Furnace

Start-up tests at the Camden County incinerator spurred county residents to bring their fears about health and safety to the freeholders last night, when a string of speakers complained of problems, and potential problems, at the furnace. The plant, in Camden City, will continue its first phase of operations, so- called test-burning, until summer, when incinerator officials will seek an operating permit from the state. However, residents said that some neighborhoods had already been subjected to a suspicious-looking dust shower, that trash trucks were not adhering to designated routes, and that at least one trash truck spilled ash-residue from the incinerator onto a local highway.

A retired Philadelphia police sergeant's house was blown apart last night when his hot-water furnace exploded like a rocket, fire officials said. Miraculously no one was injured in the 6:54 p.m. blast, which rattled homes on Nestling Road near Narcissus and shot glass, wood and metal across the quiet Northeast block. "Everything's okay. Everybody got out," said James Welch, who lives across the street. "Apparently it looks like they were in the furthest room from the explosion, and that's what saved them.

Workers found human remains in a 1,800-degree furnace at a Fort Dix trash incinerator Monday, a half-hour after a civilian worker was reported missing, Fort Dix spokeswoman Dianne C. Felder said yesterday. The missing man, whose identity was being withheld pending identification of the remains, "is missing and presumed dead," said Felder. "We do not know that the remains are the remains of the missing worker," said Felder. "I don't know if they will be able to reach a conclusion (on the victim's identity)

Fire Department officials said Friday that they now know what triggered a terrifying explosion in Tacony earlier this year that claimed the life of a young Philadelphia Gas Works employee. The blast was ignited on Jan. 18 by a furnace inside Disston Chiropractic & Rehabilitation at 6932 Torresdale Ave., a Fire Department spokesman said. A 12-inch, high pressure gas main and a water main had both ruptured in the neighborhood shortly before the blast. Natural gas filled the chiropractor's office and was ignited by the furnace, the spokesman said.

The winter has been virtually snowless, but the temperatures haven't been high enough to give your furnace a three-month vacation. How well has your heat source been performing? Although replacing the furnace now - unless it has conked out and been beyond repair - is not considered wise, you might consider doing so when winter has vacated the premises. One expert, David Coulson of Napoleon Fireplaces in Crittenden, Ky., says the heating contractor first needs the size of the house and then determines the size of the furnace necessary for the space.

Deteriorated vents and pipes from an oil-burning furnace, which apparently had been illegally installed, allowed carbon monoxide to seep into a Willingboro house and kill four members of a family on Sunday, police and building officials said yesterday. The oil-burning furnace had been installed several years ago, police said. However, there was no record of any permit for the work nor of any inspection once it was completed, according to Leonard Mason, director of the Willingboro Housing Inspection Department.

The explosion that killed a 19-year-old Philadelphia Gas Works employee and injured several others in January was sparked by a furnace inside a chiropractic office, the Fire Department said Friday. The blast killed Mark Keeley, of Fox Chase, a 2009 graduate of Cardinal Dougherty High School who had followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by joining PGW. A high-pressure gas main broke shortly before 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18 on the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue, in the city's Tacony section, causing gas to accumulate in the area.

Lucas McCarthy has a problem with his furnace. There's a serial killer in it. And as movie serial killer's go, this guy, whose name is Max Jenke, shows real promise. Jenke is jailed after murdering more than 110 people, stats that would give even Ted Bundy a serious case of penal envy. When sentenced to death, Jenke's last request is to be buried with his meat cleaver. And when he's strapped in the electric chair and the juice is turned on, a scornful Jenke tells the executioner in explicit terms that the jolt was only enough to give him an erection.

Consarc Corp., of Rancocas, which was awaiting a license to export technology with possible military use, has lost a million-dollar deal because a Chinese research institute hired a foreign competitor to build a high-temperature vacuum-induction furnace. The Chinese wanted to use the furnace technology to develop more efficient grades of metals, and Department of Commerce officials were set to grant an export license, said Henry Rowan, president of Inductotherm, Consarc's parent company.

With little fanfare, the U.S. Department of Energy enacted a rule last year that will require all new furnaces installed in 30 Northern states including Pennsylvania and New Jersey to be high-efficiency models. Who would object to such a noble effort to conserve energy? Philadelphia Gas Works, for one. The city-owned utility is among several parties that have challenged the Energy Department's rule, saying that some homeowners cannot afford to install costly high-efficiency heating systems and will opt for cheaper electric or kerosene heaters.

I was going to write about Raise, a stain remover, but the suggestions for designing an efficient laundry room were so good that I thought I'd share some of them with you. I haven't thought about this for a few years, because our laundry-room setup works well, and the front-loading washer and dryer that we bought in 2006 to replace the 22-year-old models we inherited have given us little trouble. Even when I had considered replacing the clunky old sink into which the washer drains with one of those white plastic tubs, the plumbing changes would have been pricey and the drainage is all that we ask it to do anyway.

This winter has been a shifty one. One day is fair, the next, well, not particularly wintry. If the weather trends continue, spring cleanup this year should be a snap. No storm damage to worry about, for one thing; no ice dams on the roof, no clogged gutters, no overtaxed furnaces trying to keep up. Unless you've put off routine upkeep for eons, the fixes your house does require may not be as expensive as they might have been. So what you should be doing now is planning maintenance and repair tasks and setting priorities.

RINGWOOD, N.J. - State officials are closing Ringwood Manor, the historic museum in the heart of Ringwood State Park in Passaic County, for the winter after a furnace misfired and left a layer of soot covering priceless artifacts. The Department of Environmental Protection said it would work with historical conservators to ensure thorough cleaning of the interior of the manor and its contents. The furnace misfired last month, pushing soot through parts of the first and second floors, according to the DEP. The museum was home to well-known ironmasters for nearly 200 years and is part of a National Historic Landmark District.

The winter has been virtually snowless, but the temperatures haven't been high enough to give your furnace a three-month vacation. How well has your heat source been performing? Although replacing the furnace now - unless it has conked out and been beyond repair - is not considered wise, you might consider doing so when winter has vacated the premises. One expert, David Coulson of Napoleon Fireplaces in Crittenden, Ky., says the heating contractor first needs the size of the house and then determines the size of the furnace necessary for the space.

When should you repair and when should you replace? With the economic downturn keeping people in their homes longer and money ever tighter, it is a choice being considered by more homeowners these days. For example, with winter coming, and concerns about energy costs mounting, many cash-strapped homeowners are trying to figure out how to reduce the $1,900 per year that the Department of Energy says the typical family spends on utilities. A new furnace or energy-efficient windows, although both very obvious ways to lower heating costs, may not be in the budget.

Question: We have a very old home with wood siding. After years of scraping, sanding and painting, the siding has several uneven spots. Is there a technique and/or product we can apply to even out these boards? Answer: By uneven, I assume some of the boards are deeply gouged or have chunks of wood that might have been torn away in the scraping process - at least that is the experience I have had with my cedar siding. If you paint, you have a little more wiggle room than if you stain.

MARRIED 56 YEARS, they died eight days apart. Howard North Gilbert, a mechanical engineer who was involved in the Manhattan Project that developed the atomic bomb during World War II and who designed and built the largest commercial furnace in the region in the 1970s, died Sunday. He was 90. His wife, the former Ida May Bennett, a teacher in children's ministry programs, died Aug. 6. She was 84. They were living in Cartersville, Ga., but had lived many years in the Philadelphia area.

Buyers these days are very picky, and with so many existing houses for sale on today's market, they can afford to be. Agents and brokers say buyers, especially first-timers, are wary of houses that even hint of problems. These buyers feel that because they have had to stretch limited funds to cover down payment and closing costs, and with credit so tight, the last thing they need is having to replace a furnace when they move in. One answer, and the emphasis is on "one," is a home warranty, typically bought by the seller to cover the first year after the house is purchased.

The explosion that killed a 19-year-old Philadelphia Gas Works employee and injured several others in January was sparked by a furnace inside a chiropractic office, the Fire Department said Friday. The blast killed Mark Keeley of Fox Chase, a 2009 graduate of Cardinal Dougherty High School who had followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by joining PGW. A high-pressure main broke shortly before 7:30 p.m. Jan. 18 on the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue in the Tacony section, causing gas to accumulate.