HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Dana Sorensen · June 21, 2026
Figuring out how to size ductwork correctly for a home HVAC system really comes down to one thing: keeping a trustworthy duct sizing chart CFM residential HVAC reference within arm’s reach before you ever cut pipe — and most homeowners don’t discover they need one until a room goes cold or a register starts shrieking. … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 21, 2026
Search “why is one room in my house always hotter” and you’ll land on two competing pieces of advice: seal your ducts and pile on more insulation, or get your system a bigger return path. The first suggestion sometimes helps. The second is the one that actually solves the problem most of the time, and … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 21, 2026
The first hard freeze of the season always exposes this same story. Homeowners who dropped $2,000 or more on fresh attic insulation start noticing their heating bills haven’t moved an inch, and they can’t figure out why. I’ve crawled into dozens of these attics chasing that exact complaint, and the culprit is nearly identical every … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 20, 2026
A manufacturer’s spec sheet will tell you the model number, the voltage draw, the WiFi frequency, even the screen resolution — every detail except the one that actually decides whether your new thermostat will work once it’s mounted on the wall. Nowhere in that glossy documentation does anyone mention that most homes built before the … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 20, 2026
0.94 inches of water column — that’s what my manometer read on a three-year-old system in a newer subdivision last Tuesday, nearly double what that equipment was ever built to handle. The homeowner had phoned about two bedrooms that turned into ovens in summer and iceboxes in winter, no matter where she set the thermostat. … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 20, 2026
Almost every homeowner assumes that piling on more insulation is what finally warms up a cold house — thicker R-value, warmer rooms. That assumption is wrong, and a client in South Minneapolis found that out the expensive way last Tuesday. He’d just handed over $3,200 to have a contractor blow R-60 cellulose across his attic … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 20, 2026
Late one February afternoon, I was down in my own basement doing the same furnace tune-up I run on my own system every year — nothing on my personal checklist hinted that anything was wrong. My wife mentioned, almost in passing, that the kids had been dragging all winter — headaches some mornings, tired even … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 19, 2026
A mismatched air filter can quietly wreck a perfectly healthy furnace — and that’s exactly what greeted me last month at a house in Edina. The homeowner was fed up: his electric bill had jumped 18% over the winter, the upstairs bedroom stayed stubbornly cold, and the equipment seemed to never shut off. A quick … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 19, 2026
Picture a snapshot I keep on file from a job a few weeks back: strips of gray fabric tape, curled and separated at the seams of flex duct, hanging loose in an attic like old wallpaper. That image sums up nine out of ten comfort complaints I see. The homeowner who called me was dealing … Read more
Dana Sorensen · June 19, 2026
“It’s not the equipment,” I told her, standing in a doorway with my hand still on the knob. This was a newer subdivision home last August, and the woman I was working with — I’ll call her Michelle — had spent two full years arguing with her builder about a master bedroom that ran “ten … Read more