I recently inspected a home in which the forced air heating system had been removed and replaced with individual forced-air wall electric heaters.  For convenience the location of the old heating system registers was used as a place to install the new electric heaters.  While this was convenient, in some respects it created problems with the required clearances between the heaters and the finish flooring.  These particular heaters have a 4" minimum clearance requirement.  All of the heaters were too close to the floor which could result in overheating of the wood floors and possible fire.  While the temperature of the floor under this heater is not high enough to result in combustion, the heater was only operated for a few minutes and prolonged use of the heater would result in higher temperatures.  Carpeting installed in conjunction with this installation would compound the issue.  As previously discussed in More Pyrolysis the combustion temperature of wood is lowered by repeated heating.heater too close to floorwarm floor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

      Hopefully this was not the work of a licensed electrical contractor.

Charles Buell

picture logo

 
Post is included in group: Property Inspection Discussion

3 Comments on A new approach to heated floors.....

Good catch Charles. Often times, inspectors just check to see if the units are operational and do not take time to see if the heating system is appropriate or has the right clearances.

02/26/2008 03:34 PM by Michael Thornton - Nashville, TN area Home Inspector (Complete Home Inspections, Inc.)


Hi Charles,

So do you check on this by taking the temperature or do you unscrew the thing?  I hope they write a note on the heaters that they are not to be used for this purpose. 

02/26/2008 05:48 PM by Leslie Bloss, Seattle Real Estate Professional (Brio Realty)


Michael, sometimes you just have to go by the old "if it looks wrong it brobably is" principle.

Leslie, no inspector has all of this info in their heads.  "Specific" clearances would have to be determined  by finding the manufacturers installation instructions.  In this case they were available on-line because the heaters were fairly new.  About all that each heater would say on them is:  "install per installation instructions."

02/27/2008 09:38 AM by Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com)


Leave a response…

Name:
Notify me of new comments:
Comment:
What does the graphic say?
 
Inspector: Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector (Charles Buell Inspections.com)
Charles Buell, Seattle, WA, Home Inspector
Seattle, WA
More about me…
Charles Buell Inspections.com

Cell Phone: (206) 478-7371
Email Me
My blog is intended to provide information related to home inspections in Seattle, surrounding communities and anyone else interested. Enjoy! Subscribe to feed

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner


Links

Tags (Tag Cloud)

Archives

RSS 2.0 Feed for this blog
ATOM 1.0 Feed for this blog

Find WA real estate agents and Seattle real estate here on ActiveRain.
Disclaimer: ActiveRain Corp. does not necessarily endorse the real estate agents, loan officers and brokers listed on this site. These real estate profiles, blogs and blog entries are provided here as a courtesy to our visitors to help them make an informed decision when buying or selling a house. ActiveRain Corp. takes no responsibility for the content in these profiles, that are written by the members of this community.
© 2007 ActiveRain Corp. All Rights Reserved