the house detective
DEAR BARRY:
We just bought a 20-year-old home and hired a home inspector before closing escrow. According to our inspector, the wall heater was in good working order when he inspected it. After we moved in, the gas company found the heater to be unsafe. According to the gas man, there is a hole in the heat exchanger, and the entire furnace needs to be replaced. Shouldn't this have been discovered by our home inspector? Lonnie DEAR LONNIE:
In urban areas, where crime is common, electrical service panels are often fastened with padlocks. In suburban or rural communities, tampering with electrical panels is uncommon, and padlocks are rarely used. For general safety reasons, it is best for circuit breakers to be readily accessible. In cases of emergency, delayed access can have serious consequences.
If a circuit breaker needs to be reset on a dark and rainy night, you wouldn't want to be searching for a mislaid key. If an emergency, such as a fire, requires that the power be turned off, immediate access to the main breaker could be crucial. In fact, fire departments prefer that panels not be locked because it is their practice to shut off the power to a building prior to commencing a fire fight. When they have to cut off a padlock, precious seconds can be lost.
Padlocks are not the only ways that access to an electrical panel can be restricted. Service panels are sometimes obscured behind unmaintained foliage. Interior panels can be blocked by storage or by furniture. The electrical code actually requires 36 inches of unrestricted clearance in front of an electrical panel. For optimal home safety, unimpeded accessibility is a wise practice at all electric panels.
DEAR BARRY:
Last winter we installed strips of fiber glass insulation between the rafters in our attic, but our heating bills did not go down. If attic insulation doesn't help, what can we do to reduce the costs of heating our home?
Chuck DEAR CHUCK:
Attic insulation should be installed between the ceiling joists in your attic, not between the roof rafters. That is why your utility costs did not go down.
The purpose of attic insulation is to contain heat within the living areas of your home during the winter, and to keep the heated air in your attic from entering the living area during the summer. This means that the exchange of heat must be stopped at the ceiling, not at the roof. When insulation is placed between the roof rafters, heat is allowed to penetrate through the ceilings and into the attic. From there, your hardearned utility dollars simply escape into the atmosphere by way of the attic vents.
The solution is to relocate the fiberglass bats in your attic. And be sure to wear adequate breathing protection when handling fiberglass because small strands of glass can be released into the air when the material is disturbed.