Vision Home Performance

I've lived in hurricane-prone areas for half my life, and I've been through many a hurricane, including Katrina, which maybe one day I'll make a video about. I don't think I've ever actually boarded up windows in a proper manner, so this is kind of fun. Plus, getting to use that RetroTech grill tape was neat, and I found some crawl space v***r barrier tape in my van, so why not put it to good use?

I'm really interested to see how this RetroTec grille tape does, because it really seemed like it's going to help a lot. We'll see. If you're in Mobile or anywhere along the Gulf Coast, stay safe. Sending you all the good energy. Praying Mother Nature doesn't take more than she needs to keep the world spinning.

This is grille tape from Retrotec. We normally use it to cover up air vents, and I cover up bathroom exhaust vents with it sometimes when I'm doing blower door tests. It's a low-tack, temporary tape that's usually used just to temporarily air-seal stuff, but it seemed to work perfectly for this application.

It's temporary. Just trying to shed a little bit more bulk water than what these doors normally do. They've had some leaks through here before, and if we're going to be getting a lot of extra rain, why not give it a shot? Who knows? Maybe I've made a totally amazing discovery. Maybe somebody's already done this before. Maybe it's Maybelline.

If you’ve recently built a house or had an air conditioner replaced that required a permit and inspection (and you’re in Alabama, probably in other places too, but I only know for sure in Alabama), then you’ve got one of these fresh air intakes on the return side of your air conditioner. That is supposed to pull fresh air in from the outside, run it through a little rinky-dink fiberglass filter, and then stick it into the air conditioner to help bring fresh air into the house.

It doesn’t really make any sense when the house has tons of leaks. You don’t really need fresh air until you get a house with a pretty tight envelope. You’re going to get fresh air coming in through the doors and windows and stuff, even though that’s not the ideal way for it to come in. That’s a whole other conversation.

I think every house on the hot and humid Gulf Coast needs a ventilating dehumidifier that pulls in outside air, filters it, runs it through a dehumidifier, and then puts it into the house. It doesn’t just dump it right into the air conditioner to give it this crazy hot, humid air that it’s got to cool off before it blows back into the house.

Code requires these fresh air intakes now, so everybody has to put them in. They work in theory, but all the ones I’ve seen aren’t controlled at all. They’re just open all the time. Some of them have a damper installed, but it’s not controlled. It’s just a gravity damper that opens and closes as airflow comes through it, so it’s not well sealed at all. It’s the same thing I see in bath vents that don’t work.

They really need to be installed with a mechanical damper that opens and closes only when the unit is running, but nobody puts them in that way because they’re really just putting it in to meet code. If the house isn’t super tight, I think you’re better off just blocking that thing. Now you don’t have that extra outdoor air coming into the AC, making it work harder to get it down to the temperature that you want and remove the humidity.

After I made this video, I consulted with a mentor of mine about my findings, and he basically assured me that my takeaways were accurate. He also told me that, on this particular Daikin unit with the AMST motor, it can actually operate in 0.9 in. of water column (environment, system, whatever it is). However, the blower speed has to be adjusted to compensate for that.

Now, for me, as an aspiring home performance diagnosticator, I have no interest at all in going into the unit and messing with any of the mechanicals or passing judgment on how someone else may have deployed the system. All I can say for sure is that the static pressure number on the return is way too high, and it is affecting this system because the client has some complaints. The unit is really loud and vibrating so much it's shaking the light fixtures below, and the condenser outside is louder than my ex mother in-law.

On my report, I will simply document that the return static pressure is too high. However your preferred technician chooses to go about it, that number needs to come down, either by:
- adjusting the blower speed
- redoing the return
- adding another return in another part of the house to bring that pressure down

Take it easy on me. I'm still learning, but I also enjoy learning from you and from people who know more than me. I've been super lucky to have some people reach out and offer their assistance, and I try to take advantage of that as much as I can. I am unbelievably grateful for the opportunities the universe has presented to me: the ability to learn more and the ability to apply that knowledge in a way that I hope can help people be more comfortable in their space. Kluvubye

Again with the bathroom vents. Look, buddy, I can't stress it enough: your bathroom vent needs to work, and you need to use it. Ideally, it should be over your shower, but it never is. Contractors have been calling them "fart fans" for way too long, and it makes you think that they're supposed to be over the toilet, and that's not what they're for. They're not for your stinky poopies.

Bath exhaust vents are meant to remove humidity and get it completely outside of the house, not into the attic, where it just causes more damage, does drugs, and throws wild parties with co***ne and hookers. You want to make sure your bath vent is functional, that it's sealed up between the attic and the bathroom, and that it's got good, solid ducting all the way to the outside with a quality damper. The dampers that come on them suck. You pretty much need to add another one. I found one made by AC Infinity. It's a butterfly damper that works a lot better, because you don't want any of that unconditioned air coming back through that pipe into your living space, going into your daughter's room while she's sleeping.

Now that it's cool, get up in the attic, check your air conditioner ductwork, and check your bathroom ductwork. It's worth it, and it'll make a big difference.

Insulation baffles are very important in a house with a vented attic, and more than likely you have a vented attic. A very common problem I see in attics that are too hot and humid is the insulation. It is either covering up venting or blocking the venting path, like these bats that are installed between the vaulted ceiling and the roof deck.

Those foam baffles are super cheap and do a terrible job at what they're supposed to do, but they're also in a location where they're doing absolutely nothing. There's no insulation for them to block where they are. They should have been installed between those bats and the roof deck, which would allow air to move from the vented soffit up through the ridge vent on top of the house.

My guess is that the insulation told the new guy to go install those baffles, and he put them in the same place he's used to putting them. He didn't bother to take notice of where they actually need to go. Make sure your attic's got a good path for air to go from low to high to help remove moisture and keep the temperature a little below hell on earth.

The way things have been going, it seems like I could have a completely different outlook for Vision by next week, but as of right now, this is the direction I want us to head.

Ultimately, I want to help people be more comfortable in their space, and this seems like the best way to do it. Once I started making handyman content and then window tinting content, it really exploded once I started talking about moisture issues in homes. At first, I thought, "Wow, people are really interested in this moisture stuff," and then I realized, "Oh no, they all have the same problem, and they all can't find anyone who can figure it out."

I didn't realize, with all this experience I gained in an unprofitable handyman business, that I was learning what causes and how to fix all these moisture issues. Now that I'm fully equipped with the right diagnostic tools, I'm ready to hit the ground running and cover as many homes as possible, helping people be more comfortable physically and mentally, knowing that they've gotten to the root of the issue.

I guess follow me if that sounds like fun to you too. Love to have you hang out.

For all you home service providers that are out there making content, this is the process for how I create and post mine.

I was lucky enough to be accepted into a technology program for entrepreneurs, and they asked me to make a talking head video about how I go about creating and posting content. I thought maybe you would be interested too.

They're going to help me possibly get some automations set up so this takes up less time, because right now I probably spend 2 to 3 hours a night just editing, posting, and then getting stuck on the apps while I'm watching for early engagement to come in. It would be really nice if I could just automate that away and maybe get a notification or a text or something to tell me if there's been a comment, so I can go and respond to it, as opposed to just sitting there waiting for it.

However, I don't know about you, but I can't stand having notifications turned on for social media because it's just never-ending. When you have as much content out there as I do, which is still not a lot compared to most content creators, that can turn into a whole lot of notifications.

I've tried to use apps like Metricool to help post to multiple platforms at once in fewer steps. The time I tried that, it absolutely tanked the views and engagement that the videos got, so I like the idea. It just wasn't worth the side effects.