#AskDerekCole Episode 49: The Word on the Street

Hey, on this episode I answer: Why does my furnace blow cold air? What is a match system? Should I have furniture over vents? And what is on my iTunes? You ask your comfort and energy questions and they get answered. This is the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Hey, this is Derrick Cole. Welcome to episode 49 of the Ask Derek Cole Show. Boom. Feeling pretty good. It's a Friday. It's the third one this week. The third one. It's insane. We've only been doing like one or two the last few weeks, so three is a milestone. But that's fine. It's nice and rainy and nasty and we have time.

So not a lot going on.

Yeah. So let's get into the show.

I hate to ask this one, but word on the street is it works— pulling furniture out from the walls or moving things around in the winter to keep radiators, floor grills, and baseboards free so that the heat can properly circulate.

It does work. So I don't know who's on the street talking about this working, but I'm glad they are talking about it working. So if you have a 1950s, '30s house with radiators and floor heat, then I'm sure there's some truth to this. Now today in 2015, or any time after probably the '80s or the '70s when you have like central heating and air, that's not really necessary. So you don't need to pull things from the wall. Now what I have seen and what you need to be careful of is when the vents are in the floor Do not put the furniture over the vents. Do not put a couch smack dab against the wall at the return. That will cause a problem. So back up a little bit, give it a little bit of room, and don't put furniture and things like that over the floor grills because it's trying to— if it's on the floor, okay, it's supposed to be on an outside wall. So it's trying to condition that wall. So the air is blowing up. I mean, if you were like doing a smoke test, you can actually see it. The air would be going up, heating the ceiling, and then falling back down to condition the wall. So if you have furniture or something in the way, obviously that can't happen. So it's going to affect that room, that situation. It's also going to affect the heating in there itself because it's now starting to push, it's kind of like closing a vent. I think we talked about that before. I know there's an article on LinkedIn about it. It's kind of like closing the vent. I mean, it's pushing the air right back down to the hole, which cannot be good as well. So yeah, for radiator, I mean, I don't have a lot of radiator experience. I am 34. Maybe Steve does. He's a little bit older, so I don't know. But yeah, go with that idea. I mean, if the street's talking about it, it must be good. It's happening. Southwest and Maine, baby. It's about to go down. Okay.

What is a matched system and why is it important?

A matched system is important, and what that means is that, okay, I just bought a 14 SEER heat pump condensing unit. Now I have an air handler that matches that condensing unit. So if you go on the manufacturing website and you look at the equipment to get the SEER rating, you have a match. Okay, if you have this outdoor unit These are your fan coils. So if you put an unmatched system together, that means it hasn't been tested and it's probably not a 14 SEER because to get 14 SEER, it needs to be matched with this kind of air handler. So we only install matched systems. So if you get a 14, 15, 16 SEER, we're matching it through the manufacturer with the proper setup. So it matches that. So that's what a match system is. It's very important for warranty and for actual use, and you're actually getting a 15 SEER or 16 SEER or 14 SEER. If you mix and match, you're not sure what you're getting. I mean, if you put a— a lot of guys have put a 13 SEER unit brand new with a 20-year-old air handler inside. Where the 20-year-old fan and a 20-year-old coil in that fan coil is not going to match the 13 SEER outdoor capabilities. So you don't have a 13 SEER system. You have a 13 SEER outdoor unit. So it's base 13 SEER, but the indoor unit is 20 years old. So we don't know what the real match is. So when they do testing, To get these ratings, they match them with fan coils or coils or however they— whatever your setup is, it's matched in that way. So you get the SEER rating, you get the capacity, all that is on black and white paper so you know what you have. So yes, a matched system is very important and it's something we always do here because we want to— if the customer purchases a 14 SEER, We want to make sure we deliver a 14 SEER achievement to that customer. Make sense? It's kind of like putting breast implants in a 90-year-old. I'm not sure where that came from.

My furnace uses propane gas blowing cold air.

I don't think it is, but— Maybe it might be. You can still enjoy it.

Just depends on your—

your whatever.

Okay. My furnace uses propane gas and is blowing cold air. Is there anything I should check?

Yes, make sure— and this is going to sound a little condescending or Might sound stupid, but make sure you actually have gas. So if it's blowing cold air, make sure there's gas in the propane tank. I'm not trying to be funny, I'm serious, because that is a real problem we get is when we go to a customer with the no heat call, they don't have any gas. So if we don't— if we have a combustion furnace that is operating on combustion and it has no fuel, then we have no heat. So I would check that first. And we've gotten calls before after hurricanes and things like that, "Hey, my heat pump's not working." Do you have power? We don't have any power. Well, the heat pump's probably not gonna work. I mean, I'm not trying to be mean about it, but I mean, let's keep it real. So yeah, the furnace is not gonna work without gas. And really, I'm not trying to be ugly. But this is something you need to check. So now is a good time of year to go out there and check your tank to make sure you have gas for the winter, because some people kind of forget about it, don't think about it until they need it. But that's something, because if it gets really low, then you start getting air in the lines and you have to bleed the lines to get the air out. It's a whole thing. It's kind of like having your car and then you run out of gas. It can cause more problems than actually stopping, taking 10 minutes, getting some gas. By the way, I have good news. I heard $5, when you give somebody $5 now, it's actually gas money because gas is like $2. So yeah, check the gas first. I'm serious. And then if you have gas, still blowing cold air, then it's possible— obviously the blower is working, the motor is working, you're getting cold air in the house, you have gas. So now we have either a communication between the furnace that's not lighting the furnace when it comes on, so it could be a communication board kind of problem, or it could be a flame sensor ignition problem. Because again, this time of year when you haven't used the furnace since March and now you're trying to turn it back on with no maintenance, that little flame sensor and the igniter can get some dust, dirt, cobwebs. I mean, things can just get in the way of it actually coming back on. So you need to check that, have maintenance and get it taken care of. Really, I feel kind of bad about the first answer, but I'm not trying to be mean. Just make sure you have gas, because that is actually a big problem. I'm serious.

Now it's getting real time. Number one song on iTunes.

Number one song on iTunes for the world? No, for you. Oh, for me personally?

This is the hashtag #GetToKnowDerekColeman.

Get to know Derek. Well, I'm live streaming on Periscope, so. I'm actually not really sure what the answer is going to be. By the way, here is my phone. What's on my phone? There you go. So let's go to music. By the way, I have like 3,000 songs on there, so I mean, obviously I like my music. Let's go playlist. You got top 25 most played. Here we go. All right, number 1 iTunes, uh, top 25 most played on my phone, um, Scars by James Bay, I'm Not the Only One by Sam Smith, Hold Back the River, James Bay, Sam Smith, Ed Sheeran, um, I'm gonna say Taylor Swift because she's right here. She's right here. I mean, Taylor Swift. What's her nickname? Tay Tay? Tay Tay! I got Tay Tay on my phone. I got some Big Daddy Weave, Christian music, a lot of James Bay. There's Tay Tay again. Blank Space and Wildest Dreams. I've been a lot lately listening to My good friend Ed. He's a good one. Yeah, so I've been jamming to Ed recently. I got both of his little deluxe albums here. So that's it. I mean, I like music. That's why I got like 3,000 songs. But there you go. There's a get to know Derek Cole, what's on your iTunes. A lot, but top 25, that was some of them. I like Tay Tay. Me and Tay Tay jam. Me and Tay Tay. Alright, it's episode 49 of the #AskDerekCole Show. Make sure you hashtag #AskDerekCole for your energy home questions, or if you have music questions, I might even answer those. All right, have a good weekend.