Why is there smoke coming out of the vent pipe on my roof?
I"ve never seen this before. but yesterday I noticed white smoke exiting the vent pipe ( plumbing ) on the roof of the house. What is happening to cause this?
Is White Smoke Normal from a Roof Furnace Vent?
We just running our heater here in South Texas and we are having white smoke come out of the roof top furnace vent. But our neighbors are not. The unit is relatively new.
Furnace blower motor turns on and off repeatedly?
When the furnace blower turns off and on it is very rapid like one second. I cleaned the thermocouple and it solved the problem for about a day. Now it only shuts off once instead of 3 or 4 times. I did install a programmable thermostat but this problem started a couple weeks later.
My neighbor says my cigarette smoke enters their apartment. I gently suggested they close their windows and they asked me instead to only smoke inside with my windows closed which I obviously can't do. This is my home. Is this unreasonable?
I am answering this as a smoker who has been in a similar situation. Although I hadn’t realised it, my cigarette smoke was drifting into my neighbours’ apartment, and they protested. Once I was aware of it, I closed my windows whenever I smoked.I don’t understand why you say you obviously can’t do it, because you can. You may prefer not to, but they prefer not to smell your cigarette smoke, especially in their home. Even as a smoker, I don’t enjoy the smell of second hand smoke, though I don’t notice it when I am smoking myself. If I were a non-smoker, it would be intolerable.Edit:I see a lot of comments pointing out that it may be against the rules to smoke in her apartment. She doesn’t say that it is against the rules and the neighbours affected suggest she smokes inside. To me this indicates there in her particular case there is no such rule. However, even if there is, if her smoke is blowing into their windows, for all intents and purposes she is smoking in their apartment.And for those addressing my smoking, where I lived we didn’t have ducted air and heating systems and I lived on a different floor, so once I stopped smoking out of doors and closed my windows, it had no effect on the neighbours. They had no problems with it after that, and yes, I did check to make sure.
How do chimneys prevent rain and snow from getting in fireplaces?
There are basically three options. From least fancy to most fancy, they are:A chimney cap is just a flat rectangle, usually metal, held straight above the chimney by little legs, like an umbrella for the chimney. There's enough room between the cap and the chimney for smoke to leak out, and the metal keeps rain away. The chimney caps in this picture also has a screen to keep birds form flying into the chimney. Sometimes there is a fancy little roof on the chimney cap, just to make it look good. (image source)One disadvantage of chimney caps is that sometimes the flat surface right above the chimney can direct wind and smoke back down the chimney and into your house. So if you live in a really windy area, sometimes you have to have a chimney cowl instead. Here's a modern one for a house on a windy beach - the opening faces away from the ocean so the wind doesn't get in:(image source)Chimney cowls are also used by factories to prevent nasty chemical smoke from blowing back into the factory and screwing things up. Here are couple of industrial cowl designs not normally used on houses (no reason they couldn't be, people just don't like the look):This one spins when smoke or steam goes through it. (image source)I like this collection of different chimney cowl designs from an old catalog. (image source)Finally, the most fancy thing you can do to keep snow out of your chimney is a chimney damper. This is some sort of adjustable trap door or gate on top of your chimney you can open or close with a metal chain whenever you want to.