A Heating Inspection is designed to ensure the house is properly heated and maximum efficiency is achieved. Unless the house you are interested in is located in the sunbelt, all finished rooms should have adequate provisions for heating. Depending on the type of heating, during your heating inspection you will likely find either a radiator or a heat register. If you don’t see any, ask the seller how the rooms are heated. The house might be heater by radiant panels in the floor, walls or ceiling, which would not be visible, Adding heat to a room by extending the existing heating system can be quite costly.
If there is a heat system, check to see whether it is properly located. In order to achieve maximum efficiency, radiators and heat supply registers should be located on an exterior wall, preferably below a window. By locating it below a window, the heat can mix with the cooler outside air that normally infiltrates the interior from around the windows.
Heating Inspection Checklist – Items to be Inspected
A full home heating system inspection consists of an evaluation of the operation of the boiler or furnace, the condition of the distribution system (if visible), the burner, and heat outlets – either radiators or registers. During the interior inspection, check each room to see whether there is a heat outlet and if there is, whether it is properly located for maximum efficiency.
Check the area below the radiators for any signs of leakage, then check the dampers in registers for ease of operation. In addition, distribution piping ducts (often visible in the basement, attic, crawl space and garage) should be checked for leaky joints and insulation. Check the thermostats for type, condition and location, making sure they are not in a draft. An automatic clock-type thermostat is generally more convenient, and if used properly it will allow for considerable fuel savings. If the thermostat is loosely mounted it should be resecured.
Note that if there are two or more thermostats it does not necessarily mean the house has a multi-zoned heating system. Yes, a house with a multi-zoned heating system will have more than one thermostat, but the number of heating zones should be verified when inspecting the boiler or furnace. With a system based on hot water heaters, the zones are controlled by electrically operated valves, circulating pumps or a combination of the two. With a warm air system, the zones are controlled by electrically operated damper motors.
After checking the thermostat(s), check the condition of the smoking pipe – the horizontal section of sheet-metal pipe that connects the boiler or furnace to the chimney. Sometimes, however, the boiler or furnace is connected directly to a prefabricated metal chimney, so there will be no horizontal run. When there is, the pipe must have a slight upward pitch from the boiler or furnace to the chimney. If the pipe is long, check to see whether it is properly supported to prevent sagging sections. Moreover, the pipe should not have corrosion holes, and the joints between sections should be tight. Since this pipe gets very hot, it should not be close to any combustible material.
A very important item on the home heating system inspection checklist is checking whether there is an adequate supply of air for ventilation and combustion for the heating equipment. When the heating system is located in an unfinished basement or other such unconfined space there is generally sufficient air infiltration so that air supply is not a problem, but if it is located in a confined space such as a small furnace room, provisions must be made for an adequate air supply.