Theruler
New Member
I have a TriangleTube Prestige 110 natural gas boiler that was installed in 2012. There is an intermittent gas smell that we (myself, my HVAC guy and PSEG gas company) believe to be an exhaust smell meaning the gas exhaust is coming back into the house from the boiler itself. It happens when the boiler goes into standby, but not every time. My HVAC folks have been to my house several times over last few days and they say they have checked everything and there are no major health concerns and boiler is fine.
The boiler is located in my basement in a small utility room and we generally keep that door shut. The exhaust and air intake pipes are PVC and come out of the top of the boiler, make a left turn and go right out the front of my house. The two pipes are side by side about 6 inches apart and extend about 12 inches straight out from the house. The pipes are about 30 inches off the ground. I don't think that meets specs but it never was a problem until recently. The boiler was installed by a certified dealer by the previous home owner.
HVAC guys theory: The previous owner had a row of bushes in front of the pipes, but we removed the closest bush this fall. Now that winter is here, he thinks wind is getting into the pipes and blowing exhaust back and in some case the exhaust is going right into the intake. The bush is not there to block the wind. He installed a long straight pipe on the exhaust making it about 2.5 ft in total and then installed a 90 degree elbow pointing down and an extension of 2 .5 on the intake making it further away from the exhaust and making it lower.
The smell is less, but still there a bit and the odd part is that our natural gas detector is going off a few times a day when we keep the utility room door closed. I open a window, ventilate for a bit and it clears out and does not go off again for hours or if we leave utility door open and a window open. This same detector never went off prior to extending the pipes and our gas provider came to our house 5 times and never found a gas leak of any kind.
Questions: Are we in danger? Everyone is saying "no big deal", re-plant your bush to break up the wind.
A second suggestion is to re-pipe the intake and exhaust to the side of the house or through the chimney to get it out of head-on winds. But is that really going to solve the problem? Could this be something else? A defective boiler that is pumping exhaust into house? Everything thinks it is a ventilation issue but I am not sold.
Any help appreciated!!! Thx
The boiler is located in my basement in a small utility room and we generally keep that door shut. The exhaust and air intake pipes are PVC and come out of the top of the boiler, make a left turn and go right out the front of my house. The two pipes are side by side about 6 inches apart and extend about 12 inches straight out from the house. The pipes are about 30 inches off the ground. I don't think that meets specs but it never was a problem until recently. The boiler was installed by a certified dealer by the previous home owner.
HVAC guys theory: The previous owner had a row of bushes in front of the pipes, but we removed the closest bush this fall. Now that winter is here, he thinks wind is getting into the pipes and blowing exhaust back and in some case the exhaust is going right into the intake. The bush is not there to block the wind. He installed a long straight pipe on the exhaust making it about 2.5 ft in total and then installed a 90 degree elbow pointing down and an extension of 2 .5 on the intake making it further away from the exhaust and making it lower.
The smell is less, but still there a bit and the odd part is that our natural gas detector is going off a few times a day when we keep the utility room door closed. I open a window, ventilate for a bit and it clears out and does not go off again for hours or if we leave utility door open and a window open. This same detector never went off prior to extending the pipes and our gas provider came to our house 5 times and never found a gas leak of any kind.
Questions: Are we in danger? Everyone is saying "no big deal", re-plant your bush to break up the wind.
A second suggestion is to re-pipe the intake and exhaust to the side of the house or through the chimney to get it out of head-on winds. But is that really going to solve the problem? Could this be something else? A defective boiler that is pumping exhaust into house? Everything thinks it is a ventilation issue but I am not sold.
Any help appreciated!!! Thx
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