Photos:Furnace Exhaust / Fresh Air Adder
Furnace Exhaust Stack is at right,
Fresh Air Adder Stack is at left.
Exhaust Vapors flow right to left:
The fumes from this family's "HUD Certified as Safe" are flowing from the Furnace exhaust stack (the larger stack on the right) across to and being drawn directly into the Fresh Air Adder stack (lower left) only 3½ feet away.
-- How did HUD get away with setting their own minimum distance regulation at only 3 ft while all others like the American Gas Association, National Builders Association, all HVAC Manufacturers, State and local Codes demand at least 12 to 14 feet? (The very minimum I have found is 10 feet!) -- Did your State licensed inspector warn you? If he did not, why not?
This malfeasantly chosen short distance is pathologically dangerous, as anytime (and only when) there is fire burning (or attempting to burn) in the combustion chamber of the furnace, a damper in the Fresh Air Adder port opens into the furnace's house air blower section and allows the adjacently expelled exhaust fumes to be drawn in from the roof, mixed into and enter the home heated air supply.
With the prevailing Winter night breeze, or stillness of Manti, Utah, these poisonous exhaust vapors are drafted in by the Furnace House Air Blower Fan under its strong blower created vacuum (and at volume up to 15 cubic feet per minute) and are mixed into and dispersed in the heated air and filling the entire home, beginning at the next duct opening which empties into the bedroom where precious baby Daniel and his parents slept!
Furnace
Exhaust at right, Fresh Air Adder at left, were installed with pipe
centers at only 4 feet, so their bonnet to bonnet edge distance is only
3½ feet. -- That is designed lunacy, which is biologically ludicrous and deadly. (click photo or here to enlarge [2 meg file] and read tape measure)-- How many of you would think it is OK to place you or your child only 3½ feet away from your car's exhaust pipe and running it through the night, or worse through an entire winter, then hoping that its pooling exhaust or the breezes don't blow the fumes to you or your child and not expect to find yourself or your baby ill and struggling with headache, nausea and vomiting, failure to thrive, weakness, cognizantly impaired, or in a comma, or dead?
The
Water Heater, with its exhaust stack (up and far right) at only 7 feet
distant from the Fresh Air Adder stack in this "insane" design,
continuously contributes its 32,000 btu of burned fuel potential of
fumes to the house air all year long! (click photo or here to enlarge [2 meg file] and read tape measure)The Water Heater not only adds its 32,000 btu worth of toxins to those of the Furnace as the Furnace burns through 90,000 btu of fuel to heat the house in the winter, but it continues to poison the house air all of the rest of the year as the Air Conditioning mode of the Furnace assembly also opens the Fresh Air Adder's damper and allows the AC activated blower to draft into the home the fumes of the Water Heater stack at only 7 feet distant, and just above the Fresh Air Adder.
(These Water Heater and Furnace stack positions, also being short and just below the ridge, increases the poisoning capacity of the Water Heater and Furnace exhausts through "barometric compression and capping" -- I will add an expletive diagram as soon as my time permits. Questions: Tom Rodgers, 801-298-9095).
tlr 4/18/08
To view video showing exhaust in motion: click top photo or here,
Videos added 5/7/08:
Video 1a.FLV 3/31/08 -- Water Heater Vapors (2 min in FLV) passing / entering Fresh Air Adder
Video 1b.FLV 3/31/08 -- Excellent capture of Furnace Vapors (FLV) entering Fresh Air Adder
Video 1a.MOV 3/31/08 -- Raw camera file of 1.a (large file, takes considerable time to load)
Video 1b.MOV 3/31/08 -- Raw camera file of 1.b " " "
or see all with more explanation on home page.
Videos added 5/7/08:
Video 1a.FLV 3/31/08 -- Water Heater Vapors (2 min in FLV) passing / entering Fresh Air Adder
Video 1b.FLV 3/31/08 -- Excellent capture of Furnace Vapors (FLV) entering Fresh Air Adder
Video 1a.MOV 3/31/08 -- Raw camera file of 1.a (large file, takes considerable time to load)
Video 1b.MOV 3/31/08 -- Raw camera file of 1.b " " "
or see all with more explanation on home page.