Last week, our chimney was cleaned and given its annual inspection. I was so relieved when the man gave me the bill when he was done and no extra repairs were needed! Yippee! Just about everything in our house ends up requiring additional repairs when it's done. I'm hoping that we're getting to that point when we'll get to do more maintenance than repairs soon!
Before he cleaned the chimney, I was a little concerned about what he would find. This past spring we had a stainless steel liner put inside the furnace side of our chimney to protect the inside of the chimney from crumbling any further. Crumbles had fallen and blocked the outflow from our furnace. The furnace has a safety shut off that prevented it from running until the blockage was removed. Because one side had to be fixed, I was concerned something similar would be required for the other side.
Thankfully, it didn't. And I learned why...
The next question from the chimney sweep when I told him of the repair was whether I had a high efficiency furnace.
Yes.
How long has it been in?
Three or four years.
"I thought so." The man said and then went on to explain that the high efficiency furnaces create a lot of moisture inside chimneys--due to their efficiency. And such repairs are often required in the first few years of installing a high efficiency furnace.
Hmmm.... Interesting information. It actually made me feel a little better and not so worried about our house crumbling!
So, I thought I would post this just in case you're thinking about installing a high efficiency furnace --so you can be prepared for the coming expense ($1000-$2000 or more depending on the size of your chimney).
No comments:
Post a Comment