406. #AskDerekCole - Is My Unit Efficient?

Foreign.

I'm Derek Cole, host of the Derek Cole Podcast, and we believe in taking the time to explain how things work for your air at home or your business. Let's get into today's episode. Please listen closely and maybe even take some notes so you can remember these insights of home comfort and energy savings. And share this episode with three of your friends because we all need to share better ways to be more comfortable at home. Be sure to tag me or DM me on Instagram Derek Mcole so I can say hi. Thanks again for listening.

And let's begin. Hey, this is Derrick Cole. Welcome to episode 46 of the Ask Derrick Cole show, answering your home energy and heating and air questions. It's been a good week so far. Feels really good outside, not good for business. Let's be honest about it. When it feels good outside, I'm suffering inside. Just reading. So with that, let's get it right into the questions.

My furnace will start up, and when it gets ready to start blowing the warm air, it turns off and doesn't blow at all. It makes a humming sound. So, you know, there is electricity to the unit. There is an off switch that I have to flip a few times and then the blower starts. This happens several times. It has an electric pilot and runs on propane.

Yeah. So you want to get that checked out because that sounds like an issue. A few things could be happening.

It sounds.

First thing sounds like you mentioned the pilot, so you probably have a good idea. Then it's like the flames actually lighting. So you could have. The pilot could be dirty, it might need cleaning, or could not be working at all. So you need to check that out and make sure that's happening. It does need maintenance. Now with those. Today's furnaces have glow pilots or I mean, there's not like a flame pilot anymore. It glows, gets really hot, and then when it gets red, dead light, you know, ignites the gas. So you're good to go on that one. But what happens? Those get cracked. Those, they might need sanding. They might need a little maintenance as far as cleaning. And that sounds like it could be an issue as well. Or if it is lighting and then turning right off, you could be having a pressure, gas pressure problem. So one of the pressure switches might be turning back off for your safety. So a few different things could be happening with that. You need to get it checked out by a professional for sure because it does sound like you're having some issues. All right. Does that make sense? That makes sense. Periscope okay. Is your thing, is your mic on?

Yep.

Okay.

Okay. Why, why did my unit tell me to wait when I manually lowered the thermostat and then took five minutes to turn on?

The last time I checked, I don't think there's like a wait flashing light that happens on thermostat. So I'm not really sure. But what happens is between the time your unit turns on and gets the call, there's usually a delay depending on the type of unit. If there's a power outage, but the compressor has a built in delay in it. That way it don't start and then stop. It's for a safety protection. So you probably waited about five minutes because that compressor had the signal to call to come on and then it was in a stage of coming on. So that was probably why that was. Now when the power goes off, you're going to have that five minute delay as well. So if your power goes off and then comes back on, you're like, where is the cool air out? Well, it's making sure the power is going to stay on. Then it turns it back on because it don't want to. It doesn't want to turn on and then turn off. That's not good for the compressor, it's not good for the system. So you don't have that built in time delay as they call it. See little air quotes. Time delay is built into your system, but it's force the components and for your protection because they don't want to damage any of the components.

How can you tell if your unit is still operating efficiently?

The power bill is a good way to tell if it's operating efficiently. But I would get serviced twice a year because again, I think I've said it before, but if you go to epa.gov look it up, 1/20 of an inch of dirt, it cause up to a 21% inefficiency in your unit. So if you just bought a 13 seer base product but you don't clean it for the next two years, it's not a 13 seer unit anymore. So it's not as efficient as it could be. So these units cost quite a bit of money. It's quite a bit of investment. So you want to keep protecting your investment by having it serviced and maintained and clean. Because the systems of today are not like the systems 25, 30 years ago that could withstand that kind of buildup. You had thick copper. Efficiency was not a big concern 25, 30 years ago. You can see it in the home building. I mean the houses built 30 years ago versus the house houses built today. The ones today are a lot tighter, more energy efficient. The units are the same way. So any little bit of dirt, dust, debris can affect the efficiency. But if you see your power bill start creeping up, that's kind of a good indication as well as just walk outside and look at your unit. I mean, if you got grass clippings all on the coil and everything, it's not operating efficiently because it's having to overcome that dirt and debris to transfer the heat. And that is costing you more money.

Do you want to do the last one? Do you want to do it for. You're only at five minutes on the sixth one?

Yeah. Okay. Slide your cup.

Is it in the shot? Nope.

It was just like the clip.

Okay.

This was my question. What is that metal?

We got a homemade question.

Slash vent in my house do and.

Should I use it? Remember the one I was talking about this evening? Big old metal thing. When you turn on, it goes. I asked him to skip a bite.

Yeah. So.

What does that metal fan or vent in my house do and should I use it?

She has bought an older home, Correct. Just renting it or renting an older home. Okay. So what that is is in the old days, black and white, no color. In the old days, you would open a window or doors and you would turn that switch on. It would bring air into the home. So it would make it more. I don't want to say windy, but what's the term looking for.

It like, creates a draft.

Almost draft. Yes, it is creating a draft in your house so you can cool down. Because in those days, a lot of people didn't use the air conditioning. And it kind of goes back to my first point about older homes versus new homes, because older homes are kind of built for that, you know, innate kind of breeze or draftiness. Because again, they were not really concerned about being energy efficient, as today's houses are less efficient. Today's houses are not going to have that. If you open a window, good luck. Because the breeze is not going to go through the house. It's just not going to work the same way it did 30 years ago. So that is why you have that. They also have those little switches for electric heat in the older homes. If you want to talk about something to really jack up your light bill, turn that baby on.

We should not use it.

I would. Unless you want to. Unless you want to go back to colonial times, wear the outfits, play dress up. You probably don't want to turn on.

Plus, it's very loud.

Yeah. Plus this is southeastern North Carolina. I mean, do you really want humid wet air coming through your home? No, you want the air conditioned, which is the conditioned. Air conditioned. Air conditioning. Dehumidified, More comfortable. So that technology is not really used anymore. That makes sense.

Yeah.

All right.

Not black and white.

Yeah. You know, if you want to dress up and do it like a Colonial.

Day, Like a little pilgrim dancing.

Yeah. Do a little Colonial day. I mean, you can turn it on and actually back then they probably didn't have electricity. So if you want to be like really authentic, just open the windows and turn lights off and, you know, go for it. Did they have houses back then?

I'm pretty sure they did. Why are you asking me?

I don't know. So if you really want to go the extreme, I mean, stones and mud, I think. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Go camping.

Yeah.

You know, I didn't go camping as a kid because my parents loved me. That's why I didn't go camping. I'm just kidding. For you guys that are there, I like camping. That's fine. That's your deal. That's your deal. But they asked me one day, do you go camping? I'm like, does it look like I go camping? No, not on purpose. Alright, so this is. This has been a weird one, but episode 46 in the books. Keep asking your questions, hashtag askderrickcole and we'll get him on the show. Okay.

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Derek Cole Podcast. Tell some people about this episode.

It's on each of us really to.

Spread the better ways to be healthier and more comfortable in our homes and workspaces. I'm asking you to be the dealer of positive and life changing messages in your circle of influence. Take a screenshot right now and share this screenshot and the link to this episode with three of your friends to today share it on social media. Use the hashtag Healthy home. That's Healthy home. We are always giving away shout outs, prizes to our community. If you would like to help me personally then please rate and review on Apple podcast. Give us some stars. Leave a review because that stuff actually does help and I read all the comments. So my last thought for today, please remember you deserve better air at home and greater comfort at home. Don't settle for being uncomfortable for your heating air every single month. We are so thankful for having you here in our community and be sure to go deeper with us at simmons1hour.com.

It.