Curtis Petty

Accurate Home Inspection of Atlanta www.findmeaninspector.com

Cold winter weather brings cozy evenings, and an increase in the use of home heating equipment. It's probably time to give your heating system a safety check. Heating equipment failures or malfunctions are one of the leading causes of all home fires. We can reduce the occurrence of these types of fires with a little preventative maintenance and some good fire safety habits.

The following are some tips for safety around heating systems:

1. Never discard hot ashes inside or near the home. Place them in a covered metal container outside and well away from the house.
2. If you use a wood-burning stove or fireplace, have a licensed chimney sweep clean and inspect your chimney at least once a year.
3. Place a glass or metal spark screen in front of the fireplace and install caps on chimneys.
4. Never use a flammable liquid (gasoline, kerosene, lighter fluid, etc.) to start a fire or rekindle a small one.
5. Keep paper, clothing, trash, and other combustibles at least three feet away from your furnace, hot water heater, or wood-burning device.
6. Have a professional clean and inspected your heating system yearly. This may prevent a fire and will make your heating system more energy efficient.
7. Keep portable heaters away from curtains, beds, clothes, and children. Make sure there is at least three feet of clearance around the heater for proper ventilation. Turn heaters off when you leave the room or go to bed.
8. Never refuel the heater while it is operating or while it is still hot. Always refuel outside. Avoid overfilling.
9. Be sure your space heater has an emergency shut off in case the heater is tipped over.

Accurate Home Inspection of Atlanta www.findmeaninspector.com

Atlanta professinal Inspection service company. Over 14yrs experience. Call the rest the call the best!

The standard for newly installed air conditioners has changed from SEER 10 to SEER 13: a 30% increase in efficiency. However, for many with older homes (pre-1992), the increase in efficiency can be even greater than 30%, due to the older units much lower SEER ratings--usually around 6 or 7. Thus the "payback" will be even bigger, and faster, and the reduction in electricity costs will be even nicer!

Initially, the up front costs for the new SEER 13 units are going to be higher than the SEER 10 units. Talking with a well respected Atlanta HVAC firm who represents several well known brands, the representative noted the price difference between a SEER 10 and a SEER 13 two-and-a-half ton unit, including the cost of a matching evaporator coil (if needed) would range about $600 higher on average.

There may be additional costs for sheet-metal work around the new, larger sized evaporator coil at the furnace, possibly new copper tubing from the compressor to the evaporator. The new units require very clean plumbing, so the current plumbing may need to be cleaned or replaced. The new units required 40% more "freon".

There has been much speculation about how much larger the new outside units will be. Actually some manufacturers like Amana, Goodman and Bryant (and perhaps others) new units will be the same or smaller than their current SEER 10 units.

A new digital thermostat is recommended if your unit is an older, say 15 year old analog thermostat, for more efficient operation.

And, just like car a/c systems where the old R-12 was changed, in 2010 the current R-22 air conditioner coolant will be changed to the R-410A. At least one manufacturer, Carrier, already includes the new freon, so you‘ll already have an a/c that meets the SEER 13 requirements with the new coolant

Through the years we all get older...even our homes,cars etc. Proper maintainance on a home is a steady, and some times costy effort to keep up with. That brings me to this residential code I think all home sellers need to know.International Residential Code Council Ref {R102.7}- Provisions allowing the legal occupancy of a residential structure to continue without fully compling with current codes are grandfather-In.

The IRC provides such relief to home owners. To impose regulations to bring existing structures into current compliance would be impractical and unreasonable and penalized the owners. Since the structure was constructed in compliance with all applicable building standards at the time of construction.Of course, if due to lack of repair or improper repair and maintance,and the structure falls below generally acceptable threshold for sanitation,health,safety, and welfare, the IRC requires corrections in accordance with spefic codes.Additions,alterations or repairs cannot cause any portion of the existing structure to unsafe or affect performance by added excessive loads to exist on structural members,impededfire egress,overload the
electrical service, or exceeds plumbing capacity DWV system.If any of the affected elements would need to be brought into compliance with current codes.

There is a appendix J clause such as water heater replacement,heating or air system or componets will have to be installed to todays IRC Code standards. As a code inspector we don't perform code inspections when performing home inspection. But when safety codes are missed and somethings tragic happens all eyes seem to look at you.

The Georgia state mininum for residential structres are outlined.

The Uniform Codes Act is codified at chapter 2 of title 8 of The Official Code of Georgia Annotated. O.C.G.A. Section 8-2-20(9)(B) identifies the ten "state minimum standard codes". Each of these separate codes typically consist of a base code (e.g. The International Building Code as published by the International Code Council) and a set of Georgia amendments to the base code. Georgia law further dictates that eight of these codes are "mandatory" (are applicable to all construction whether or not they are locally enforced.

1.) International Building Code
2.)One and Two Family Dwelling Code (International Residential Code for One- and Two-Family Dwellings
3.)International Fire Code
4.)International Plumbing Code
5.)International Mechanical Code
6.)Fuel Gas Code
7.)National Electrical Code
8.) Energy Conservation Code

As noted above, the building, one and two family dwelling, fire, plumbing, mechanical, gas, electrical and energy codes are mandatory codes, meaning that under Georgia law, any structure built in Georgia must comply with these codes, whether or not the local government chooses to locally enforce these codes.

So remember if you are trying to sell in this market have a pre-listing inspection to see what needs to be brought up to codes.It will help sell faster as well.

Gas Furnaces There are a variety of ways to describe different types residential gas furnaces. Gas furnaces can be classified by:

1. the direction of the air flowing through the heating unit;
2. the heating efficiency of the unit; and
3. the type of ignition system installed on the unit.

Airflow in Gas Furnaces One way to identify and describe a gas furnace is by the direction of the air flowing through the heating unit, or the location of the warm-air outlet and the return-air inlet on the furnace. Gas furnaces can be described as upflow, downflow (counterflow), highboy, lowboy, and horizontal flow. Air can flow up through the furnace (upflow), down through the furnace (downflow), or across the furnace (horizontal). The arrangement of the furnace should not significantly affect its operation, or your inspection. BTU Gas furnaces can be classified by their different capacities. A furnace capacity can be described by BTU output. The BTU is determined by what is required by the heating unit for the structure, which is the amount of heat the unit needs to produce to replace heat loss and provide the occupants a good comfort level. AFUE Furnaces can be identified and described by heating efficiency. The energy efficiency of a natural gas furnace is measured by its annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE). The higher the rating, the more efficient the furnace. The U.S. government has established a minimum rating for furnaces of 78%. Mid-efficiency furnaces have AFUE ratings from 78 to 82%. High-efficiency furnaces have AFUE ratings from 88 to 97%. Old, standing-pilot gas furnaces have AFUE ratings from 60 to 65%. Gravity warm-air furnaces might have efficiencies lower than 60%.

BTU and Efficiency BTU stands for British Thermal Unit. The BTU is a unit of energy. It is approximately the amount of energy needed to heat one pound of water 1 degree Fahrenheit. Once cubic foot of natural gas contains about 1,000 BTUs. A gas furnace that fires at a rate of 100,000 BTUs per hour will burn about 100 cubic feet of gas every hour. On a gas furnace, there should be a data plate. On that plate there might be written the input and output capacities. For example, the data plate may say, "Input 100,000 BTU per hour." And it may also say, "Output 80,000 BTU per hour." While this furnace is running, about 20% of the heat generated is lost out through the exhaust gases. The ratio of the output to the input BTU is 80,000 ÷ 100,000 = 80% efficiency. This is the "steady state efficiency" of the furnace. Steady state efficiency measures how efficiently a furnace converts fuel to heat, once the furnace has warmed up and is running steadily. However, furnaces cycle on and off as they maintain their desired temperature. Furnaces typically do not operate as efficiently as they start up and cool down.

As a result, steady state efficiency is not as reliable an indicator of the overall efficiency of your furnace. AFUE and Efficiency The AFUE is the most widely used measure of a furnace's heating efficiency. It measures the amount of heat delivered to your house compared to the amount of fuel that must be supplied to the furnace. Thus, a furnace that has an 80% AFUE rating converts 80% of the fuel that is supplied to heat. The other 20% is lost and wasted. Note that the AFUE refers only to the unit's fuel efficiency, not its electricity usage. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) determined that all furnaces sold in the U.S. must have a minimum AFUE of 78%, beginning January 1, 1992. Mobile home furnaces are required to have a minimum AFUE of 75%.

These fires typically cause an alarming 500 deaths and 2,800 serious injuries.Over $1 billion in property and personal possessions are destroyed.An additional 890,000 electrical related fires in homes go unreported every year!.