What's Wrong With This Picture? A Very Cozy Attic

ANSWER: Hole in Heating/Cooling Plenum

Here’s a picture of a heating/cooling plenum with a large 6-inch hole it the top found during an inspection. The inspector, Mark Konschak of our Philadelphia inspection team, assumed it must have been originally cut for another supply.

The townhouse, in which this issue was found, was 13 years old and the plenum was right next to the attic access. It was 19 degrees out with 6 inches of snow on the roof during the inspection. But to his surprise, the attic was nice and cozy when entered!

When Mark returned to the house two days later to pick up the radon monitor, it was the only house on the block with little to no snow on the roof. One can only imagine how much heating and cooling was wasted in the attic during those 13 years. The buyers were very happy that Mark told them that a $5 fix could save them up to a couple hundred dollars a year in electric and gas bills.

Thanks, Mark, for submitting this picture for our library! How could the existing homeowners have avoided wasting their money for all those years? Here's a great blog post about how every homeowner should take some time to get to know his or her attic because our attics can reveal a wealth of information about our homes.