HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Last Tuesday, I got a call from a homeowner in South Minneapolis who’d just spent $3,200 having a contractor blow R-60 cellulose into his attic. He was frustrated. His master bedroom was still cold. His energy bill barely budged. And when I climbed into his attic with a thermal camera on a 15-degree January night, … Read more
I got a call last Tuesday from a homeowner who’d bought a Nest thermostat at Best Buy, watched a YouTube installation video, and confidently removed the old thermostat from the wall. Fifteen minutes later, he was staring at his furnace board, squinting at a tangle of wires, realizing he had no idea what he was … Read more
Last month, I was called out to a home in the suburbs for a comfort complaint—the upstairs bedrooms were 8 degrees warmer than the downstairs in summer, and the homeowner’s energy bill had jumped $40 a month. When I opened the attic to inspect the ductwork, I found something I see at least twice a … Read more
Last August, I got a call from a homeowner in a newer subdivision — let’s call her Michelle. She’d been complaining to her builder for two years that her master bedroom was “always ten degrees hotter than the rest of the house” in summer. The builder sent out three different HVAC contractors, and every single … Read more
Last month, I got a call from a homeowner in Edina who was frustrated. His electric bill had climbed 18% in the winter, his bedroom upstairs never got warm anymore, and his HVAC system was running constantly. When I arrived to diagnose the problem, I found exactly what I suspected: a brand-new MERV 13 filter … Read more
Last Tuesday I pulled up to a house in a newer subdivision — three years old, well-insulated, decent equipment. The homeowner had called because two bedrooms were sweltering in summer and freezing in winter no matter what she set the thermostat to. When I walked through the house, I noticed something immediately: six supply vents … Read more
Last summer I got a call from a homeowner in a three-year-old house — brand new build, name-brand equipment, and rooms that couldn’t get below 80°F on a hot day even with the system running flat out. The HVAC contractor who installed the system had used all the right equipment on paper: a properly sized … Read more
Last spring, I got a call from a homeowner in Draper who was furious. She’d paid a contractor $4,800 to replace all the ductwork in her two-story home, and six months later her upstairs bedrooms were still sweltering in the summer. When I got up into that attic, I understood immediately why she was upset … Read more
If you’ve ever stared at your energy bill in disbelief, wondered why one room is always freezing, or woken up with a dry throat despite running your HVAC all night — this homeowner guide to HVAC, insulation, and air quality is exactly what you need. I’m Dana Sorensen, and I’ve spent over a decade crawling … Read more
The first time I tried to clean AC coils without damaging fins, I used a pressure washer. I know. I was a second-year apprentice, overconfident and underinformed, and within about 30 seconds I had flattened roughly 40% of the fins on a brand-new Carrier 24ACC636A condenser. The homeowner was not happy. My supervisor was less … Read more