HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Dana Sorensen · June 28, 2026
Six minutes on, twelve minutes off, then on again — that’s the pattern I pulled from the compressor’s runtime log on a scorching afternoon last August, sitting in a homeowner’s hallway while she waited for an explanation. Her brand-new 5-ton central air system, installed just three weeks prior and far from cheap, had her thoroughly … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 27, 2026
Nearly every homeowner who asks whether radiant barriers actually work assumes the answer lives inside the product itself — foil that’s either legitimately reflective or a shiny gimmick. It doesn’t. After more than a decade climbing into scorching attics, I got away with answering that question with a shrug and an anecdote for far too … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 27, 2026
My own house is the test case I keep coming back to whenever this question comes up. Two stories, four bedrooms, built in 2004, one HVAC system trying to serve both floors off a single thermostat mounted downstairs. Last August I finally walked it with a probe thermometer just to settle the argument with myself. … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 27, 2026
Here’s the blunt truth: a maintenance visit that skips the one part actually causing your problem isn’t maintenance at all — it’s a wasted afternoon and a bill you shouldn’t have paid. That’s exactly what a homeowner learned last October when her furnace quit overnight, right as outdoor lows sank into the 30s, just six … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 27, 2026
I still have a screenshot saved on my phone from last spring — the kind of evidence that sums up an entire argument in a few lines. A homeowner’s neighbor snapped a photo of smoke rolling out of her garage and texted it to her mid-afternoon, while she sat at a desk forty minutes across … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 26, 2026
“It just quit sometime overnight” — that’s what she told me, standing in the doorway of her utility closet while I already had the air handler panel pulled off its screws. This was July, deep in a heat advisory, and her central air had gone silent sometime between midnight and morning. The blower motor shaft … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 26, 2026
47 ppm and climbing — that’s what my combustion analyzer read the second I cracked open the burner compartment on Karen’s furnace, and the hairline crack running across the heat exchanger explained the rest. She’d spent the previous night fighting a headache and a queasy stomach, blaming bad takeout, before finally drifting back to sleep … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 26, 2026
A hot compressor humming away doesn’t mean it’s dying — nine times out of ten, it’s a fifteen-dollar part standing between “system down” and “cooling again.” I proved this to myself again on a scorching Tuesday in late July, the kind of afternoon where the driveway feels soft underfoot and the phone won’t stop buzzing … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 25, 2026
One number stuck with me from this visit: zero. That’s how many dehumidifiers this particular homeowner actually needed — even though he’d already clicked “buy” on one before he ever called me. He’d spotted condensation beading up on his attic sheathing during a routine winter check, and his gut reaction was to order an attic … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 25, 2026
Why does the AC always seem to give out on the single hottest afternoon of the year? Because it wasn’t actually “giving out” — it was already struggling for weeks, and the heat just finished the job. Last June a homeowner near me found that out the expensive way: mid-50s, handy with tools, and still … Read more