To locate your furnace vent, you can consult blueprints or manuals, look for indicators such as a metal grate on the floor or wall near the furnace, or follow the air flow. Venting a furnace is both a legal requirement and a safety and health obligation due to the production of toxic fumes. A standard gas furnace has an exhaust vent located on the roof, while high-efficiency furnaces have two venting ports: an intake and an exhaust.
To find your furnace exhaust vent, first do a physical inspection by running the furnace and checking the exhaust at the exterior. High-efficiency furnaces have many innovations that improve their fuel-burning efficiency, but the method used to vent exhaust gases is prime among them. High-efficiency (condensing) furnaces are usually vented through the side of the home or through the roof of the home.
The intake port, also known as the fresh-air intake, should be connected via piping to the outside. The exhaust port should be located on the sidewall of your home, although it can be found on the roof in some cases. If you need help with locating it on the roof, schedule an inspection with your nearest plumbing HVAC contractor.
To locate the vent near the top of the furnace, locate the intake and exhaust pipes, which are usually white or black PVC pipes that exit a wall near your furnace. Search for Bayvent terminations, which are essentially a wall termination made by Trane that sticks out 2 inches from the side of the furnace. They typically consist of 2″ white PVC pipe coming out of the furnace and going to an outside wall.
The current vent is near the soffits, but the risk is fairly minimal. The intake may be on the side of the house, in the form of a hood on an exterior wall. Look for a gray vent hood or a white or white vent hood depending on orientation. Get below the rising exhaust and you should be fine.
In summary, finding your furnace vent is crucial for efficient heating systems. To locate it, follow these steps and ensure your furnace is properly venting to prevent harmful fumes.
📹 Identify Fresh Air Intake Vents on Your Home | Acclaimed! Furnace Edmonton
Learn how to identify which vents on your home are fresh air intakes and which are exhausts. Learn more at …
📹 Acclaimed Furnace Venting Tip
Did you know that snow can cause your furnace not to vent properly? By removing the buildup of snow around your outdoor vents …
any air intake especially in Canada must require a damper valve which allows air to come in but prevent air to come in when not in used. This is to increase the efficiency of the home. Outside air can reach -30 degrees C and when that cold air enters the intake without the furnace being on, your home could be in big trouble!
You can also borrow your wife’s hand mirror to look at the condition of the screens (and check for wasp nest, spiders) before you put your hand in there. If the fresh air vents are an addition to an older house, make sure to caulk and or insulate any large seams around the newly installed vents to prevent mice etc..
Thank you for this article. We discovered our “fresh air intake” vent (next to A/C unit) was the entry point for rats (and their respective rat mites). They had chewed through the screen. Any idea how I correct this issue is greatly appreciated. Home purchased four months ago, and has a 1-year warranty covering the A/C unit as well as pest control if that helps any feedback. Thank you.
That is a massive flue for a furnace? LOL what size unit is that. One question I have and no one seems to answer is on the intake. That basically pulls air into the furnace, so if the outside air is smoke filled will the odor come into the mechanical room? I assume most of the air is burned off in combustion but curious about odors. Where I live people use chimney a lot and outside the homes is pretty thick with smoke fumes in winter, would not want that sucked inside. Cheers
Do you have any suggestions for combating too much wind around the pipes? Where we live the wind pretty much goes in all directions and the furnace seems to act up when its very windy. It’ll start to hum but never actually starts blowing then the humming just stops after anywhere from a few to several minutes. We’ve had quite a few service technicians out and it never seems to get fixed. Can get very cold and frustrating.
I have goodman furnace and the exhaust and air intake run different direction. Furnace not heating. Called a technician checked the operation and notice both intake and exhaust run different direction. Undone the air intake from the furnace as a temporary fix. Furnace started heating the house. I am getting different opinions on this issues. Please advise thanks
0:40 ? Or why not pipe it higher up so you don’t have to watch it like a hawk? Maybe your in a southern state and that’s why it looks like the intake is about 12″ from the ground, I get it but…..Most state building codes say 12″ higher than anticipated snow accumulation, and most of us have seen snow drifts/banks that can build up about 30″ high around the house when it’s only 10″ on the open surfaces. Then (like mine) the house next door’s driveway is next to the furnace exhaust side and they have nowhere to shoot their snow out of their massive snowblower except toward my house, so guess where it goes? Yep, they shoot it right up against the side of my house (where the furnace’s exhaust is located). I’m thinking about attaching a big 6’x’8 piece of PVC lattice against my side of the fence where my exhaust is, like they say, good fences make good neighbors.
We need furnaces that alternate the intake and exhaust ports every cycle so that any frost building up is melted on the next cycle.. have both pipes exit building in same fashion and they cycle then problem solved.. engineers, get on this… tired of going outside every 12-24 hours to clear out my intake when below 0F and windless.. eventually will be too old or crippled up to do this… and when going out there in -25F temps with windy condition easy to do damage to one’s self especially if fall on that ice…
I am surprised by the number of people that are looking for ways to prevent snow from blocking the intake/exhaust. Per most furnace installation instructions, the vent pipe terminations should be at least 12″ above the highest anticipated snow level. PVC is so cheap, why do so many installers not extend the pipe up?
Access difficult to get to when snows. Is it ok to add extensions and raise well above ground to avoid the drifting snow from blocking? I dont want to constrict airflow by raising another 1-2 feet off ground if this will cause a problem, not concerned how it ‘looks’, im guessing thats why they put them so low to the ground in the first place? Tnanks
They require screens by me.. No way the intakes are high enough for the weather there… I’m going to assume that is a dryer exhaust vent to the right of the intake and that was the only place to put the vents.. So I will give them a pass on the very low intake… But the far one looks like the dryer exhaust is above the furnace exhaust and to the left so I wonder what their excuse would be…especially even more in a corner because of drift…looks like they are far enough away from each other in the back at least 2ft by me
My HE Lennox was installed two years ago. The out/in pipes were the same as the previous, and I’ve had the vent freeze over (southern manitoba)about 4 times, a straight 3″ pipe extending a few inches from the wall. I’ve seen many of a schnorkel configuration, elbow, pipe up and elbow. This would give drain back of condensation or just more place to freeze? I used to run back with drill, spade bit, make a hole when the Lennox started emailing me. Right now I’m recovering from a car crash away from home and dread any messages while I’m recovering
All districts and manufacturers have different codes and specifications. It is important snow doesn’t get too close to the intake, but is never something that can guarantee a big snow storm will not result in snow pilling up or drifting up higher than expected. Thankfully high efficiency venting through the side of the house is easy to monitor and correct if needed. Thank for the comment!
Not happy with this system. We have snow that is waist deep. Every year we’ve had storms so bad we could not get out our doors. Drifts also make it impossible to get to the vents. This was the stupidest idea ever! Someone needs to come up with an acceptable fix or there needs to be a class action lawsuit against the manufacturers and everyone selling this system..