HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Dana Sorensen · July 3, 2026
A four percent gap in coverage is enough to wipe out half your insulation’s rated performance — and that’s almost the exact math I was staring at last fall when a neighbour called me in a near-panic. She’d just paid a contractor good money to insulate her attic with batts, and somehow her heating bill … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 3, 2026
Does a smart thermostat actually pay for itself, or is it just a fancy dial that makes your living room look futuristic? Short answer: it can absolutely pay for itself — but only under the right conditions. I came into this skeptical too. HVAC work exposes you to a parade of “game-changing” gadgets that quietly … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 3, 2026
Years back, I made the same call the fire marshal ended up making on Greg’s case — I told a worried neighbour their detector was probably just faulty and needed swapping out. That bit of advice very nearly cost someone their safety, and it’s a lesson I’ve carried ever since. Take Greg, a neighbour of … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 2, 2026
Search “furnace short cycling” online and you’ll run into two clashing pieces of advice. One thread tells you to replace the thermostat first, since it’s the flashiest part to point a finger at. Another insists you call a tech out immediately, treating every short cycle as proof of a cracked heat exchanger. The first is … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 2, 2026
The first cold snap of the season is when my phone starts ringing with the same story on repeat: someone bought a shiny new smart thermostat, wired it in themselves, and now the display just blinks and dies. Nine times out of ten, I know the answer before I’ve even parked in the driveway. It’s … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 2, 2026
No spec sheet, no installation manual, and no code book will ever spell this out for you: an alarm can be fully compliant and still fail your family completely, purely because of where it happened to get mounted. I relearned that the hard way last spring on a call where a homeowner woke to her … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 1, 2026
Forty percent output — that’s what my handheld light meter registered when I aimed it into the optical chamber of a hallway smoke detector I’d just pulled down off its bracket. I was at a house in the suburbs on what should’ve been a routine ductwork check, up in the attic, when the homeowner mentioned … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 1, 2026
Almost every homeowner pictures coil cleaning as a wash-down job — more water pressure, cleaner coil, simple as that. It’s the same logic you’d use on a dirty driveway, and it’s flat-out wrong when it comes to those paper-thin aluminum fins. I learned this the hard way as a second-year apprentice, full of confidence I … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 1, 2026
My own basement gave me the answer before any client ever did. Two summers ago I went down to grab a box of old invoices and stopped cold on the third step — the air down there had that heavy, wet-wool quality you can practically chew. I’d tucked a portable unit in the corner months … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 1, 2026
Stop assuming your bath fan is doing its job just because it hums along and clears the mirror fog. That assumption is exactly what led me into a client’s attic last February, where a routine insulation check turned into something far worse. Six feet of roof sheathing above the master bath was covered in thick, … Read more