July 6, 2025 • 27 mins
Today, Dean dives into the latest in heating and air-conditioning for 2025, breaking down how modern systems work and what’s new. He helps a caller troubleshoot a leaky faucet with practical DIY tips, explains the key differences between A/C intakes and outlets, and discusses what to consider when relocating an A/C vent into the attic.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisper on demand
on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks for joining us on
the program today. It is always an honor and a
privilege to spend time with you talking about that all
important place in all of our lives, your home. Today
on the show, we're talking about keeping your home cool.
(00:24):
You know, we're getting into summertime here, the temps are arriving,
so it's time to for a little primmer on HVAC
gets you some understanding of where things are here in
twenty twenty five, because there have been a lot of changes.
It is one of those areas of technology and it
is very high tech, and I'm really doing my best
(00:45):
to avoid burying you in a lot of technical mumbo
jumbo that just doesn't actually, you know, mean a whole
lot to you. And also just basically explain to you
how your system works, because you should have a basic
underderstanding of how your system works, but you don't have
to remember all the numbers in the data and all
(01:05):
of this. I just want to give you that sense
of it so that you can speak and choose intelligently
when it comes to your air conditioning system. That's what
we're talking about on the show today, and we will
return to that conversation in a bit. But here we
are in the second hour, which means it's time to
go to the phones. And when it comes to your calls,
(01:26):
it can be about anything you want it to be.
Let's get to it. I want to talk to Lou
a Lou, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Hello there. I have something different than the air conditioning,
but what I think should be a simple plumbing problem
for you. I have a I don't know the name
brand of the faucet, but this is what happened. I
placed an aerator on it and the Y connector started
(02:02):
to leak, so I stopped it, and I placed the
errator on the other faucet in the bathroom, and then
that Y connector started to leak. So what I would
like to know is most of the faucets in my
(02:25):
home do not have this. This was recently placed by
a handyman, and I don't know if it's too hard
of a task for me to replace it. I've found
it online. I don't know the brand of the faucet,
but I just wanted your opinion on that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, so you're talking. Are you asking about replacing the
faucet itself.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
No, No, No, that's way beyond my pay scale. Just
the Y connector. Okay, do you know what I mean
when I say the Y connector.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Because no, I want to I want to understand better.
Because normally, underneath the sink there are two angle stops.
Uh that's what we call them. They're the valves that
are coming out of the wall for hot and cold water.
And then those valves have hoses that lead up to
the faucet, one for the hot and one for the cold.
So the Y connected that you're you're talking about where
(03:26):
where where are you seeing that?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It goes into the area where the hot and cold
come out, but it goes into the middle, It goes
into where it looks like the actual faucet is. It's
got I don't know, it looks like a y uh
So if this is uh uh not a common thing,
(03:53):
I've got it on one other faucet uh in my
another sink in my house. But everything else just has
one from the hot and one from the cold.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah that's the way it should be, my friend. Uh So,
uh So, I'm not exactly sure why that unit is
there underneath, and why the handyman put them on. Your
faucets have a hot and a cold uh, separate connector.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Even if it is even if, even if.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The faucet up top is a mix what we call
a mixer valve, which means it's just one lever that
you know, you spin to the left or spin to
the right, and it mixes hot and cold together. Either way.
The faucet itself underneath has a separate feed for hot
and for cold, okay, and that hot and cold should
be going right into the wall, right into the wall
to those angles, to the hot and cold angle stops.
(04:47):
So whatever that device is and what the you know,
why connector is is typically for taking a a water
line and splitting it into two feeds.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All right. I don't really understand the purpose of it.
I've seen it maybe used in they were saying, in
baptobs or other things, and they even have white connectors
for gas propein, but that is not for the home.
So I was just wondering. I think this is probably
(05:22):
something I'd better leave to an expert to do.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think you should probably have maybe just call a
plumber ound have and take a look at it and
see what the situation is with that, Why the handy
person put that in it. I don't know what the
goal was for that, unless part of the faucet is
broken and they're trying to limp it along. But yeah,
(05:45):
you do not need that and one of the things,
and if it's leaking, especially if it's leaking once you
put the aerator on the faucet, because even a little
bit more back pressure is causing that thing to leak.
It doesn't sound like it was installed properly either. But
generally speaking, unless there's some bizarre overriding condition under the
(06:08):
sink that I'm not aware of, whether why is being
used to split the cold line off towards a toilet
or another water fixture, whatever the case may be. Two
angle stops, two valves under the sink, hot and cold.
Those valves lead separate hoses to connect to the faucet.
Whether those are separated connections or they're right next to
(06:31):
each other on a mixer faucet. Either way, that's the setup.
If you've got something different, have a plumber plumber take
a look at it and help you figure it out,
because it sounds like somebody steered you in the wrong
direction and obviously the rest of the sinks in the
house don't have that same issue. All right, my friends,
let's take a quick break and then more of your calls.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Thanks for joining us. Follow us on social media. We're
on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x. However,
many other hundreds of them there are out there. We're
probably there on those two. I think probably Home with Dean,
same handle for them.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
All.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
All right, thanks for joining us on the program.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We are talking air conditioning today because you know it's time,
right it's July. Things are heating up here in southern
California especially, so it's time to address those issues. But
right now we're in the middle section of the show,
which means we're taking calls, and when it comes to calls,
it's anything you want to talk about. Let's go back
(07:42):
to the phones. I want to talk to John. Hey John,
welcome home.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Hey Dean, thanks for the call. I've got a question
for you. When you are measuring the air temperature at
the return versus a a register where it comes out,
what should that differential be? Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
A very technical, but very good question. That's a good question.
That's a really good question, John.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
So I want to say I have a new I
have a newer unit. I got it about two years ago,
so it has the new has the new uh you know,
the new cooling in it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Yeah, And I want to say that they were telling
me that the new cool is supposed to be like
fifty percent more efficient.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
So, and I bought it. I think I bought a
like a four times sixteen eer carrier, right, But I
just want and then should you measure that at the
furthest register away from the return to make sure everything
is going properly.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, it's usually a good idea. It's usually a good idea.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, So what for everybody who's listening what John's talking about.
It's an ac question, and it's one of the ways
that you can kind of get a sense of how
well your unit is doing and whether there's a problem
or not. It's one of the things that an air
conditioning contractor may very well check out when they're trying
to inspect a unit to figure out what it's doing.
(09:15):
And that is the delta t that's actually what it's called, John.
The delta T, which is the temperature difference between the
air that is going into the system at the return
air vent. Okay, and I have to explain usually to
people they're surprised. A lot of folks don't actually realize
(09:35):
that they that in your system you have at least
one very large return air vent which is sucking air
out of your house. Okay, out of the room, I
should say, and everything else. All those other small events
are supply vents. So we have supply vents blowing cold
air into the room and then somewhere in the house,
(09:55):
usually in the hallway, hallway ceiling underneath if you have
a vertical a furnace closet, there's a very very large vent.
That one actually is not blowing, it's sucking unit, and
that's the circuit of air that's being created. So the
delta T is the difference between the temperature of the
air that's going into that return air vent. You know,
(10:18):
the temperature of the air in the room, the difference
between that and the temperature of the air that's coming
out of the vents. Actually it's done. It's cooling loop,
all right. An AC contractor may correct me, this may
have changed, but generally speaking, my understanding is that the
differential should be somewhere between fourteen to twenty degrees fahrenheit
(10:42):
fourteen to twenty degrees measured at the vent itself, So
so you know, if your AC is working properly, if
eighty degree air is the temperature of the air of
the room as it goes into the return air vent, okay,
then what.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Should that be? Should be down in the sixties.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Sixty to sixty four, say.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Something right there? So there you go, there you.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Go, okay, yeah, because I moved by. And then another
thing I did in my house is my my firmostat
was downstairs and I have all tile downstairs, and so
when I would cool the house down, it was state
ice cold downstairs and upstairs was hot. So I had
my AC guy moved my firmost stat into my bedroom
(11:28):
because I care about what I'm at at night when
I'm sleeping, and then when I whatever it is set
in my room, the rest of the house goes about.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Two degrees cooler. So because if not, I used to
have to turn the AC down to like sixty eight
and let it be a runaway all night long, just
to try and keep the you know, the upstairs cool
then once you got the temperature, it wouldn't run the
rest of the night. So now at least it cycles,
you know, And they fought me, They're like, oh, there's
no returning here. I'm like, I don't care, you know,
but I you know, it worked real well. But I
(11:57):
was just curious what that delta tea was supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And you know the location of the thermostat is very
very important depending on the comfort levels that you want.
You know, where the closer you are where you're living
to the thermostat, the more regulated that temperature is going
to be because the whole unit is operating off of
that goal set at the thermostat. You keep listening, John,
(12:21):
because when we get back to this topic after calls,
I'm going to be talking about what the future, what
the present, and definitely the future of all AC systems
are when it comes to residences, and you know, finally
solving and resolving the whole upstairs downstairs air differential problem
(12:42):
that has always been a problem since day one. Why
because physics, Because hot air rises, and it's just you know,
the air upstairs is always going to be hotter than
the air downstairs if you're pumping an equal amount of
cool air into that system as a whole. There are
ways around it and the future of AC and some
a lot of people have these new units themselves. They're
(13:05):
called variable speed units with zoning. We'll talk about all
of that when we return to that conversation after calls.
So you hang tight because there is a way around it.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
If your home needs some personal house whisper attention other
than broadcast attention, you can book an in home design
consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer dot design,
house Whisperer dot design for more info. That would be
me and the t who's smiling at me from across
(13:45):
the table here, coming out to your place, sitting down
with you, working out the issues, giving you some inspiration
in some direction or how to solve whatever it is
that's got you scratching your head. Speaking of that, we're
taking calls right now. It's that magic part of the
show where we talk to you and you set the agenda.
I'm talking to air conditioning. We're going to return to
that topic very shortly, but right now, I want to
(14:08):
go back to the phones.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Let's talk to Rick. Ay Rick, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Hey, good morning Dean. First and foremost, I want to
tell you thank you for what you do Tina and
the staff.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
You guys are so respectful and.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Just love listening to you guys. Regarding my question, Dean,
is we have about a twenty five year old carrier
unit and it's never been maintained. Yeah, that's bad on me,
and I'm just kind of wondering if it's even worthwhile
me tackling it and possibly causing more damage than actually
(14:49):
helping the system and cool it down. So I've seen
a couple of DII videos on cleaning coils and stuff
like that, So I'm just wondering is it better just
to hire somebody to do that or it's something that's
not too involved and I can do myself. And then
just a second question, Obviously it's going to have to
be replaced soon. The unit is in the hallway and
(15:11):
my wife's thinking, well, let's just move it up in
the attic. We'll free up that closet space and we
can use it. And I'm like, I don't know about that.
I've gone up there it's hot, it's humid. I don't
know if that's a good idea or a bad idea,
So we're like, let's ask being.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I first of all, thank you very much, Rick for
those very kind words. Yeah, we do our best around here,
and we do. It does surprise me, I got to say.
I guess it's just the nature of our world that
we live in. It surprises me every time somebody thanks
me for being respectful to human beings. So maybe that's
just talk radio in general. That makes us kind of
(15:52):
outliers in that category because we're not here to be
snarky and nasty and get you upset. We're here to help.
So anyway, thank you very much much for that. It
is a common practice during a remodel, especially to free
up more space in the house by taking your air handler.
(16:12):
That's just a term we use for the furnace and
the evaporator coil, that is that second half of the
air conditioning system that I was talking about earlier that
often finds itself in a closet in a hallway and
getting that moved up into the attic. Now, I should
say to everybody who's listening, you can't just take that
(16:34):
unit and put it up in the attic, because the
unit that's in your hallway is a vertically oriented unit,
and it would require a horizontal different unit that hangs
in the attic. There's very little hesitation about doing that. Yes,
it's incredibly hot up in the attic, absolutely incredibly hot,
(16:54):
but the duct work that is running throughout your entire
house is up there in the attic. And so even
though the AC unit itself is sitting down in air
conditioned space in that closet, the fact is as soon
as the air leaves it, it's moving through all of
that attic duct work anyway. And horizontal units that hang
(17:16):
in addicts are better insulated in order to protect the equipment.
And so it really is a very small, if not
any practical concern. If you've got room in your attic
for a horizontal unit and you want to free up
more room in the house, then by all means, flip
it up and get it up there. Also, you've got
(17:37):
the you know, there are benefits to it. One you
get more space. Two, it's not as noisy when the
AC unit is up in the attic. You're not actually
hearing the fan motor and everything down in the hallway
with you. So there are a lot of advantages we
don't you know, as home designers Tina and I, and
as a general contractor that I am, I don't hesitate
(17:59):
to take a horzon until a vertical unit and replace
it with a horizontal in the attic when there's room
in the attic to do that, because you know of
the space and design benefits that come from it, and
know there is not a performance or energy consumption differential
between the two because the horizontal units are designed to
(18:19):
do exactly that.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Okay, excellent, Now.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Oh sorry, I'm sorry as far as as far as
maintaining your old unit goes, let me address that. Yes, sir,
shame on you, Rick for not maintaining your not hear
it here, I know, no, okay, I get it, I
get it. I get it all right. So I'm just
gonna get on my soapbox here for everybody to understand.
(18:45):
There aren't a lot of things to do to maintain
your AC unit, and I don't want people fiddling with
them generally speaking. Okay, however, there is regular maintenance that
should happen. Now, the outside maintenance for the outside condenser unit,
that big old trash can size thing with the fan
and blowing the hot air. That is something that is
(19:07):
on your list as a homeowner of maintaining. And all
it really takes is a hose and water, no pressure,
no pressure at all, because we don't want the high pressure.
Some people think, oh, I'm gonna take a pressure washer
and clean out the coil outside on my unit, and
they end up completely ruining it. And because the fins,
(19:29):
all those little tiny sensitive metal fins there, very very sensitive,
very very critical to how they react. So we don't
want to put any pressure on that at all, so
that those fins bend over. We want them all nice
and straight and undamaged, but very very soft, gentle water
flowing out of a garden hose, rinsing off those fins,
(19:50):
Getting dust and debris and crud off of those fins,
not a problem whatsoever. That's something that we should all
do from time to time to keep the out unit clean.
The inside of operator coil, you know that's buried up
in the unit there, You got to undo it, and
so on. Most of the time HVAC contractors will take
a spray that tends to loosen debris and grit and
(20:14):
grime and stuff. And clean that out. That's something that
I actually want to encourage homeowners to leave to their
HVAC contractors. And most important of all, my friend, the
most important thing, without question, that every homeowner should do
for their HVAC system is regularly change the filter every
(20:35):
three months, change out the filter. I've got more to
tell you about that a little later in the show,
but I'm just going to get that in right now.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Rick.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Thank you for your call, for the respect, for the love,
and we're going to keep on trying to do our
best for you. Up next, more of your calls.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
It is the underlying message of everything we do here
on the program, from architectural design and the art of
your home, which is of course my primary mode of business,
all the way down to designing things like your air
conditioning system, which is what we're talking about today. We're
going to return to that conversation in just a bit,
(21:23):
but we still have some calls to take and I
want to go back to the phones. Anthony, welcome home.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Thanks for taking the call, Dean, and thanks for helping
thousands of do it yourselfers like myself. I appreciate that.
So I have installed a Nord's tankless water heater about
ten years ago. It's got a mind of its own,
and I'm not sure why I've been doing the proper
maintenance with because of the hard water, and you know,
(21:54):
it just creates havoc with the calcium build up, creates
havoc on all appliances, but especially with the tankless water heater.
So I'm doing the flush on a on a pretty
regular basis. And I thought it was a mixing unit
on the one bathroom, and we changed the mixing unit,
and I don't know if I I'm not sure if
(22:15):
I need to go back with a conventional water heater.
I hate to do that, but it just seems like
it's scolding hot. And then and I noticed this with
the kitchen faucet. I was just, you know, I was
wanting to know why. It's just all of a sudden
changes from hot to cold. It's bizarre. So it can't
be mixing units in all of the all of the outputs.
But I did change one of the mixing units in
(22:38):
the in the one guest shower, and uh, it's just
it's just like I said, has a mind of its own.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, all right, yeah, I hear you, and that this
can be a thing. It can be a thing, and uh,
I would be pulling off a miracle if I could
properly diagnose exactly what's going on with the water heater.
But I am going to ask you some questions so
we can figure out. Get close. When you you installed
this or did a plumber install this?
Speaker 8 (23:06):
Plumber installed it about ten years ago?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Do you do you happen to know what the size
of the of the gas line that they ran to
this unit was.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
I believe it's three quarter Okay, So they.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Did upside the gas line to the unit. And when
did it start giving you these issues? Was it from
day one? Or has it just now started to do
this scalding hot, cold, off and on kind of thing.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Not from day one, I'd say, fairly recently. It's it's
something's changed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I'm not sure what, Okay, So I so here's the thing.
The reason I asked about the gas line because a
lot of homeowners have taken it who are di I wires,
have taken it upon themselves to change out their old
tanked water heater to a tankless, which is fine because
it it is a relatively basic process if you've got
some DIY skills. But what I would say in those
(24:00):
instances most people forget or overlook or don't realize, is
that the volume of gas flowing into a tankless water
heater has to be considerably higher. Can't just be that
half inch gas line that the old tanked unit used
to use, because all the tanked unit used to do
is fire on this little burner at the bottom and
(24:21):
just kind of maintain the heat of the water in
that tank. But a tankless unit by definition, has to
blast gas very very hot for the period of demand
and then turn itself off. So upgrading to a three
quarter or a one inch gas line is mandatory when
you're installing a tankless unit, and that's where usually the
(24:43):
plumber gets involved to get that done properly. Sometimes a
unit that has a three quarter inch line needs a
one inch because it's a larger unit, larger demand, so on.
But you normally see that right up front. And that's
what I'm saying. When people to do that installation themselves
and they fail to up grade the gas, they find
out that the unit blasts for a bit and then
(25:04):
it shuts off because it's just not able to produce
everything that it needs and so it acts wonky. In
your case, it's a recently developed issue, which means somewhere
in the brain of the unit, whether it is the thermocoupler,
whether it is part of the circuitry, part of that system.
(25:25):
And tankless water heaters are fairly complex inside, but part
of that system now is not monitoring and maintaining a
smooth transition and balance anymore. It's popping on, it's popping off.
It probably very very likely has to do with one
of its temperature sensors not giving the proper feedback, and
(25:46):
therefore you go from the hot water to the nothing.
And so all of this to say, Anthony, it sounds
to me as though your unit needs service, and I
would call a plumber out, explain the problem to him,
let them check through. And if it's a nor it's unit.
Make sure that the plumber you're calling out is certified
(26:08):
for NORTHS so that they understand those systems very well.
Not every plumber, not every air conditioning contractor, even though
every plumber can work on every tankless water heater, and
every air conditioning contractor can work on every air conditioning unit.
The ones that are certified with those specific brands are
the ones who are most familiar with their oddities, with
(26:30):
their hiccups, with their issues, and who are more likely
to be familiar with the situation and get you to
the fix quicker. But it just sounds to me like
it is definitely time at this point. Don't don't just
jump to going back to a tanked unit at ten years.
There still should be a lot of life left in
(26:52):
a tankless unit. That's one of the things that's so
nice about them is that they last longer than tankless
water heaters. So call out a service, get that input
from them first, and then go from there. Anthony, thank
you so much for your call, my friend, and for
your questions. Thank all of our callers. That's gonna wrap
it for calls today. But it doesn't wrap it for us,
(27:13):
because when we come back, we're returning to our conversation
on your air conditioning system. Your home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
(27:35):
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio
app
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
You're listening to Dean Sharp the House Whisper on demand
on the iHeart Radio app. Thanks for joining us on
the program today. It is always an honor and a
privilege to spend time with you talking about that all
important place in all of our lives, your home. Today
on the show, we're talking about keeping your home cool.
(00:24):
You know, we're getting into summertime here, the temps are arriving,
so it's time to for a little primmer on HVAC
gets you some understanding of where things are here in
twenty twenty five, because there have been a lot of changes.
It is one of those areas of technology and it
is very high tech, and I'm really doing my best
(00:45):
to avoid burying you in a lot of technical mumbo
jumbo that just doesn't actually, you know, mean a whole
lot to you. And also just basically explain to you
how your system works, because you should have a basic
underderstanding of how your system works, but you don't have
to remember all the numbers in the data and all
(01:05):
of this. I just want to give you that sense
of it so that you can speak and choose intelligently
when it comes to your air conditioning system. That's what
we're talking about on the show today, and we will
return to that conversation in a bit. But here we
are in the second hour, which means it's time to
go to the phones. And when it comes to your calls,
(01:26):
it can be about anything you want it to be.
Let's get to it. I want to talk to Lou
a Lou, welcome home.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Hello there. I have something different than the air conditioning,
but what I think should be a simple plumbing problem
for you. I have a I don't know the name
brand of the faucet, but this is what happened. I
placed an aerator on it and the Y connector started
(02:02):
to leak, so I stopped it, and I placed the
errator on the other faucet in the bathroom, and then
that Y connector started to leak. So what I would
like to know is most of the faucets in my
(02:25):
home do not have this. This was recently placed by
a handyman, and I don't know if it's too hard
of a task for me to replace it. I've found
it online. I don't know the brand of the faucet,
but I just wanted your opinion on that.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Okay, so you're talking. Are you asking about replacing the
faucet itself.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
No, No, No, that's way beyond my pay scale. Just
the Y connector. Okay, do you know what I mean
when I say the Y connector.
Speaker 2 (03:03):
Because no, I want to I want to understand better.
Because normally, underneath the sink there are two angle stops.
Uh that's what we call them. They're the valves that
are coming out of the wall for hot and cold water.
And then those valves have hoses that lead up to
the faucet, one for the hot and one for the cold.
So the Y connected that you're you're talking about where
(03:26):
where where are you seeing that?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
It goes into the area where the hot and cold
come out, but it goes into the middle, It goes
into where it looks like the actual faucet is. It's
got I don't know, it looks like a y uh
So if this is uh uh not a common thing,
(03:53):
I've got it on one other faucet uh in my
another sink in my house. But everything else just has
one from the hot and one from the cold.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah that's the way it should be, my friend. Uh So,
uh So, I'm not exactly sure why that unit is
there underneath, and why the handyman put them on. Your
faucets have a hot and a cold uh, separate connector.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Even if it is even if, even if.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
The faucet up top is a mix what we call
a mixer valve, which means it's just one lever that
you know, you spin to the left or spin to
the right, and it mixes hot and cold together. Either way.
The faucet itself underneath has a separate feed for hot
and for cold, okay, and that hot and cold should
be going right into the wall, right into the wall
to those angles, to the hot and cold angle stops.
(04:47):
So whatever that device is and what the you know,
why connector is is typically for taking a a water
line and splitting it into two feeds.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
All right. I don't really understand the purpose of it.
I've seen it maybe used in they were saying, in
baptobs or other things, and they even have white connectors
for gas propein, but that is not for the home.
So I was just wondering. I think this is probably
(05:22):
something I'd better leave to an expert to do.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I think you should probably have maybe just call a
plumber ound have and take a look at it and
see what the situation is with that, Why the handy
person put that in it. I don't know what the
goal was for that, unless part of the faucet is
broken and they're trying to limp it along. But yeah,
(05:45):
you do not need that and one of the things,
and if it's leaking, especially if it's leaking once you
put the aerator on the faucet, because even a little
bit more back pressure is causing that thing to leak.
It doesn't sound like it was installed properly either. But
generally speaking, unless there's some bizarre overriding condition under the
(06:08):
sink that I'm not aware of, whether why is being
used to split the cold line off towards a toilet
or another water fixture, whatever the case may be. Two
angle stops, two valves under the sink, hot and cold.
Those valves lead separate hoses to connect to the faucet.
Whether those are separated connections or they're right next to
(06:31):
each other on a mixer faucet. Either way, that's the setup.
If you've got something different, have a plumber plumber take
a look at it and help you figure it out,
because it sounds like somebody steered you in the wrong
direction and obviously the rest of the sinks in the
house don't have that same issue. All right, my friends,
let's take a quick break and then more of your calls.
Speaker 4 (06:54):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
Thanks for joining us. Follow us on social media. We're
on all the usual suspects, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x. However,
many other hundreds of them there are out there. We're
probably there on those two. I think probably Home with Dean,
same handle for them.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
All.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
All right, thanks for joining us on the program.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
We are talking air conditioning today because you know it's time,
right it's July. Things are heating up here in southern
California especially, so it's time to address those issues. But
right now we're in the middle section of the show,
which means we're taking calls, and when it comes to calls,
it's anything you want to talk about. Let's go back
(07:42):
to the phones. I want to talk to John. Hey John,
welcome home.
Speaker 6 (07:48):
Hey Dean, thanks for the call. I've got a question
for you. When you are measuring the air temperature at
the return versus a a register where it comes out,
what should that differential be? Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:06):
A very technical, but very good question. That's a good question.
That's a really good question, John.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
So I want to say I have a new I
have a newer unit. I got it about two years ago,
so it has the new has the new uh you know,
the new cooling in it.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:23):
Yeah, And I want to say that they were telling
me that the new cool is supposed to be like
fifty percent more efficient.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (08:31):
So, and I bought it. I think I bought a
like a four times sixteen eer carrier, right, But I
just want and then should you measure that at the
furthest register away from the return to make sure everything
is going properly.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Yeah, it's usually a good idea. It's usually a good idea.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Okay, So what for everybody who's listening what John's talking about.
It's an ac question, and it's one of the ways
that you can kind of get a sense of how
well your unit is doing and whether there's a problem
or not. It's one of the things that an air
conditioning contractor may very well check out when they're trying
to inspect a unit to figure out what it's doing.
(09:15):
And that is the delta t that's actually what it's called, John.
The delta T, which is the temperature difference between the
air that is going into the system at the return
air vent. Okay, and I have to explain usually to
people they're surprised. A lot of folks don't actually realize
(09:35):
that they that in your system you have at least
one very large return air vent which is sucking air
out of your house. Okay, out of the room, I
should say, and everything else. All those other small events
are supply vents. So we have supply vents blowing cold
air into the room and then somewhere in the house,
(09:55):
usually in the hallway, hallway ceiling underneath if you have
a vertical a furnace closet, there's a very very large vent.
That one actually is not blowing, it's sucking unit, and
that's the circuit of air that's being created. So the
delta T is the difference between the temperature of the
air that's going into that return air vent. You know,
(10:18):
the temperature of the air in the room, the difference
between that and the temperature of the air that's coming
out of the vents. Actually it's done. It's cooling loop,
all right. An AC contractor may correct me, this may
have changed, but generally speaking, my understanding is that the
differential should be somewhere between fourteen to twenty degrees fahrenheit
(10:42):
fourteen to twenty degrees measured at the vent itself, So
so you know, if your AC is working properly, if
eighty degree air is the temperature of the air of
the room as it goes into the return air vent, okay,
then what.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
Should that be? Should be down in the sixties.
Speaker 6 (11:04):
Sixty to sixty four, say.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Something right there? So there you go, there you.
Speaker 5 (11:08):
Go, okay, yeah, because I moved by. And then another
thing I did in my house is my my firmostat
was downstairs and I have all tile downstairs, and so
when I would cool the house down, it was state
ice cold downstairs and upstairs was hot. So I had
my AC guy moved my firmost stat into my bedroom
(11:28):
because I care about what I'm at at night when
I'm sleeping, and then when I whatever it is set
in my room, the rest of the house goes about.
Speaker 6 (11:36):
Two degrees cooler. So because if not, I used to
have to turn the AC down to like sixty eight
and let it be a runaway all night long, just
to try and keep the you know, the upstairs cool
then once you got the temperature, it wouldn't run the
rest of the night. So now at least it cycles,
you know, And they fought me, They're like, oh, there's
no returning here. I'm like, I don't care, you know,
but I you know, it worked real well. But I
(11:57):
was just curious what that delta tea was supposed to be.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
And you know the location of the thermostat is very
very important depending on the comfort levels that you want.
You know, where the closer you are where you're living
to the thermostat, the more regulated that temperature is going
to be because the whole unit is operating off of
that goal set at the thermostat. You keep listening, John,
(12:21):
because when we get back to this topic after calls,
I'm going to be talking about what the future, what
the present, and definitely the future of all AC systems
are when it comes to residences, and you know, finally
solving and resolving the whole upstairs downstairs air differential problem
(12:42):
that has always been a problem since day one. Why
because physics, Because hot air rises, and it's just you know,
the air upstairs is always going to be hotter than
the air downstairs if you're pumping an equal amount of
cool air into that system as a whole. There are
ways around it and the future of AC and some
a lot of people have these new units themselves. They're
(13:05):
called variable speed units with zoning. We'll talk about all
of that when we return to that conversation after calls.
So you hang tight because there is a way around it.
Speaker 4 (13:18):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
If your home needs some personal house whisper attention other
than broadcast attention, you can book an in home design
consult with us. Just go to house Whisperer dot design,
house Whisperer dot design for more info. That would be
me and the t who's smiling at me from across
(13:45):
the table here, coming out to your place, sitting down
with you, working out the issues, giving you some inspiration
in some direction or how to solve whatever it is
that's got you scratching your head. Speaking of that, we're
taking calls right now. It's that magic part of the
show where we talk to you and you set the agenda.
I'm talking to air conditioning. We're going to return to
that topic very shortly, but right now, I want to
(14:08):
go back to the phones.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Let's talk to Rick. Ay Rick, welcome home.
Speaker 7 (14:16):
Hey, good morning Dean. First and foremost, I want to
tell you thank you for what you do Tina and
the staff.
Speaker 6 (14:23):
You guys are so respectful and.
Speaker 7 (14:26):
Just love listening to you guys. Regarding my question, Dean,
is we have about a twenty five year old carrier
unit and it's never been maintained. Yeah, that's bad on me,
and I'm just kind of wondering if it's even worthwhile
me tackling it and possibly causing more damage than actually
(14:49):
helping the system and cool it down. So I've seen
a couple of DII videos on cleaning coils and stuff
like that, So I'm just wondering is it better just
to hire somebody to do that or it's something that's
not too involved and I can do myself. And then
just a second question, Obviously it's going to have to
be replaced soon. The unit is in the hallway and
(15:11):
my wife's thinking, well, let's just move it up in
the attic. We'll free up that closet space and we
can use it. And I'm like, I don't know about that.
I've gone up there it's hot, it's humid. I don't
know if that's a good idea or a bad idea,
So we're like, let's ask being.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
I first of all, thank you very much, Rick for
those very kind words. Yeah, we do our best around here,
and we do. It does surprise me, I got to say.
I guess it's just the nature of our world that
we live in. It surprises me every time somebody thanks
me for being respectful to human beings. So maybe that's
just talk radio in general. That makes us kind of
(15:52):
outliers in that category because we're not here to be
snarky and nasty and get you upset. We're here to help.
So anyway, thank you very much much for that. It
is a common practice during a remodel, especially to free
up more space in the house by taking your air handler.
(16:12):
That's just a term we use for the furnace and
the evaporator coil, that is that second half of the
air conditioning system that I was talking about earlier that
often finds itself in a closet in a hallway and
getting that moved up into the attic. Now, I should
say to everybody who's listening, you can't just take that
(16:34):
unit and put it up in the attic, because the
unit that's in your hallway is a vertically oriented unit,
and it would require a horizontal different unit that hangs
in the attic. There's very little hesitation about doing that. Yes,
it's incredibly hot up in the attic, absolutely incredibly hot,
(16:54):
but the duct work that is running throughout your entire
house is up there in the attic. And so even
though the AC unit itself is sitting down in air
conditioned space in that closet, the fact is as soon
as the air leaves it, it's moving through all of
that attic duct work anyway. And horizontal units that hang
(17:16):
in addicts are better insulated in order to protect the equipment.
And so it really is a very small, if not
any practical concern. If you've got room in your attic
for a horizontal unit and you want to free up
more room in the house, then by all means, flip
it up and get it up there. Also, you've got
(17:37):
the you know, there are benefits to it. One you
get more space. Two, it's not as noisy when the
AC unit is up in the attic. You're not actually
hearing the fan motor and everything down in the hallway
with you. So there are a lot of advantages we
don't you know, as home designers Tina and I, and
as a general contractor that I am, I don't hesitate
(17:59):
to take a horzon until a vertical unit and replace
it with a horizontal in the attic when there's room
in the attic to do that, because you know of
the space and design benefits that come from it, and
know there is not a performance or energy consumption differential
between the two because the horizontal units are designed to
(18:19):
do exactly that.
Speaker 7 (18:23):
Okay, excellent, Now.
Speaker 2 (18:25):
Oh sorry, I'm sorry as far as as far as
maintaining your old unit goes, let me address that. Yes, sir,
shame on you, Rick for not maintaining your not hear
it here, I know, no, okay, I get it, I
get it. I get it all right. So I'm just
gonna get on my soapbox here for everybody to understand.
(18:45):
There aren't a lot of things to do to maintain
your AC unit, and I don't want people fiddling with
them generally speaking. Okay, however, there is regular maintenance that
should happen. Now, the outside maintenance for the outside condenser unit,
that big old trash can size thing with the fan
and blowing the hot air. That is something that is
(19:07):
on your list as a homeowner of maintaining. And all
it really takes is a hose and water, no pressure,
no pressure at all, because we don't want the high pressure.
Some people think, oh, I'm gonna take a pressure washer
and clean out the coil outside on my unit, and
they end up completely ruining it. And because the fins,
(19:29):
all those little tiny sensitive metal fins there, very very sensitive,
very very critical to how they react. So we don't
want to put any pressure on that at all, so
that those fins bend over. We want them all nice
and straight and undamaged, but very very soft, gentle water
flowing out of a garden hose, rinsing off those fins,
(19:50):
Getting dust and debris and crud off of those fins,
not a problem whatsoever. That's something that we should all
do from time to time to keep the out unit clean.
The inside of operator coil, you know that's buried up
in the unit there, You got to undo it, and
so on. Most of the time HVAC contractors will take
a spray that tends to loosen debris and grit and
(20:14):
grime and stuff. And clean that out. That's something that
I actually want to encourage homeowners to leave to their
HVAC contractors. And most important of all, my friend, the
most important thing, without question, that every homeowner should do
for their HVAC system is regularly change the filter every
(20:35):
three months, change out the filter. I've got more to
tell you about that a little later in the show,
but I'm just going to get that in right now.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Rick.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
Thank you for your call, for the respect, for the love,
and we're going to keep on trying to do our
best for you. Up next, more of your calls.
Speaker 4 (20:53):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 2 (21:01):
It is the underlying message of everything we do here
on the program, from architectural design and the art of
your home, which is of course my primary mode of business,
all the way down to designing things like your air
conditioning system, which is what we're talking about today. We're
going to return to that conversation in just a bit,
(21:23):
but we still have some calls to take and I
want to go back to the phones. Anthony, welcome home.
Speaker 8 (21:32):
Thanks for taking the call, Dean, and thanks for helping
thousands of do it yourselfers like myself. I appreciate that.
So I have installed a Nord's tankless water heater about
ten years ago. It's got a mind of its own,
and I'm not sure why I've been doing the proper
maintenance with because of the hard water, and you know,
(21:54):
it just creates havoc with the calcium build up, creates
havoc on all appliances, but especially with the tankless water heater.
So I'm doing the flush on a on a pretty
regular basis. And I thought it was a mixing unit
on the one bathroom, and we changed the mixing unit,
and I don't know if I I'm not sure if
(22:15):
I need to go back with a conventional water heater.
I hate to do that, but it just seems like
it's scolding hot. And then and I noticed this with
the kitchen faucet. I was just, you know, I was
wanting to know why. It's just all of a sudden
changes from hot to cold. It's bizarre. So it can't
be mixing units in all of the all of the outputs.
But I did change one of the mixing units in
(22:38):
the in the one guest shower, and uh, it's just
it's just like I said, has a mind of its own.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Okay, all right, yeah, I hear you, and that this
can be a thing. It can be a thing, and uh,
I would be pulling off a miracle if I could
properly diagnose exactly what's going on with the water heater.
But I am going to ask you some questions so
we can figure out. Get close. When you you installed
this or did a plumber install this?
Speaker 8 (23:06):
Plumber installed it about ten years ago?
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Okay?
Speaker 2 (23:09):
Do you do you happen to know what the size
of the of the gas line that they ran to
this unit was.
Speaker 8 (23:17):
I believe it's three quarter Okay, So they.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Did upside the gas line to the unit. And when
did it start giving you these issues? Was it from
day one? Or has it just now started to do
this scalding hot, cold, off and on kind of thing.
Speaker 8 (23:33):
Not from day one, I'd say, fairly recently. It's it's
something's changed.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I'm not sure what, Okay, So I so here's the thing.
The reason I asked about the gas line because a
lot of homeowners have taken it who are di I wires,
have taken it upon themselves to change out their old
tanked water heater to a tankless, which is fine because
it it is a relatively basic process if you've got
some DIY skills. But what I would say in those
(24:00):
instances most people forget or overlook or don't realize, is
that the volume of gas flowing into a tankless water
heater has to be considerably higher. Can't just be that
half inch gas line that the old tanked unit used
to use, because all the tanked unit used to do
is fire on this little burner at the bottom and
(24:21):
just kind of maintain the heat of the water in
that tank. But a tankless unit by definition, has to
blast gas very very hot for the period of demand
and then turn itself off. So upgrading to a three
quarter or a one inch gas line is mandatory when
you're installing a tankless unit, and that's where usually the
(24:43):
plumber gets involved to get that done properly. Sometimes a
unit that has a three quarter inch line needs a
one inch because it's a larger unit, larger demand, so on.
But you normally see that right up front. And that's
what I'm saying. When people to do that installation themselves
and they fail to up grade the gas, they find
out that the unit blasts for a bit and then
(25:04):
it shuts off because it's just not able to produce
everything that it needs and so it acts wonky. In
your case, it's a recently developed issue, which means somewhere
in the brain of the unit, whether it is the thermocoupler,
whether it is part of the circuitry, part of that system.
(25:25):
And tankless water heaters are fairly complex inside, but part
of that system now is not monitoring and maintaining a
smooth transition and balance anymore. It's popping on, it's popping off.
It probably very very likely has to do with one
of its temperature sensors not giving the proper feedback, and
(25:46):
therefore you go from the hot water to the nothing.
And so all of this to say, Anthony, it sounds
to me as though your unit needs service, and I
would call a plumber out, explain the problem to him,
let them check through. And if it's a nor it's unit.
Make sure that the plumber you're calling out is certified
(26:08):
for NORTHS so that they understand those systems very well.
Not every plumber, not every air conditioning contractor, even though
every plumber can work on every tankless water heater, and
every air conditioning contractor can work on every air conditioning unit.
The ones that are certified with those specific brands are
the ones who are most familiar with their oddities, with
(26:30):
their hiccups, with their issues, and who are more likely
to be familiar with the situation and get you to
the fix quicker. But it just sounds to me like
it is definitely time at this point. Don't don't just
jump to going back to a tanked unit at ten years.
There still should be a lot of life left in
(26:52):
a tankless unit. That's one of the things that's so
nice about them is that they last longer than tankless
water heaters. So call out a service, get that input
from them first, and then go from there. Anthony, thank
you so much for your call, my friend, and for
your questions. Thank all of our callers. That's gonna wrap
it for calls today. But it doesn't wrap it for us,
(27:13):
because when we come back, we're returning to our conversation
on your air conditioning system. Your home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper. This has been Home with Dean Sharp,
the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI
AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight
Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon
(27:35):
Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeart Radio
app
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