There is something you can do(99% of them go through a sill when a basement is involved). Cut off outside, an elbow goes on(facing up, duh) then 1-2' of pipe, then a 180 so the opening faces down. Pipe gets strapped to the wall - your choice And be sure to have a piece of 1/4" screen in it. My furnace wouldn't start one time and I found 5-6 sparrows in the heat chamber, out of the way of the flames. Totally dried, light as popcorn. I figure they crawled in, then were mesmerized by the fire. Poor little feckers. The sparrows weren't the issue but they could have been.Yeah it's kind of annoying that the intake and exhaust pipes for the on-demand hot water heater are kind of low to the ground. Buts it's in the basement and those pipes are going through the sill. So only so much you can do. I was initially worried about snow drifts covering those pipes when I first moved into the house. But they face south and most of the snow storms blow from the north or NW so there aren't drifts right there by the pipes thankfully. I still keep an eye on it during heavy storms.
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