We have a new furnace located in the basement with a PVC exhaust pipe. The exhaust exits the house through the wall at the floor joists and is turned down toward the ground with a 90 degree elbow. Is this a common practice? I just assumed that it would exhaust through the roof as the old systems did. I sure don't want to have to worry about carbon monoxide.

Thaks for any input.

I haven't seen enough of those systems to know if it is a common practice or not. The only problem I see is the chances of it being blocked by snow. How high is it off the ground? Once outside, the CO and other products should be quickly dissipated.

When furnaces relied on the hot gases rising and drawing in fresh air for their combustion air supply, it was important to have a pipe going up beyond the roof. With the modern forced draft furnaces, the long way to the roof only adds restriction.

The house is built into a hill and the vent is a good 24 inches from the ground. We don't get much snow and on that side of the house we won't have a problem with drifting so that shouldn't be a problem.

PVC vent pipe is now the norm w/ new high efficiency furnaces. They basically all have power vents that push the air to exhaust. As far as the vent height outside, if it is installed to manufacture specs. You'll be fine. To find out if it is to spec, see if the installer left the furnace info. Should be in a packet w/ warranty cards, etc. Sometimes they leave the installation manual.
With all the safety devices on new furnaces, if there are any problems w/ vent blockage, the furnace will not ignite. For safety sake, do install a CO detector in the house if you do not already have one.

Nothing is turned on yet but I have the CO detector and the propane detector in place. I don't want to take a chance.

Thanks for your in put.