July 2, 2025 • 37 mins
This podcast episode centers around the profound influence of early advice on personal and professional development, with particular emphasis on the importance of nurturing curiosity and creativity. Our guest, Larry, recounts the pivotal guidance he received from his mother, who encouraged him to pursue his passions without the constraints of societal expectations. He elaborates on his journey as an inventor and problem-solver, revealing how a deep understanding of physics and a relentless curiosity have enabled him to devise innovative solutions to complex issues, such as enhancing energy efficiency in homes. Throughout our conversation, we delve into practical strategies for individuals seeking to improve their own energy efficiency, emphasizing the critical role of informed decision-making and proactive measures in addressing environmental concerns. Ultimately, we aim to inspire listeners to take charge of their choices and foster a mindset of continuous learning and responsibility.
Commencing with an engaging introduction, the host welcomes his guest, who embodies a spirit of innovation and curiosity. The episode delves deeply into the formative experiences that shaped the guest’s approach to life and work, particularly the invaluable advice imparted by his mother during his youth. This guidance, which encouraged him to pursue his passions without hindrance, serves as a cornerstone of the discussion. The guest’s anecdotes from childhood not only illustrate his natural inclination towards invention but also highlight the broader theme of the importance of supportive mentorship in fostering creativity. As the conversation unfolds, the guest emphasizes that children thrive when they are allowed to explore their interests freely, a sentiment that resonates throughout the episode and underscores the value of nurturing a child's innate curiosity and potential.
Transitioning from personal narratives to professional insights, the guest articulates his extensive knowledge in the field of energy efficiency. His dedication to sustainable practices is evident as he shares practical advice for improving home efficiency and reducing environmental impact. By recounting his personal experiences with building a highly efficient home, he provides listeners with a wealth of information on how to implement energy-saving measures. The guest addresses the contemporary issue of disposable consumer culture, advocating for a paradigm shift towards durable and efficient products. This part of the episode is particularly enlightening, as it presents a compelling vision for a future where energy efficiency is not merely a trend but a necessary standard for responsible living.
In the concluding segments of the episode, the guest shares profound reflections on legacy and the importance of personal agency. He encourages listeners to recognize their power in navigating life's complexities, emphasizing that individuals possess the ability to shape their realities through informed choices. The discussion culminates in a powerful message about the significance of continuous learning and the courage to confront challenges with a proactive mindset. By fostering a culture of presence and appreciation, the guest envisions a world where fear no longer dictates actions, allowing for a more fulfilling existence. This episode encapsulates a rich tapestry of insights, offering listeners both inspiration and practical strategies to cultivate a life of purpose and impact.
Takeaways:
- The most significant advice received in childhood was to listen to oneself, thus fostering self-discovery.
- Supporting children's passions without imposing limitations can lead to remarkable entrepreneurial growth.
- Curiosity drives problem-solving; one must seek various perspectives to uncover solutions.
- Energy efficiency is paramount in today's society; it not only saves costs but also benefits the...
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(01:25):
Well, Larry, welcome to the podcast.
How you doing today?
I'm good, I'm good.
I'm glad to be here.
Well, you say that now.
We haven't gotten to thequestions yet.
So.
I love to ask my guest this question.
What's the best piece ofadvice you've ever received?
(01:46):
That's a bit of a tricky one.
I've received a whole lot ofadvice, but probably the best advice
came from my mom when I was a kid.
She basically was asking mewhat I wanted to do, sort of encouraging
me to follow my heart, which,you know, at that age, most people
(02:09):
are telling you what to do ornot do, and that's it.
But she was suggesting Ilisten to myself.
I love that.
And what did you decide youwant to do?
Oh, I, at that point, I wasvery clear.
I told her, I'm going to growup to be an inventor.
I'm going to create stuff.
(02:30):
And she thought, fine.
She didn't say, well, how areyou going to make a living doing
that?
Or anything like that.
She no, didn't let reality getin the way at all.
I love that.
I just had a guest on mypodcast talking about how do you
raise entrepreneurial kids?
And her biggest takeaway frominterviewing a bunch of entrepreneur
as parents was, when your kidhas a passion, no matter what that
(02:53):
passion is, support it.
Don't try and, you know,explain it away or steer in a different
direction.
Just let them go and findtheir passion and live out that passion.
That's.
And I really like that.
I was the kid that in school Iwould rather fix things than go out
(03:14):
on the playground.
The teachers, through variousgrades actually asked me to fix things.
Say, Larry, the bell is too loud.
Can you do anything?
Yes.
I'm just a little kid and yes,I could figure stuff like that out.
I could see it.
So that was really fun.
(03:36):
I've had kids and my own kidswho like taking things apart.
They don't put it backtogether, but they like taking them
apart.
Well, it begins with takingthings apart.
Later, they might go backtogether the same way.
Or not.
Yeah, I try to encourage.
It's like, if you're going totake it apart, at least try and fix
it.
(03:58):
I, I started with like, I'd goto the dump and find things like
old clocks and take them apart.
It didn't matter if I couldn'tget them back together, but I learned
how they worked by, by doing that.
So after a while, it becameclear that there's a system for man
made things.
If you can take it, if you canbuild it there.
(04:20):
At least with the old stuffthere was a way of taking it apart
and putting it back together.
It always followed those rulesso I could figure it out given time.
I love that.
I'm curious, Larry, thinkabout your life.
Who were some people thatserved as mentors for you along the
way?
Oh, that's, I've got a, there,there was a guy, Stan, sort of like
(04:42):
my second father.
He just appreciated what I,what I did and helped me to, you
know, he, he put challenges infront of me.
Okay, figure this, this oneout or can you help me with this?
You know, and I, I wasn'tgoing to let him down.
(05:04):
You know, one of the simplethings he gave me, Larry, I've got,
He had an apartment house andhad tenants that were going to move
out because water heaters weremaking noise and said, Larry, can
you quiet the heaters down?
Oh, okay.
I, I figured out how to do that.
I made a tool and vacuumed thesediment out of these gas fired heaters
(05:26):
that quieted the heaters down.
Tenants were happy and thatled to a whole career in hot water.
I love that.
Your curiosity just inspires me.
So tell us about your journeyin building industry and what led
(05:47):
you to specialize in hot water.
Energy efficiency.
Okay, well, energy efficiencyto me seems like a no brainer.
It's a, People want to savemoney, they want to do right by the
environment, they want to begood stewards.
Being more efficient with ourenergy is, is a direct path to doing
(06:11):
that.
So, okay, I mean you can getmore efficient, equip equipment or
you can simply need less.
Being efficient makes it soyou can, can use less.
For instance, I built thehouse that I'm, that I'm in.
It uses roughly a tenth of theenergy per square foot that a normal
(06:33):
house does and it's morecomfortable than most homes and it's
off grid.
So okay, that, that, that's agood start.
But I figured if you buildsomething that's efficient, it's
durable, you're not going tohave to change its batteries or,
(06:55):
you know, it, the insulationisn't going to need to be replaced
periodically.
So there's a lot you can doto, to make, to make things work
more efficient, efficiently.
And when, when you do that,suddenly supplying what energy you
need becomes quite simple.
(07:17):
Even more savings there.
I love that.
That's really interesting.
Good.
So, so in today's societythough, we don't like the, or should
say companies don't likethings that last as long as they
used to last.
I remember when you buy arefrigerator, you may buy two in
your lifetime.
Now you're buying more, whichis creating more waste in society.
(07:44):
How do we get back to creatingthings that are efficient but also
last a long time?
Okay, a couple of simpleexamples come to mind.
When I built my house, Ineeded to put metal flashing around
the roof in various places.
Standard thing that we use forthis is galvanized steel.
(08:08):
That means zinc coated steel.
They put molten zinc on it andthe zinc corrodes away before the
steel can rust.
Once the zinc is gone, thenthe steel rusts and now you have
to put new flashing up or elseit's going to leak.
So I didn't do that.
I used copper.
I bought the copper at thewholesale house and took it over
(08:31):
to a sheet metal shop and hadthem bend it to, to my shape.
I helped them do it.
It wound up costing a littleless than it would have cost if I
had bought pre bent galvanized steel.
So it's a little cheaper andit will last 200 years easy.
Okay, that's, you know, thatkind of thing.
(08:57):
Another, I don't know if I'mreally on, on point here, but if
you can make a home efficient.
In the east it's real commonthat boilers are used for house heating
for hot water and steam.
If you make the houseefficient enough, you can use a water
(09:18):
heater to do the very same job.
Modern boilers called modcons, modulating condensing boilers,
you might last 15 or 20 years.
The old cast iron ones couldlast 80, 90 years.
But those aren't efficient enough.
So we're moving over to themodcon style so I can show you how
(09:44):
to get 50 years out of astandard glass lined water heater.
If you make the houseefficient now, you can use a simpler
heating source and life's good.
That's interesting because ourhot water heater just died actually
after we'd only.
(10:04):
We only had it for three years.
And we should have talked alot sooner.
We should have reason for.
There's some reason three,three years isn't cutting it there.
We can figure this one out.
Well, I'd love to have youcome over here and figure it out
because when I contacted acompany it's like, well that's just.
We're not going to replace itafter that because once this one
(10:25):
we get the rest of thewarranty from the previous one.
But we don't get a new, a newwarrant even though we have a new
water heater.
Right.
But our heating system at ourhouse is actually fed through our
hot water heater.
We have a hot water heatersystem that kind of keeps our house
warm in the winter, so.
Well, you know, at some point,we should talk.
(10:48):
I actually wrote a book backin 1992, the Water Heater Workbook.
It's how to get 50 years fromyour water heater and make it efficient.
Wow.
We should talk.
So I love the fact that youfind solutions to people's problems.
What in.
How did you get to the pointwhere you.
(11:09):
I know you like to be curious,but is there some other skills you
learned along the way to helpyou kind of pour into those situations
and find more ways to help people?
Well, yeah, I.
I guess we start with what's true.
What's my foundation?
What can I stand on?
What do I know for absolutecertain is true, no matter what anybody
(11:33):
says or does?
So let's start often withphysics, what's.
What's true, and then can Iuse that to help people?
I've learned over and over, ifyou help somebody, you always somehow,
in some way get more back thanyou give.
(11:55):
It's just another one of thosepieces of physics.
It's, it's.
It's really, really nice.
If I can combine these things,okay, I've.
I've learned what's true.
How can I use that to help people?
How can I troubleshoot?
How can I look at thesituation differently than most people
(12:19):
do?
How many perspectives can Iget on it?
If I look at it, any problemfrom enough different points of view,
a solution will show up.
Always happens.
I'm not sure if I'm answeringyour question very well.
I go off on tangents too easily.
No, you are.
What I am curious, though, isthat approach to life is unique.
(12:41):
How do you.
So give me an example of aproblem you solved.
How did you approach it andtell me kind of how you worked through
that.
Well, say the water heaterproblem that Stan gave me all those
years ago, water heatersmaking noise.
(13:04):
No.
1 until that time, everyonesaid if a water heater makes noise,
you have to put a new waterheater in, Period.
There was one outfit, a Navyhousing facility close by.
They would take a water heaterout, turn it upside down and shake
it up and up and down and hopethe sediment would fall out.
(13:29):
That's a lot of manpower.
That's.
So that's not a practicalsolution for most things.
But I understood that it wassediment in the tank that was making
water overheat and boil.
And as those bubbles of steamformed, when they would hit Cooler
(13:50):
water.
They would collapse suddenlyand make noise.
That reverb reverberationcaused by the collapsing of steam
bubbles was, was what made noise.
Oh, okay.
If I can get the sediment outof the tank, the noise, the steam
can't be formed in the firstplace and the tank will become slightly
(14:12):
more energy efficient too.
So I thought about it andthought, well, no one's figured this
out.
Tanks are domed up at thebottom, so there's not a place for
the sediment to fall down to.
There's this ring of sedimentthat builds up.
How do you get that stuff out?
So I made a water based vacuumcleaner that basically sucks water
(14:36):
and sediment out from the topof the tank.
I'd make a wand that goes downto the bottom and pulls the stuff
out, runs it through a filter,returns the hot water to the tank,
and I keep moving the wandaround until I can't feel any more
sediment.
When I'm done, the tank's quiet.
Because I understood enoughabout the physics of things and I
(15:01):
researched it.
Then, you know, I became realcurious after quieting a tank down.
What are all these other things?
What's this inch and a 16thhex head on top of the tank?
Turns out that's a thingcalled a sacrificial anode rod.
It prevents rusting in the tank.
I talked to all the waterheater manufacturers.
(15:23):
I'm really driven when I'mcurious, I want to know.
So I talked to everybody.
Eventually they said there isno one in the United States you can
talk to.
But they referred me to a man,Alan, in Canada, who worked for Ontario
Hydro, which leased waterheaters to their clients.
(15:44):
So they had an interest inmaintaining electric water heaters
to make them last.
So they understood a lot.
He taught me a lot in a whilebecause I'm out in the field playing
with heaters.
I was teaching him stuff.
So it, it was a wonderful backand forth for many, many years.
(16:05):
And I was curious.
So we both wound up sitting orbeing members of the national association
of Corrosion in Engineers,weird stuff like that.
So that I could learn indetail how things happened there.
And that's how I learned how Icould get so many more years out
(16:28):
of.
Out of a water heater.
As you think about maybe themost challenging problem you tried
to solve.
What was that and how did yousolve it?
Challenging problems are.
Aren't physics.
They're always, they alwaysdeal with people.
People are much hard.
Harder than physics.
(16:49):
Physics has rules.
People do sometimes don't.
I don't know that well.
It, it's a story.
Years ago I was in involved in a.
An investment company thatinvested in real stock state and
(17:12):
it turned out they, they were,they were lying to, to people and
I and a lot of other peoplelost a whole lot of money and there
were four people that weresuicidal in all of this.
They had lost their retirement.
They had no idea what theywere going to do.
(17:35):
So I dealt with personallywith each one of one of them.
I had lost more than they did.
But I went around and dealtwith each one, stayed in touch and
got them off the suicide train.
Showed them other ways oflooking at it, other perspectives.
(17:55):
And with that they all keptgoing, keeping on on ongoing still.
So they, you know, it waschallenging to basically show them
a different way of seeing the world.
(18:17):
For me it's important.
You know, we're, we're sort ofdriven by genetics.
We're always looking for thatsaber tooth tiger lurking behind
the next street corner.
We know he's out there to comeand get us.
But I make a point of lookingfor what's right as, as well and
(18:38):
keeping some balance because Ican, you know, there's so many things
that are right in the world ifwe just are present and can see them.
So that perspective sharedwith these four helped to get them
off the path of suicide andseeing that there could be a brighter
future.
That, that was important and tricky.
(19:02):
Yeah, that's also.
It's so important.
You poured into people's lifethat way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, yeah.
I mean I can talk aboutplumbing and how I've been up to
the eighth plumber on the job,but, but that's pretty simple stuff
(19:25):
compared to dealing with people.
Yeah, that is neat.
People, especially homeownerstoday, are looking for energy efficiency
and we talked a little bitabout that.
I'm curious, what advice doyou have for people who want to make
their homes more energy efficient?
I keep getting a note from myelectrician, my company every month
(19:45):
saying you're the leastefficient home on the block or so.
What are some keys you havefor people who keep getting those
letters?
Okay, couple I start bylooking at what are the things, you
know, let's do this with a, ahot water story.
(20:06):
If say you, you want to makeyour, your hot water use better,
more efficient, use less andstill be happy.
You start with fixtures, youknow, and you get a bucket on a stopwatch.
How many gallons per minute isyour shower head putting out?
Actually measure it.
Figure that, that, you know,don't just guess, measure.
(20:30):
I've found 8 gallon per minuteshower heads out there when they
should have been 2 and A and a half.
I in my own house have one anda half gallon per minute shower heads.
And if you get the rightshower head, it can be a very comfortable,
nice, nice shower.
(20:50):
So start with, with fixturesand then.
Okay.
If I have efficient one and ahalf gallon per minute fixtures,
if I ever needed to re plumb,I could and, and, and I had adequate
pressure like £660, I canplumb the house in quarter inch tubing.
That's ice maker tubing.
(21:13):
Instead of the standard pipesup to three quarter inch, you know,
three quarter inch or halfinch pipes that we use.
Which means now I'll get hotwater in seconds.
So I'm using even less.
I'm wasting less water waitingfor hot hot water.
Everything becomes smaller andmore efficient.
(21:33):
In the hot water thing, FLwater flow rates through the pipes
are a little quicker.
So biofilms in the pipes getscrubbed off so you get healthier
water as well.
Cases of Lee, of Lee Janellahave been going up in the US because
we have oversized pipes for,for the, for the flow rates.
(21:56):
So biofilms and bugs liveinside of the plumbing.
So that, that, that was justone story.
But if we start with mosthomes, look at the shell of the house,
the, the floor, walls and roof.
How can we make that better?
Is ins.
(22:16):
You know, everyone thinks I'llinsulate more, but really the thing
to do first is to get adiagnostic tool called a blower door,
which is just a big fan withmeasurement built in.
And it will measure how muchair leakage you have in the house
and it will help you topinpoint where these leaks are.
(22:38):
In my neck of the woods, I'mon the west Coast.
PGE has a tool lending library.
They'll lend you a blower doorso you can test so it doesn't have
to cost anything.
Once you know where the leaksare, you can fix them.
You know, reducing those leaks.
Now you can dramatically cutyour energy bills just with air leaks.
(23:05):
Insulation is next, but neverinsulate before you air seal because
then if you insulate, you gotto pull all that out so you can get
to where the leaks are.
It's messy.
That makes sense though.
Yeah, yeah.
And as far as electricity,well find out what are the big uses.
(23:28):
And I've helped people withthis and it turns out having multiple
old refrigerators or freezersis one of one of the biggest uses.
Look for what's always on.
Sometimes TVs or did you knowtelevisions use more energy when
(23:51):
they're not being watched thanwhen they're being watched.
I know that's a slightlymisleading way of saying it, but,
but if, but televisions arewatched a couple of hours a day,
which means like 20 hours aday they're not being watched.
And because there's thisremote, the TV is always on, waiting,
(24:15):
it's using energy at a low, ata low rate all the time waiting to
get a signal.
So if you simply put it on apower strip and turn the thing off
when you're not you using itnow those electronics are shut down,
you're not using power.
(24:36):
You know, basic simple thingslike, like that can go a, a long
ways.
There's a thing called akilowatt meter.
It's a simple device you plugin into the wall and then plug your
appliance into it and it willtell you what the energy use instantaneous
(24:56):
or over time is for, for that item.
So you can tell what is usingthe bulk of your, of your power.
If you look at your powerbills, look at the difference between
winter and summer, thatdifference is going to tell, tell
you okay, how much is goingfor heating and cooling.
(25:17):
You can tell now because youknow in winter you're probably not
using much cooling.
Right?
Not in Iowa.
Yeah, yeah.
So, so there are these waysof, you know, it, it.
It's all about gathering ininformation first instead of guessing
(25:37):
and then okay, where's thepower going with this?
And oh, and another.
There's a cute little tool.
In fact I've got one sittingright, right, right right here.
This is a fun little toy.
It's called a FLIR one.
(25:58):
It actually is a thermalcamera that plugs into my phone.
I can plug this thing in andthen I can get an infrared picture
of whatever it is I'm looking at.
I can see heat, which is areally neat way of looking at things.
(26:19):
In fact, if you use it with ablower door, you can see heat getting
pushed out of your house.
Interesting.
Pulled in.
Here's another photo of a catwalking on carpet.
(26:42):
Those are the cat's footprintson carpet.
These things are that sense sensitive.
It, it can show that kind of,of, of tiny detail.
Wow.
So very, only a couple ofhundred dollars, you know.
(27:02):
So a great tool to, to haveand a great way to gather in information
that you really couldn't getany other way.
Wow, you have so much information.
Where can people find out whatyou're writing about and the things
you focus on in your writing?
Well, I've got a website, justmy name, LarryWeingarten.com should
(27:24):
I spell that?
Sure.
Okay.
It's W E I N G A R t e nlarrywingarten.com and I have a blog
that I periodically post stuff.
There's a lot of otherinformation up there.
There's a contact form thereas, as well, you know, so those are,
(27:49):
that's, that's a simple,simple way.
So with all those blogs,when's your book coming out?
Well, which book?
Okay, here I.
In 2000, in 2023.
Philosopher's wrench.
(28:09):
But notice that's book one.
I'm, I'm working on the, onthe next copy.
We're editing book two nowbecause there's, I have apparently
too much to say.
So tell us about book one.
Book one is a mix.
It's.
I like to look at life as, oryou know, part of it is tools.
(28:35):
My definition of tools is alittle broader than many people.
It's, you know, tools can bepipe wrenches and metal tools and
things like the flir one andall that good stuff.
But tools also can be thingslike acceptance and appreciation,
(28:56):
presence, hope.
Very powerful tools.
Even more powerful than thatthree foot pipe wrench I'm holding
on the COVID of the book.
So I like to mix them up.
And if you can find ways touse both of these tools together,
you can make stuff happen.
(29:18):
So that's what I'm showingtelling stories in the book.
And perspective is such apowerful tool if you ever want to
troubleshoot anything.
Perspective lets you do it.
You can see that thing fromdifferent points of view.
(29:39):
You can see it from the cat'spoint of view or the redwood trees
point of view and learnsomething that you wouldn't figure
out otherwise.
Where can people find your book?
They want to purchase it?
Amazon is the place right now.
(30:03):
It's just sitting there.
And how is it being receivedso far?
Reviews have been very good.
You know, it, it actually wasbestseller for a little while.
And the reviews, people like it.
(30:25):
They're.
I think we're 4.8 or somethingout of five stars.
So people are gettingsomething from it.
They're, they, they like that.
I'm, I'm sharing ways of, of,of, of doing things that a friend
(30:46):
that wrote the for the forwardto the book, Dan Holohan tells a
story about how he said,Larry, whenever I ask you anything,
you're always quiet for alittle, a little bit.
And why is that?
And so I said, well, I'masking myself if what I'm about to
(31:07):
tell you will help.
There's this question I havealways will it help?
And if it won't help, I needto figure out something else to say.
And then he goes back andtalks about himself and how he has
been quick to react and howcould someone ask such a stupid question,
quest question and things.
(31:33):
But the, the will it help?
One helps me.
You know, it's, it's my.
One of my guiding lights.
You know it.
I don't want to be snide.
I don't.
I'm not interested in goingout of my way to hurt somebody or
make them feel bad.
So I need to imagine how theymight receive what it is all thinking.
(32:01):
Second favorite question Ihave to ask my guests is this one.
What do you want your legacyto be?
That's, that's a tricky one.
But I really just want to showpeople that being, you know, if we
(32:26):
can get rid of fear, thatwould have such a huge impact in
the world if people didn't actbased on fear or fear based habits.
How, how can, can we, can wedo that?
So if my legacy is helping tojust be present, you know, like it's
(32:50):
easy to be afraid but I'msitting in a comfortable chair, the
sun is shining.
I'm not carrying with me the mon.
The monsters from the past orthe imagined monsters in the future.
You know, what if, if we canhave less, less fear, be a little
more present, find what'sright in the world to help balance
(33:14):
what isn't.
And you know, I like to be helpful.
I have found always I get moreback than I give every single time.
It may not come from the same place.
Doesn't.
Doesn't matter.
So there's.
I just have this trust thatthings will, will go well and they
(33:39):
do.
So if there were some mainpoints for legacy, I think those
would be it.
I love that.
As we wrap up our conversation.
What do you want the audienceto take away from our conversation
today?
They're in charge.
(34:00):
They are in control.
It's their choice.
They're not at the effect ofsomebody else.
You know, learn enough.
You know, keep, learn every day.
Always be open to learningthings and trust your instinct.
(34:23):
If you are curious aboutsomething, stop.
Take the time, learn it.
I promise you within a weekthat information will be of some
use.
Always happens to me when I,when I see some.
Anything I don't know anythingabout and I take the time to figure
(34:43):
it out and under understand it better.
I with within a week I get tohelp somebody with that know how.
But I think you know, don'tlet anyone whether it's in financial
or medical or any other field.
Be the boss.
(35:04):
Don't give your power overyou're in charge.
It means a lot of work.
It means you take and oh respond.
Responsibility is not a bad word.
It's a gift.
So when people give youresponsibility they're giving you
(35:25):
trust.
They're saying you're good.
I trust you with my life evenI've had people say say that to me
so those sorts of things.
I love that where can peoplefind you on social media and connect
with you?
(35:45):
I'm about as unsocial on mediaas anybody could be.
I, I, I, I do have my websiteand a and a and a contact form that
there but I don't spend timeon normal social media channels.
That's very energy efficientof you.
(36:08):
May maybe time efficient I'mnot not sure the cat just wants more
more to be dealt with more soI that.
That'S my social well Larry,thanks so much for sharing and for
what you do.
It's encouraging to know thatyou have this mind where you can
pour into people and pour intosolutions and ideas and I appreciate
(36:32):
your curiosity because I thinkthe curiosity makes you so unique
in what you do and what youbring to the table.
So thank you for the uniqueway God has created you.
Thanks for noticing.
Well, Larry, welcome to the podcast.
How you doing today?
I'm good, I'm good.
I'm glad to be here.
Well, you say that now.
We haven't gotten to thequestions yet.
So.
I love to ask my guest this question.
What's the best piece ofadvice you've ever received?
(01:46):
That's a bit of a tricky one.
I've received a whole lot ofadvice, but probably the best advice
came from my mom when I was a kid.
She basically was asking mewhat I wanted to do, sort of encouraging
me to follow my heart, which,you know, at that age, most people
(02:09):
are telling you what to do ornot do, and that's it.
But she was suggesting Ilisten to myself.
I love that.
And what did you decide youwant to do?
Oh, I, at that point, I wasvery clear.
I told her, I'm going to growup to be an inventor.
I'm going to create stuff.
(02:30):
And she thought, fine.
She didn't say, well, how areyou going to make a living doing
that?
Or anything like that.
She no, didn't let reality getin the way at all.
I love that.
I just had a guest on mypodcast talking about how do you
raise entrepreneurial kids?
And her biggest takeaway frominterviewing a bunch of entrepreneur
as parents was, when your kidhas a passion, no matter what that
(02:53):
passion is, support it.
Don't try and, you know,explain it away or steer in a different
direction.
Just let them go and findtheir passion and live out that passion.
That's.
And I really like that.
I was the kid that in school Iwould rather fix things than go out
(03:14):
on the playground.
The teachers, through variousgrades actually asked me to fix things.
Say, Larry, the bell is too loud.
Can you do anything?
Yes.
I'm just a little kid and yes,I could figure stuff like that out.
I could see it.
So that was really fun.
(03:36):
I've had kids and my own kidswho like taking things apart.
They don't put it backtogether, but they like taking them
apart.
Well, it begins with takingthings apart.
Later, they might go backtogether the same way.
Or not.
Yeah, I try to encourage.
It's like, if you're going totake it apart, at least try and fix
it.
(03:58):
I, I started with like, I'd goto the dump and find things like
old clocks and take them apart.
It didn't matter if I couldn'tget them back together, but I learned
how they worked by, by doing that.
So after a while, it becameclear that there's a system for man
made things.
If you can take it, if you canbuild it there.
(04:20):
At least with the old stuffthere was a way of taking it apart
and putting it back together.
It always followed those rulesso I could figure it out given time.
I love that.
I'm curious, Larry, thinkabout your life.
Who were some people thatserved as mentors for you along the
way?
Oh, that's, I've got a, there,there was a guy, Stan, sort of like
(04:42):
my second father.
He just appreciated what I,what I did and helped me to, you
know, he, he put challenges infront of me.
Okay, figure this, this oneout or can you help me with this?
You know, and I, I wasn'tgoing to let him down.
(05:04):
You know, one of the simplethings he gave me, Larry, I've got,
He had an apartment house andhad tenants that were going to move
out because water heaters weremaking noise and said, Larry, can
you quiet the heaters down?
Oh, okay.
I, I figured out how to do that.
I made a tool and vacuumed thesediment out of these gas fired heaters
(05:26):
that quieted the heaters down.
Tenants were happy and thatled to a whole career in hot water.
I love that.
Your curiosity just inspires me.
So tell us about your journeyin building industry and what led
(05:47):
you to specialize in hot water.
Energy efficiency.
Okay, well, energy efficiencyto me seems like a no brainer.
It's a, People want to savemoney, they want to do right by the
environment, they want to begood stewards.
Being more efficient with ourenergy is, is a direct path to doing
(06:11):
that.
So, okay, I mean you can getmore efficient, equip equipment or
you can simply need less.
Being efficient makes it soyou can, can use less.
For instance, I built thehouse that I'm, that I'm in.
It uses roughly a tenth of theenergy per square foot that a normal
(06:33):
house does and it's morecomfortable than most homes and it's
off grid.
So okay, that, that, that's agood start.
But I figured if you buildsomething that's efficient, it's
durable, you're not going tohave to change its batteries or,
(06:55):
you know, it, the insulationisn't going to need to be replaced
periodically.
So there's a lot you can doto, to make, to make things work
more efficient, efficiently.
And when, when you do that,suddenly supplying what energy you
need becomes quite simple.
(07:17):
Even more savings there.
I love that.
That's really interesting.
Good.
So, so in today's societythough, we don't like the, or should
say companies don't likethings that last as long as they
used to last.
I remember when you buy arefrigerator, you may buy two in
your lifetime.
Now you're buying more, whichis creating more waste in society.
(07:44):
How do we get back to creatingthings that are efficient but also
last a long time?
Okay, a couple of simpleexamples come to mind.
When I built my house, Ineeded to put metal flashing around
the roof in various places.
Standard thing that we use forthis is galvanized steel.
(08:08):
That means zinc coated steel.
They put molten zinc on it andthe zinc corrodes away before the
steel can rust.
Once the zinc is gone, thenthe steel rusts and now you have
to put new flashing up or elseit's going to leak.
So I didn't do that.
I used copper.
I bought the copper at thewholesale house and took it over
(08:31):
to a sheet metal shop and hadthem bend it to, to my shape.
I helped them do it.
It wound up costing a littleless than it would have cost if I
had bought pre bent galvanized steel.
So it's a little cheaper andit will last 200 years easy.
Okay, that's, you know, thatkind of thing.
(08:57):
Another, I don't know if I'mreally on, on point here, but if
you can make a home efficient.
In the east it's real commonthat boilers are used for house heating
for hot water and steam.
If you make the houseefficient enough, you can use a water
(09:18):
heater to do the very same job.
Modern boilers called modcons, modulating condensing boilers,
you might last 15 or 20 years.
The old cast iron ones couldlast 80, 90 years.
But those aren't efficient enough.
So we're moving over to themodcon style so I can show you how
(09:44):
to get 50 years out of astandard glass lined water heater.
If you make the houseefficient now, you can use a simpler
heating source and life's good.
That's interesting because ourhot water heater just died actually
after we'd only.
(10:04):
We only had it for three years.
And we should have talked alot sooner.
We should have reason for.
There's some reason three,three years isn't cutting it there.
We can figure this one out.
Well, I'd love to have youcome over here and figure it out
because when I contacted acompany it's like, well that's just.
We're not going to replace itafter that because once this one
(10:25):
we get the rest of thewarranty from the previous one.
But we don't get a new, a newwarrant even though we have a new
water heater.
Right.
But our heating system at ourhouse is actually fed through our
hot water heater.
We have a hot water heatersystem that kind of keeps our house
warm in the winter, so.
Well, you know, at some point,we should talk.
(10:48):
I actually wrote a book backin 1992, the Water Heater Workbook.
It's how to get 50 years fromyour water heater and make it efficient.
Wow.
We should talk.
So I love the fact that youfind solutions to people's problems.
What in.
How did you get to the pointwhere you.
(11:09):
I know you like to be curious,but is there some other skills you
learned along the way to helpyou kind of pour into those situations
and find more ways to help people?
Well, yeah, I.
I guess we start with what's true.
What's my foundation?
What can I stand on?
What do I know for absolutecertain is true, no matter what anybody
(11:33):
says or does?
So let's start often withphysics, what's.
What's true, and then can Iuse that to help people?
I've learned over and over, ifyou help somebody, you always somehow,
in some way get more back thanyou give.
(11:55):
It's just another one of thosepieces of physics.
It's, it's.
It's really, really nice.
If I can combine these things,okay, I've.
I've learned what's true.
How can I use that to help people?
How can I troubleshoot?
How can I look at thesituation differently than most people
(12:19):
do?
How many perspectives can Iget on it?
If I look at it, any problemfrom enough different points of view,
a solution will show up.
Always happens.
I'm not sure if I'm answeringyour question very well.
I go off on tangents too easily.
No, you are.
What I am curious, though, isthat approach to life is unique.
(12:41):
How do you.
So give me an example of aproblem you solved.
How did you approach it andtell me kind of how you worked through
that.
Well, say the water heaterproblem that Stan gave me all those
years ago, water heatersmaking noise.
(13:04):
No.
1 until that time, everyonesaid if a water heater makes noise,
you have to put a new waterheater in, Period.
There was one outfit, a Navyhousing facility close by.
They would take a water heaterout, turn it upside down and shake
it up and up and down and hopethe sediment would fall out.
(13:29):
That's a lot of manpower.
That's.
So that's not a practicalsolution for most things.
But I understood that it wassediment in the tank that was making
water overheat and boil.
And as those bubbles of steamformed, when they would hit Cooler
(13:50):
water.
They would collapse suddenlyand make noise.
That reverb reverberationcaused by the collapsing of steam
bubbles was, was what made noise.
Oh, okay.
If I can get the sediment outof the tank, the noise, the steam
can't be formed in the firstplace and the tank will become slightly
(14:12):
more energy efficient too.
So I thought about it andthought, well, no one's figured this
out.
Tanks are domed up at thebottom, so there's not a place for
the sediment to fall down to.
There's this ring of sedimentthat builds up.
How do you get that stuff out?
So I made a water based vacuumcleaner that basically sucks water
(14:36):
and sediment out from the topof the tank.
I'd make a wand that goes downto the bottom and pulls the stuff
out, runs it through a filter,returns the hot water to the tank,
and I keep moving the wandaround until I can't feel any more
sediment.
When I'm done, the tank's quiet.
Because I understood enoughabout the physics of things and I
(15:01):
researched it.
Then, you know, I became realcurious after quieting a tank down.
What are all these other things?
What's this inch and a 16thhex head on top of the tank?
Turns out that's a thingcalled a sacrificial anode rod.
It prevents rusting in the tank.
I talked to all the waterheater manufacturers.
(15:23):
I'm really driven when I'mcurious, I want to know.
So I talked to everybody.
Eventually they said there isno one in the United States you can
talk to.
But they referred me to a man,Alan, in Canada, who worked for Ontario
Hydro, which leased waterheaters to their clients.
(15:44):
So they had an interest inmaintaining electric water heaters
to make them last.
So they understood a lot.
He taught me a lot in a whilebecause I'm out in the field playing
with heaters.
I was teaching him stuff.
So it, it was a wonderful backand forth for many, many years.
(16:05):
And I was curious.
So we both wound up sitting orbeing members of the national association
of Corrosion in Engineers,weird stuff like that.
So that I could learn indetail how things happened there.
And that's how I learned how Icould get so many more years out
(16:28):
of.
Out of a water heater.
As you think about maybe themost challenging problem you tried
to solve.
What was that and how did yousolve it?
Challenging problems are.
Aren't physics.
They're always, they alwaysdeal with people.
People are much hard.
Harder than physics.
(16:49):
Physics has rules.
People do sometimes don't.
I don't know that well.
It, it's a story.
Years ago I was in involved in a.
An investment company thatinvested in real stock state and
(17:12):
it turned out they, they were,they were lying to, to people and
I and a lot of other peoplelost a whole lot of money and there
were four people that weresuicidal in all of this.
They had lost their retirement.
They had no idea what theywere going to do.
(17:35):
So I dealt with personallywith each one of one of them.
I had lost more than they did.
But I went around and dealtwith each one, stayed in touch and
got them off the suicide train.
Showed them other ways oflooking at it, other perspectives.
(17:55):
And with that they all keptgoing, keeping on on ongoing still.
So they, you know, it waschallenging to basically show them
a different way of seeing the world.
(18:17):
For me it's important.
You know, we're, we're sort ofdriven by genetics.
We're always looking for thatsaber tooth tiger lurking behind
the next street corner.
We know he's out there to comeand get us.
But I make a point of lookingfor what's right as, as well and
(18:38):
keeping some balance because Ican, you know, there's so many things
that are right in the world ifwe just are present and can see them.
So that perspective sharedwith these four helped to get them
off the path of suicide andseeing that there could be a brighter
future.
That, that was important and tricky.
(19:02):
Yeah, that's also.
It's so important.
You poured into people's lifethat way.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, yeah.
I mean I can talk aboutplumbing and how I've been up to
the eighth plumber on the job,but, but that's pretty simple stuff
(19:25):
compared to dealing with people.
Yeah, that is neat.
People, especially homeownerstoday, are looking for energy efficiency
and we talked a little bitabout that.
I'm curious, what advice doyou have for people who want to make
their homes more energy efficient?
I keep getting a note from myelectrician, my company every month
(19:45):
saying you're the leastefficient home on the block or so.
What are some keys you havefor people who keep getting those
letters?
Okay, couple I start bylooking at what are the things, you
know, let's do this with a, ahot water story.
(20:06):
If say you, you want to makeyour, your hot water use better,
more efficient, use less andstill be happy.
You start with fixtures, youknow, and you get a bucket on a stopwatch.
How many gallons per minute isyour shower head putting out?
Actually measure it.
Figure that, that, you know,don't just guess, measure.
(20:30):
I've found 8 gallon per minuteshower heads out there when they
should have been 2 and A and a half.
I in my own house have one anda half gallon per minute shower heads.
And if you get the rightshower head, it can be a very comfortable,
nice, nice shower.
(20:50):
So start with, with fixturesand then.
Okay.
If I have efficient one and ahalf gallon per minute fixtures,
if I ever needed to re plumb,I could and, and, and I had adequate
pressure like £660, I canplumb the house in quarter inch tubing.
That's ice maker tubing.
(21:13):
Instead of the standard pipesup to three quarter inch, you know,
three quarter inch or halfinch pipes that we use.
Which means now I'll get hotwater in seconds.
So I'm using even less.
I'm wasting less water waitingfor hot hot water.
Everything becomes smaller andmore efficient.
(21:33):
In the hot water thing, FLwater flow rates through the pipes
are a little quicker.
So biofilms in the pipes getscrubbed off so you get healthier
water as well.
Cases of Lee, of Lee Janellahave been going up in the US because
we have oversized pipes for,for the, for the flow rates.
(21:56):
So biofilms and bugs liveinside of the plumbing.
So that, that, that was justone story.
But if we start with mosthomes, look at the shell of the house,
the, the floor, walls and roof.
How can we make that better?
Is ins.
(22:16):
You know, everyone thinks I'llinsulate more, but really the thing
to do first is to get adiagnostic tool called a blower door,
which is just a big fan withmeasurement built in.
And it will measure how muchair leakage you have in the house
and it will help you topinpoint where these leaks are.
(22:38):
In my neck of the woods, I'mon the west Coast.
PGE has a tool lending library.
They'll lend you a blower doorso you can test so it doesn't have
to cost anything.
Once you know where the leaksare, you can fix them.
You know, reducing those leaks.
Now you can dramatically cutyour energy bills just with air leaks.
(23:05):
Insulation is next, but neverinsulate before you air seal because
then if you insulate, you gotto pull all that out so you can get
to where the leaks are.
It's messy.
That makes sense though.
Yeah, yeah.
And as far as electricity,well find out what are the big uses.
(23:28):
And I've helped people withthis and it turns out having multiple
old refrigerators or freezersis one of one of the biggest uses.
Look for what's always on.
Sometimes TVs or did you knowtelevisions use more energy when
(23:51):
they're not being watched thanwhen they're being watched.
I know that's a slightlymisleading way of saying it, but,
but if, but televisions arewatched a couple of hours a day,
which means like 20 hours aday they're not being watched.
And because there's thisremote, the TV is always on, waiting,
(24:15):
it's using energy at a low, ata low rate all the time waiting to
get a signal.
So if you simply put it on apower strip and turn the thing off
when you're not you using itnow those electronics are shut down,
you're not using power.
(24:36):
You know, basic simple thingslike, like that can go a, a long
ways.
There's a thing called akilowatt meter.
It's a simple device you plugin into the wall and then plug your
appliance into it and it willtell you what the energy use instantaneous
(24:56):
or over time is for, for that item.
So you can tell what is usingthe bulk of your, of your power.
If you look at your powerbills, look at the difference between
winter and summer, thatdifference is going to tell, tell
you okay, how much is goingfor heating and cooling.
(25:17):
You can tell now because youknow in winter you're probably not
using much cooling.
Right?
Not in Iowa.
Yeah, yeah.
So, so there are these waysof, you know, it, it.
It's all about gathering ininformation first instead of guessing
(25:37):
and then okay, where's thepower going with this?
And oh, and another.
There's a cute little tool.
In fact I've got one sittingright, right, right right here.
This is a fun little toy.
It's called a FLIR one.
(25:58):
It actually is a thermalcamera that plugs into my phone.
I can plug this thing in andthen I can get an infrared picture
of whatever it is I'm looking at.
I can see heat, which is areally neat way of looking at things.
(26:19):
In fact, if you use it with ablower door, you can see heat getting
pushed out of your house.
Interesting.
Pulled in.
Here's another photo of a catwalking on carpet.
(26:42):
Those are the cat's footprintson carpet.
These things are that sense sensitive.
It, it can show that kind of,of, of tiny detail.
Wow.
So very, only a couple ofhundred dollars, you know.
(27:02):
So a great tool to, to haveand a great way to gather in information
that you really couldn't getany other way.
Wow, you have so much information.
Where can people find out whatyou're writing about and the things
you focus on in your writing?
Well, I've got a website, justmy name, LarryWeingarten.com should
(27:24):
I spell that?
Sure.
Okay.
It's W E I N G A R t e nlarrywingarten.com and I have a blog
that I periodically post stuff.
There's a lot of otherinformation up there.
There's a contact form thereas, as well, you know, so those are,
(27:49):
that's, that's a simple,simple way.
So with all those blogs,when's your book coming out?
Well, which book?
Okay, here I.
In 2000, in 2023.
Philosopher's wrench.
(28:09):
But notice that's book one.
I'm, I'm working on the, onthe next copy.
We're editing book two nowbecause there's, I have apparently
too much to say.
So tell us about book one.
Book one is a mix.
It's.
I like to look at life as, oryou know, part of it is tools.
(28:35):
My definition of tools is alittle broader than many people.
It's, you know, tools can bepipe wrenches and metal tools and
things like the flir one andall that good stuff.
But tools also can be thingslike acceptance and appreciation,
(28:56):
presence, hope.
Very powerful tools.
Even more powerful than thatthree foot pipe wrench I'm holding
on the COVID of the book.
So I like to mix them up.
And if you can find ways touse both of these tools together,
you can make stuff happen.
(29:18):
So that's what I'm showingtelling stories in the book.
And perspective is such apowerful tool if you ever want to
troubleshoot anything.
Perspective lets you do it.
You can see that thing fromdifferent points of view.
(29:39):
You can see it from the cat'spoint of view or the redwood trees
point of view and learnsomething that you wouldn't figure
out otherwise.
Where can people find your book?
They want to purchase it?
Amazon is the place right now.
(30:03):
It's just sitting there.
And how is it being receivedso far?
Reviews have been very good.
You know, it, it actually wasbestseller for a little while.
And the reviews, people like it.
(30:25):
They're.
I think we're 4.8 or somethingout of five stars.
So people are gettingsomething from it.
They're, they, they like that.
I'm, I'm sharing ways of, of,of, of doing things that a friend
(30:46):
that wrote the for the forwardto the book, Dan Holohan tells a
story about how he said,Larry, whenever I ask you anything,
you're always quiet for alittle, a little bit.
And why is that?
And so I said, well, I'masking myself if what I'm about to
(31:07):
tell you will help.
There's this question I havealways will it help?
And if it won't help, I needto figure out something else to say.
And then he goes back andtalks about himself and how he has
been quick to react and howcould someone ask such a stupid question,
quest question and things.
(31:33):
But the, the will it help?
One helps me.
You know, it's, it's my.
One of my guiding lights.
You know it.
I don't want to be snide.
I don't.
I'm not interested in goingout of my way to hurt somebody or
make them feel bad.
So I need to imagine how theymight receive what it is all thinking.
(32:01):
Second favorite question Ihave to ask my guests is this one.
What do you want your legacyto be?
That's, that's a tricky one.
But I really just want to showpeople that being, you know, if we
(32:26):
can get rid of fear, thatwould have such a huge impact in
the world if people didn't actbased on fear or fear based habits.
How, how can, can we, can wedo that?
So if my legacy is helping tojust be present, you know, like it's
(32:50):
easy to be afraid but I'msitting in a comfortable chair, the
sun is shining.
I'm not carrying with me the mon.
The monsters from the past orthe imagined monsters in the future.
You know, what if, if we canhave less, less fear, be a little
more present, find what'sright in the world to help balance
(33:14):
what isn't.
And you know, I like to be helpful.
I have found always I get moreback than I give every single time.
It may not come from the same place.
Doesn't.
Doesn't matter.
So there's.
I just have this trust thatthings will, will go well and they
(33:39):
do.
So if there were some mainpoints for legacy, I think those
would be it.
I love that.
As we wrap up our conversation.
What do you want the audienceto take away from our conversation
today?
They're in charge.
(34:00):
They are in control.
It's their choice.
They're not at the effect ofsomebody else.
You know, learn enough.
You know, keep, learn every day.
Always be open to learningthings and trust your instinct.
(34:23):
If you are curious aboutsomething, stop.
Take the time, learn it.
I promise you within a weekthat information will be of some
use.
Always happens to me when I,when I see some.
Anything I don't know anythingabout and I take the time to figure
(34:43):
it out and under understand it better.
I with within a week I get tohelp somebody with that know how.
But I think you know, don'tlet anyone whether it's in financial
or medical or any other field.
Be the boss.
(35:04):
Don't give your power overyou're in charge.
It means a lot of work.
It means you take and oh respond.
Responsibility is not a bad word.
It's a gift.
So when people give youresponsibility they're giving you
(35:25):
trust.
They're saying you're good.
I trust you with my life evenI've had people say say that to me
so those sorts of things.
I love that where can peoplefind you on social media and connect
with you?
(35:45):
I'm about as unsocial on mediaas anybody could be.
I, I, I, I do have my websiteand a and a and a contact form that
there but I don't spend timeon normal social media channels.
That's very energy efficientof you.
(36:08):
May maybe time efficient I'mnot not sure the cat just wants more
more to be dealt with more soI that.
That'S my social well Larry,thanks so much for sharing and for
what you do.
It's encouraging to know thatyou have this mind where you can
pour into people and pour intosolutions and ideas and I appreciate
(36:32):
your curiosity because I thinkthe curiosity makes you so unique
in what you do and what youbring to the table.
So thank you for the uniqueway God has created you.
Thanks for noticing.
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