5 On Your Side

'Green' furnace fix should keep heat on for Triangle homeowners

Months after 5 On Your Side investigated problems with "green" furnaces in several Chapel Hill homes, some homeowners are seeing fixes that should keep the heat on in the winter months ahead.

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Months after 5 On Your Side investigated problems with "green" furnaces in several Chapel Hill homes, some homeowners are seeing fixes that should keep the heat on in the winter months ahead.

During February's bitter chill, several homeowners found that the homes they bought with the environment in mind could not keep up. Brand new heating systems – "green" furnaces that are 90 percent energy efficient – stopped working.

Crews have recently made relatively simple fixes that should keep temperatures high when the mercury falls.

"Five days with no heat, and then heat off and on," Eugene Stern says of his ordeal. "This, hopefully, will fix everything."

Stern and Carolyn Carlo, who both live in Chapel Hill's Briar Chapel community, are two of many area homeowners who had to go to extremes just to keep warm.

The issues arose because their green furnaces generate more condensation. During the winter, that dripping water froze, shutting down their systems.

5 On Your Side heard from dozens of homeowners using at least 12 different builders in communities throughout the Triangle.

"I mean, it's ridiculous," Carlo said. "At least now we can say, hopefully, this is going to work."

After initially trying a pipe contraption as a fix for water drainage in Carlo's garage, MI Homes eventually re-routed the drain pipe from Carlo's heater to an interior wall. Now, the pipe runs into sanitary pipes, those used for a washer or restroom, and meets the necessary building codes.

Stern got the same fix.

"It's been going on for two years, and until you got involved, nothing happened," he said.

Ed Kristensen, the local president of MI Homes, told WRAL News that the company identified a small number of homes that needed corrections. Those fixes should all be done by September.

"This is 2015. Technology has come so far, and people are left without heat because of this HVAC unit," Carlo said. "It's crazy."

On Monday, the North Carolina House of Representatives will consider a bill prompted by all of this that would change state building code. It would require municipalities and community wastewater systems to collect the condensate in a home's sanitary pipes.

A final vote of approval by the House is expected Tuesday.

Dan Tingen, chairman of the North Carolina Building Code Council, said the law is exactly what builders need. The code enforcement director for Chatham County, where Briar Chapel is located, called it a game changer.

Builders will just need a plan on how to tackle the necessary adjustments.

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