If anyone needed a reminder, Hurricane Sandy showed just how important plumbing and heating contractors are to disaster recovery. With winter around the corner and hundreds of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed, contractors scrambled for months to keep up with the demand for replacement equipment in flood-soaked basements.
In New Jersey, the rapid replacement of so many furnaces and boilers drew attention to another common household hazard: The carbon monoxide risk posed by “orphaned water heaters” when an old furnace or boiler is replaced by a high-efficiency power-vented one. Recognizing the danger, the state’s Clean Energy Program took action by offering contractor training, consumer education and cash rebates for simultaneous replacement of space- and water-heating equipment.