Ray from Rothesay, N.B. has a rumbling sound in his hot water heating pipes. Servicemen drained them twice, thinking it was air in the pipes, but no improvement.First idea, maybe it is a bad bearing in the circulation pump. You can check that out by putting your ear right to the pump when it ki...
While visiting a viewer's basement we discovered two very dangerous things. She had mentioned that she had a heating duct that was disconnected. As we doug out the boxes and hanging coats that were in the way, we discovered a burn mark across a plastic coat cover as well as a burn right into the ...
The EcoEnergy program of homeowner grants to help retrofit homes has been brought back to life by the federal government in late September of 2011 -- part of the EcoAction initiative. I love this program and the hard workers at NRCan have done a great job of organizing it, explaining it and ma...
Radiant Heating and Convection Heating are the two primary types of ways we heat our houses. FORCED AIR HEATINGConvection heating means moving hot air -- what we usually call a forced air heating system simply heats air and moves it around the house through a system of fans and ducts. Forced air...
Our viewers have been recommending products of late. Here are three that my staff tested and I really liked.The Quiet Fill toilet valve from Korky does in fact fill a toilet differently. A regular toilet will fill with a full flow for a while then slowly the valve closes down and it gets noisie...
Over the years we have worked on perfecting each piece of our house. We have gotten the walls and windows pretty good, and have a lot of good mechanical devices as well, but several years ago Natural Resources Canada decided to help several manufacturers to get together and see if they could not...
Peter in Toronto has forced air heating but no ducts in his bathroom and finished ceilings below. He is wondering just how he can get heat to this room without ductwork.Well, Peter, the only heat available without any ductwork is electric. Actually using electricity to heat one bathroom in an a...
Darlene from Charlottetown, PEI wants to put an old 33 foot travel trailer out by the ocean and live in it, but it isn't very warm. How can she winterize this old rig?It was interesting to research the evolution of mobile homes in Canada.From the 70's to the 80's, they almost doubled their amoun...
Craig from Calgary, Alberta has built a woodworking shop in the basement of his house. He wants to cut off the sound from there that is travelling up through the heating ducts that run through the room.First, use aluminium duct tape to seal off all leaks in the ducts. More sound will travel thr...
Gregory in Grand Pre, Nova Scotia has a hot sun room while the rest of the house is relying on the furnace. How can he use the heat from the sun room in the rest of the house?You have to move the hot air around.You can buy "through the wall" fans that are actually made for moving heat from a woo...
