Neighbor is driving me nuts. New guy moved up here from Michigan, thinks he knows it all, is getting a real education.
First off I told him to not store things in his boiler room. Did not listen, put racks in there and hung clothes above the boiler. Luckily his son was working in the garage when the fire started. The kid threw all the clothes out into the snow, once he got the fire out.
Second I told him to have an expert tune up his boiler every summer during the non heating season. His commit when the boiler quite last month. "Well it worked fine last winter, never missed a beat, should have been able to continue this year if I did not mess with it". Wrong, soot buildup in the stack, and between the heat exchanger portion caused the boiler to overheat and burn up the control unit. Had to get a new control unit installed. Then after the boiler mechanic left he thought the boiler guy had set the limit switches too high. There was no reason to heat the water to 180, his system worked fine in Michigan at 160 so he lowered the setting. I argued with him, no it needs to be at 180, but he refused to accept that. His daughter was always complaining that her room was too cold and would not heat up like the rest of the house.
Third He wanted a wood stove installed, just to look at, and in an emergency it could keep the house warm if the heat went off. I told him that was a good idea. I showed him where the best location would be for installiation. The location where heat would be best utilized to heat the whole house. In the basement Den, directly under the living room. Oh No, he wanted it up in the living room where people could see it, and it would give asttetic value to the home. He placed it in the living room. Since he installed it in the living room the entire family likes the way it keeps the living room warm, so everyone now spends all their time in the living room. No one goes down into the den anymore.
Last night he called about 9 PM House was cold downstairs and just would not heat up. I went down. The temp was 58 below. When I got there the pipes in the basement were frozen. With the heat from the wood stove upstairs no one had noticed how cold the basement was getting. We started thawing pipes with hair dryers and heat guns. Kept having to move the heat guns, he felt they should be closer to the pipes to better thaw them. I could not get it through his head that the heat guns get a lot hotter than hair dryers, and will put out air at 1000 degrees. Good way to start a fire. He did char a couple of 2X4s in the walls. Got the water flowing, but noticed that the heater beside the front door, and the one in his daughters room kept wanting to freeze up. He had the boiler set so low that by the time the water made the full circuit it had lost all it's heat and was cooling to freezing. Went and set the boiler back up to 180. Got his son and daughter and showed them what he had done and explained it to them. They will see that he keeps his hands off the controls from now on.
Got a call this morning, he needed a ride to the hardware store. Something was wrong with both his truck and his wifes van. I went down and picked him up. On the way to the hardware store he leaned over and told me I had the same problem with my car. The Check Engine light was on. I informed him that all vehicles with ERG valves and those lights will show a problem when the temp passes 40 to 45 below. It's not a big deal, ignore it till the temp gets back up into the -20s then reset by disconnecting the battery over night. His response, "Oh no it can't be that simple, something has got to be wrong". If his kids were not such great people I'd chock him.
Then there is the well. When he moved in he did not understand why there was timers and switches next to the well pump. I explained those were for the heat tapes going to the well. He laughed saying the well head is insulated and does not need to be heated. A family uses enough water to keep it from freezing anyway, plus the pipe was three feet below ground, that was enough to keep it from freezing too. I told him our frost line is 4 feet, he would not believe that, it's no colder here than it is in Michigan. He knows he spent three winters in Anchorage when in the Air Force. OK!
This afternoon he called he has no water. I asked about the heat tapes. They are not plugged in. I told him to plug them in and it will usually take about two hours for the pipe to thaw. Genny his daughter called back and asked me to come down, her dad has gotten everything screwed up. I went down. All the wires to the heat tapes were gone. He had cut them off to use during the summer in the green house to wire in some fans. Genny and I went to the hardware store to get some wire to replace to the heat tapes. When we got back, there is her father pulling the heat tape out of the well. Darn, once a heat tape has been used down a well the wire gets brittle and will break easily. If it is ever pulled out of the well the odds are it will never work again. Genny who is 23 and finishing up college went off on him. Threatening to send him back to Grandma back in Detroit. Thought for a minute she was going to lay him out she was so mad. Anyway she ran him back into the house and told him to not touch anything. She and I went back to the hardware store for a well heat tape. We installed it and got the one from the well to the house working again as well. The well should thaw in a few hours. Genny, her brother and their Mom came up here to shower and get ready for bed. They would not let him come up here. Genny is threatening to make him sleep in his precious green house tonight.
Genny and his wife have decided the wood stove needs to be in the basement so it can heat the whole house. The incident last night showed them the error of putting it in the living room upstairs. Since he won't move it they are going to get another one and put it in the basement. I gave them the design I had drawen up for him when he started talking about a wood stove. The location and type of stack needed.
