Emergency Plumbing Services

Posts Tagged ‘Insulation’

I think tankless water heaters have many pros – and a few cons or considerations. They were originally designed to be used in situations where a tank is undesirable and/or inefficient, such as a building with very minimal hot water demand. They are more commonly used overseas than in the US, because we are not conscience of or concerned about space or efficiency as much as we should be.

Since water is heated on an as needed basis you can save tremendously.Think about how much energy ( money ) is wasted heating a huge tank of water to a certain temperature and maintaining that temperature as water is being constantly released. There are other more conventional alternatives that may be as good or better. For example,dollar savings are diminished or even nonexistent if the alternative is a hot water system integrated into your gas or oil heating system. If the price of gas or oil is especially low in your area, a stand alone tank unit using these fuels may be competitive if you take the extra effort to superinsulate the tank (via wrapping the tank with insulation) and keep the temperature down to under 110 – 150 degrees depending on how hot you like your water to be.

There is a consideration you must understand before making a purchase decision on a tankless water heater. Tank-type water heaters can supply enough hot water to run multiple hot water appliances or showers at the same time, provided you install a unit that can handle your needs. Of course,they can run out of heated water,since they have a limited capacity.

Tankless heaters, on the other hand, have large drop-offs in water temperature as the water flow through them increases. The elements in a tankless water heater heat the water up to an adjustable maximum temperature. Keep in mind that you can not be taking a hot shower, running the dishwasher and the hot washer cycle at the same time with a tankless water heater – one negative feature. Of course, this negative feature can be overcome by changing your hot water usage habits… for example only using one hot water appliance at a time, scheduling showers at different times than other members of your family, etc. It would be best to install several TWH
( tankless water heaters ) in the respective areas in your home.Otherwise you run the risk of being in the middle of a nice relaxing shower and then running out of hot water! On the positive side, with a tankless unit you never run out of hot water, since it heats on demand.

There are a number of companies out there that sell these units. I can not give a product recommendation, but I would get their usage statistics prior to buying. Another possible source of information would be your local plumbing supply house and NOT a hardware store. They will sell them but they do not have educated staff to help you make the proper purchase.

When you aready to make the installation, consider a local, licensed, bonded, insured handyman for the job. 90 % of the time a plumber and an electrcian is definetely needed while other times a carpenter, drywaller/ painter is also needed to modify or repair an area where an old tank was removed. It is less expensive, less of a hassle and quicker to hire one person instead of potentially three or more.

On the surface, it sounds simple enough. But, in fact, the simple re-inspection of a previously inspected home or property is very high liability to the working home inspector. A synopsis of the complexities of the re-inspection process, and why it worries home inspectors, is provided below.

Frequently a home inspector is asked to re-inspect repairs at a house where that inspector had previously performed an inspection. This is typically done at a fraction of the cost of the original inspection. On the surface, this process sounds simple enough but, in fact, home inspectors are often very uncomfortable doing re-inspections. While this might seem strange to the casual observer, the reasons for this reluctance on the part of the inspector are described below.

An inspector, and this is the primary role of the position, is expected to go in to a home and find visible defects — some of which might be subtle. The inspector should recommend that the repair work be done, and that the system be evaluated for upgrades, by a qualified party: a licensed electrician, a licensed plumber, a licensed contractor, a licensed roofer, a licensed HVAC professional, etc. So far, it seems simple enough but then reality sets in. The seller or a friend, or someone free, cheap or casual labor, will end up doing all the work at a fraction of the cost one would pay to a qualified professional. While that might be satisfactory for some smaller maintenance or cleanup jobs, the big problem comes in when this same party works on complicated repairs, projects or systems. For example, let us assume that the inspector initially found melting insulation on solid-strand aluminum wiring in the main electric panel. The inspector later comes back to re-inspect and finds that somebody has snipped off the charred ends and put the same wires back in the same panel on the same terminals. Even if some better than average amateur repair was done at the melted wires, chances are that the aluminum wires are also corroded, melted and unsafe at the terminals at the other end where they connect to the wall outlet. The non-electrician, who did the work, had no clue that the problem in the panel was merely the tip of the iceberg. He or she missed the big picture which is equally, or even more, dangerous. Similar situations, where defects can be concealed by shoddy work, occur in plumbing, roofing, HVAC and other parts of the home.

Home inspectors are generalists, who know a fair amount about many different systems. The inspector is not, usually, an expert on any one area. Inspectors work hard to detect problems but then will, to make sure the repair is done correctly, refer work to specialists: licensed plumbers, electricians, contractors or HVAC technicians. That way the component or system called out as faulty, and anything more complicated in that system, will be detected and repaired by the specialist and that leads to an extra margin of safety for the consumer.

Trying to discern if work is done correctly is actually harder than finding the initial problem, especially if anyone involved in the repair is sneaky. That is the reason an inspector wants to see specialized work done by qualified and licensed parties. That policy, of recommending professionals, protects the inspector to some degree and is a kind of insurance policy. If it ends up that a licensed electrician, plumber or contractor did a lousy job, in a concealed area, that company is responsible for the problem that remains. On the other hand, if some fly- by-night worker with no skill or license only half does the work, then that can get an inspector into hot water. Take for instance, a worker who replaces visible galvanized steel supply pipe but replaces none of the rusted pipe that runs inside the walls. Six months later, as water begins to gush through holes in the pipes, the buyer is mad at the inspector for not guessing that the handyman didn’t replace the rusted pipes that were hidden inside the walls. If a professional plumber had been in that equation, and did such poor work, the buyer would be able to complain to the plumber. But since the repair was done by an unlicensed party, who might have even vanished into thin air, the easiest person to get mad at is the inspector who is still around, insured but certainly could not see inside those walls.

Obviously, in a re-inspect, a wise inspector uses defining and exclusionary language. Also, a number of inspectors just flat will NEVER sign off on any electrical, plumbing, roofing or structural work unless invoices prove that all of the work was done by a qualified and licensed party. That policy applies regardless of how good the work might look on the surface. This kind of strict, and non-flexible policy, is always frustrating to the sellers or the realtors involved. Regardless, agree or disagree with this kind of policy, now you know why home inspectors feel that they have extremely high liability during re-inspections.