wrote:
It certainly doesn't sound safe. But how do you expect to get an
answer to that, without anyone being able to see it?

Does the configuration I described sound like a normal installation
of one of these heatilator/heatalator things? (By the way, it was
built in, not a retrofit.)

Get a qualified inspector.

Uh, have had two already. Their qualified replies: "uh...um...".

Una