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

What I did recently was install a superb system, and it became the new benchmark for snowmelt systems in the area. To my knowledge it is he best working system in the county. Unfortunately, this made many feel bad about their current snowmelt systems and they reached out to me because it was obvious that they didn’t work nearly as well. 

The good news is that I can usually spruce up an existing system and get it to work significantly better. Most of the time this requires some hardware to be replaced or upgraded. Sometimes it is just programming…. like turning it on 4 days before the snow to allow the sub par system to get a head start. 

Regardless I, Moe, along with my team, am here to help you. We want you to be comfortable and not have to deal with snow, ice, plows, salt, etc. If you do like shoveling snow but want a snowmelt system, you can always help your neighbor out. Go to this link https://ownersrep.phonesites.com  to grab a spot at seeing if you are a good fit for a snowmelt system. Not everyone is. 

Your comfort specialist, 

Moe

The small damage is usually something like a drippy relief valve.

Bigger damage is someone leaving the faucet on, and rushing out the door.

More common when the parents shout

“Did you make yet?!”

The worst I saw was mold damage from an indirect water heater coil rupturing.

The water heater and piping in your home runs anywhere between 40-60psi. If you have less than 40psi, I apologize.  We should get that corrected. If you have more than 60psi, lucky you.

Consider donating to those with not enough water pressure

In any case, the rupture. The boiler loop that passes through the heater to heat the water in the tank up indirectly (aka the reason its called an indirect water heater), runs at a max pressure of 30psi.

So now here’s what happened.

The water from the tank (40-60psi) pushed through the little itty bitty hole into the boiler water which relief valve relieves itself at 30psi. The people had not only mold from water but mold from hot steam on every surface the steam can cling to.

It’s one of those houses that I shake my head as we pass every few days and say, “What if they had a Moen Flo?”

On the surface, a moon Flo is simple.  I bet you can install one. It’s like arts and crafts.

See the photo of it installed, and then see the video from Moen!

Click here for the video

Thank you for reading,

Your comfort specialist,

Moe

Everyone has their own view on balanced. To some it’s whole wheat pizza and granola bars.

To others, balanced is a diet full of greens, protein, and sweet potatoes.

One thing we can all agree on is that balanced room comfort are rooms that heat and cool at the same rate.

How many times do I hear that there is a rule of thumb to follow.

You wouldn’t follow a rule of thumb for your foundation or thickness of the beams in your house

So why do you accept random measures based off the Stone Age era?

Heres a video what we do to every home or building before modifying or installing equipment.

Click Here!

We don’t guess. We calculate

Your comfort specialist,

Moe H

Four lettered words came out of my mouth after seeing how poorly the wiring, dampers, and overall system build was in a home that cost the client (in my guesstimate) 4-6mil dollars!

When you build you must think for the future. 
Here are 8 tips to keep your home easily serviced.
1. Keep good records which thermostats operate with which equipment. 
2. Keep good records where the equipment is located.
3. Install equipment where it can easily be accessed, serviced, replaced.
4. Make the area well lit. The cost of a light bulb and socket is $7.
5. Provide good stable strong stairs if in an attic.
6. Place the equipment where the service personnel won’t have to go through areas of your home that can be damaged or areas you would like to remain private. 
7. Keep runners or drop cloths to lay put so employees even with shoe covers or clean feet don’t leave debris or scratch your floors.
8. Dont offer cold drinks, bring them and leave them. No one turns down a cold water on a hot day.

And bonus for taking the time to read.

• Make sure your home has a sewer clean-out outside the home.
• Know where your water main, gas main, and electrical breaker box are.
• Preferable- make access to your mechanical room through the outside of the home
• When possible, place mechanicals in or near your garage. This leaves an easy walk out to the street when large equipment has to be replaced.

“Close the door you’re letting all the hot air in”.

It’s true.

But it’s probably doing you a favor since most AC systems I see are over-sized and cycle on and off rapidly.

Short cycles don’t allow you to dehumidify well, so leaving the door open may help you in the long run.

What you don’t realize about the doors and windows is that it’s less of a concern to keep them shut to keep your electric bill low and more about keeping the outside environment outside.

I use a Fenix HL18r headlamp to take the garbage out at night. Why?

Because I want to see what I’m doing in pitch black as well as give the neighbors a reason to call me a redneck lol.

When you use a bright light at night you see all the flying floaties in the air.

And in summer time that’s pollen.

Clouds of it blowing in the wind!

In recent years the pollen feels like razors on my eyes.

So keep the door shut. 

Keep the windows shut.

It is bad enough that your house is negative pressurized from all the bathroom fans, range hood, leaky ductwork, dryer, boiler, and water heater.

They’re all sucking air out of your house and you don’t have any quality fresh filters dehumidified make up air coming in. 

Every time that door stays open you’re bringing that nasty pollen indoors. It gets stuck on your couch, your bed, your clothes. 

And now your stuck wearing an N95 in your own home.

If you’d rather watch than read, watch here!

I hope all is well. Regardless of where you are in the world right now, you most likely have been affected in some capacity by the current Coronavirus pandemic.

This might have left you with many hours of trying to homeschool your children and wondering what to do to fill the extra time. 

Regardless if you have kids or not, I am certain you can use some of this info for yourself, or use what I write (and recorded in video format) in an interaction with kids in the future. And let me clarify: kids could mean anyone younger than you or older than you and may run through an age limit of 25!

We are home and the school day, which is hours long, is no longer hours long. Instead, this time is composed of trips to the kitchen out of boredom, trips to the pantry for a ganache, trips to the couch for a Netflix binge, or to your next zoom meeting for work.

It is important to fill the day and to use the time to learn new skills,

kind of like what was done in the early 1900’s when kids were home the majority of the day.

I see a MASSIVE disconnect where people are training on one skill set and never exploring or training on other skills that would better them at their current job, prepare them for a new job, or be a relief from their daily world of work.

Trust me, because it happened to me. For years I learnt every intricate detail about the plumbing, heating, and cooling worlds, and no skill sets on team building, sales, or marketing. In turn, so many people I could have helped missed out only to find me years later. They say they wish they knew me and my company, now called Moes CAMS, sooner.

You can hear from elders that in the “early days”, parents used to teach girls to sow and bake while the boys went to learn to chop wood for heat or work the fields. Yes, this is 2020, and I don’t want to be sexist, so take those skills (or more relevant skills listed below), and use them for everyone. After all, guys should know how to cook, and gals should know a thing or two about filling the wood stove.

Here are a few things to teach kids or teens to help them gain new skill sets, to keep you sane, and to help them cross-train for their life and future careers: 

• 2-4years: Teach them how to close the door with one hand on their chest and the other hand on the door knob to avoid fingers getting caught in the door. Teach them how to safely pull a younger sibling away from danger without hurting them.
• 4-7years: Teach safety skills: Never to open doors to strangers and what to do in the case of a fire.
• 7-15years: Teach building skills, crafts, etc. Allow them to create new things and dive into STEM activities at home. 
• 15-18years: Teach them life skills like how to fill a gas tank, change a spare tire, fill windshield washer fluid, check tire pressure, do taxes, and publicly speak.
• 18+ years: Cross-train. If they are in or are interested in sales, teach them to think about important questions like: How does the product work? If it breaks how can it be repaired? What problem can this product help to solve? If they are in or are interested in the trades, teach them how to sell the product they know everything about. The skill set of selling themselves and their product adds a dynamic others don’t have.

As always I appreciate you reading!

Reply back here or call the office with any questions, concerns, or comments about ANYTHING we can do for you. We would like to help you out especially during this time where life could be more stressful than normal.

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

1. They are generally both used in the summertime. 

2. They don’t operate near their rated output.

Item one is self-explanatory. 

Item two isn’t, so here’s the scoop.

We will start with pool heaters. The explanation is rather simple. Gas pool heaters require a specific amount of cubic feet of gas, also known as the BTU. Many times we find 400k BTU pool heaters running at around ⅔ capacity. Why? The meter and/or the gas line to the pool are undersized. If you were wondering, you can’t just enlarge the diameter of the last few feet of piping near the pool heater to help with the volume.

Why else don’t pool heaters operate near their capacity? It could be due to the pool pump not flowing enough water or because of the unit short cycles. Think about a unicycle. You wouldn’t do a triathlon on one. Pun intended. 

Now, let’s talk about air conditioners. Ever wonder why so many people need 4 and 5 ton air conditioners? How about master bedrooms running on 2 ton central air conditioners?! I’ll explain the BTU of an AC, also known as tons. A high BTU is like a high horsepower car. It can make up distance quickly. In the air conditioning world, that means you can go from 74 degrees Fahrenheit to 68 degrees Fahrenheit quickly. 

Although, you don’t get the BTU you paid for when the duct work is:

• Leaky
• Undersized
• Imbalanced 

Or if the refrigerant wasn’t commissioned properly. It needs to be:

• Vacuumed
• Charged by:
  • Weight
  • superheat/subcool

So you end up paying more money for a larger unit that works half-assed. Also, if you don’t know the true meaning of comfort, you end up keeping your house at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Properly tuned systems with low humidity feel freezing at 73 degrees!

So there you have it. Two items that are used in the summertime and run below capacity due to errors by the installer.

The sound of birds chirping is replaced by a bug zapper zapping.

First off, if you’re wondering where to effectively place a bug zapper, about 30-40 feet from your house and 25 feet off the ground is optimal. It should be nice and dark in that area, so the insects will fly there. You will have a better chance of catching them there compared to somewhere they’re attracted to the light bouncing off of your house or front porch. 

What does the zapper have to do with a work-related newsletter? 

Things fail over time.

You drive your four-year-old Porsche, and you say, “Wow, this suspension is nice”. 

In reality, it’s now equivalent to a Toyota suspension in comparison to what it was when it was new. Over time, things degrade. 

YOU JUST DON’T REALIZE. 

Day-to-day in the summertime, you don’t realize your AC isn’t good unless it’s completely broken. It’s not until you remember the day you picked up your brand new Porsche or the first season you had your AC

that you realize how bad the system is now.

Reasons your AC degrades:

• Dirty coil 
• Loss of refrigerant 
• Out of spec. components (i.e. capacitor) 
• Duct work that developed holes.

Like the Porsche, you can maintain your system. You can buy new shocks, tires, fluids etc.

There’s a lot less moving parts in your AC system than in a car, but they do go bad and should be looked at…

By a qualified technician.

I always say that I would rather see you do your oil change less often but done correctly at a dealership instead of doing it often at the local Jiffy lube.