Recently NEST released a combination Fire / Smoke & CO Detector called the “Protect.” As many of you may recall NEST set many an “energy geeks” hearts & their associated blogs a flutter with their new programmable thermostat over a year ago. Personally I thought they were all a little nuts (about the thermostat) but […]
Turkeys, Pies, & Carbon Monoxide (CO)?
Wow how quickly this year has passed; with most of us getting ready to sit down and enjoy a great Thanksgiving dinner next week followed up by the Christmas Baking season. With that we would like to remind everyone with a gas stove to please use the exhaust vent (or open a window if it […]
Safety Sunday: Water Heaters, the Combustion Process & the Draft Hood
In last week’s article on Gas Water Heaters we covered the issue of knowledge or should I say lack thereof, of individuals giving advice or doing work that they are not really qualified to give or do. While we briefly covered one of the main issues surrounding Natural Draft Water Heaters, namely the Draft Hood […]
Safety Sunday: Gas Hot Water Heaters, Energy Auditors, and You
It seemed like Combustion Safety was the hot topic this week, especially as it concerned Hot Water Heaters. One in particular caught my eye and it went along the lines of… I am new at Home Performance and I am looking for some advice. I did a test in… and the water heater did not […]
Safety Sunday: Another senseless death while others live… (Carbon Monoxide)
Generally, one doesn’t start seeing news reports like this until late into October or early November… August 8th Raleigh, NC — A woman died Sunday and her husband was in an area hospital Monday after police say someone accidentally left a vehicle running in the closed garage at their Raleigh home… It appears that in […]
Safety Sunday: Combustion Appliances
In two of our most recent articles, we stated, “Each year all gas-fired appliances and the venting associated with it, should undergo a yearly inspection and be tuned up by a licensed and knowledgeable HVAC contractor certified by NCI or a similar organization. While we feel that all houses should have a carbon monoxide detector […]
Safety Sunday: Top 10 Winter Driving Tips
We are sorry to interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast… WINTER STORM WARNING: TRAVEL WILL DETERIORATE QUICKLY SUNDAY EVENING…WITH MANY ROADWAYS LIKELY BECOMING SNOW COVERED OVERNIGHT. TRAVEL ON MONDAY WILL LIKELY BE DIFFICULT AT BEST. PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS… A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED OR OCCURRING. SIGNIFICANT AMOUNTS OF […]
Guest Post: A tale of two cities – stopping a killer
Since my last guest post on BMoxieBMore, it has gone through a slight rebranding and is now known as BuildingMoxie. While at the Remodeling show, I actually met with JB from Building Moxie & he reminded me that I have an open invitation to post anytime I wanted. After catching the news on the 28th, I […]
Day 2: BPI Building Analyst Training
Oops, did we forget some equipment? Today was supposed to be split ½ in the classroom & ½ doing the field training, but without a manometer, there goes any chance of doing any field training. Overall, that was probably a fortunate thing, seeing it was raining all day here in Jersey. Needless to say, the […]
Smoke Detectors – A primer on the Options Available
In the prior article, we covered the proper maintenance of smoke detectors. One item that we mentioned was that they should be replaced after 5 years. In this article, we will be discussing the different types of alarms and options that are available, including those for the deaf or hearing impaired. There are two common […]