City inventor makes a cover for PVC flues
By Richard Mize, Real Estate Editor
Ken Brown hasn’t invented a better mousetrap, but the E-Cap is close – for birds and rooftop squirrels. Brown’s invention is infiltrating the heating-ventilation-air conditioning industry, one HVAC contractor at a time. Once they see the E-Cap, a cap for open-air rooftop PVC ventilation pipes, or to replace unsightly makeshift covers, contractors come calling, he said. “That’s what we’d been waiting for,” said Don Treece of Don Treece Heating & Air Conditioning in Bethany. PVC flue pipes started becoming common on rooftops in the 1990s, Brown said, when 90 percent efficient central heating systems came along. The increased efficiency reduced heat output, which allowed PVC to be used for ventilation instead of metal pipes, for which covers are common. No one ever came up with a simple way to keep rain, twigs, leaves and birds and squirrels, out of PVC pipes – either exhaust or intake – until Brown, who was working for KIRA Inc., the family housing maintenance contractor at Tinker Air Force Base, invented one.
A simple ventilation cap invented by a Tinker mechanical contractor has the potential to save base housing residents lots of headaches and the Air Force thousands of dollars.