What Is Insufficient Heat In the Home?

One thing you should never take for granted in a home you are buying, especially an older home, is that it will have a sufficient number of heat sources. In many older houses, a single space heater might be all there is to heat the whole house.

Are you safe, from discovering this kind of problem, if you are buying a new home? Not really. I have inspected newer houses where, for one reason or another, one room had no heat duct. And with brand new homes, at least 30% of the time, I find heat ducts that supply zero warmth. Why? Well, almost always, the flex heat duct has never been connected to the furnace, it has come loose because it was poorly attached, or someone has crushed it so it is as flat as a bagel and no heat can get through it.

As a home inspector, or even for a homeowner planning to move into a home, a simple and fairly inexpensive device that is handy for checking all the ducts, while the furnace is running, is a laser thermometer. I use this tool at almost every inspection and it saves bending down to feel for heat. A person can walk through a room, and point it from several feet away, and get a reliable reading that indicates whether or not heat is coming out the supply register, the baseboard, etc.

A heating professional should be consulted, in those cases where there is insufficient heat the result of lack of maintenance, damage, installation problems or poor planning and design. Generally, heat should be available in every livable room. It is not necessary in closets or, imagine this, bathrooms. Realistically, in colder climates I think a bathroom should be heated. Sometimes the builders do that with a bathroom heat lamp. Other available means of heating a home, when it is found to have insufficient heat, include upgrading the furnace system or adding electric, propane or gas heaters to the cold rooms.

Steven L. Smith, owner of King of the House, Inc home inspection is a licensed structural pest inspector and a certified home inspector in Bellingham WA. Smith is the program coordinator for the college level home inspection training program at Bellingham Technical College.
http://www.kingofthehouse.com