What are these in my furnace ducts?

[M.Burns]

We've got a rental house we're fixing up to sell. Probably 15 years ago a previous owner converted a porch to an enclosed bedroom. He ran two furnace duct extensions from the basement, thru a garage, then up thru the floor. Just ahead of that, I notice a plug plugged into a 110-v outlet, that leads to a split, contacted by electrical twist connectors, that lead into the two added furnace ducts. One wire just goes through what looks like a little metal grommet. The other wire goes to the furnace duct thru what looks like a little solenoid-looking thing (about half the size of an automobile thermostat). It appears to even have miniature numbers ..or possibly a dial. (I know I'll at least have to clean up the connections for any electrical inspector that may see it before the sale). Any idea what these are? MB

[jim]

dont know what it is, but from your description it might be called a "RATS NEST"

[m Ransley]

Possibly a booster blower

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

Sounds like a Booster fan like Ransley said.

TURTLE

[Joseph Meehan]

And most likely used them to try and get a poorly designed extension of the heating system to work, which likely does not work well.

[TURTLE]

This is Turtle.

i was thinking that but i just don't like to bust peoples bubbles when they are hoping to sell something without problem. What you don't know is a problem. You don't have to fix it.

TURTLE

[Joseph Meehan]

TURTLE wrote: ...

Good point.

[M.Burns]

I'll bet your right. I wonder if the outlet is only live when the furnace blower kicks on? I'll go back and check. Otherwise, might the booster be activated when it senses some initial weak air flow? Thanks for the tip. I'll also check with an HVAC company nearby. MB