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Look closely behind the cable and you will see a fairly large lizard. It never ceases to amaze me what I see while inspecting. I am not sure how this guy got into this panel. There were no openings for him to crawl in through. He must have crawled in when he was little and has been living in there. I coaxed him out of the panel to the ground before shutting the panel. Funny thing happened. I finished my inspection and got into my truck ready to leave and guess who was on my shoulder. Yep Mr Lizard was right there. Anyway I took him off my shoulder and left him in the yard.
DUAL-FUEL OR "PIGGYBACK" HEAT PUMP
I recently performed a Home Inspection for a client and I saw something that you do not see much of in our area. The heating and cooling system was a Dual-Fuel Heat Pump with a gas Furnace or a "Piggy Back" Heating System. Here is how it works. The AC works just as any AC Split system heat pump would work. The AC condenser comes on and pumps the cold freon into a coil located inside of the furnace. In this case the furnace was a horizontal gas furnace located in the attic. The air flows over the cold coil and that is how you get the cold air delivered inside of the home. In the winter time the Heat pump reverses that theory and pumps the warm freon into the same coil located inside the furnace. The air flows over the coil and warm air is delivered to the inside of the home. There are also auxiliary electric heat strips located in a regular heat pump to provide additional heat to the house when the temperature is too cold for the Heat Pump to heat the house adequately. On this Dual Fuel Heat Pump The auxiliary heat is a Gas Furnace. When the temperature gets too cold for the Heat Pump to heat the house, a outside sensor/thermostat will shut down the Heat Pump and fire up the Gas Furnace to heat the house. When the temperature outside raises to a level that the Heat Pump can handle, the sensor/thermostat shuts down the Gas Furnace and turns the Heat Pump back on. The theory is that this cost to heat the home by using Gas Heat as opposed to Electric Heat Strips is cheaper when unit requires auxiliary heat to heat the residence.
Should New Homes have a Home Inspection?
I recently performed a Home Inspection on a Newly Constructed Home. During the Inspection I tested the water pressure on the house just as I do during all Home Inspections. The highest my gauge measures is 100 and the pressure pegged the gauge at 100 PSI when i tested it. The water pressure on most of the homes I inspect measure much less. I retested it and got the same reading. When I left the house I called the Water Company and asked them if that was typical pressure for that neighborhood. The Water Company sent a tech out to recheck it and found that it was measuring 100 PSI. They also said that they install pressure reducing valves on all of the services in that neighborhood when they install the meters. Apparently the reducing valve had been removed when hooking up the line from the meter to the house. I informed my client in my report and they advised the builder to have it repaired. I have seen water lines blow out fittings at this pressure before. Discovering this issue and having it repaired probably saved a lot of aggravation and money for the homeowner and the builder in the future. This is one of many examples I have experienced when inspecting Newly Constructed Homes.
