vent horizontal run length and check the slope. Excessive horizontal run is a common safety issues that I see with those furnaces. The configuration of the white deposit on the draft hood suggests that someone should check for flue gas spillage and backdrafting. Also, were the vent pipe supports properly located and spaced?
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If it’s a floor furnace, no filter will be present. Cover??? No!
No ducting present, right??
Thank you!
It is a floor furnace. House built in 1926.
The guy that trained me years ago called those, “Baby Burners,” and I didn’t get it at first… I thought he was talking about something to do with the burners inside the furnace. It finally clicked that he meant it burns a baby crawling across the grate on the floor that the one gazillion BTU furnace was throwing heat out of. I suppose it’s just the evolution from a campfire. After the cavemen built a house around the fire the smoke became an issue so venting was born 