Evaluate the Home Systems

所以你喜欢房子的样子和相信足迹将适应您的家庭需求。但它是如何运作的？

Let’s examine the house’s infrastructure:

Heating and Cooling Systems
以下是您应该问的问题：

1. 正在使用什么样的系统？
2. How old is it?
3. What kind of condition is it in?
4. How much does it cost to operate?

I’m not suggesting that you pursue or walk away from a house based on the answers you receive, but it’s worth figuring in the cost of future replacements as you debate the merits of one house versus another.

普通的加热和冷却系统包括氢气，温暖，天然气，油和电气。让我们一对一地带走它们。

Hydronic Systems.Hydronic heating systems transmit heat via hot water or steam. A boiler (powered by electricity, natural or propane gas, or oil) heats the water, which is then circulated by a pump via pipes to the radiators or baseboards of the house. You’re better off with forced hot water than with steam. The cons that come with steam heating are: uneven heat distribution, drying the air, slow response, noise, and inefficiency. Many newer homes will not use steam heat but older houses will.

Warm-Air Systems.温暖的系统可以使用电，气体或油作为其主要燃料源。最常见的热空气系统是强制空气。它是如何工作的：风扇或鼓风机通过房子从炉子中循环温暖的空气。另一种类型的温暖系统是重力系统。你知道热量升高吗？井的重力系统是基于暖空气升高的可能性。你会发现这些系统主要用于older houses. Their drawbacks, compared to forced-hot-air systems are that you’ll need a huge furnace in the middle of the basement and considerable duct-work. Not only are they inefficient, you can’t run central air-conditioning through them. For these reasons, if the house you’re considering has a gravity system, you should plan to replace it.

Natural-Gas Systems.Heat is transmitted from the furnace to the distribution system via a heat exchanger. To find out how energy-efficient your gas furnace is, you can check the Annual Fuel Utility Efficiency Rating. If you’re evaluating newer equipment, by law it will have a bright yellow “Energy Guide” which will show the anticipated annual cost to operate the unit.

油系统。While a furnace that is powered by oil is similar to one that is powered by gas, the difference is that your fuel will be delivered by truck versus automatically being piped into your house from an outside gas line. Because oil doesn’t burn as cleanly as gas does, oil furnaces require regular cleaning for optimal operation.

Electric Systems.Here’s what’s different about electric systems versus gas and oil systems: Electric systems do not involve combustion and thus do not produce exhaust. Most of the time, electricity will be the most expensive option. There are electrically powered heat pumps, which can both heat and air condition the house. You’ll find them mostly in warmer climates because they’re not sufficient on their own in terms of heating the house’s interior when temperatures fall below 25-30 degrees Fahrenheit.

Heating and Cooling Systems: Costs
When you evaluate a potential house, pay attention to its heating and cooling costs. Energy costs fall just after housing payments and food costs in most household budgets. You’ll need to know how much it will cost to operate.

提示：要求至少看到过去两年的公用事业账单。

它不仅是“绿色”的方式去做事情,但you’ll save yourself money if your house is more energy-efficient. For minimal or no cost, you can ask the utility company to conduct an energy audit. This audit might suggest insulating the hot water pipes or replacing the furnace, both of which could help reduce your energy costs.

Should You Replace the Temperature Control System?
根据您检查房屋的一年中的哪个时间，更不用说可能有效的不寻常的天气模式，可能或可能无法确定房屋的温度控制系统是否正常工作。常规家庭的一部分inspection by a professional家庭检查员涉及通过将其打开并让它运行几个小时（或在温暖的一天）来测试加热系统。确保在检查员的报告中找到对此测试的引用。这是不幸的，但你不能对空调系统进行类似的季节性测试，因为测试冬季死亡中的空调可能会导致严重损坏。如果您发现自己处于此职位，您可能希望在托管账户中留出一些钱供向未来的房屋维修。

不要做出假设。也就是说，更大的加热和冷却系统不一定更好 - 事实上，如果它对于房屋的需求太大，则它将效率低下且昂贵。您可能会更好地与较旧的系统更好，这与被忽视的较新的系统相反。这说，如果维护是相同的，更新的系统将比更有效，不太可能成为一个麻烦的源泉，更有可能仍然被保修所涵盖。

当然，如果房子的炉子不起作用，你必须更换它。如果它是一个让您的房屋系统更节能的问题，在确定您的投资会何时会何时何时何时何时会进行速度，您将需要收拾一些数字。你将想到更换的成本，节省能源成本，以及你预计生活在房子里有多少年。首先考虑更多的微小改进，例如添加绝缘或采取保护措施。

The House’s Insulation
如果您正在考虑极端温度暴露的房屋，您应该肯定会询问insulation.

Questions you should ask:

1. Is the house insulated?
2. What kind of insulation is being used?
3. 房子里存在多少绝缘体？
4. 绝缘在哪里（屋顶，阁楼，侧壁）？

One of the best types of insulation is fiberglass though there are other effective types such as cellulose or foam (rigid foam, foam board, and poured-in foam). If you learn that the house has been insulated with urea formaldehyde (UFFI) or that asbestos insulation surrounds the hot-water pipes, you should investigate this further and make this part of your negotiations with the seller.

The Hot-Water Heater
“You used up all the hot water!” Ideally, this is a phrase that you won’t be hearing in your future home. Your hot water heater should be able to accommodate your needs, such as taking a hot shower while you’re running the dishwasher. What’s important to find out is how long it takes the unit to reheat the water from a starting position of empty.

Oil-fired and gas-fired water heaters are efficient and are quick to reheat. Thus a thirty-gallon holding tank should be adequate for your needs. Electric heaters, on the other hand, are slower to reheat and therefore are usually accompanied by a sixty-gallon tank. Assess your family’s needs, and if there are teenagers in the house, figure that into the equation!

Water Service and Supply
Where does the water for the house come from? A municipal water system? A well? A nearby lake? (beware of this last scenario as drinking-water problemsare likely to be an issue). You should be asking a different set of questions if the water for the house is connected to a municipal water and sewer system versus having its own well.

Questions to ask if it’s connected to a municipal water and sewer system:

1. 最近有什么问题，用水量或水供应吗？
2. 水和下水道的服务费用是什么？要问房子是否拥有自己的问题：a）有井干燥吗？b）最近是否已经测试了水进行了可执行性？如果您正在考虑在房子上发出要约，请将水从实验室进行测试，以便确定它是safe to drink. Not only will the lab be able to tell you about safety, it will also tell you if the water is hard or soft.
3. Is a lot of salt used on the street or road during the winter? (If the answer is yes, you’ll want to find out where the drains are in relation to the water source in order to determine the likelihood of the well’s becoming contaminated.)
4. 在与井有关的情况下，脓毒田（您或其他人）在哪里？
5. Are there or were there gasoline-storage tanks near your house? (As old gasoline-storage tanks disintegrate, toxic amounts of petroleum products are released into the watershed and therefore into the well water.)
6. 什么是井的能力？(Related questions involve how much water is dispensed, how quickly, how long it takes to refill, and if there’s variability in the supply depending on the season.) Note that if a well doesn’t supply enough water for two showers to occur at the same time during a fifteen to thirty minute period, you should think about buying a larger reserve tank.

Tip: A water capacity test can be conducted by a home inspector or a water-testing lab. There are contractors who specialize in water and septic systems. You should make sure that your Purchase and Sale agreement notes the requirement of a satisfactory assessment of the water supply.

Septic Systems
If the house is served by a septic system, as opposed to being connected to the municipal sewage system, ask the following questions:

1. How old is the septic system?
2. Have there been any problems with the septic system?
3. 系统如何泵出来频率？（过于频繁或过于频繁的维护可能是一个问题，而每两到五年都是理想的。一个带污水池和没有浸出场的老房子将不得不经常泵送系统。）

提示：雇用一个独立的化粪包承包商，由您认识的人推荐与经纪人或卖方进行测试，以测试化粪池系统。该测试将涉及抽出系统，看看那里的浪费和运行染料测试，以确认系统是否应该流动。

如果房子的污水池比二十五年或三十年年龄大，你可能需要用新的化粪池系统替换它。

房子是否连接到市政system or has its own well and septic system, you’ll also want to find out about the condition of the house’s plumbing to make sure the pipes are to-code, not lined with lead, and not so narrow that they negatively impact the water pressure in the house.

Electrical Service
You should check the number and location of electrical outlets as well as that the service in the house is adequate to meet your needs. This will depend mostly on the number and type of electrical appliances. If it seems that you’ll need to rewire the house, don’t be too concerned as the cost is important but not huge.

家庭检查员将能够告诉您：

1. If the house fails to meet code requirements
2. If the house is unsafe
3. Howold the wiringis
4. What condition the wiring is in

The wiring system may use fuses or circuit-breakers. Either is fine, though it’s easier to manage the newer circuit-breaker system, involving a simple flip of a switch back to the “on” position. But if you keep extra fuses on hand in an accessible spot with a flashlight nearby, and are prepared to change things out yourself, then either system will do.