Furnace filters main job is to protect the blower fan and the heat exchanger from dust, hair particles and other debris that can be picked up by the furnace returns. Having a clean filter will help improve air quality in your home and lower heating costs. A dirty filter will make the furnace ...
Why Choosing the Right Color for Exterior Doors Matters!
As you can see with door number one, which is west facing, the paint is noticeably peeling. The picture of door number two was taken with a thermal camera during the winter. The outside temperature that day was only 12 degrees but the temperature of the door was 144! You can see that the paint ...
Exterior Doors and Energy Loss
This is a thermal picture of a front door facing south that gets sun exposure. Two interesting points to note, it’s 32 degrees outside and this door is heating up 69.6 because it’s behind a of the glass storm door. Glass storm doors act as a magnifying glass. Even more important, ...
Verifying electrical panel grounding
First order of business when checking the electrical panel after we double check it’s not live is to confirm it’s grounded. The panel below looks grounded right? Further review using a multi meter and running a continuity test showed it was not grounded and proved to be a safety issue. ...
Look out below!
This is a building across from the home I was inspecting. While I was taking pictures of the house I heard water running. The building across the street has a air handler for the ac unit on the 3rd floor. When the condensate pump turns on it sends water outside onto the roof which then falls onto ...
Which flood light to choose?
For comparison I have three 65 watt rated recessed lights installed, LED, CFL and Incandescent. Using thermal imaging you can clearly see the difference on energy output and costs. Ohms Law: Watts = amps x volts Heat / watts is just "wasted energy", when you use a certain ...
Cost of home ownership
Imagine you’re out camping on a cold night in your sleeping bag and your zipper breaks letting in all the cold. I’m sure you would do everything you could to fix it to stay warm. Now consider your home or the house your looking to purchase do not the same principles apply? In fig ...
Energy Saving Tip, Honeycomb Blinds
What’s the first thing that jumps out at you when you look at the house below? Since I was called to inspect it, first thought was damn, that’s a lot of glass. Second, with a size of 7,000 sq. / ft., that’s a lot to heat up. Windows and doors are the greatest source of wasted ...
Is your woodstove installed correctly?
Winter is upon us here New Hampshire and many residents will be using wood stoves to heat their home. Based on my findings as a home inspector many of these stoves are installed improperly. In the news this morning was a home destroyed by fire, cause a wood stove. Which begs the question, ...
Thermal imaging finds a costly problem
As a home inspector my job is to educate the client and find any costly problems associated with the home I am expecting. This inspection did both, I was called to inspected a small 1600 sq. ft. ranch, built in 1974, on a slab foundation. At some point the house had electric heat, two ...
