@WakeUpCall – Wake Up w/ the House Whisperer

The host of ‘Home’ on KFI, the House Whisperer, Dean Sharp joins the show to talk about plumbing and HVAC pipe dreams and cooling themes.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's say good morning now to the host of Home
on KFI. It's our house whisper Dean Sharp. Morning, Dean.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I can't believe French fries and cannibalism are bad for you.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
It's a sad day, isn't it. Okay, So we're going
to be talking about pipe dreams this weekend, and we're
also going to be talking about cooling things, which I
think is really great since it's so freaking hot right now.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yeah, We've got a very special couple of guests in
studio with me this weekend, both from the same company,
one of our great sponsors, down in San Diego Point
Loma Home Pros, and we're going to be talking plumbing
and HVAC from the installer's perspective. I think it's a
cool thing when listeners can hear what actual technicians think

(00:50):
about putting stuff in their homes and the things that
they encounter and the things that are important to them.
It's a good perspective.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Okay. So yeah, talking to the experts never about So
let's talk about cooling things. Because I have a very
old apartment and it has a very old air conditioning unit,
and I've noticed that it's not cooling as much as
it used to. So I thought maybe we'll talk about that,
like should you repair them, should you service them, or

(01:19):
should you just replace them? When? Do you know what?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yeah? So now is yours a wall unit?

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Yeah, it's just an old wall unit.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
Okay, Well, but the thing is, you know, all air
conditioners essentially work the same, whether they're a single unit
in the wall or whether they're what we typically call
a central split system. All the same components are there.
It's just a question of whether they're together, whether separated
or not. But you know what HVAC works with the

(01:46):
basic concept of using a refrigerant, which is a special
kind of chemical gas that can be transitioned from a
gases to a liquid form, and that's what makes the
coil really cold and suck heat out of the room.
And that's really what an AC does. Actually, it does
something that is different than what we think because it

(02:08):
feels like it's pumping cold air into the house, but
what it's actually doing is removing heat because cold isn't
actually a thing. Cold is the absence of heat. And
so if refrigerant is low in a unit, which is
really typical on an older unit, that would be the
first thing that you would have looked at. And it's
always worth having somebody take a peek at it, as

(02:31):
opposed to just saying this thing doesn't work anymore, let's
just replace it, because you know, AC is not an
inexpensive appliance, even window acs, So having somebody take a
look at it and realize, oh, yeah, you know you've
got a little leak, or just over time, I mean
just over time. The tiniest of leaks can cause refrigerant

(02:52):
to go low and that really curtails its ability to
cool the air.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Okay, And then I wanted to talk about you're talking
about so plumbing issues and the one that caught my
eye is tank versus tankless because you hear about the
tankless water heaters and it sounds like such a cool idea.
Is it a good idea? And I'm sure it's going
to depend on your house and all kinds of things,
But can you tell us a little bit about those

(03:19):
and why you might want to go tankless?

Speaker 2 (03:21):
Yeah, well, you know what, the debate over tanked versus
tankless is pretty much in the building community over it's over.
It's tankless all the way now, very very rare to
find an old tanked water heater being built into new
construction or major remodels. Now, for a while there it
was really a debate because a tanked water heaters were

(03:44):
less expensive, considerably less expensive than tankless water heaters. But
the gap has narrowed considerably, and when you look at
the overall value of a tanked versus tankless water heater,
a tanked water heater on average lasts about ten to
twelve years, tankless minimum twenty years if you take care
of it, so that's small. They are still a little

(04:05):
bit more expensive than a tanked water heater, but when
you look at that in terms of how long it's
going to last you, the value proposition has now flipped
to tankless. And the cool thing about a tankless water
heater is endless hot water, not instant hot water. People
misunderstand that all the time the water still takes the
same amount of time to reach your faucet as it

(04:27):
does from the tanked water heater, but endless hot water
there is no tank. It is simply converting cold to
hot water in it as the water moves through the
tankless water heater, which means you can take the you know,
the hour long shower, and then the next person can
take the hour long shower, and then person after that
and the person. I mean it just there's no finding

(04:49):
out that, oh my gosh, I'm third in line for
the shower and now the water is cold. Does not
happen with a tankless water heater.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Okay, cool. Well, we're going to learn more about plumbing
and more a hv a C with Dean this weekend.
Of course, you can listen to Home with Dean Sharp
from six to eight on Saturday and the nine to
noon on Sundays. You can follow him on Instagram at
Home with Dean. Thank you, Dean Sharp, Thanks Amy. All right,
talk to you soon