Practical Ideas

Usually, when I'm not answering questions or making new pages for this website I'm monitoring numerous Forum websites. Some of the questions and solutions on these websites seem useful to me and I use them all over my website. However recently I came up with a decision to make a page where my visitors can share their ideas with me and I will publish them on this page.
So, if you got your question answered and thinking that it would be useful to anyone else please let me know on this page. The best way of doing that would be providing me with a link to your thread or submitting your question and the best answer to it. If I'll find out that your thread is worth publishing I will pay you $3.00 by Pay Pal! For the second and every next one I will pay $5.00!

Below you can see an example:

Question:
Hi All,
I recently had my Trane XV95 Furnace installed. They used a Concentric PVC vent pipe up through the roof. The lot that my house sits on has 6 Maple trees (and counting the trees of my surrounding neighbors there are probably around 10 more Maples). During the spring, these things drop a huge amount of their helicopter seeds, as well as other small buds. Moreover, the things that holds the helicopters to the branches until they fall. I was concerned about them landing in the exhaust of my furnace and the contractor suggested that to keep debris out, I could use 1/4" inch mesh hardware cloth. What I ended up doing was creating a cone out of this hardware cloth that rises about 6 inches up in the center, and goes all the way around the top of the pipe. This way any helicopters should just hit and bounce off of the mesh (hopefully). The thought process was that by putting this wire mesh in a cone shape (instead of just throwing it on top of the exhaust pipe flat), we would increase the surface area of the mesh and it should not greatly affect the furnace's ability to regulate the pressure when heat is called for. (At least that is what I think...but I'm not an expert on this stuff!)

So my question to all of you experts out there is would this be fine to leave up there year around?

Answer:
I would take it off for winter, it will frost shut on cold hi humidity nights. I go on lots of service calls in these conditions just to take off someone's vent pipe screen.
Another thing to consider; if the equivalent length on the venting is near its max putting a screen on it could put you over the max equivalent length.
Would definitely take it off before the heating season.

Ok, as you can see it's kind of an unusual situation, but a very common problem! Concentrics are tending to congestions problems even if they installed it horizontally, because some birds love to nest there!
Normally you can insert a round piece of ¼" inch galvanized mesh to resolve this issue, but unfortunately it won't last too long in general and in this particular case it also will accumulate maple seeds.

The idea of using mesh hardware cloth maybe good, but as it was mentioned earlier:

• Requires its reinstallation at least twice a year
• A concentric wrapped in the mesh doesn't looks right
• Not everyone is able to climb up on the roof and not to end up at the morgue

It is why I have decided to share my idea with you on how to resolve this issue:
If in this case you have a PVC 90* or 45* that you can replace with one of these tees accordingly. The seeds and the other debris would be falling down through the tee, and collected in a piece of pipe with the bushing  reducer at the end. Because                 

this particular concentric will collect rainwater even in the summer and condensate water in the heating period you have to drain it by using 3/4" PVC pipes, just run it to the drainage separately.

In order to implement my recommendations I would advise you to buy two related chapters from my "Ductwork Installation Guide":
49. VENTING
50. CONDENSATE LINE
The price of both chapters is only $4.87 total .

Please let me know if you like my solution on this page. And youcan buy some of the materials for this project on the right.

Water leak on gas furnace exhaust PVC pipe

Question
I have an Amana 92% high efficiency gas furnace.
The 2-inch exhaust pipe is leaking water at a couple of the joints around four feet from the furnace. I know that gas has a lot of condensation in the exhaust. However is it just a matter of re-sealing the joints or is there a bigger problem.
The house and furnace are 4 years old

I hope the two pictures help:

Answers
Looks like somebody didn't use primer on the joints before the glue. Cut out the bad parts and replace that section or replace all the pipe. I would replace all the exhaust since two joints failed already, PVC is cheap.

Picture shows what I consider bad practice. Always glue the male pipe. Easy to miss and many times a job will be closed up and some joints missed completely. If you glue the pipe, it will ooze out at the fitting

I would rip all that venting out and do it properly; nowhere near enough glue or primer was used (I can see a tiny bit of purple in the second picture). IPEX's instruction state that primer isn't needed if installed above 0 degrees C (or around 0, I forget the exact temperature), but BC and Alberta require its use at all times, and I imagine other provinces do also. The proper way to make the joints is to prime the pipe and fitting, immediately apply a liberal amount of glue to the pipe, then the excess to the fitting and insert hold and spin until set. You should also ensure that there is at least ¼" per foot of slope on the exhaust pipe, and that all venting clearance requirements have been met. Not trying to scare the OP, but if the installer can't even cement pipe together they may have made other mistakes.

I think that the above answers are good, but I wouldn't replace all PVC pipes! In four years it's leaking in two places only, so a homeowner could get it fixed in ten minutes or less if he would have visited my site first. Unfortunately, for him it's over, but you can find a solution in the quiz below, or if you want to save $0.66 you can ask your question on this page.

How to Stop Cold Air from Fresh Air (Combustion Air) Vent in Furnace Room

Question
My family and I live in MN. Every winter I have dealt with issues of cold air coming from all areas of our 1955 home with a 3-year-old addition with in-floor heat. I finally installed a fresh intake vent that has halted any cold air coming from other areas of the old part of the house.
With all of our gas appliances and vent fans I calculated an 8 inch size vent. The problem is all that cold air is really pouring out of there and I bought a plastic tub that sits right behind the new boiler but the floor in the laundry room is so cold and it spills out into the rest of the basement.
I temporarily placed salt bags for our softener into the opening of the doorway of the utility room to prevent it from coming into the rest of the basement with little success. I didn't think it would get that cold. I even used the R-10 insulated flex tubing for ducting the fresh air, which works great except for the air not staying in the tub.
Before I put this venting in and we had our old boiler, which was 30 some years old, our CO2 alarm went off 2 times in 10 years but I didn't think it was such a big concern with the cold air pouring into the older portion of our house from everywhere. I finally decided to get a new boiler and the fresh air intake.
Is there anything I can do to keep this cold air at bay?

Answer 1
I teach property-rehabbing classes in the St. Paul Community Education Program...so I encounter questions like this all of the time. In my own house, I made my insulated flex duct (fresh air intake) purposely EXTRA long, and formed a very large P-trap out of the flexible tubing (to mimic that of a plumbing P-trap). The thought behind this is that cold air likes to drops (where warm air rises). By forming this very large P-trap with the flexible duct, I am forcing the cold intake air to travel 3 feet UPHILL again before dropping down into an empty 5-gallon bucket.
Also, something else to consider. Once shaping your intake into a large P-Trap like this, if cold air is still pouring in, then you have a large amount of warm air escaping somewhere else in the house (i.e. up a fireplace chimney or similar). Cold air will only pour in like that (after forming the P-Trap) IF warm air is being exhausted rapidly somewhere else in the house.
Hope this helps and good luck!

Answer 2
Our home in Edmonton, AB Canada was built in 2003/2004 and has a near identical setup to yours - two 6" fresh air intakes, one to the cold air return portion and another to a combustion pot that runs to the floor and simply dumps fresh air into the basement. We also have a mid-efficiency furnace (sounds like you do as well) and a natural gas hot water tank with both "chimneys" tied together.

After developing my basement, I've come up with three solutions to our problem:

1) Install a motorized damper designed by Hoyme - Hoyme Manufacturing Inc - Motorized Dampers & Ventilators - North America. This closes the fresh air intake combustion pot and when the furnace comes on it opens up. Depending on who you speak to you may also want it to open it up for when your hot water tank runs (I would to be on the safe side to eliminate CO poisoning risks). You can install a heat sensor on the tank that will open the damper up. You can even go as far as installing a second damper for the fresh air intake that goes into the return air ductwork as freezing cold air is not good for your furnace. Downside - cost of the dampers and availability in your area.

2) Relocate your fresh air intake combustion pot near the furnace. Frame and close off the furnace room. Assuming your combustion air requirements are sufficient, install weather proofing/stripping around the furnace room door to contain the cold air within the furnace room.

3) Ditch the mid-efficiency furnace and go with a high-efficiency furnace. This eliminates the need for the 6" fresh air intakes and will require the installation of PVC pipes to the outside of your house for intake/exhaust.

All three of these options are valid in my location but I would suggest consulting with your local authorities and building codes before making your decision.

I haven't decided on what route to take myself. With the basement being finished it's not too cold except I built an office attached to the furnace room so my feet get cold. I've got a blanket tucked underneath the furnace room door to keep the cold air in. For the first couple of years living here I remember very well how cold the basement can get.

I put a lot of thought and research into this so I hope this helps you, good luck!

For years, I've heard about these issues related to the combustion air intakes, but never faced it myself before. However, recently I install one in my house and now I joined a legion of people who are trying to resolve this inconvenience once and for all!

At first as many of you, I've searched the web and all the solutions that I found there were just laughable:

1. Drop the pipe down into an empty 5-gallon bucket.
It doesn't work. You can try it at home just as I did - the result is obvious!

2. Forming very large P-trap with the flexible duct, I am forcing the cold intake air to travel 3 feet uphill again before dropping down into an empty 5-gallon bucket.
I don't even want to give it a try, this idea even if it works is just plain stupid. Just think about it: who in his straight state of mind would buy a box of flex and make a goofy P-trap out of it and after this all done on top of it, again, drop it in a bucket?

3. Install a motorized damper designed by Hoyme.
Well, this is not a really bad idea, but it doesn't work. It doesn't work because you can hook up this damper to the furnace only, and as it said above: "You can install a heat sensor on the tank that will open the damper up".
Look, the average price for the damper is $225.95, plus shipping and handling. Plus installation, and plus a heat sensor with installation - just too expensive!

4. Relocate your fresh air intake combustion pot near the furnace.
Just read above it doesn't work.

5. Ditch the mid-efficiency furnace and go with a high-efficiency furnace.
This one is just plain stupid, I do not want to even discuss it here!

So, I've looked at all this solutions and come up with my own one. Bought materials, installed it and let it work for awhile. It is working.

Now it is time to share this simple and very inexpensive solution (I spent less than $10 on my 4" combustion air intake) with visitors of my site.
On the paid page, you will see pictures of tools and materials and three pictures of installation with step-by-step explanations.
The price for an instant access to the page is only $1.44.

Instant Access:

After you have purchased a paid page; PayPal is going to bring you back to my website. In order to see the paid page you have to click on the “Register” button, fill out the form, choose your own Username and Password and click on the “Register” button at the bottom of the form – congratulation, you are now on the page you have paid for!

Important: After you have purchased any Paid page or Download page and PayPal brought you back to my website, the first thing that you should do is to save that page to your Favorites. Then if something goes wrong you always can come back to re-register yourself on my website again.

I've found this post on one of the Forum websites:

Reducing Ambient/Crosstalk Noise in Room-to-Room Vents

Hello, first post on here, but pretty frequent reader.
Here is my current dilemma:

We have a forced air heating/cooling system in our house that has a central cold air return on the first floor. The bedrooms on the second floor do not have cold air returns; however, they have openings above each doorway for ventilation. The openings are framed out to about 2'x2' and are the depth of a standard 2x4, so about 3.5" deep. They have normal louvered return air grills on them.

As you can imagine, they do not do a lot for noise. Our daughter's bedroom is basically right at the top of the stairs, above our two story great room. We have actually resorted to not watching TV or anything after she goes to bed because the noise goes right through the vent into her room.

I am considering lining the opening with so insulation or something to help cut down any sharp angles, but is there anything I can put in there that will reduce the noise while still allowing for airflow?

I have searched and searched but everything I keep finding refers to noise in the actual ductwork, of which there isn't any...

Thanks guys!

It is very unfortunate that this guy couldn't find my website and asked this question directly, but if you have a similar problem I think that I found a solution! By the way, this is still a new thread and people are trying to help him out, but so far, their solutions won't work.
Therefore, here's what he should be doing:
He has to install two ceiling, or even better, two wall cold air return grills (transfer grills) and connect them through the attic by using a long piece of insulated flex.

If you like this idea and if you would like to give it a try, but do not know how to do it, you can purchase an Ductwork Installation in Attic ($2.00) page. On the page you can see how to install returns in the walls, or/and you can purchase a Chapter #56 of my Ductwork Installation Guide ($2.00) book in the case that you prefer returns in the ceiling or you can see it for free on this page.