The library I read from is the stack of books I keep under my night table. The few that I have that aren’t under the night table linger from weekend to weekend. Every weekend I choose a few books to read a few chapters from.

 Luck has it that when I open a book in the laying position, my eyes shut like one of those toy dolls. This one book I read over the weekend was SO good. I read about three quarters of it!  

The story sounded like one that would take place in a third world country. However, it took place in California. No heat, no hot water, living in tents, tenement houses, going to foster… Why would you want to read that, right?!

There’s enough sadness on your smart phone news channel as it is. This man from the story, Chriss Duffin, pulled it all together and is not only a successful business man with an engineering degree and a handful of businesses, but is also a Guinness World Record holder for a 1001 LB deadlift for three reps!  

So, it turns out that not all books I read are business, technical, enginnering, etc.  I do plan to find a way to make a movement that can help these unfortunate people get their lives together and in the interim have clean water and sufficient heat. 

This way they don’t have to be like Chriss Duffin and sleep in the back of their parents pickup truck in a salvation army sleeping bag with toes that have frozen before they have even fallen asleep! Go buy the book! The Eagle and the Dragon

1. First and obvious is CO: A boiler, water heater, fire place and gas dryer vent to the outside Bec carbon monoxide is hazardous. A range hood vented to the outside acts as an indirect chimney for your gas range.
2. Smell and grease: Venting a hood to the outside hits both problems, smell and grease elimination. Venting (recirculating hoods) to the inside doesn’t help with smell, but it will limit grease in your home by directing the greasy air to the baffles where they collect the grease. Simply, put the baffles in the dish washer and you’re good to go. Added bonus to smell is less smoke detector false alarms when your food gets charred due to spending too much time browsing facebook.
3. Excess heat to the home: Ovens and range tops add heat to the home in proportion to the size and quantity of fires or electrical elements that are on. Venting the hot air to the outside of the home will let your AC work easier.
4. Moisture to the home: Cooking evaporates moisture. Think about meat, fish, chicken, cakes etc. drying out. Where do you think the moisture goes? Out of the food and into the air. Too much can lead to excess moisture on the windows, walls, or in the air. Way too much leads to mold. The tighter the home and the more you cook, the more trapped the moist air will be.
5. Resale value: A good looking gaudy range hood lets potential buyers know that your home is more than just a place to entertain with fast food. It’s a place to make food and host guests.
   

I appreciate you reading. Please share with a friend or family member!

Moe

No this isn’t another plug in your electric car that will save the world. This became a reality for many homes when the natural gas lines spread like spider webs across the country.  To many, more than you would imagine in year 2021, making sure you have oil, propane, and wood on hand, or at least some in reserve is a reality. 

We got the chance to work with Jimmy Diresta last year. Since then we have done more work for others that took place due to the work we did for him.

 Something we like to do for our customers is have a system built so the fuel is preserved to the fullest while the customer is as COMFORTABLE as they want, all while allowing them to wind up the thermostat as high as they would like! Check out this article of me and Jimmy in the Propane magazine at the link below! CLICK HERE

Regardless if you’re on natural gas, propane, or have no fuel services available at all, we are happy to drop ship a generator to you anywhere in the country! 

www.cumminshomegenerator.turnupthecomfort.com

How is this, you may ask?

Conventional and tank-style water heaters generally have an easily removable label on them. In the event your heater fails (i.e. leaks), and you call your local mechanical company to come for a diagnostic, they can remove the label with your permission and return it to the supplier. The supplier sends it in with a form to the manufacturer and the manufacturer credits the supplier. The end user just pays an exchange fee. They have stolen your water heater by simply detaching the sticker and using it for their benefit. This can have negative consequences for you down the line, and it is something you, the customer, should be aware of. 

Where is the theft, and what does it look like, you may ask?

It comes in many forms.

Local Plumbing Mafia: Your water heater is leaking, and a company comes out to take a look at the tank. They may give a price or fix the issue, but little did you know, they can also leave with the sticker from your water heater in hand. You now have to attempt to get the sticker back from them if you choose to use a different mechanical vender. This is not a situation you want to be in.

The 20yr warranty: Say you have a 10yr warranty, and some slimy folks remove the sticker and submit a warranty. They gratefully pay the small fee and store the water heater in their garage or mechanical room till the first one fails. They don’t technically get a 20yr warranty, but they do get two water heater lifetimes. Sadly, it is their gain and your loss. 

The over profiting plumber: Someone visits your home for mechanical work and slips out with the sticker. You have no clue until your tank fails and requires the warranty. In the meantime, the plumber claimed the warranty and resells your heater to someone else. Both you and the next guy lose because now you don’t have a warranty to claim and the person who gets the new tank has a warranty that started on the date the first heater (stolen tag) got sold.

Karma is a b!tch. People shouldn’t steal. If they do, it will bite them sooner or later in the form of a flat tire, possibly an extra service call, or many other cases of bad fortune.

Be diligent and aware of this type of theft when bringing people into your home to do work. Do not let anyone steal your warranty sticker. 

I hope this blog post was helpful and informative! Let me know if you have any questions or ideas for future blog posts. We look forward to hearing from you. 

My name is Moe from turnupthecomfort.com

Find us on instagram @moespandh

We offer full consulting and mechanical services, and we are just a phone call away! (347)-460-HEAT

He can advise you on the current state of your plumbing, heating, cooling systems, mechanical issues, piping, and so on. He will let you know what repairs are necessary and what you might need to do in the future. He prides himself on always giving the most accurate and valuable information in order to benefit his customers.

If you have an issue, but you do not know what the issue even is, or how to fix it, give him a call!

If you are building your dream house, and you want to make sure things are getting done the right way which will save you money in the future, give him a call

. If you want to ensure that you have the right people doing the job for the right price, give him a call.

He is here to benefit you in knowledge, time, money, great services, and even better results.

Well its more than just a failure, it’s a failure at the least opportune time. Truthfully, when is a good time to have a component failure? I digress.

The issue here with this case is that the boiler room was scheduled to be replaced come spring. Since it is April, and spring is here, we are waiting another month for the weather to be just warm enough so that the electric heaters installed in the home as backup will suffice to kill the chill in the air on a 50 degree F night.

Without choice we return to make repairs on a system where purge valves and ball valves are siezed closed, open, or have broken handles and leaking packing nuts.

Don’t fall into this trap. Maintain your investment!

VIDEO BELOW

The cost of Propress is cheap, but it looks expensive. Look at the cost of the press tool and the cost of the fittings. Wow, you need an angle kit to reach odd hard-to-reach off camber fittings.

Let’s keep it short, sweet, and simple.

Propress is cheap, and here is a list why in no particular order:

• Less emphasis has to be taught to employees on the practice of joining the pipes, and you can put more emphasis on why the pipes are being joined in that fashion.
• Time is money. ProPress fittings from Viega, JW, Nibco, Webstone etc. are time savers! The prep that is seen in soldering does not have to be performed which also saves TIME.
• Water. Water in a pipe being joined with solder will cause an issue. Not so much for propress fittings.
• No fire. I have seen experienced people solder and nearly catch walls on fire. In one particular case that comes to mind, a woman’s drapes caught fire and the boss had to pay the client, thus working for free and losing money.

Its 2019 buddy. Get with the times. Yes there is an EPDM rubber style O ring in the fitting. No it won’t last forever. And let me share a secret, NEITHER WILL SOLDER. I see corroded, leaking, crusty solder fittings daily.

Hi, my name is Moe.

You may know me, or you may just be finding me and my pages. I’m all about what works. It should look fancy, but it doesn’t have to. I work hard so that the work I do always equates to elite level performances. Whether it’s a navy seal, or an NFL player making the winning play at the super bowl, both are executed at high levels, and I strive to do the same. (Not to say that the NFL is even remotely on the same page as the marines, navy seals, etc!).

I came up with this style of filter years ago. Someone called me up to sell me a $1,200 air scrubber. “Perfect for construction jobs, negative pressurizing the home”, etc. I almost bit the bait. He lost out by not qualifying me as a customer and following up. I’m sure Mr Grant Cardone (legendary sales trainer, speaker, and writer) will scold him for being an amateur. Long story short, I decided to make my own. I ordered a round filter, and I came up with a big idea of using a 5 gallon bucket with removable legs made from black pipe.

Dan Holohan once said, how do you know who’s an engineer and who’s a regular individual? Ask them how the pickle got into the bottle. An engineer will say that someone created a vacuum and sucked the pickle in, or dehydrated the pickle, put it in the bottle and then rehydrated. A plain person will tell you that someone poked a baby cucumber into a bottle, let it mature, cut it off the bush, pickled the cucumber and now you have a pickle in a bottle.

Fast forward, the materials for my design are still in the shop. I came up with a simpler idea. Place a 20 inch x 20 inch 11 Merv or 13 Merv rated filter on the return of a basic box fan, turn it on and leave it! For high dust go into high speed. For maintenance mode, just keep it on low.

You can use this for post construction clean up, basements, shops, arts and crafts studios, working on HVAC in an attic, etc.

Please comment or email me to let me know what you think. I would love to know if you had good success with this or if it was a total failure.

In the following order:

BEFORE You can see dust in the beam of the flashlight

After No dust in the flashlight beam (1.25hr of run time)

Last photo The fan assembled

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. In fact, ask ten people and you will get eleven answers.

The simple explanation.

Zoning with pumps gives you one pump per zone. Bet you knew that already, didn’t you?!

Pros to zoning with pumps: Redundancy and the precise control of flow.

Cons to zoning with pumps: The electrical cost, the fact that there are more moving wheels on the bus to break, and it is larger near boiler piping to prevent NPSH.

Zoning with zone valves leaves you with a central pump and zone valves (or motorized valves) that open and close when each zone calls for heat.

Pros of zoning with valves: Less electrical draw, smaller near boiler piping, easy replacement when zone valves break, and it will easily bypass a non working zone valve.

Cons of zoning with valves: It is not as redundant (one system pump), the flow is not as precise, and the replacement of full valve requires a draining system.