This article was not a Home Inspector Inspection, but was geared towards inspecting a unit/system for preventative maintenance and upkeep. Although it had plenty of information that Home Inspectors need to inform their clients if they are purchasing a home with a central air system. Information on the interior fan and evaporator drain lines being clogged with debris or algae and maintaining clean filters is probably the best tips home owners could have when purchasing a home with central air system in order to keep it good service condition.
This article talks about central humidifiers. It describes how they work. They have benefits such as keeping skin moisturized, keeping wooden instruments conditioned, and keeping wood floors and paint from cracking or peeling. The also can cause certain problems such as Legionnaires disease, humidifier fever, promote mold growth, and constantly need adjusting of the humidistat on a daily basis.
Hi guys, again I can’t for some reason upload pictures. Using chrome doesn’t work or safari. I’ll describe my photo anyway.
I inspected a forced hot air horizontal oil furnace. The furnace was installed in the attic of a ranch style house. It seems to be ducted in a perimeter style. The burner looks clean, although a ceramic tile seems to have shifted out of place.
When performing home inspections customers often want to know the age of the HVAC system. I found the video at the end of this course very informative. I wanted to see the age of my HVAC system at home so I went onto building center.org and found out. For my Lennox HVAC system, the age is determined by the serial number. The 3-5 characters will tell you the year and month. Mine was from '98 and the month was May.
I have been doing many inspections lately with a partner and finding a lot of white chalk on the inside of the foundation walls and decided to do some more research about it. It is called efflorescence and it is the dissolved salts deposited on the surface of a porous material (such as concrete or brick) that are visible after the evaporation of the water in which it was transported. It may be an indication of moisture intrusion and often times when I find it in the crawlspace i will see poor grading around the outside of the foundation wall.
A anti-tipping bracket is a metal device that is attached to the rear leg of a freestanding stove. The bracket is screwed to the wall in a area that secures the bracket to the floor plate. In the event that the stove door is open and any weight is applied to the open door or a small child were to climb onto the open door the bracket would prevent the stove from falling onto the child including the hot items that may be cooking on the stovetop.
The inspector should check the stove for the installation of this bracket by lifting up from the rear and try to tip the stove over. The inspector should never leave an open stove door unattended during the inspection process. Manufactures are required to supply these brackets and are require their installation. Despite these warnings only a small number of stoves have this bracket bracket installed, a number of accidents and deaths have occured involving small children.
This house is heated exclusively with baseboard electric heaters. This one is located in the living room. It is operated with a control switch on the wall at the entrance to the room.
I researched the article on pricing and billing. I plan on using a combination of approaches to determine pricing, both billable hours and market approach. Thanks to the article I learned about inspectorseek.com and looked up my competition in this area.
[ATTACH]140770/ATTACH this is a forced air unit. It is part of a eletric air to air heat pump heating and cooling system this unit is in very good condition. And was installed very professionaly. It has the joints sealed on all the duck work I can see.
I read a article on thromstats it had some good info and will help me when I am looking at them to see if it is in a good spot or not so I can give the right info to the customer
An operating heat pump was inspected. This unit is a Heritage 13 serial Number 7065WHN4F, MFR Date 2/2007. Unit appeared functioning as required, unit was operating in cooling mode, Cooled air was felt inside residence. One defect was observed, a service disconnect was not found in sight. To turn off this unit the breaker located in service panel would need to turned off to turn power off to the unit. This would be noted in inspection report.
I choose the article named Radiant Heating Systems written by Nick Gromicko.
Radiant heating systems directly heat the floor or panels in walls and ceilings. Radiant heating also depends on convection, the natural circulation of heat in a room.
A form of radiant heating goes back in the time of Mongolia, 4000 BC and Roman Times. Radiant heating is being used often in European countries and is becoming popular in the United States, in new home construction.
Radiant heating uses two Mediums for heating. Water (hydronic) or Electric. There is two methods to install radiant heating, wet installation and dry installation. The wet method heating panels are installed on the concrete floor and a thin layer of concrete or gypsum is spread over the top of panels. The heating system is sandwiched in the two layers. The second method dry install, the cables or tubes run in an air space beneath the floor. Tubing is often sandwiched between plywood or beneath subfloor .
Radiant heating has many advantages and disadvantages. From reading the article it would be a good secondary heating system in new construction. It would be costly to convert an older home.
This unit was in great working order. The big item was the hot water was slightly in front. causing a problem for access.
Also this unit had installed the ultra violent lights. Supposed to kill bacteria in the air flow. Don,t see this too often.
I started with the ways to save energy in your home. Believe it or not,Most families don,t follow the simplest ways to reduce energy use. As a family man myself,I see it every day in my household. Presently I have the pleasure of having my grandkids staying with me this summer. The total oversite of there ways is amazing. Just today I had to counsel two of them on leaving the door open while the AC was on. So explaining went on how to prevent the loss of heat from the house to the outside.
After our class on AC loss. We went around the house to see if they could find any other ways to prevent AC loss. We found the following.
One entry door weather seal was worn as to being able to see thru form the inside.
The basement door seal was rotted to the point water damage was found.
One window locking device was broken,thus causing water to come in.
There was others,but to close for now. It was awaking experience to find these items in need of repair. I am a very thrifty person
Here is a Carrier, gas-fired, sealed combustion, 96.6 AFUE rated heating system. Manufacture date is 2006 and is at approximate half of lifespan. Discolored condensate is observed at pipe outlet (not pictured). The furnace appears in excellent working order.
HVAC
The furnace is located in the basement, it is a gas fired, forced air, up flow furnace. The gas line has a proper shut off valve shown in the second picture. The furnace is mid-efficiency as indicated on the AFUE tag on the right side of the unit and shows an 80% Efficiency. AFUE rates mid-efficiency at 78 to 82%.
When tested the unit operated normally using the thermostat on the second floor. The unit also has a humidifier attached and has been shut off for the summer. The water line on the humidifier was tested and was working properly when tested.
Unable to remove air filter for inspection.
Here’s is a picture of a oil fed boiler. This unit has two zones. The oil line is run underground and it is recommended to be run over head. This unit has the three safety switches. A firematic, service switch, and emergency shut off switch located on first floor. There are no visual leaks present however there is some corrosion build up on the hot water faucet line. (not shown in pic). The relief valve piping to floor is of proper distance.
Research
Central air-conditioning system inspection
Cleaning and maintaining an ac unit will extend the life and the efficiency of the unit. There are several things you can do. Keep the exterior unit clean by removing any debris in and around the unit. Clean all coils, straighten fins, check condensing lines, and oil motor. Changing or cleaning air filters will help with air flow. When not using the ac unit during colder months keep ac unit covered and close interior vents.
The picture is a new 20016 Ducane forced air system. Tis system was ran off of natural gas. It also has a direct belt drive with disposable filter. It has a single wall unit with the shut off switch located at the heater. The thermostat controls both the heater and the AC unit.
