HVAC and Insulation From a Working Tech
Dana Sorensen · October 10, 2026
I got a call last Tuesday from a homeowner in the suburbs—let’s call him Mark—who’d just paid $8,000 to have his vented attic spray-foamed at the roofline. He was thrilled with the energy savings already. But then, three weeks into winter, a different contractor came out for an unrelated HVAC estimate, took one look at … Read more
Dana Sorensen · October 10, 2026
I got a call last week from a homeowner in frustration. The master bedroom was running cold, the ceiling register was blowing unevenly — strong on one side, weak on the other — and there was a faint whistling noise every time the heat kicked on. He’d already had a handyman up in the attic … Read more
Dana Sorensen · October 10, 2026
Last month I was called out to a residential attic to commission a new ductwork run, and I found the homeowner had already gotten halfway through sealing the joints themselves. They’d bought a roll of silver tape and a tub of gray paste from the big-box store, and they were standing there in the aisle … Read more
Dana Sorensen · October 10, 2026
Last month I got a call from a homeowner in a 1970s split-level with no central air and no ductwork to speak of. She’d bought a “whole house dehumidifier” online — 50 pints per day, good reviews, seemed like the right size for her 2,200 square feet. She’d been running it in her basement for … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 7, 2026
My thermal camera is lit up like a heat map gone wrong — a bright orange band tracing the seam where Greg’s contractor tied his new 400-square-foot sunroom into the existing trunk line. The manometer reading confirms what the image already told me: static pressure is climbing, airflow to that room is barely a trickle, … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 7, 2026
A smoke detector isn’t just a smoke detector — and believing otherwise is a mistake that quietly puts sleeping families in danger every single night. I confirmed this again last spring while running a home performance audit in a newer suburban build — the kind of tightly insulated, well-maintained house that gives off every impression … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 7, 2026
Standing on a ladder in a Draper hallway last spring, cover off, I’m looking straight into a photoelectric chamber that’s supposed to sense fire — and this particular unit had gone off three separate times that week for reasons that had nothing to do with fire: a pot of pasta water reaching a boil, a … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 7, 2026
Why does one CO detector chirp feel like nothing at all while another sends you sprinting outside with the kids at 3 a.m.? Because the two sounds aren’t carrying the same message — and mixing them up is exactly how people end up either evacuating for nothing or ignoring something that could actually kill them. … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 6, 2026
Early on, I made an assumption that still bothers me when I think about it. A neighbor’s kitchen had a CO alarm mounted right by the hallway, batteries fresh, unit tested and working — so I moved on without ever pulling out my own meter to check ambient levels near the furnace. Weeks later that … Read more
Dana Sorensen · July 6, 2026
Scroll through enough HVAC forums and you’ll find two camps giving opposite advice. One says grab the densest, highest-MERV filter on the shelf because more filtration always wins. The other insists anything past MERV 8 will choke your furnace and should be avoided entirely. Neither absolute is correct, but if I had to pick which … Read more