In this conversational Q&A episode, host Derek Cole answers listener questions about preparing HVAC systems for winter, preventing mold in damp crawl spaces, and improving indoor air quality. He recommends covering outdoor AC units with a cool‑cap, performing routine maintenance, and sealing crawl spaces using a 20 mil poly liner, new crawl doors, vent closures, dehumidifiers, and sump pumps to control moisture and mold. Cole explains that modern tight homes trap off‑gassing chemicals from adhesives, carpets, and paints, making indoor air up to ten times worse than outdoor air; he suggests using energy‑recovery ventilators (ERVs) and UV/air cleaners to mitigate pollutants. He also advises adding humidifiers to alleviate dry throats, improve comfort, and lower heating costs. The episode includes a brief personal note about Movember and a lighthearted discussion about which actor would portray him. The tone is informal, instructional, and occasionally humorous.
Questions this video answers
Cover the outdoor AC unit with a cool‑cap to keep leaves and debris out, especially for split AC/furnace systems; otherwise, routine maintenance is sufficient.
Inspect the crawl space for standing water; seal it with a 20 mil poly liner, install a new crawl door, close vents, add a dehumidifier, and ensure a working sump pump to control moisture and prevent mold.
Off‑gassing from adhesives, carpets, paints, and plastics in tightly sealed homes traps pollutants indoors; using an ERV, UV lights, or air cleaners can help exchange and clean the air.
Low indoor humidity; adding a humidifier improves comfort, reduces dry throat, and can lower heating costs by acting like a blanket.
He suggests Matt Damon or Ben Affleck, joking about being Batman or a Jeff‑named actor.
Chapters
Hey, on this episode we talk about indoor air quality, mold growth, and who would play me as an actor. 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 57 of the Ask Derek Cole Show, answering your home energy, personal, medical questions, apparently. Um, yeah, so, all right, yeah, I got facial hair. You see it, it's happening. It's No Shave November. We're raising awareness for men's health issues, which is all what Movember is about. You probably didn't know that. But prostate cancer, colon cancer, all the stuff that affect men, trying to get them to move to the doctor to get it done. So to celebrate this month, I have rescheduled my colonoscopy to never. Yay! In honor of raising awareness, I'm ignoring it. So a little personal information for you. There you go. Yeah, he is aware of the problem. No, I'm aware they want me to have a colonoscopy, but I'm not wanting to come up with a couple grand to have it done. I'll be fine. All right, let's get into it.
What is the best way "Is there any other way to prep my unit for winter besides doing a maintenance?" If you just have a maintenance done on your system for the winter, you should be good to go.
I mean, there's no other prepping. Only thing I would do if you're outdoor— if you have an AC and a furnace split system kind of setup, I would get a cool cap, cover that outdoor unit because of the leaves and the stuff of the winter. Prevent it from getting in there because AC is pretty much over with at this point. So that's really the only thing I would probably recommend. I mean, unless it's like my unit, which is kind of sitting all by itself with no trees, so I don't need one. Outside of the maintenance, that's pretty much what you need to do.
It's been really damp lately and I'm concerned about mold growth. What should I do?
The one thing I would check out is if you haven't had your maintenance done already, is to go under your house if your system is in a crawl space or if you have a crawl space and just check everything out. I have a crawl space system at my house and we live kind of in a damp area of town and my sump pump under my house has been running the last couple days, probably every 15 minutes to get the water out from under my house. So you could have standing water. I would check all that out. Anytime you go under your house and you start crawling and the dirt sticks to your hand, that is a damp crawl space. And the best way to solve that is sealing your crawl space, not with the plastic that the people who do termites sell you. Actually, what we do is we seal the crawl space with a— was it 20 mil? 20 mil liner, poly liner, and we do a new crawl door, we seal off the vents, we put a dehumidifier in, install a sump pump, and we totally enclose that crawl space and control that environment. Because that is what you want to do, control the environment. Putting a dehumidifier in and not closing the vents, it's not going to work. Closing the vents and no dehumidifier, it's going to make things worse. So you really need to close the whole environment off with the dehumidifier and do it the right way. So I would go into my house and check to make sure everything's fine. You don't have any water. Like I said, with all this rain and everything we've had, my sump pump hasn't been working pretty often. To get the water out.
What causes indoor air pollution?
Indoor air pollution is— well, first of all, according to the EPA, indoor air is 5 to 10 times worse than the worst outdoor air. So it is— that's correct, that's not backwards. It is worse in your house than it is outside. That is true, and I'll tell you why. Everything we have— cabinets, flooring, carpets— everything has glue, adhesives. All that stuff is off-gassing into your house, and homes today are built so tight that that off-gas has nowhere to go but your lungs because you're breathing in. So there's no way to get out. In the old days, the older homes had kind of a They were looser, they weren't so energy conscious, so they, they didn't worry about energy efficiency like today's homes are. So with all the plastics and the wood and the glue and the formaldehyde from the carpet and all the stuff, paint, it's off-gassing and that's coming into your indoor, your home, and there's no way to get rid of it unless you have indoor air quality products. In your house, or if you have— it's called an ERV. We've installed it in newer homes. It actually brings outdoor air into the living space and then exchanges it. A lot of commercial buildings require you to do that, but you're not required to do that in the house, and you should be because homes today are very, very tight, very energy efficient, and with that What you get is more of the chemicals and things in your house cannot get out of your house. So that is the problem of indoor air quality.
Why is my throat dry when I am at home?
Probably because you don't have a humidifier and some of the indoor air problems we just talked about. You're breathing in all this toxic soup of air.— and there's no way to clean it. Well, there's no way you have to clean it. There is a way to clean it. What we do is actually do it naturally with things like UV lights, air cleaners. All that's done naturally. We're not adding chemicals to the home. Between the indoor air quality and the lack of humidity, especially coming up in wintertime, it's going to get really cold and you're going to walk through the house and get shocked on things. That's because you have a humidity problem. You don't have enough humidity. Humidity makes you warmer. So actually, if you have a humidifier in your house, you can set the temperature itself lower and have the proper humidity and actually not run up your energy bill trying to keep it warmer because humidity is like a blanket. It keeps you warm. So that is what I recommend. I have a humidifier in my house and it's really nice to have that nice fresh air. In your home, especially when it's like 30 degrees outside.
If your life was a movie, which actor would play you?
I'll go with Matt Damon is me, or Ben Affleck. I mean, I'm— I could be Batman. You could. I would pick that actor that played the blonde in Dumb and Dumber.
What was his name?
Jeff Bridges? Jeff Daniels? Something like that. Yeah. He's a Jeff something. I don't know who would— Unfortunately, they told me, "You look like the guy on Two and a Half Men." I said, "Charlie Sheen?" They said, "No, the other guy." Maybe not him.
Matt Damon.
He could win an Emmy, right? That's right.
And write award-winning scripts.
Oscar. I mean, the only way to an Oscar is to play a real-life character. There you go, you're in. All right, that's episode 57 of the Ask Derrick Cole Show. Be sure to hashtag #AskDerrickCole any home energy questions. I'll be glad to answer them on the show.
