Grilled!

Happy Friday everyone and I welcome you back to another edition of things that probably won’t matter in a hundred years.  In the world of totally useless trivia, July 22^nd, 1931 sees the first solo around the globe flight completed by one Wiley Post flying his aircraft named the Winnie Mae. The Winnie Mae was a Lockheed Martin Vega that Post had greatly modified. On August 15^th, 1935 the world lost Mr. Post along with famed humorist Will Rodgers when the two perished in a crash shortly after takeoff from a small Alaskan Territory. Airplanes of course lead to airflow, which is today’s topic of conversation.

I go into homes everyday where I see supply grilles closed off and when I ask the why question I inevitably get the same answer every time. “We wanted to push more air into this other room and we don’t use this room much.” The possibility of this actually working is a complete fallacy. I understand the temptation, really I do, those shiny fins and dampers inside of most supply grilles are just begging for you the home owner to mess with them. In a word, don’t. The fins and dampers are there to help adjust air flow and the directionality of said airflow. Closing them completely creates other hidden issues within the typical duct system.

Let’s first consider the average duct system that has had no repairs is losing anywhere from 20-30% of its air to the unconditioned space as it is. Joe Home Owner comes along and closes a supply vent. This in turn raises the static pressure on the duct system, which makes existing leaks even worse. Simplified, static pressure to ductwork is what blood pressure is to you and I. Too high or low and we’ve got problems.  If you roll back through the archives of this blog you can find a much more in depth explanation of static and why it matters.

I don’t mean to sound like a broken record here, however, if you have areas in your home that are unusually warm or cold (cold in Florida – ha!!) it is most likely something lacking in the design of the duct system, the ducts are leaking like a sieve, or it could be lack of insulation. Often times in the typical +/- 20 year old home it is a combination of all three things. What I do know is this; all of our Comfort Consultants are armed with FLIR Thermal Imaging cameras that can give you and us all the answers as to why those areas in the home don’t feel quite right.

Here it comes… I am an email away with any questions you may have at THW@artplumbingandac.com, we all are a click away at www.artplumbingandac.com or of course you can go old fashioned and call us at 1-800-475-1504.

Again staying with the comedy theme of closing out, my question is very simply, “Ok, what’s the speed of dark?”

House Whisperer out!!!!