HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Dana Sorensen 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
Dana Sorensen · June 25, 2026
Early in my career, I chased a low-refrigerant diagnosis before checking anything else, and it taught me a lesson I never forgot: airflow problems mimic refrigerant problems almost perfectly, and jumping to conclusions costs homeowners real money. That lesson came rushing back last July when a homeowner named Ron — not his real name — … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 25, 2026
Search online for humidity fixes and you’ll run into two contradictory answers within the first page of results: one site tells you to buy the biggest portable dehumidifier you can carry home, another insists you need a dedicated unit installed specifically for your crawl space. Only one of those answers fits most situations, and confusing … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 24, 2026
Spring thaw always does the same thing to a house: windows crack open after months sealed tight, and that first rush of fresh air has a way of exposing exactly how stagnant everything got while they were shut. I was mid-audit at a house going through that exact transition last spring — blower door test … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 24, 2026
Nowhere on a spec sheet will you find a line item for “seasonal cottonwood buildup,” and no code inspector ever swings back by years after a permit is signed off to check whether an outdoor unit can still breathe. That blind spot is exactly what caught up with a homeowner I’ll call Greg last July. … Read more