HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Last June, I got a call from a homeowner in my area — nice guy, mid-50s, handy with tools. His AC had just stopped cooling on the hottest day of the year. The repair bill? $189 for a service call, plus $45 in parts. The actual problem? A clogged drain line and a filthy evaporator … Read more
I’ve been crawling around in hot attics for over a decade, and the question I get more than almost any other is this: do radiant barriers actually work, or are they just shiny snake oil? Last summer, I finally ran my own radiant barrier attic hot climate test with real temperature probes, real data, and … Read more
I’ve been doing combustion safety inspections for over fifteen years, and the call that still haunts me came from a family in a suburb outside of Salt Lake City. Mom, dad, teenage daughter — all three of them had been seeing their doctors on and off for nearly four months. Persistent headaches, crushing fatigue, nausea … Read more
Here’s a mistake I see constantly: homeowners spend $2,000 or more on new attic insulation, only to wonder why their energy bills barely budge. I’ve walked into dozens of those attics and found the same problem every time. The insulation went in first — and the air leaks were never touched. Getting the air sealing … Read more
Last spring I got a call from a homeowner in a 1960s ranch-style house — great bones, well-maintained, no obvious red flags. She’d just had a new gas furnace installed by another company and wanted a second opinion on a slight smell near the utility room. When I arrived, I tested the space and found … Read more
I got a call last winter from a homeowner named Greg who had already had the fire department out to his house three times in six weeks. Three times. Each time, the crew showed up, swept the house with their meters, found nothing, and left. The fire marshal on the last visit told Greg his … Read more
I got a call last spring from a homeowner named Karen — it was 2:47 in the morning, and she was standing outside her house in her robe, her two kids in the car, engine running in the driveway. She’d heard her CO detector beeping and did exactly what she was supposed to do: got … Read more
Last spring, I got a call from a homeowner in a suburb outside Salt Lake City — nice family, two kids, three-bedroom ranch with a finished basement. They’d just had a small kitchen fire, caught it early, no injuries. But here’s what got me: not a single detector in the house had gone off. Not … Read more
Last spring, I got a call from a homeowner in a suburb outside Salt Lake City. She’d been having headaches every morning for three weeks — the kind she wrote off as seasonal allergies or dehydration. Her husband felt fine. Her teenage son felt fine. But she worked from home and spent her mornings in … Read more
A few years back, I got called out to a house in the suburbs — routine HVAC inspection, nothing dramatic. While I was up in the attic checking ductwork, the homeowner mentioned her smoke detector had been chirping. She figured it was a low battery. I climbed down, walked over to the hallway detector, and … Read more