Furnace Ed

I was invited years ago to speak in front of a group of furnace techs as part of their continuing education requirement. Me? I'm just a home inspector, what could I possibly teach 50 furnace techs about their own business? I was scared to death, thinking they would rip me apart. Ed Besch invited me to do this, and Ed is no dummy, nor did he want to embarrass me.

He wanted to make a point with these guys and figured I could do it.
Ed is one of the most highly respected heating consultants anywhere (being director of the Oil Heat Institute for years among many other accomplishments), as well as being a genuinely nice guy that I consider a friend. If I had half the furnace and boiler knowledge he has forgotten, I would be happy. In fact I would be happy to somehow cling to one corner of his resume and catch things as they fell off!

Ed wanted me to talk about how furnace techs tend to get myopic. We had had this conversation before, so he knew it was a pet peeve of mine also. Furnace techs unfortunately get caught up in the minutiae of furnaces, overlooking integrity of the heat distribution piping, sealing of the vents to the floor, the cold air return system, combustion air, duct cleanliness, exhaust venting, the tightness of the house, and many other factors that play critical parts in occupant safety and comfort. A house is a system. A holistic system that interfaces with the occupants and the external environment. While it has individual component pieces, it also has the greater whole. A forest for the trees kinda thing.

Here's how it went the first time I became aware of this inherent myopia: Some poor schleb homeowner called a heating contractor to come fix a problem with water running out of his furnace exhaust pipe onto the basement floor. So he did what any good heat tech would do and cut a hole in the bottom of the exhaust and ran a pipe down to a newly installed condensate drain pump. Total damage $250 and change, issue solved. Problem is he neglected to even look up on the roof, so he failed to notice the cap on the furnace's metal flue pipe was missing. Rain was pouring down. A six dollar cap would have solved the problem.