British Furnaces Ain't Got Nothing on America 

The electric ones, you can just turn off the breaker at the meter box, should have its own 30 amp breaker. But yeah, it's gas lol. My gf's mom used to turn off her water heater after every use until I explained they are supposed to stay on and that she wasn't saving any money turning it off but wasting money reheating cold water everytime she had to shower.

Even electric water heaters have a thermostat that can be adjusted without shutting the power off. Curious to know why one would think power needs to be disconnected to adjust a thermostat. Is that a thing in Europe?

Yup

Also the thing that you don't know what it is that is compensated for temperature and measures cubic feet is the gas meter. Don't touch it.

That gas pipe that went to your fireplace and some "professional" capped off with some pipe dope and left hanging. Yeah, that one. I would get some pipe strap put on there so the weight isn't just hanging on the pipe itself. Might want to get a new "professional" since that one left you hanging.🤣

Thank goodness you spoke up! I’ve only ever had gas water heaters and would never have known that electric ones couldn’t have the thermostat adjusted without being disconnected from power-that seems-not optimal. Very prone to user error!

Agreed! HVAC guy!

Don't forget to tell him about maintenance like replacing anode rod periodically.

I'm an electrician and I concur.

Agree! Get those scalding hot baths, Lawrence! No need to shut your electricity off.

There are certainly boilers in England too infact enough so that they nicknamed furnaces boilers England generally dosent like people upgrading anything in really old buildings because of historical value

A boiler uses hot water for heat

​​@@tray3120 Edit for clarity. You are right that generally most use water, however some use oil as the fluid.

In my case the magic days are solstices and equinoxes. Not because I am a druid, but because it's easy to do something every 90 days-ish if you have an astronomical event to which they can be attached. So every solstice and equinox at the stroke of midnight I don my sacred robes and swap the air filter, replace the electric toothbrush head, and dump water into the drains that don't get enough drainage to keep the p trap charged.

Some folks call it the "hot water heater"

we still have people come and read our electric, water, and gas meters every month.

​​@@erickelley1680 Wow! That's unheard of today - in Pennsylvania anyhow.... 😮 PS/edit: We have a remote wireless thingy the utility company placed on their respective meters and they can read it from outside.

@BritIronRebel seeing as I'm in pa it's still around. But I live in a small town.

i remember that as a kid

I live in a mixed housing complex, and the utility company does not read the meters. That has to be done by the property manager, who I assist because some still have the 5 dial meters like was shown on Lawrence's service. Those are very old, and few can read them correctly anymore. Too many bad readings, so I took over years ago with mine and some others. The power company will not upgrade the meters unless they actually break, and the old ones last forever. These come in both gas and electric.

Agreed. I had a boiler at one house in NY. I think it was warmer in that house than with forced air.

Some U.S. houses do have boilers and radiators but furnaces are more common in newer houses.

@@mikehermen3036 that's cause many of them also have an ac unit attached outside. Making them full HVAC. Which I think he showed us in a previous video.

Yes, boilers deal with heating water, furnaces with heating air. I found this online from the Dept. of Energy: Furnaces heat air and distribute the heated air through the house using ducts. Boilers heat water, and provide either hot water or steam for heating. Steam is distributed via pipes to steam radiators, and hot water can be distributed via baseboard radiators or radiant floor systems, or can heat air via a coil.

@@TimeLady8 My 1933 house has a boiler and it's much warmer than the 1910 house I had with forced air.

Yes, I can confirm that the odd looking tray on the floor with the flex pipe is the burner that goes under a set of gas fireplace logs.

He mentioned in the video that they had the gas disconnected from the fireplace, and showed the crappy work the "professional" had done. Whoever did the work ought to have cleaned that extra putty off the cap and strapped that dangling pipe to a floor joist if they didn't want to remove the pipe entirely. That much unsupported pipe is probably a code violation, especially since the ballcock is right there near the end of the dangling part.

Just go ahead and turn up the water temperature. No need to turn off power.

Good advice from viewers.

It’s not an electric water heater that water heater may not even have electricity hooked up to it if it has a pilot light.

My spiders and I have an agreement -- they can live peacefully as long as they stay in the basement. And usually brown recluses are found in the more humid climates to the south.

Alao good to note not only are house spiders evolved to live with us, but most of their bites can't even break our skin WERE they aggressive, they will run from you in an instant if they're feeling vulnerable and will pretty much just keep running too

I lived in bumfuck florida for 14 years and I can assure you that brown recluses most definitely build webs. Though they tend to be the funnel type and are usually used for living space and ambush sites.

Cellar spiders are cool. Ever since I found a dead yellowjacket in one of their webs, we've been friends. Anything that kills yellowjackets can live with me.

woodrobin, the ones (that you most commonly see) that don't build webs and go out hunting for prey are wolf spiders. i grew up in the Ozarks in an old wood house and they were all over (shiver). You rarely actually see brown recluses. They tend to hide, thus the name. Most people are bitten handling wood from a wood pile, putting on shoes, rolling over on one that is under bedding, etc.

My sister basically has a boiler herself, although the water is sent through small floor radiators that look nothing like the old large steam radiators.

yes

And we still have boilers in the U.S. Our old house is steam heat and has a boiler :)

@@sbel1175 It's typically the better choice if you have a large space where you're using embedded heating in the floor rather than forced air for heat. My house has a bit of both and the embedded system is newer than the forced air, for heating you can't beat having the warmth originate in the floor of the basement with a tiny assist upstairs, no cold spots anywhere.

@@sbel1175 My house as well! Built in 1923 and located in Detroit. I love it, although I need to replace some radiator vents.

Ty Anthony for clearing this up! I was also confused when he said they were same thing. Although, I've never had a "boiler" - just furnaces, I understood them as 2 diff things.

Here's a hint - when you head to the home store to buy your furnace filter, buy extras. Depending upon the filter, you'll want to replace them every three or six months, and when the time comes you just want to do it, not spend weeks browbeating yourself for forgetting to pick one up.

They look to be located in that box between the furnace and the big cold air return box. Your gas water heater can be turned up without worry, it's not connected to the electricity.

The faucet at the bottom of your water heater is for the ease of draining a few gallons of water periodically to remove scale from the bottom.

Yes, you’ll want to change the furnace filter to help breathe better because it traps dust and will make the furnace run efficiently. The measurements are along the edge-I take a picture with me before heading to Ace, Lowe’s or Home Depot. There are videos online or HVAC courses at junior colleges.

I write the date on the filter of when I changed it.

Absolutely agreed. *DO NOT* use a fireplace in a home until you have had it properly inspected.

Your actually Set for a Ventless Gas log setup. Hire some plumbers get the gasline running again and have them install the logs. They are Very nice but really on a pilot light. There are Some other options such as installing a full wood burning insert metal lined, insulated to the the top and Capped. As for the whole lining shit Stick your head into the fireplace open the door and look up with a light Look for Orange clay tiles a good 1-2 feet above the damper door. You are lined if you see them but if you see them offset or visible Verticale cracks or even the liner for your furnace these a big nono's to keep in mind and your taking a risk with a fire as the creosote builds up drys out and expands until it ignites in the crevices you cant clean and it burns bright and hot bricks glow red from fires like that and is why the liner is needed It makes it easier to clean the Creosote away while also acting a a thermal barrier to the bricks. Gas runs stupid clean our company recommends any Vented ones get done every 5 years but that is more to remove any critters that made their way in than to clean it. Oil is dirty and is a 3 year regular maintenance unless the pipe installers were brain dead and travels horizontally more than 2 feet then i would recommend yearly and to also move the damn furnace closer to the chimney or just switch to gas and direct vent out the wall. Vented Gas logs are just the same as Gas furnaces and add Gas stoves as well(Gas stoves however have the caveat of being wasp attractors so use it regularly to avoid nests being built.) Fireplaces from Bare to Woodstoves Freestanding or inserts, Pellet Stoves, and coal stoves all are yearly cleans or beginning of season and end of season cleans if you burn ALOT. Now there is One last thing. Dont trust a Chimney guy unless they are wearing a Cert card on them. Much like Servsafe there is a loophole that only requires the HEAD of the company to be certified. A responsible and law abiding companies sends certified employees or pairs with one certified and the other to do grunge work they will also have a 4 or five digit ID number tied to the Cert that you can use to look up if they are truly certified By law they are supposed have that number on any inspection paper they write. The reason why we say this lately in our area there is a mob run companies trying to sell 50$ pipes as liners a proper liner for a single story chimney is 1k-2k alone depending on the application. Also if you go for a sweep that is 80$ I guarantee you they are the scammers they will only have ladders and pipes on their car. No cleaning brushes and poles/viper roll, no hepivac, and most damningly no dump bucket for Creosote, Ash, and Animals.

I am a natural gas professional. You should not be operating a gas log set in a fireplace that is unsafe for wood burning. Wood burns much more dirtily than natural gas (can be optimized to put off no dangerous gases), so chimneys should be cleaned yearly minimum. Due to the much cleaner, nature of gas logs, if you start with a clean fireplace and chimney, you should not have to actually have the chimney cleaned ever again. However, especially for a traditional masonry fireplace and chimney. You should have it inspected every couple years and maintained. Likewise the gas logs will need some type of servicing every 1 to 5 years typically depending on usage and conditions. The piece of hardware you were examining that had ‘poo’ in it, is a burner for a vented gas log set. Probably removed after you smelled gas. Likely the control valve on that unit has gone bad. Gas logs in general are much lower maintenance and easier to use on a daily basis. But are never going to be “as real” as a woodburning fire, if you burn wood make sure the hole from the gas line is properly sealed/repaired so there is no possibility of fire migrating through it to outside the firebox. If you do want gas logs, a high quality ventfree set of gas logs is often the best choice. As they are engineered to burn clean, such that you can close the damper as desired to capture more of the heat into your home. The entire fireplace and chimney still needs to meet standards for wood-burning or be designed exclusively for ventfree logs. Most definitely you should hire a professional to maintain your appliances and ask them relevant questions while they’re there so that you can be less ignorant of the equipment within your home and manage it as needed between professional visits. If they are unwilling to provide basic information, they are not providing the service that they should be. But let them inspect and diagnose your system before you’re asking most your questions. It saves everybody time and money, if the general public has basic functional knowledge and can avoid many dangerous situations. But there is a reason why these professions exist. So much of their knowledge will be above your head. And it may be hard to understand everything they tell you. Good luck!

@@8.6GivenAdqVacSysm No i disagree to fucking hell and back with that. You don't want ignorant customers fearing for their life at just looking at what they own. Your comment reads like a Scammer telling a customer that they "HAVE TO DO THIS OR THEY DIE". Christ do you have that poor of customer service skills to not realize that shit? Also the fact you say Ventless gas logs can have a damper open or closed shows you don't even understand CODE Ventless logs REQUIRE the Damper to be Braced Shut at All times. Quit LARPing and go back to School.

thank you thank you thank you I just about had a heart attack when he mentioned using logs in his formerly gas fireplace! this is important information!

The biggest problem we have had is finding a good HVAC guy. Had one fantastic one who retired and since then I think I would do a better job myself than the ones I have hired, even though they were supposedly good. Luckily my husband recently retired & has been able to diagnose any difficulties we have had. But then, he has had both mechanical and electrical training both at college and on the job. Plus, there are videos on how to fix different furnace problems. Would not do anything with the natural gas pipes, but the other parts may be done.

And make sure the handle that opens and closes the damper (?) in the flue (sp) works. Although maybe they would've found that during the inspection.

@@sharonduffey your spelling was correct on both counts (and damper is indeed what it's called). :)

For anyone reading this, you can buy those "chemical sticks" yourself and I encourage everyone with a wood burning fireplace to have one. They are called Chimfex and can be found online and probably your local hardware store.

I would add, not all gas fireplaces can even burn logs, depending on the original installation

Also, not all fireplaces are designed for burning wood. A lot of homes had coal fireplaces which were retrofitted for gas, and they can't safely burn wood.

In highschools we have "boiler rooms" as well as many apartment complexes. It's an efficient way to heat large amounts of water and keep it hot. I've never run out of hot water with a boiler. My standard water heater though runs out in 15 minutes

@@redbeardreturns3550 if you run out of hot water in 15 minutes that means you’ve got either a tankless water heater or there’s a problem with your tank heater lol

@@charlesbrown4483 Depends on the size and age of his heater. Average shower flow rate is 2.1 Gallons per minute. A 50 Gallon tank will be expended in 23 minutes at full hot. A 30 gallon would be 14 or so minutes. So an old 50 that hasnt been regularly cleaned can quite likely be expended in 15 minutes at full hot.

Many Americans pride themselves on maintaining these. Me included and I'm the lady of the family. lol Just comes with the territory to educate the adorable Brit. I think it's cute he's just learning now.

JFYI- RU-vid is a WORLD wide sensation. There is not telling where various comments on here are coming from.

​@Phillip Banes I think their point is more "why are we assuming this is America-centric as if we're the only people in the world with this technology?" I'd also point out this sort of behavior is the very reason we look like jerks to other countries.

​@@better.betteracting like someone else is smug foesnt cover up your own smugness

@@snappybabby4646 Chances are if the video is about a quintessentially American thing, the people in the comments being helpful or giving insight are also American, especially if said comments are in American English. If this was a video about something quintessentially British, chances are the people in the comments being helpful or giving insight are also British, especially if said comments are in British English. Same for Canada, Australia, or between any other countries that share a first language. Unless every comment is explicitly stating that they're American, no, there is no definitive proof that they're American, but not everything needs to be so obvious. Context clues.

He says later in the video that it is called a furnace in the US.

indeed. A boiler heats water or oil and runs it through pipes to radiators. A furnace heats air that blows through air ducts.

I grew up in a house with forced hot water through baseboards. Radiators are only seen in houses that havenp't updated since the 20s. Either way it's not really a boiler as the water is not boiling. Unless of course you have a truly ancient steam heat system.

and to further complicate that, you can also have a boiler that runs hot water to forced air system as well. Forced air systems typically run in tandem with a gas furnace, but they can also be heated by “radiant heat” aka hot water pipes. Some people prefer them because they can also be tied into more traditional radiant heat systems like “radiators” throughout a home… as well as not drying out the air in a home as much as a gas furnace. Due to this drying out of the air by furnaces, they tend to have humidifiers built into them as seen by that white thing on the side. Sincerely, an architect who frequently has to decipher and draw existing building systems and then design incorporated or new ones….. 🤪 oh yeah, and they sometimes have additional units in the attic.. and don’t get me started on air conditioning and heat pumps… radiant floor heating… geothermal.. etc.

I came to say this! Be thankful you don’t have a boiler with radiators. We had them in college. Poor temperature control and loud. Furnace heats air, boiler, well, it boils things.

Surprised it would be set to 25% that's too low. The Sahara desert is 20% humidity. At that level you'd expect sore throats, dry skin and probably damage to the wood work in the home, including cracked caulking and other issues. Set it to 35% at the lowest. And make sure you change your humidifier pad...it's in the beige box mentioned above.

@@elliotalderson4568 The recommended relative humidity changes from 15% to 45% depending on outside temperature and personal preference. Fancier humidifiers have an outdoor temperature sensor so it will automatically change the relative humidity setting.

@ApollosEclipse true, humidity levels have to change with temps outside. If you have too much moisture in the air when it's below freezing, you're asking for moisture/mold issues in the stud cavities and attic areas. There are charts showing recommended percent humidity to temperature online.

@@notinside1 its not just that there are health risks for too dry and too humid. Bloody noses and the ability to breathe are the two extremes you want a nice balance and 25-30% is a typical universal setting for indoors at 60-70F

@snintendog sure it is in a perfect world. This type of work is what I do (building science) . I have many hours of training and seminars on this. Indoor humidity levels are dictated by OUTSIDE temp. The colder dryer outside there is a stronger drive for the moisture to that environment. Trapping moisture in your walls and attic with a high likelihood of causing mold/mildew issues. I guess overall it's your decision if you want to feel comfortable with higher humidity or if you don't want moisture issues with your house.

There’s no sense in having a humidifier if it is set to 25%. It should be at least 40%.

@@johnp139 30-40% depending on where you live. In arid climates if you can get to 40% (you basically can’t) you’ll have condensation on the windows (bad).

@@johnp139 It is definitely varies from house to house, based on personal tastes, how cold it is, and also the region in which you live. If you go too far north in the United States, it's not uncommon to see settings at 10% and 15%. When it gets much colder than 40f your furnace runs way more often, and pumps out more moisture with each cycle. So, if ever you notice your windows are getting foggy inside (or worse, actually generating water and dripping down to your frames) you need to turn that humidistat down, right quick. It'll save you mold, mildew, and water-damage to your window-frames. The house humidity will usually be higher than the humidity setting you have picked because that depends on how often your furnace it cycling on. If it's literally running nonstop, because you don't particularly care for the cold, that's perfectly fine; just make sure you drop your humidistat way down to compensate for how often your furnace cycles.

The humidifier adds moisture to the air. If the outside air is a higher humidity than what your unit is set to, the actual humidity in the house will be higher than it is set to. The humidifier cannot remove water. (If you have problems with excessive humidity you can buy a separate dehumidifier.)

@@raychristy5027 same in NC. I live in a brand new apartment with a very modern HVAC system and we're never at less than 65% humidity indoors.

Exactly. Change the temperature very gradually, so you don't crank it up so high you burn yourself. Also of note, there is a setting there for vacation. When you go on vacation, turn it down to this level to conserve energy. Then first thing when you get home, turn it back up to where it belongs. DOn't worry, because gas water heaters are fast. Even if the water is ice cold in the pipes, you will have usable water in a couple hours.

I thought the same thing as I've always had gas water heaters but apparently it's considered bad practice to adjust an electric heater with the power on because the high voltage components are very close to the adjustment knob and it's in an area that could be wet. If everything is in great shape there won't be any problems but if something's wrong you could get a very nasty 220v shock.

@@jmuench420 I seriously never knew any of this, but then I never had an electric WH. Gas all the way.

We did the same, but my husband also has the technical training and equipment that you had. RU-vid was very helpful though..

THIS!!

+

Nice catch spotting the sticker. I was going to suggest to Laurence to see if there was a maintenance sticker with H/VAC company that serviced/installed the furnace/AC/hot water tank in case he needed to call to have his units checked.

This ^^^

Another good idea is to clean... or have cleaned the heating ducts every five or six years. You will be amazed at the amount of buildup they accumulate. My cat loves dropping stuff down through grate in my upstairs bathroom. I think it is the rattling ass they fall. I have learned too put earrings and necklaces into my jewelry bow rather than wait for the next duct cleaning. Cleaning also helps limit the dust you breathe in.

We did too, kinda redundant isn't it?!

That’s dumb

It's called that to differentiate it from a device that heats water for room heating or other purposes. A "hot water heater" is a heater that provides your hot water.

Buildings with boilers have hot water and steam heaters. They keep it simple for the bewildered.@@bunkyman8097

stop stealing Lawrence's material.😁

Agreed.🙂

Or it's a gas starter for a wood burning fireplace, which is what it looks like to me. The tray is to catch the ashes from the burnt wood.

And with multiple gas burning devices in that one room, consider a CO2 alarm as well.

@w49660 do you mean CO(carobo monoxide) and not CO2(carbon dioxide). Carbon monoxide poisoning is a serious matter, I'm sure there is one installed elsewhere in the basement for safety. Many towns require Installation of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. Replace your CO detectors every few years as there is a shelf life on these items.

I think the two percentages are (1) what the unit is set for, and (2) what the humidity in the house is now. It looks like the humidistat is mounted on the return-air duct into the furnace, which is a good place for it IF you only need to add humidity during the heating season. IMO having it set to 25% is too low, but humidistats can be wildly inaccurate, so people need to use their own judgment.

Nobody ever cleans those things, I can almost guarantee that it's absolutely gross.

I'm not far from Chicago where he is. The weather doesn't get anywhere near as cold for as long as it used to. No real need for a furnace humidifier in this climate, in my opinion. If it was mine, I'd just shut it off.

I've only owned houses in the Portland, Oregon area, I've never seen a gas meter in a basement (for that matter, newer houses in the area simply don't have basements). They're on the side of the house here.

@@buckysrevenge The meters are normally only installed indoors of older homes. Modern recommendations are to install outdoors to minimize danger if there is a gas leak.

@@brucewalton1886 Foundation shifting can cause the service entrance pipe to break - one reason meters are now outside. Older practice was to put them inside, it's not rare.

Nowadays, the gas meter and regulator are installed outside the house, so the meter reader doesn't have to come to the door. Same thing also apples to electric meters. Water meters, unfortunately are still installed inside, so they don't freeze in the cold winter. Installing the regulator outside means there is no need for an equalizing pipe.

Oh yeah, cubic feet. Forgot about that. I haven't used gas in twenty years.

Keep in mind too that most furnaces and A frames for the A/C have a specific rating that is also based on the filter used. If you go higher on the filter rating, it will impede airflow, and can cause the A/C to freeze up.

Project Farm here on RU-vid has a fantastic video testing and rating a wide range of different filters. They all kinds of tests for a variety of very different things, from motor oil to boots and jeans to duct tape, all kinds of things. I highly suggest his videos.

He should also make sure to vacuum out the vents, especially if any are in the floor. They're nasty things.

Its looks like he has an Electrostatic air filter.

@@ltsiver This. I have allergies and use those filters, but I change them every month. In extreme cases, if you have air coming OUT of the return vents, then most likely the problem is that the filter is dirty.

just wait til you have to explain geothermal. 🤣

Or in larger/older buildings they're still boiler rooms. My church, for example, uses actual boilers. On occasion my dad has to go in and clear out the crap people stupidly put in front of working machinery 🫣🤣

Or a mechanical room.

I call it the water closet. because that's where the hot water is stored.

@@PittsburghGal85 Years ago, the phys-ed center at the small college where my dad worked, caught fire because morons stored pole-vaulting landing pads on top of a furnace.

We call it the furnace room in Pennsylvania

Considering the age of the home I'd say the gas was a conversion from a wood fire place.

Thomas MacDiarmid, as I remember, she said, "Toto!" and "Auntie Em!"

@@jimgreen5788 I know. I was making a joke bringing the exclamation up to modern expectations

In case Lawrence actually sees this message - make sure you go around and find out how you can turn off the water and gas going into your house. I imagine both are probably in that room - the gas is likely near the gas meter (the thing you weren't too sure of), and the water will likely have some other kind of meter attached. As others have said, the water heater is gas, so can be adjusted without any worry of accidentally killing yourself. The weird box on the side of the furnace is a pump to drain the condensate from the built-in air conditioning exchanger. (one of the reasons it's far bigger than the other picture you shared - a lot of British homes don't have air conditioning - just the furnace unit is far smaller)

@@absentmindedjwc *Laurence

You have the spelling incorrect. Auntie Emm does not start with the letters sh. 😛

Yep. Water heating: boilers. Forced air heating: furnaces. ^_^

He said doing research, so I would assume that like most water heaters they have a gas and electric version of the same model and he may have found information on the electric version, and for someone unfamiliar I could see it leading to a lot of confusion

@@budgreen4x4 if you have zero common sense.....

I’ve been in my house for 10 years and just learned this when I had to replace my boiler....

yeah they're pulling Lawrence's leg, lol

Brad was likely not mentioning this to keep it simple, the blue cylinder thing is called an Emerson liquid line filter dryer and it's purpose is to remove water from mixing with your refrigerant because moisture rusts the inside of systems but it also prevents proper change in physical state of refrigerant reducing its ability to suck as much heat (called BTU or British Thermal Units) from the air as possible. The amount of BTU required to change the state of one pound of water from liquid to gas (Latent heat or heat you cannot feel requires 970 BTU to change 1lb H2O to a gas state) is more then the amount of BTU's required to change the temperature from 32°f to 212°f (180 BTU). The definition of BTU's is One Btu is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1 lb of water 1°f.

Probably left in the basement after they cut off the supply to the living room fireplace... Too bad they didn't dispose of it after they removed it.

​@@adriandavis3908 my thoughts exactly. And the other thing is that the old gas pipe looks to be about 8-10 feet long and totally unsupported, no hangers of any kind. That can't be to code.

@@jonpattison Yes, he need to put a hanger at the end or get someone to do it for him. Overtime that could cause a leak.

Make sure your fireplace flue is rated for logs prior tp burning them. If the fireplace was originally set up for gas and fake logs the fle pipe may not be rated for actual wood logs.

Checks out. I thought of a gas grill interior when he showed it.

I was stressing out about that unsupported pipe as well.

Oooooooh, Laurence. See - so much to learn when ya buy a house. When I was looking for my first home to buy, my mom (then in her 60s) said "there are a lot of benefits to renting". She then listed some of the routine maintenance & surprise disasters that homeowners have to deal with but renters "just" call the landlord/maintenance folks. Within a few years, I was saying that same thing to my friends. There really are a LOT of benefits to renting!

@@karikells Yeah ... just call the landlord. But you have to have a landlord that wants to put money into the maintenance of the house, not all do.

He also gets more comments from homeowners and specialists teaching him about his home.

Don’t feel bad. It’s not something I planned on doing either. Especially at 7:30 on a Saturday morning. And I don’t even have a house. I’m thinking of moving into a tiny home on wheels. AKA a van!

You didn't watch a video about furnaces. You watched a video about someone who rarely blinks and his blatant ignorance about home appliances in the U.S.

@@user-vm5ud4xw6n Down by the river, perhaps?

@@snappybabby4646 Well, at least he was modest about his ignorance; we have plenty of people getting all loud about theirs. My next step is to become ignorant and turn a profit; seems to work well for politicians in both countries I daresay.

Even if he did, there's breakers. Turn off the electric, adjust, turn it back on. I mean I know he said he's having it looked at but there's a huge chasm between current electrical code and wildly unsafe. Unless they paid cash they got it Inspected and it was safe enough for the bank to underwrite the loan and the homeowners insurance to cover. I too live in an old Midwestern home, my electrical is not up to current code, it is not unsafe. Code can mean dumb shit like the railing on stairs being flush to wall being current code. Or water pipes being pex instead of cast iron.

Even without AC most people likely have their thermostat fan settings set to circulate, which typically runs the fan for 30 ish percent of the time to keep the air circulated and filtered. Some people may also have a fresh air timer connected to the furnace and thermostat, the times it's set to bring in fresh air it opens a duct to the outside and forces the furnace fan to run. So tldr is just change your filters probably regardless of season. 1 inch is typically 3 months and thicker filters are typically 6 months to a year. Always check your filter dimensions and suggested change times. Higher merv ratings should be changed more often to minimize risk of burning out the fan.

He definitely has AC as there is an evaporator mounted on top of the furnace.

Yes, and more fun facts about your Gas meter @ 4:20 : Since it uses the passage of a volume of gas to measure the mass of the delivered product, it is only accurate at a certain temperature due to ideal gas laws. Your meter has some mechanical compensation wizardry that adjusts for “non standard” temperature. As temperature increases, the volume of a gas increases when pressure remains constant. Your fellow countrymen Robert Boyle and John Dalton discovered a lot of cool things (pun intended) about the behaviour of gasses related to the laws of thermodynamics. Some French dudes, namely Gay-Lussac and Clapeyron verified their work and together with the Italian Avogadro, came up with these gas “laws” See how long-dead Europeans are still influencing American appliances? Cool huh? Your meter is most accurate at 60F, which should be pretty close to the average temperature in your basement. It is interesting since 59F (15C) is the temperature of the “standard atmosphere” (at 29.92 inHg). Maybe you could do a deep dive into the construction and history of one of the meters and figure out the 1F discrepancy in “base” temperature for its compensation.

Yup, and for those living in small apartments, oftentimes the small furnace unit needs its filter replaced each and every month to be safe. Oftentimes landlords give you replacement filters for free

Yup, whatever "professional" that was did a very crappy job

I saw the same thing and about crapped my pants. If someone hangs something on that pipe...look out! Get that thing supported are just remove it completely. Its an accident waiting to happen.

Exactly what I said when he was showing it. He's got Central heat and air conditioning.

Was looking for someone mentioning the condensate pump before I commented about it lol

@@ChanceMpod Is it condensate from the A/C unit or condensate from the furnace combustion exhaust? I had assumed the latter. Maybe both?

​@@cc-to He has an 80% furnace, so it doesnt produce condensation (due to exhaust gases being too hot to condense). Furnaces with PVC pipes for exhaust are considered high efficient and produce condensation, so in that case the pump would be used for both AC and furnace, yes. In this case, his pump also handles the water from the humidifier :)

And it should have been moved to the outside of the house years ago. If the meters are inside the house the meter reader needs to come inside in order to read the meter so the gas company knows how much gas you have burned in the billing cycle and send you a bill for that amount. If no one's home when the person comes to read the meter then much bureaucracy sets in and it's rather unpleasant.

@@bunnyslippers191 True, but if they replace or replaced it with a "smart" meter, then the gas company HQ can read it without sending anyone.

Plus one for boilers and radiators in houses. Best heat ever!!

@@patrickmchose7472 yes it is!

And when you combine the two you get a hydronic forced air furnace that uses water heated externally with a boiler in place of a gas fired heat exchanger to make hot air to circulate.

Colorado people are like "double digit humidity in the winter? wow" :)

I was about to type about this and found you got it covered probably better than I would have.

It should be added that the condensate pump should be kept BELOW the level of the furnace so that the condensate can flow from the furnace. If it is raised up, the condensate will flood the inside of your furnace and eventually leak out all over your basement floor.

@@AcousticallyYours This is an 80% efficiency non-condensing furnace and does not need to drain any condensate. The pump in this installation is for the condensate drain on the A/C evaporator coil and the humidifier.

If you need to shut off the whole house gas, the valve on the left side will do that.

My dad kept a big car battery he used to power the sump pump in case the electricity went out.

The Chicago area has the benefit of the Deep Tunnel Project, a 12 billion dollar flood control project that put an end to those problems (mostly).

@@bobv2456 A big mistake in life: That Deep Tunnel project began in '60s, and I believe just ended a couple years ago. A guy could have gotten hired in his teens, had secure job for his entire life, and retired with a defined benefit pension. (I mistakenly went the college route).

That one might not have power going to it at all. It looks like a gas heater with a pilot light.

@@piratetv1 correct! And you can turn the dial while it’s running no problem at all