Re: [gardeners] hot water heater
George Shirley (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 04 Jun 2001 12:14:35 -0500
We have gas heat and a gas water heater. The heater is outside and is vented
through the roof with the relief valve popping off to the sideyard. I just
installed the new one two years ago, it's the third in 27 years according to the
records the previous owner left me. We have hard water and that takes its toll
on water heaters. There are two smoke/fire detectors and two CO detectors in the
house.
In 1993 we replaced the a/c and the furnace with new high efficiency units. The
plenum of the old furnace had a small rust hole in it so we just replaced it.
Later this year I'm having a contractor come in, take all the heating/cooling
ducts down, clean them, screw them back together (they're just shoved together
now) and then put 3 metal screws in them and then put "dope" (some sort of
sealing compound) on each joint. The ductwork will then be covered with 3 inches
of fiberglas insulation and another 12 inches will be blown into the attic. That
will give the attic 18 inches of insulation and should insure better
heating/cooling efficiency all the way around. Our major problem is heat, not
cold as in the northern/eastern states. Hopefully the investment of a couple of
thousand bux will result in much lower energy bills.
We're also taking all the carpets up in the house. They're old anyway so it's no
big loss. We're putting in hard surfaces, probably Pergo, easier to care for,
less animal and human dander to increase allergy suffering and offers a way to
show off all the oriental carpets we brought back from the Middle East. Gotta do
the remodeling now before we go on Social Security. <BSEG>
George
Annetta Green wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "George Shirley" <gshirl@bellsouth.net>
> To: <gardeners@globalgarden.com>
> Sent: Monday, June 04, 2001 8:16 AM
> Subject: Re: [gardeners] hot water heater
>
> > It sounds like a viable way to vent the products of combustion outside the
> > house. That's the main concern, get that CO and other gases outside.
> Sounds good
> > to me.
> >
> > George
> >
> I never realized how important this was until the repairman we had come in
> to look into why our pilot light kept blowing out, ran out of the house and
> refused to come back in til I had opened all the windows. This in below
> freezing weather. I had been having to relight it about every 3 days for
> the two weeks before. Seems there was a crack in the heat exchanger that
> was right over the pilot light. We never had any of the symptoms of carbon
> monoxide poisoning, but I wouldn't risk it again. A carbon monoxide
> detector is cheap compared to losing the life of yourself or a family
> member.
>
> This house is all electric so has no carbon monoxide threats. We do have a
> radon tester that comes in periodically, as that has been a problem in the
> area.
> Anne in FL
> zone 9b, sunset 26