Hey, good morning.
Good morning.
Welcome to around the house.
I am Scott Brockamp.
Your guest who your host for this morning.
I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful day.
It was a nice and pleasant outside this morning.
Beautiful morning just to well have that little short jacket on and nice cup of coffee and
enjoy some beautiful weather.
It's a, I'm sure I don't have to tell you if you're listening this morning, it is the
third Saturday in October and well, let's face it, man, it's going to be a great day.
It's just going to be a great day.
There we go.
Get it, baby.
Fight song time.
I mean, we can just, I hope we listen to the rocket.
We'll be hearing that Blair and all, all day.
That's what I'm hoping for.
All right.
Well, hopefully nobody's getting married today.
It's never a good day to play in your wedding because it's the third Saturday in October
and we're going to beat Bama for two years in a row.
Let's go baby.
All right.
At any rate, the tide looked, uh, well they looked pretty beatable against Arkansas last
week.
So the game today is in Tuscaloosa kickoff is at three 30.
You can catch the game on our sister station, WIVK, the flagship station of the vault network.
Greek Fest is this weekend.
The annual festival at St. George Greek Orthodox church is in its 47th year.
Hours are today from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The Penta, one of the, one of Christopher Columbus's ships docked at Calhoun's on the
river yesterday.
You can tour the historic replica now through October 29th.
No reservations are necessary.
Just buy your ticket to board this floating museum at the dock to find a complete list
of events happening around your house today.
Go to visit Knoxville.com that's visit Knoxville.com.
Well, I, this is going to be really hard to talk about anything other than the third Saturday
in October, but we're going to give it a shot here this morning.
You know, I'm just, I'm loving these cool mornings though.
They just, they're, they're nice.
They're comfortable, little less humidity.
The only thing that bothers me is I know that there's winter coming behind it, but fall
weather is, is come and it may have you thinking about lighting a fire.
Well, before you get that kindling together, when was the last time you had your chimney
inspected or cleaned chimney fires account for nearly $125 million in property damage
each year in the United States here to tell us how to prevent that from happening at your
house is Jonah Lindley.
He's a certified chimney sweep and repair technician with ash busters here in Knoxville.
Good morning, Jonah.
How are you?
I'm good, man.
Thanks for having me on the show.
Good morning.
Absolutely.
So, uh, you know, we, we've had some time to chit chat here this morning, which has
been really kind of awesome.
Uh, normally I'm running, you know, kind of last minute, so, uh, it's good to have been
here and have a little time to chit chat, but tell us a little bit Jonah, who is ash
busters and in, well, I mean, you're a chimney sweep, but to a lot of people, we may not
know what that means.
What is that?
Yeah.
Uh, so chimney sweeps are often thought about as the guys and Mary Poppins dancing around
on a rooftop and getting dirty.
Uh, that's, that's a lot of what we do though.
Um, we like to have fun and we do definitely get dirty.
Um, we try to keep your house cleaner than, than what we found it though, as one of the
main parts of our service.
But ash busters is a 35 plus year old business.
We started in Nashville, Tennessee, our, our owner Mark did, and, um, he started the business
just cleaning chimneys.
And that's all it was back then in the eighties is just sweep rods going up the flu and making
sure everything was cleaned out every year.
And then he started getting more involved in the industry and education.
And he started to learn more things about how the system works and what can go wrong
and how it goes wrong.
And so as he started to get educated, he learned more about the repair side and realized that's
kind of where more of the money is in the business.
So we naturally grew to more of a construction company.
We just focus on chimneys.
And that initial cleaning and inspection is how we, how we get in the door.
Sure.
Well, and I can imagine, I mean, you know, being a technology guy as I am, I can imagine
technology has come to play a huge part in what you guys do nowadays.
So for sure.
I'm, I'm sure that we are, uh, well, I'm sure we'll get to some of that.
So, uh, well, I'm glad that you're here, man.
You know, it's that time of year, obviously, um, we, we mentioned we've grew up in, in
the same state and we always had fires.
Uh, unfortunately, I don't ever remember having a chimney sweep.
I knew of them, right.
Uh, and I think I'm probably not uncommon.
I think that you probably run into a lot of folks who I'm going to assume have you there
because there is a problem and not because they're trying to be preventative.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Every day.
I would say, especially in the South, you know, a fireplace is kind of a luxury.
It, you know, it doesn't truly get super, super cold to where any, most people down
here aren't relying on the fireplace or the wood stove to heat their home.
We do still have some people in the community that, that are relying on it, especially last
year, you know, we had those rolling blackouts.
So having that fireplace cranking up was, was a necessity for some, unfortunately.
I wish I would have had one, I'll tell you that much.
But for most people, it's a comfort thing.
It's a luxury.
It's this third Saturday in October, you know, getting ready to watch the game and you want
to be cozy and you got your meat on the grill outside, but you come inside, you got fireplace
rolling and you're ready to have a good time.
Watch, watch Vols win.
That's right.
Well, it, you know, and we have, uh, and again, I, you know, we'll get, I'm sure we'll get
into a lot of this stuff, but we have, we've got a lot of outdoor fireplaces, you know,
which are, I don't know, I I'm assuming are kind of a more unique to climates like ours
where we spend a lot more time living outdoors than up North where you're indoors.
Um, so, but still, I mean, it's a fireplace.
It still needs the same exact attention and care is the one that's inside your home, right?
For sure.
Yeah.
And you probably even a little more cause you probably use the one outside more than
the one inside that.
And it's, it's just like anything else.
The thing that you're least concerned about tends to be sometimes the most risky thing
around you.
You know, uh, it's, if it's in the back of your mind, a lot of times you're not thinking
about it.
And then that could make it almost a little bit, a little bit sketchier.
Yeah.
Um, a lot of outdoor fireplaces are just close enough to the house that if a spark lands
on the roof next, you know, uh, something, something could go wrong.
So well, there's no doubt about that.
They're, you know, they're normally some way, shape or form, you know, there's some type
of attachment normally with those.
So, so let's talk about inspections.
Because again, I mean, obviously that's, that's the main preventative, right?
We need to have this thing inspection.
What's what does a inspection look like?
Um, on a client side and from your side.
Yeah.
So we'll set you up for that initial inspection, uh, whether you've worked with us before or,
or not, or has whether you've been using a different company or not.
Uh, we treat everybody like a new customer.
And so when we roll up to the house, um, first things first, we really want to understand
why we're there.
Right.
Sometimes we're there to just do that initial inspection, make sure everything is okay.
Like you said, a lot of times we're there because somebody knows they got a problem.
Right.
So, um, we're trying to set up every, every call a little bit the same and just understand
why we're there first so we can best help the homeowner.
And then almost every inspection is going to end up with a video camera going inside
the system so that we can scan everything and, and just learn as much as we can about
what you've got.
Right.
And what's accessible.
And so if we can access it, we're going to try and dig deep into it so that way we can
educate you on, on what you've got.
So you know how to best use it.
Number one.
And then number two, you know what to look out for.
And if you do have a problem that way we can also address the issues and come up with a
solution.
Right.
Well, and of course that's one of the things, as you mentioned early on is, is really awesome
about what you guys do is that you also provide the repair side of things as well.
I know there are some that are just, they're just maintenance, you know, cleaning companies
in the chimney sweep world.
So what are some of the things that you're looking for when, when you're scoping out
or going down that chimney with that camera?
What are, what are some of the, give me like three main things that you're looking for.
Yeah.
So when I look at a fireplace, a lot of times before I even set my eyes on it, if I can
smell campfire, typically there's a drafting issue going on with the fireplace or maybe
the wood that we're burning isn't the driest.
So that's one thing right off the bat.
A lot of times don't even have to look at the fireplace.
If I can smell it from the door, there might be some, some other things going on.
And then secondly, the, the fireplace system needs to be like a straw and just airtight.
And so if I scan and see gaps, cracks, voids, pretty much anywhere, we'll have a conversation
about why that's a, why that's a problem and, and what we can do to, to help fix it.
And then most of the issues that we find on chimneys is actually outside with the, the
masonry or even the siding or metal flashing with the roof or at the top of a chimney on
the exterior of the home, as most times the most neglected part of that system.
Sure.
Well, yeah, I mean, nobody else wants to be crazy like you guys and roll up there and
hang out on the top of the roof.
Right?
Yep.
Most, most people aren't getting on a roof and dancing around.
So that's why, that's why we call us.
But we look, I look being in this industry for a little over six years now, every house
I go to, I'm, when I'm driving down the street, I'm looking at chimneys, driving downtown,
I'm looking at the fireplace or I'm looking at the chimneys.
Of course.
So if you're driving down, down the street and you, you look up and you see your chimney,
it's got black stains at the top or maybe a brick is missing or two.
That's a good reason to give us a call and have us come out and take a look.
There you go.
Call the pros at Ash Busters.
Hey, you can find them online at ashbustersnoxville.com or you can reach them by phone at 865-470-6177.
Hey, if you've got questions for us, give us a call.
Shoot us a text 865-656-8255.
We are going to take a short break.
We'll be right back here on Around the House with Scott Brokamp on Newstalk 98.7 WOKI.
Welcome back to Around the House.
I am your host, Scott Brokamp, co-owner and founder of his security and technology here
in Knoxville, locally owned, operated, here to take care of all of your security technology
needs.
But the important part is my guest this morning.
I have Mr. Jonah Lindley from Ash Busters in here in the house.
And well, we were talking a little bit about technology.
So when they come and make sure they are servicing your fireplace and chimney, one of the main
things they're going to do is get eyes, get eyes on the inside.
And I know that we kind of alluded to it early on, but technology is such a useful tool in
just about every industry now.
And so just, I mean, can you imagine your predecessors with not having video?
I mean, no.
Digging things apart.
I mean, literally they're taking chimneys apart to find the issue, to rebuild it back
together.
Well, and even, you know, back in, in hundreds of years ago in Europe, they used to send
little boys up, up the chimney to clean and inspect them.
That's literally how they used to do it.
And I'm glad my dad did HVAC and not chimneys because me too, brother, me too.
I wouldn't want to be in that spot.
That's a rough life.
Well, of course nowadays, and I'm, this is just my assumption, but I'm pretty sure they're
making them a little smaller now than they used to be.
Yeah.
So, you know, I mean, we do a lot of new construction work and even when we're in the homes with
natural wood burning fireplaces that I mean, the chimney and the flue for these things
is nothing anymore.
Right.
You know, it used to be a big, massive brick and mortar and you know, now it's, it's a,
a few layers of pipe coming up, you know?
So how is, how has that affected what you guys do?
How is it different when you get into looking at that cleaning service and inspection when
you're looking at a old, I guess I'll call it a traditional or a, you know, kind of brick
mortar type of, of chimney versus a new style.
Yeah.
So we've actually got a joke in the industry that open fireplaces suck.
And it's, it's a joke because, you know, we've got tools and stuff that are supposed to help,
you know, suck up the soot that we clean out of the system.
The whole point of the chimney and the flue is to suck the smoke out of the house.
But a lot of times it's sucking money out of your wallet.
That hot air that your HVAC system is, is producing for the house.
That's getting sucked right up the fireplace too.
Most of the heat that's coming off of that fire is getting sucked right out of the fireplace
and out of the house.
So there's really not much return when you are burning wood in an open masonry fireplace.
That's part of the reason why we've changed as an industry and gone more towards inserts,
gas, fireplaces.
They're much more efficient.
So every, every piece of wood that you're burning, you're getting much more out of it
means less trips to the wood pile.
It means less emissions in the air, which ultimately means less soot in the system.
So it can be much safer to use as well.
There you go.
See?
So, you know, you mentioned something there and I'm again, I'm sure many of our listeners
thinking, Oh, I've got, I've got a gas insert.
There's nothing I need to clean.
I don't need anything inspected.
Right.
I'm going to just assume that that is way off base here.
It is.
Yeah.
It, you know, every appliance that you buy in your house has this little booklet.
It's typically white, black and white.
There's a, there's typically a Spanish or a French side and an English side to it.
It's called a manual or nowadays it may just be a QR code, but Hey, whatever.
Either way, when we install a fireplace, a new construction, a lot of people will take
that book and they'll save it to start their, their fires with later on.
But if, if you look in them, it'll actually say that even on a gas fireplace, it needs
an annual inspection and that's a national standard.
Yeah.
The reason why is if you're burning anything, there's going to be some kind of off gas or
emission.
Yeah.
Um, if it's combustible in the first place, that means that the emissions are combustible.
So even on a gas fireplace, that soot, if it builds up enough, it can, it can ignite.
Yeah.
It's not common, but it can.
Sure.
And then those little components that, that bring the pilot light on, uh, they need to
be cleaned every year so that they continue to work properly.
So what all, I mean, so are you, are you actually going to clean the, the, uh, I guess the,
the exhaust on that gas unit as well?
Is that a part of what you guys do through that?
On the open gas logs?
Absolutely.
Yeah.
If it's a direct vent, which has got the glass enclosure, which is really common on new construction
now, there's hardly any emissions on those units because they're so efficient.
So most of the time they don't need to be cleaned, which is great.
They look pretty.
Oh yeah.
They don't do much for putting out heat, but they look pretty.
If you, uh, if you upgrade from the builder, the builder grade models, you can get a lot
of heat out of those glass enclosed gas fireplaces.
I, uh, we've got, we have a client that they did that and they had a, and there was an
additional blower put on and they had literally had a vent pipe to the middle of the room.
And, and man, I'm going to tell you what that sucker put out some heat.
Oh yeah.
You gotta be careful.
We, we caution people all the time because they think they want as much heat as they
can get.
And you're going to be looking at that flame on low.
Yeah, they, uh, yeah, they can put out some heat.
There's no doubt about it.
So obviously real estate transactions, I'm sure you get a lot of calls, uh, simply because
somebody is buying or selling a home and they want to have the, they want to have the fireplace
in chimney inspected.
What all, what all do you guys do in that type of service?
I'm sure it's probably a little less intrusive than a typical.
I wouldn't say less intrusive.
Uh, most of the time we're coming in on the buyer side.
So buyers looking at a house, most buyers, when they're looking at a house and they see
a fireplace, you know, the wife especially will get googly eyes, uh, in, in most cases.
And that fireplace turns an ordinary house into the house.
And so they call us the real estate company typically does.
And we've got relationships with some of the best in the area.
And they say, Hey, we need you guys to come check out this fireplace and, and see what,
what it's got going on.
And we're like, okay, cool.
So we go look at, look at it, um, and sometimes it's been in use, sometimes it's not.
And we're just trying to give the, the potential buyer an idea of what's going on.
Is it safe to use?
Is there, are there some issues?
And then they can potentially use the problems that we find as a little bit of a bargaining
chip in that transaction.
You know, Hey, if there's a couple repairs that need to be done, can we take this off
the price or can we have that included in, in the contract?
So right.
Yeah.
Get to get those repairs done and get everything taken care of for sure.
But calling us before you buy is the most important part here because I can't tell you
in the, in the 2020, 21 era where people were buying houses, sight unseen, 20, $50,000 over
asking and that fireplace they're excited about.
And then they move in, have us inspect it and we tell them they got problems.
They're a little upset, you know, so definitely call us before you buy.
So you know what you're getting.
Yeah, that was a little bit of a common problem.
You know, thankfully that, that's, that's starting to subside, you know, but so what
are, what are some of the most common things that you see here in our area in the inspections
that you find there are problems.
Most of the time it's, it's issues with masonry chimneys that are due to water intrusion.
So we get all this rain throughout the year, really in the summertime, the rain doesn't
cause a whole lot of issues.
A chimney is kind of like a sponge, a masonry one.
So imagine a sponge under the kitchen sink and you've got that sink on full blast.
Water's going to drip out of it pretty quickly.
But if you change it down to just a drip and you drip water on that sponge, it's going
to take maybe an hour for water to start coming out of the bottom on the light, the light
rains, nothing's really going on on those heavy rains.
Water might be dripping down.
But in the winter time, when the water freezes, right, each brick can hold up to a cup and
a half of water.
That water freezes, it expands.
And then you've got cracks that start to develop.
And once you get one, it can turn into a bigger one because that cycle is happening every
year.
And in the South, that freezing and thawing over and over and over again can actually
be worse than what people experience up North.
Because up North, it stays cold for a month or two at a time.
But it's that change, that freezing and then thawing that causes all the movement.
And we get so much of that down here because it'll be 30, 25 degrees at night and then
pop up the next day, it's 55.
That's right.
I was always told the great joke, right?
It's winter in the morning, it's summer in the afternoon.
That's right.
And you're right, though.
That can cause just additional problems.
We think in our mind it is a good thing because if it froze, it would thaw out quickly.
But that movement and that constant expansion and contraction is going to create some additional
problems all in itself versus, like you said, up North where it freezes and stay frozen
for a few months.
Exactly.
Even more so on a dormant fireplace chimney.
One that's not being used is going to be way more susceptible to that exterior pressure
because when you're using the fireplace, the inside of the system is being heated up.
It's not getting freezing cold as nearly much.
That's right.
Well, we are going to take another short break.
When we come back, we're going to continue to speak with Jonah Lindley about taking care
of your fireplace, some things to look forward to and some things to some do's and don'ts
and maybe a indicator of why you need to give them a call.
You can find them online at ashbustersnoxville.com or you can reach them by phone at 865-470-6117.
If you have questions or comments for us, give us a call.
Shoot us a text 865-656-8255.
We'll be right back here on Around the House on News Talk 98.7 WOKI.
You know, Jonah, this whistling tune would probably make me think of a chimney sweep.
Oh yeah.
You know, I mean, so do you have, you got a nice pair of dancing shoes?
I'm not much of a dancer myself.
I can bust a move if I need to.
All right.
Well, I try not to embarrass myself too bad.
I didn't know maybe, you know, once a year y'all did a reenactment or something.
Oh Lordy.
Hey, thank y'all for listening this morning.
I am speaking with Jonah Lindley from Ash Busters.
We're talking all things fireplaces.
Keep yourself safe and clean and make sure your family's safe.
If you want to reach them, you can find them online at ashbustersnoxville.com or you can
reach them by phone at 865-470-6117.
So you know, Jonah, you and I kind of joked a little bit about coming from the Midwest
and you know, we had a fireplace and we burned that thing all the time.
And you know, the funny thing about it is every time that fireplace was burning, it
was always warm in that room and it was freezing in the rest of the house because you know,
we were pinching pennies, right?
So I'm sure nowadays there are things that people can do to help with that, but still,
I mean, it's still, that's what you're going to get, right?
I mean, you're going to heat up the room that you're in.
For the most part, yeah.
So hey, we have, we've got Bill here on the line.
Bill's got a question for us about some backflow in backdraft.
Okay.
Hey Bill, good morning.
How are you?
Good morning, Scott.
Hey man, good to hear from you again.
Yeah, yeah.
I'm becoming a regular here almost.
All right.
That's great.
I love it.
We'll just have you come sit in studio with us one day.
How's that?
I can ask questions.
I'm not going to be an expert though.
Well, what you, what you got this morning, Bill?
What do you have for Jonah?
Okay, Jonah, I've got a house was built in the, in the mid eighties.
It's a, a gas fireplace that I don't normally use because I don't like the way it performs.
Okay.
The, I've always had a problem with the, with the not having enough draft.
Okay.
And it's a, it's a Mason rate.
There is a flu valve on top, which I, I learned I really got to make sure that's open to get
it to work.
So once I figure out that it's, it's fully open, then I'll turn the gas on and open.
Well, that it'll, it'll it comes on and it looks good, but then I noticed that there's
a little bit of back flow on the top of the, on the top of the fireplace.
And I said that, so I'll open the door and it gets better.
But if I don't open the door, it really doesn't work well.
And like Scott said, it doesn't really put a lot of heat in the room.
I don't really use it, but I just wondered if it's well designed or if there's an issue
with the design or it's just dirty.
Yeah.
No, that's a great question.
It could actually be, man, Bill, it could be a number of things.
It could be the height of the chimney being a little too short and they're not being enough
draw pressure.
It could be the size of the opening, the fireplace in comparison to the size of that flu liner.
If the opening is too big for the flu liner itself, it may not be able to naturally draft
on its own.
And so you bring it in that, that makeup air, that extra makeup air by opening up the door
or window is definitely going to help there.
It may also just be an older, an older system that needs refreshing or updating.
And it may be that, that the damper that you're talking about opening and closing before you
start it, that may not be opening as much as it could be.
So this is a, this is a great, great reason to have us come out, Bill.
I'd love to help.
Bill.
Yeah, I think so.
You guys can help.
You guys can diagnose it a little bit or do absolutely.
Yeah.
We could absolutely take a look and if there's something we can do to help you, we can, we
can definitely talk about what that would look like.
Great.
Okay.
That sounds good.
Awesome.
Hey, thanks Bill.
We appreciate you calling this morning.
You know, and I, I think that's probably a common problem, right?
I mean, I have seen that over the years in a lot of different places that it's like a
lot of these gas inserts, they're just designed for looks in, in the design of, of functionality
is not there.
Right.
And, and I have, I, and I don't know if it's a common problem or not.
I'm sure you would know, but I have seen that frequently that somebody will have a little
gas fireplace going on and there's, there's that backflow coming back and not taking it
out.
So yeah, you got to be careful with that too.
The, the emissions that come off of the gas fireplaces is a really fine, almost oily soot.
And man, if, if you start getting a buildup or that stuff starts rolling back into the
house, it's going to be an expensive cleaning bill to get rid of it.
Well, and even with that, I mean, any, you know, any fuel source that's burning is going
to create carbon oxide.
That's right.
And so, you know, that is obviously one of the main things in why it's so important that
to have ash busters come out or have somebody come do that inspection and cleaning of your
fireplace because one of its primary goals is a, it's got to have that draft to keep
the fire going.
But the other piece of it is, is it's, you're getting rid of the emissions.
You're getting rid of the carbon oxide in the other particles in the other gases or
the, the other, I guess gases that are being created from the burning of the fire.
So whether it's a gas or whether it's an actual natural log fireplace, you're still going
to have those things.
That's right.
You know, we talk about a lot in my world is, you know, we, we hear a lot about carbon
oxide and you know, it's the, still the number one producer of carbon oxide is fire.
You know, and so, uh, that's a good point.
You know, an easy thing that any homeowner can do.
And if, if you live in the city of Farragut and you've done any new construction or remodeling
to your house, you know, the, the city of Farragut is on their P's and Q's lately with
their inspections.
Yeah.
Right.
And one of the number one things that they're pointing out in houses is that they don't
have carbon monoxide detectors.
Yeah.
And that's an easy thing to have installed in your home, around the fireplace.
If you've got a water heater or a gas furnace, have it installed in those areas or near those
areas and just an extra layer of protection so that, you know, if, if one of those systems
starts malfunctioning or failing, you're, you're not going to be breathing in that carbon
monoxide, which is super dangerous.
Well, and that's it.
And yeah, you're right.
You know, codes nowadays, anything new construction, they're requiring at least, um, typically
there's at least one combo unit in there.
It's a smoke heat and carbon monoxide detector.
Um, and, and then, you know, a lot of areas are requiring carbons more and more in different
areas of the home.
Yeah.
So w which, you know, I mean, it's a good thing, right?
We need to have, we need to have those safety protocols in place.
We had a customer who called us about her fireplace and she thought that the fireplace
was causing this carbon monoxide buildup in the house.
It was actually an older, uh, stove.
Wow.
In her kitchen.
And when, whenever she was using it, something was wrong with it that was making it produce
more carbon monoxide than, than we're able to breathe.
And man, she had headaches for years and didn't really know what was going on until somebody
mentioned something about it.
So she called us to look at the fireplace.
We did our testing, figured out it wasn't the fireplace is actually the stove in the
kitchen.
Holy moly.
Did you, were you guys the ones that identified that?
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
That's, I mean, that's just, that's how, it's how important maintenance on all these items
are.
That's really, uh, especially if you have anything, it's gas.
You've, you've got to make sure that that is getting inspected on an annual basis.
You just, you have to make sure that it's getting done because I mean, it's carbon monoxide
is serious.
It's dangerous and a lot of people are just absolutely terrified of it.
I don't love that.
You know, uh, I don't either just government's help with that.
Yeah.
And I, it's, it's not great, uh, to have that kind of fear about something in your house.
So just have us out and come take a look at it.
Yeah.
We'll, we'll put your mind at ease.
Well, and that's it, right?
There's, there's plenty of things that you can do.
And, and again, as we've been talking here with Jonah, it doesn't matter if it's a wood
burning fireplace, gas fireplace, whatever that heat source is or novelty item that whatever
that is, you can rely on ash busters to come out here, make sure that it's safe, make sure
that it's operating properly, make sure that the flow is, is working in so that it can
be as efficient as it can be.
And quite frankly, that there's so many safety items that you can just put a check by on
that box by having you guys come out and just check out that fireplace, make sure that you're
ready.
You're ready for the season.
It, we're getting into the time of year that people are going to be turning the fireplace
on just for a novelty item.
They're going to be having holiday guests over.
And the last thing you want to do is to have a problem and not know it.
Right.
So I'm just, if you're listening this morning, you got a fireplace, give these guys a call
865-470-6117 go check them out online at ashbustersnoxville.com at ashbustersnoxville.com.
If you've got questions, comments, give us a call, shoot us a text 865-656-8255.
We'll be right back on around the house with Scott Brokamp on news talk, 987WOKI.
Welcome back to around the house.
I am Scott Brokamp and here in studio with me this morning is Mr. Joan Lindley from Ashbusters
of Knoxville, ashbustersnoxville.com, or you can reach him by phone at 865-470-6117.
Get your fireplace in order, get this baby ready to roll for the season.
I'm sure some of you have already, uh, cracked out the flame and stoked a little fire.
Uh, I know a few have, so Jonah, let's talk about for the novice people like myself, what
are some, I've, you know, let's just say I haven't done the necessary maintenance and
I'm using my fireplace.
What are some telltale signs that I know that I've got a problem and I need to call the
professionals at ashbusters?
Yeah.
So, we'll start, I'll start with a real big problem.
If you ever have a fire rolling and it starts to sound like a choo choo train in your house,
like a big locomotive, call the fire department.
You got a chimney fire happening.
And it's like, if you've ever heard of what a tornado sounds like and that amount of pressure
and air moving, that's about what it sounds, most people say it sounds like to have a chimney
fire or a flue fire.
So that's one big one.
It's not very common.
Most of the time, the chimney fire is not going to burn down the house, but it is going
to compromise the system.
And so that's going to necessitate some pretty heavy repairs.
On the more common side, I would say if you're starting a fire and you're having problems
getting it, getting it to draft or that smoke is rolling back into the living room or hell,
we've had some homeowners say, you know, we tried to light the fire and none of it was
going out of the house.
It was all just pouring back into the living room.
So good indication there's a blockage.
Yeah.
Let's give us a call and see what we can do to help you out.
If you've got water dripping into the firebox at any point in time, definitely give us a
call.
We can turn into some pretty hefty repair numbers over the course of several years.
Sure.
I mean, depending on what's wrong, obviously.
And even just if you see like white streaking or something that looks like a water stain
or a watermark in the firebox or around the ceiling of that chimney, there could be a
sign that it's leaking and you should have that checked out.
So that again, it doesn't turn into something major.
Sure.
Yeah.
And as you know, I know we spoke a little bit about it in the very first segment that
exterior box or that exterior surrounding around the actual flue of the fireplace is
just as important and as vital as the actual flue itself.
Yep.
And so making sure that all of that is in order.
And yeah, I know one of the houses that I was in a few years back that, you know, the
chimney wouldn't maintained in, in, we'd lost power and I'm like, well, we got to start
a fire.
So I'm going to go way off base here, but maybe we've got people listening who just
moved into a house that have a fireplace and they've never had a fireplace before.
But what are the best steps when we start that fresh fire in that, in that fireplace?
Well, first and foremost, let's give us a call, have us come out, get that inspection
done.
Absolutely.
First thing first.
And then when we're going to start the fire, one of the things that we do, like I said
a little bit earlier, we want to understand what the homeowners expectations are, what
the fireplace, what their needs, what their wants are.
Part of that can definitely include how to start that first fire.
We like the top down method.
There's a bunch of YouTube videos available on that.
If you just look up on YouTube top down fire and basically start at the bottom with some
bigger logs, transition into medium sized logs, small pieces of wood, and then your
sticks and your kindling on top and you get that stuff on top lit first.
It's going to be the driest.
It's going to get closest to complete combustion, which means there's less water or steam going
into the system.
If you get steam at the beginning of a fire, coating the inside of the liners or the system,
that soot is going to more easily stick to everything.
So you want to start the fire out as dry and as hot as possible with the little stuff.
That also helps prime the flue so when it's real cold outside, it'll help with that draft.
Then those embers will naturally just light everything below it.
It's set it and forget it, kind of.
Once you get the hang of it, you know what you're doing.
You can build it, light it, and then kind of just sit back, relax.
You're not on your hands and knees for 10, 15 minutes trying to get this thing started.
You don't need lighter fluid.
Please don't use lighter fluid.
Oh my goodness, yeah.
It's just easy, tried, true.
All right, see?
And again, those are some of the things that when we have conversations here on Around
the House, we're talking with professionals and I feel like I'm fairly educated in a lot
of things that have to do with the house, being that I've worked with construction for
so many years.
But a lot of times we don't think about the basics.
We don't think about the simple things.
Like when you're done cleaning out that firebox, right?
I mean, a lot of people like to go cook on their grill and when you get done with that
steak, there's some maintenance that has to happen with that grill.
Just think if that grill was sitting in the center of your living room, you need to take
care of that.
You need to keep that thing clean because you never know what may be sitting in the
leftover residue from the previous fire.
And I have seen it, experienced it when I was a kid at our house up in Central Illinois
that my stepdad would go in there and he'd love making a fire.
And he didn't always clean that firebox out.
And one night he started a fire and there had been, he had these little fancy pine cones
that did these little fancy colors, right?
Oh yeah.
And he lit that thing and there was one still in there, but something had happened to it
and that thing popped, man, it jumped out in the middle of the living room.
It was just, it was crazy.
You know?
Yeah, just mayhem.
I mean, and so, but those are some of the things that can happen.
So listen, if you're listening this morning, if you have a fireplace, I don't care, gas,
natural, we didn't even get into wood stoves, any of these sorts, if you have any of these,
make sure that you get a professional to come out there and get it inspected.
It's just simple peace of mind.
You want to make sure that you're keeping yourself, your family, and your home safe.
And one of the best ways to do it is to call a professional chimney sweep.
I still, I'm just glad that term still runs around, right?
But folks like Jonah over here at Ashbusters, ashbustersnoxville.com and 865-470-6117.
That's ashbustersnoxville.com.
Jonah, you got about 20 seconds, man.
You got anything you want to leave our listeners with?
Man, we've covered so much today, Scott.
I think we're pretty good.
The only thing we didn't talk about is if you don't have a chimney and you want a fireplace,
give us a call.
We can hook you up with one.
There you go.
You don't always need a chimney to get that fireplace in the house.
So there's plenty of ways to do it.
Hey, that's great information.
All right.
Well, we are going to take a short break.
We'll be back for the second hour of Around the House and we'll talk a little bit about
third Saturday in October.
We'll see you here after the top of the hour on Around the House on News Talk 987 WOKI.
Well good morning and welcome to the second hour of Around the House.
We're so glad that you're listening with us this morning.
I want to thank my first guest this morning, Jonah Lindley from Ash Busters.
Man, just a great dude.
I'm just going to tell you, we were able to share a little bit of time and he shared with
me a lot about just the company in general and just an amazing story as far as a company
goes and him as a journey.
So you can find him at ashbustersnoxville.com.
That's ashbustersnoxville.com.
So while we're on a hot topic, right?
You like that pun?
I'm always working on my dad jokes.
It is the third Saturday in October and well, let's face it.
Last year, the Vols finally broke a 15 year losing streak to that horrible elephant.
Get it baby.
Come on.
All right.
Here we go.
Yes, ain't nothing like the pride of the Southland bands.
I love it.
Hey, it was an exciting game, say the least last year ended with a 40 yard field goal
as time expired.
We stormed the field.
We shot fireworks.
We played Dixieland delight, which by the way is a Tennessee song.
Good Lord.
I just don't believe that.
And you know what?
We took the goalpost down.
We took it out of the stadium.
I just want to know, is it acceptable to storm the visitors field and take their goalpost?
What do you think Chris?
Is that cool?
Can we do that?
I mean, I don't see why not, right?
I want to be careful down in, at least down there doing that.
I don't know.
You can't know until you try it.
That's kind of what I'm thinking.
I mean, you know what?
I just think it's a good idea.
In fact, I noticed on social media this morning, somebody has already made a map on how to
get that goalpost out of Robert Denny Stadium.
So did you know that Tennessee has beaten Bama more than any other SCC school?
Take that, roll that tide, baby.
The Vols have 38 wins against the tide, including a seven year winning streak back in the nineties
to SCC school with the second most winning wins against Alabama, Auburn with 35.
So kick off three 30 today.
I ain't got to tell you, you already know you can listen to it on our sister station,
WIVK home and of all network.
Go big orange.
I just don't know.
I mean, I'm having struggles today, right?
I just can't, I just can't wait for this game.
I just, I just feel like it is a, it's going to be a victory.
It's just going to be a victory.
And I got to listen to one of my favorite people of all times, Dr. Monica Lebron.
She is the assistant to Danny White and man, I'm, I'm just going to tell you, she is a
firecracker.
She will, she will get you pumped up, right?
But one of the things that she said is she's like, listen, my whole life, she played sports
and she's like, I never went into a game thinking I was going to lose.
I'm going to every game thinking I'm going to win.
Guess what?
Mindsets everything.
We're going to win.
Yeah, we're going to win.
All right.
So, uh, here we go.
Kick off today at three 30.
You can catch it on our sister station, WIVK, the flagship station of the vault network
after the game.
If you want to go have some great food, check out the Greek fest, the annual festival at
St George Greek Orthodox church is, uh, it's 47th year.
It's going to be open today from 11 AM to 10 PM.
The Penta one of Christopher Columbus's ships docked at Calhoun's on Friday, uh, on the
river.
You can tour the historic replica now through October 29th.
No reservations are necessary.
Just buy your ticket and board the floating museum at the dock.
Check out what's going on around town.
Go to visit Knoxville.com.
That's visit Knoxville.com.
Well, it's that time of year.
Did you happen to notice the smell last week?
You know, that electrical fire smell coming from your furnace for the first time that
you turned it on.
Cause it was a little chilly.
A lot of people did.
And it's well, the worst thing to wake up to in the middle of night wondering what's
going on here to solve the mystery of what that smell is.
Another HVAC phenomenon is Aaron Gillison from AA Air Company in central seating, central
city heating and air.
Aaron is a mechanical system engineer designer.
That's correct.
That'll be me.
Thanks for having me on this morning.
Well, thank you.
We, uh, and if you're listening, if you listened last week, we also were talking HVAC and,
uh, I'm just glad Aaron that you were willing to step in at last minute to be here with
us this morning.
Thank you so much.
I can't tell you how much we appreciate you guys.
Absolutely.
All right, Aaron, tell us a little bit about AA Air Co.
Well, um, AA Air Company was started back in 1973.
So we're celebrating 50 years in business this year, which is a pretty exciting thing.
Uh, we, we happened to have a little celebration a couple of weeks back.
Um, and we were started by my grandfather, Donald Perkel.
Uh, so I'm the third generation working in the family business alongside my brother,
Cooper.
Shout out to him today.
Uh, he's, it's nice to be able to work with family.
My mother is our lead engineer and owner.
Her name's Donna Kimball.
And for a long time, uh, one of our sayings about our business is, um, uh, if somebody
else can't fix it, we can fix some problems others can't, uh, because of how a system
relates to the entire house.
Um, and we have two locations.
We operate out of Knoxville with AA Air Company and Central City is a company we took on,
uh, coming up almost on three years ago.
And, and they, it really has, I know it's flown by, uh, when it's good, it goes quick.
Um, and we operate that business out of Kingston over in Rhone County.
So we can go, uh, I joke, we can go from Kodak to Kingston, Maryville to Clinton and take
care of anybody that may have some needs.
Well, that's, that's a pretty good area.
Well, and I just, I can't, three years?
In February, so I'm a little ahead of the game here, but yeah.
Um, and there's a great group of employees there.
We're very thankful to have, uh, that's our greatest asset.
And what's great to have is, is really good people, um, who are working, working hard
to take care of all the customers.
Well, one thing I know is you guys are definitely easy to get ahold of.
If you need to get ahold of them, just go to yourcomfortablezone.com.
It's real simple, nice, easy and catchy.
Uh, obviously if you, um, need to reach in by phone, you can get them at 865-213-1354
or by email at contact at centralcityhvac.com.
So, uh, what is that smell?
Okay, so if you haven't been having any heat running and you get a little bit of dust collecting
on the internal parts, that's usually what is the cause of that funky smell.
A collection of, of particulates on those interior parts and pieces.
That's more commonly, uh, what we find, um, especially if it hasn't been maintained very
much in the last couple of years.
Uh, just kind of burning off some of that old stuff.
Um, and that is true for also for a brand new furnace.
Let's say you had a new air conditioner, a new furnace installed this summer.
Uh, it's just now getting to be used for heat.
So there can be a little bit of that funky smell from manufacturing that is burning off.
Uh, which it's not necessarily harmful to you.
People kind of get like, oh my goodness, what is that smell?
Uh, and maybe a phone call or two wondering what's going on.
But, uh, once it gets burned off, it's good to go and hopefully you won't smell it anymore.
Yeah, it's pretty normal.
I think we're all accustomed to that nowadays.
Uh, but it's, uh, you know, I've always wondered why it smells as particular as it does, right?
It's the same every year.
Right.
I'm like, do I got the same garbage that are, you know, I go in weird places with things.
So one of the things that I know that you guys deal a lot with is, is some of these
common complaints of temperature balancing the home for comfort levels on multiple levels
of a home in multiple areas.
Um, I just, we're going to talk about this when we come back because this to me is one
of the number one concerns that I have and that I see a lot in when we're dealing with
HVAC as I, you know, we work in a lot of new construction homes and I don't know.
So if you got a home that you feel like it's a little warmer and run room one room than
it is in the other, or the temperature is just never balanced, make sure you tune back
in with us after this break, because we're going to dive into that a little bit.
And Erin is going to, well, share her over 50 years of wealth of knowledge from her family
as to maybe how we can answer this, this lifelong question.
Stay tuned with us right here on around the house with Scott Brokamp on news.
I'm 98 seven W okay.
Welcome back to around the house.
I hope that you are nice and cozy and comfortable in your house this morning, but if you're
not my next guest is who you need to call.
Erin Gillison from AA air company can take care of that and make sure that you are in
your comfortable zone.
You can find them online at your comfortable zone.com.
You can reach them by phone at eight six five two one three one three five four.
So Erin, before we went to break, we were talking about imbalances in our homes.
Right.
And, you know, I mean, I see it all the time in new construction and how these things are
designed and laid out.
And I live in a new construction home and I struggle with it.
It's just, it seems to be to be endless.
And of course, right.
We have the, you guys have the hard task because everybody wants open, open living, want big
open spaces.
And we all want nice big glass walls to look out of because of the beautiful views in East
Tennessee.
Of course.
And beautiful vaulted ceilings.
Oh, they're they when I walk into a home like that, it's, it certainly is nice.
And then I start asking some questions and trying to figure out how, how are we going
to fix this?
So and very commonly, you know, a cold basement, an uncomfortable room over the garage.
Those are some common complaints that I see that there are several avenues to be able
to fix that.
Yeah.
And I know even, even like in my house, we've got our main floor is its own zone.
But even over there, we've got a couple of different returns and there's a couple of
different, I mean, it's a big space to, to have all of that.
And we've often wondered in our own home, why is it, why is the temperature so much
different on this side of the house and is on that side of the house?
And obviously it's the, well, the sun and the glass and the windows.
So what are some things that you guys, obviously you deal with on a regular basis, what are
some solutions that you guys offer to help in these types of, well, problems that our
customers encounter?
Sure.
So when I first come into the home, you know, if somebody is looking at a replacement or
they're having an issue, the first thing I have to do is measure out your square footage,
your cubic footage, your square footage of your windows and do as much investigation
as I can to figure out how well the house is insulated and run something called a heat
load calculation.
That tells us how much heating and cooling in BTUs that this structure needs.
So that way I can be sure, okay, is the system sized correctly by tonnage, both either in
air conditioning on the cooling side or if it's a gas furnace, is it sized big enough
for the house?
That's the first step, which is, of course, you're leaning a little bit on an expert for
that first.
After that, if that's satisfied and it's that, we've got to look at the duct work.
We've got to look at if it's sized big enough or small enough and make sure that that duct
work design was also done correctly.
It can be a couple of steps to get some information that really helps our customers.
So that's where I start.
Sometimes it can be a little tricky having duct work between floors.
Sometimes we do a little bit of exploratory cuts to try to figure out what size that duct
work is.
That way we can really tell them, okay, this is definitely what's going to help you.
Here's plan A. Here's plan B.
You really want that plan A to work first.
So you try to go for the correct solution.
And then sometimes air balancing.
How that airflow is, air doesn't just flow.
You got to distribute it evenly.
So sometimes manipulating that airflow is where we go.
What are some things that you do to make that happen?
So hopefully we've got access to the duct system.
And when you're measuring airflow through every single vent, you can make sure, okay,
is the furnace, does it have the dip switch settings for the airflow correctly?
Are we getting as much airflow as this three ton or four ton system should be putting out?
And then hopefully if I've got access to the duct system, we go to that and we see if there
are some manual dampers on each of those little supply branches.
Being able to manipulate those little pieces and make sure that airflow is distributed
just as evenly as it possibly can.
Because I mean, just to kind of paint a picture, a three ton system is pushing approximately
1200 cubic feet per minute.
I'm a big Pat Summit basketball fan, right?
One cubic foot is about a basketball.
That's 1200 basketballs a minute.
1200 basketballs per minute.
So when you're manipulating that and trying to make sure that all those basketballs get
exactly to the hoop they need to get to, you just go to the duct system and you manipulate
that a little bit, these little dampers that you can aim in different directions.
And that can make a big difference.
And something that I would caution homeowners to be careful with, you don't want to close
things down too hard and cause some high static pressure.
Because that'll cause some other issues too.
So it's kind of a little bit of a fun game to manipulate that airflow.
Kind of like when we set up a home theater.
We've got these great tools to do a lot of these auto calibrations, but at the end of
the day, I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to get in there and I'm going to tweak.
I'm going to tweak it and we're going to dial that thing in and fine tune it to where now
we are getting the most efficiency and the most return out of that unit.
Gotta polish it so it'll shine.
That's right.
So well, I'm going to kind of piggyback off a little bit from our first guest from Ashbusters,
but we're going to a little bit of safety.
I mean, having, making sure not just your chimney, but your HVAC system, making sure
that it's inspected regularly is the key to make sure obviously it's operating at its
highest efficiencies, but to make sure that you and your family are safe.
We don't want to be putting toxins into the air of our home.
Right.
Yep.
Because safety never takes a holiday, Scott.
It does not.
It never takes a holiday.
Or sleeps or it just is constant.
Yes.
And it's something that as we're in our home and we're comfortable, we relax a little bit
and we forget sometimes about making sure that we've dotted our I's and crossed our
T's or maybe P's and Q's as Jonah said earlier.
But getting an inspection on your system is a great idea.
There's some safety inspections that we have.
But not to use the scary words of carbon monoxide, but there's a lot of people who are still
not converting away from electric.
They're keeping their gas.
They want it.
And making sure that it's vented properly is an important thing.
And also making sure that there's no cracks in the heat exchanger.
All those kind of little technical terms that when your service technician comes out and
talks to you about what they found, what does that mean?
What does that mean for you?
We have a funny little story of a service technician that he was out on a maintenance
and found some funny pressure readings and he was kind of going down a rabbit hole because
everything else was okay.
But then once he cut open the PVC venting on that 90% furnace, which I'll explain that
a little bit as well, he found a collection of acorns.
Some squirrel found a spot.
That PVC vent looked really good to store those acorns in.
He was just dropping them down in there.
So sometimes it's a little bit of a rabbit hole that we go down to try to be performing
as thorough of a maintenance as possible because that backflow could cause some issues, that
venting, not being able to vent out the exhaust from the furnace.
And that poor squirrel, I mean, he never got to those acorns.
I don't know how he was going to get to there.
How are you ever going to get them out?
Sorry, buddy.
Sometimes squirrels just don't think about that, I guess.
I don't know.
Maybe they were going to, like Jonah was talking about, they were going to send the little
baby down the little skinny tube.
Oh, man.
Yeah, no way to know that's going to get out.
But having a very thorough maintenance service done by a professional is never a bad idea,
whether it's electric or gas.
Electric systems, just this year, another short little story is just this year we found
a newer unit, only three years old.
They had had a lot of problems out of it and service technician was out there.
When he went to put his hand on the air handler, it was so hot with his hand, he barely could
get the door off.
Wow.
And then we were reading on the inside, it was 200 degrees inside of that electric air
handler.
So it was a split heat pump system.
And he called and said, there's something wrong with this.
This is more than what I'm looking at.
He's looking at the interior parts and I'm looking at the big picture.
And we found that the duct work was undersized, causing that high static air pressure.
So it's holding all that heat that was trying to be dispersed right in that blower motor.
Which was a fire risk to this customer.
For it to be 200 degrees inside of air handler is not normal.
Yeah, because it's got to go somewhere.
You know, I mean, it's producing heat.
If it doesn't have the flow and the capability to escape, right?
I mean, that's kind of how furnace works.
It creates a huge heat source.
It's creating heat and it has to escape.
And that escape is what's actually heating our homes and making us feel comfortable.
And yeah, I mean, if it's not getting out, it's like a pressure cooker.
Yes, yes.
It's going to go.
And so he said, Aaron, I need you out here.
You got to look at this.
And of course, we found what we needed to do and took care of that customer and communicated
very thoroughly with what our findings were.
Well, and let's face it.
Every product that we put in our home, it's made by somebody.
Yes, there may be a robot or a machine somewhere helping put it together, but there's human
handling involved.
Right.
And anytime there's human handling involved, there is a margin for error.
And even if it's not human handling, there's still a margin for error.
That's correct.
Yes.
And we deal with it with electronics in particular.
You're going to have faulty parts.
You're going to have bad parts.
Things are going to happen.
And just like in that side of things, we have seen, unfortunately, we have seen sparks.
We have luckily nothing has turned into a fire, but you know, you got a circuit board
that's passing electricity.
And if there's a problem in that board, if the electricity goes to the wrong place, it's
going to cause a problem.
And sometimes just through basic handling, simple things can happen.
Right.
Voltage wants to take it easy and it's going to find the easiest route.
It's always going to find it past the path of least resistance.
Yes.
Right.
Yes, absolutely.
So, you know, even on electric systems, you got to be careful.
And you know, having, and I know you're a great expert on carbon monoxide security.
You've known about that for a long time and you know how to communicate that to customers.
And I heard earlier, Mr. Jonah from Ash Busters talking about it, which was great.
Expansion and contraction of things is how they get worn out and, you know, certain cracks
in the heat exchanger start to happen.
So it's definitely his recommendation and, of course, always your recommendations to
have a good carbon monoxide detector that detects at a low part per million and has a digital
readout if you've got one.
Those are great because in that way you can see if it's starting to alert you for a low
level, you can address that quickly.
Right.
And open a window and start looking around and seeing, okay, what could this possibly
be and do I need to call somebody to delve into a little bit further and investigate?
Yeah.
And it's always, detection is always key.
You know, detection is always key.
And again, whether it's a fireplace, whether it's your HVAC, anything that is a possibility
of producing carbon oxide needs to be serviced on a regular basis.
It's just that simple.
It's the only way to make sure that it's performing and operating properly and making sure that
it is not producing this deadly gas that we all know is to be taken serious.
And you know, Jonah alluded to it as well.
I know some people go a little overboard with it.
I know some things have occurred that create quite a bit of a scare.
But I think at the end of the day, we have things in place nowadays, especially in new
construction.
We are providing that level of safety and there's things that we can do for detection
and awareness of these items, much like yourself as you guys also work to provide and find
the solutions for.
Absolutely.
We don't want to scare anybody.
We just want to take care of them.
That's right.
It's just awareness.
It's like many of things.
It's kind of like NIL and college sports, right?
It's got to get a little bad before it gets a little good.
But we're getting there.
We're getting there.
Absolutely.
Well, we are going to take a short break.
We'll be right back here on Around the House with Scott Brokamp on News Talk 98.7 WOKI.
You know, we probably should have been whistling Dixieland delight in here this morning, but
we'll settle for a little around the house whistling tune.
Hey, I'm Scott Brokamp.
Welcome back to Around the House.
I am speaking with Aaron Gillison of AA Air here in Knoxville in Kingston.
They service a, well, pretty much the entire Knoxville greater area.
So you can, they stretch out quite a bit.
So if you need any HVAC services, they are the team to call.
No doubt about it.
Aaron is a mechanical systems designer.
He can help figure out what's going on and well, get it fixed for you right away.
You can find them online at yourcomfortablezone.com.
That's yourcomfortablezone.com.
Super easy way to find them.
So Aaron, before we took a break, we were talking a little bit about safety and well,
there's some more that goes into safety and that is your furnace in your heat source and
some possible problems that may arise.
That's correct.
You know, when you have somebody come out and either look at a problem or new maintenance
and your service technician comes up to you and says, I'm really sorry, but I've got to
shut off this furnace.
You have a crack in your heat exchanger.
Sometimes I see people kind of being confused about why it's a problem.
Why do we have to shut this thing off?
Why can't I just keep using my heat?
And so I thought I might talk about that for just a minute and help explain why a service
technician is going to turn it off until you can get either a repair on the heat exchanger
or a replacement furnace.
So when they come out and they do that inspection, they come to you.
What they have found inside of that furnace is in that heat exchanger, which is a part
of the furnace where the gas burns through a separate chamber.
It's separated away from the airflow as far as the gas fumes and how it exhausts.
And it absorbs that heat as the airflow passes by the heat exchanger, but not through it.
So when they find a crack, that means that there is a great risk of carbon monoxide mixing
with your airflow and coming into the spaces where you're sleeping, where you're eating,
where you're being comfortable.
And when we see that, we have to make sure that you're not putting yourself at risk and
that we're not putting our customers at risk.
So when they come to you and say, hey, you've got a crack or it's very rusty, you should
start to consider looking at either a repair or a replacement on the furnace.
Rusty is not bad.
They're going to let you know about it.
But a crack means that that carbon monoxide can mix with your airflow.
Well, and that heat exchanger is where, I mean, that's literally where the flames are
at.
Right.
I mean, that's your, it's producing heat and then it's blowing air across that heat.
Right.
So, you know, you're already, you're already producing things that are going, that are
being pushed through the air system from that point.
So it's why it is so important, obviously, to make sure that you address any issues with
that heat exchanger as it's designed, is designed to fact that it's burning off all the toxins
before it's pushing that heat and forcing that air into your home.
Sure.
So therefore, if there is a crack or if there is a defect of any sort in that heat exchanger
at that point in time, then obviously that's why it is so important because if it's not
getting the opportunity to burn off those toxins, it's pushing those toxins forcefully
by air into your home.
Right.
So just making sure that there's no risk to you and making sure that your service technician
is doing a thorough job.
And there is something that is true about this too, that when we are opening up a furnace,
we are doing the very best job that we can with everything that's accessible to check
it out.
There's parts of that heat exchanger we can't see.
Right.
So there are some other tests that we can do to try to see, you know, something that
is a telltale sign is how those flames are burning.
Right.
If they're rolling out, if they're doing something strange, then that service technician,
maybe he can't, he or she cannot see that there's a crack, but that's a sign.
And you got to pay attention to those signs and symptoms.
So that way you can be very, very careful with how you provide service.
Well, and that's why it's so important to have, well, an experienced team.
You know, somebody who maybe has 50 years in the business may not be a bad choice.
Right.
So, all right.
So we talked a little bit about heat exchangers.
What are our sources, our heat sources?
What's available to us here and what is the most popular here for us in East Tennessee?
That is a big question this year because of the federal tax incentives to possibly go
electric.
And I'll tell you, my personal opinion is that both resources to heat and cool are valuable.
Both of them are.
And how they're used is really important to consider.
I don't think that necessarily gas is better than electric.
I don't think electric is better than gas.
It's just how it's designed and what's best for where you are.
So there's something called an 80% furnace.
There's a 90% furnace.
And then of course, a split heat pump.
There's geothermal, which we don't see as commonly in the city.
We see that much more on the outskirts.
Right.
But the most common thing I find for heating is a furnace.
And 80% means that it's using about 80% of the gas that comes through the cabinet, and
about 20% is exhaust.
So that's why your 90%'ers are a little bit more efficient.
But there are some differences between the two furnaces and there's places for both of
them.
Every house is different and unique and individual.
So how those are installed and where they are placed is very, very important when you're
trying to decide, man, do I keep this gas furnace and enjoy this toasty, warm, quick
heat?
Or do I want to consider converting to an electric system?
Placement is so important.
Installation is so important.
Yeah.
Well, and of course nowadays, just with the technology advancements that we have in everything
that we deal with in life nowadays, I mean, obviously it has shored up the distance and
the divide between electric and gas.
There used to be obviously huge differences between them.
Right.
Obviously a big part of it is again, like you mentioned, where we live.
We live here in East Tennessee, quite frankly, that affords us a lot of opportunity to take
advantage of things that most people in other parts of the world in this country don't have
the ability to do.
Aren't you so glad we get to have all four seasons?
I mean, if we could just take winter out of the equation, I'd be ecstatic.
That's my favorite season to work in.
You know, luckily, well, I'm sure y'all get a little busy during the winter time.
Those addicts are really comfortable in the winter.
You're right about that.
We were talking about this off air, but now is the time that I would think that all the
HVAC companies would just be slammed.
But unfortunately, what you guys experience is you're in a lull right now.
You know, you're steady, you're busy, but it's not crazy, right?
Right.
Well, and I think it's funny because sometimes I'll see people talking about, okay, let's
make a game of how long are we going to wait until we turn on this heater?
Let's make a gamble about it.
Let's have a little fun.
And then like last year around Christmas, maybe you are one competitive individual and
you wait all the way till Christmas where it's negative five with the wind chill and
you turn it on and oh my goodness, my furnace is not coming on.
So it's not a bad idea.
You know, let's watch the Vols today and enjoy that game.
But at home, let's go ahead and set our furnace or our split heat pump on a reasonable temperature
and see if it comes on.
Because at least that way, okay, I know right now I've got heat.
Maybe I'll schedule maintenance here soon, but at least I've got some heat.
Right.
And that's it.
You know, unfortunately, so many people, we miss the maintenance, we don't take care of
it.
We wait, we wait, we wait.
And then we go and so what's going to happen is it's going to turn cold and everybody's
going to crank that heat on and they're going to have that failure.
And then they're going to call their local HVAC professional and everybody's going to
be swamped.
Right.
So, you know, just be a little proactive, turn it on, make sure that it works.
Look, you can, you can early identify some problems right now.
Right.
You know, have that maintenance done.
Get ready.
Well, and I will say too, as a system designer, sometimes I run into situations that it's
going to take us a couple days and I've got to redesign a portion of it or maybe even
the whole thing.
And sometimes when I'm doing that in the heat of the summer, we'll get them some cooling
back hopefully.
And then I'll communicate to them, you know, the best time for you to do this when you're
going to have your system down for a week or more, let's look at October or November
or let's look at April or March so that that way if your system's down for a week while
we are putting something in with quality, you're not going to be too uncomfortable for
that entire week that you don't have something.
You know, sometimes people will use those, those little heaters and things like that
to, to, to take care of it, but it makes it a lot less stressful.
Sometimes I find some things that, you know, we've got to correct with a replacement system
and it's a little bit less stressful to, to have it done around this time.
Right.
Yeah.
You just, man, I hate to have to do it when you need it.
You know, I mean, that's the thing.
And I mean, look, things are going to happen.
You know, those are the times that your systems are going to be taxed to the max is when you
need them the most, when it gets super cold outside and when it's super hot outside, those
were our systems are there are, if they're not at peak efficiency, that's when, that's
when you're going to notice you'll, you'll see those signs of trouble.
That's when the stress, stress, stress fractures are going to show up in, in, you know, so,
you know, when Jonah earlier was talking about expansion and contraction of the chimney,
you know, he was talking about that cause and damage, that same action is what leads
those heat exchangers to crack over time.
So, you know, having something that is correctly installed, correctly designed, and just maintained
is the way to kind of put that off a little bit.
Let's keep that furnace in just as long as we can.
There you go.
Well, we are going to take a short break.
When we come back, we're, well, we're going to get some last minute tips from Aaron Gillison
on making sure that your home is nice and cozy and comfy through the holidays and all
year round.
We'll be right back here on around the house with Scott Brokamp on news talk, 98 seven
W okay.
I welcome back to around the house.
We are in the home stretch.
You probably like me, you're a little anxious, a little excited.
It's our Tennessee Vols go.
Yeah.
I'm, I'm, I'm just excited.
I'm excited about this game today.
I just, I really am.
I feel really, I just feel good about it.
Uh, any right.
I'm sure y'all are with me.
Look, absolutely.
I'm just going to tell you, you have to go in with a positive mindset no matter what.
And you just got to go give, do your best, just do your best.
Right.
Every day, every day.
All right.
So we have Aaron Gillison speaking of doing your best.
She is a mechanical system designer at AA air and central city heating and air.
And uh, well, we've been talking about a lot of things really, but I just keeping yourself
safe and well, as your slogan goes, keeping you in your comfortable zone.
You can find them online at your comfortable zone.com.
So Aaron, we, we alluded to it, uh, and we talked a little bit about it in the last segment,
but this, this whole push in, in incentive about going electric, um, when is it, when
is it right?
When is it not right?
Uh, I mean, again, we're, we're, we're really blessed here in our area, right?
We are in a TVA area.
We have, uh, we have better electricity costs than most, um, due to that TVA economic structure
that we are a part of.
Yes.
Um, and, and there's benefits to both, right?
There's benefits to both, but when does it make sense?
When should I really maybe consider moving to electric and what do I need to be aware
of?
That's a great question.
Um, and you know, what I, what I like to do is communicate with customers and educate
them on the differences between the two and let them know with all this information that
we give you that I'ma share is do the best thing for you.
Um, do what's best for you because, um, gas has a value for heating, electric has a value
for heating, but, um, certain houses are going to do a little bit better with an electric
conversion than others.
Um, if a house is very well insulated, if you've got great windows, great floor insulation,
um, those are all things that when somebody's got a gas system in and I'm looking at a replacement
for them, I do a little bit of investigation on and I, and I do kind of open that door
of conversation.
You know, are you aware of, uh, the grants and push to go electric?
Are you interested in that?
Do you have any questions?
Because the way that electric heating systems feel versus gas systems, it is a little bit
different.
Um, you know, gas heat, if you were to take a temperature of the airflow coming out of
the register, it's on average about a 30 degree temperature difference of that airflow.
Um, gas heat is a little warmer, a little toaster and a little drier.
Um, and so houses that maybe they don't have the best windows, uh, when, when a customer
is, Oh, I really want to take advantage of, uh, the tax incentives to go electric.
And I'm looking at a house that it's going to run a lot, even if I size it bigger, even
if I put more tonnage in, um, they've got very drafty windows, they don't have floor
insulation.
I usually say to them, you know, converting to electric, you're probably going to want
to insulate more.
You're going to want to update your windows so that that way it can still be warm.
It'll meet the needs of the thermostat, but it does feel different.
And what we're buying here is comfort.
Um, so are you, are you prepared to do these energy footprint improvements to your house
along with this HVAC system?
Is it something that you think you're going to do soon?
So that way your system's not running, running, running, um, and trying to keep up with how
cold it can be.
Um, and, uh, so those are things to consider.
Cause as, as a person myself, I have to say, I do like that toasty gas furnace personally.
Um, I've, I've got a gas system below and electric system above.
So my house is quote unquote dual fuel.
It's a dual fuel envelope design.
I'm getting really nerdy here.
Uh, but, and I'm very happy with it.
It does a great job.
Uh, and my house is an older 1930 craftsman.
It's drafty.
I have original windows.
Um, so I knew while electric has its benefits and it has certainly gotten better.
Heat pumps have gotten way better.
I was still like, I'm a little sensitive to cold, even though I work where I'm uncomfortable
all the time.
When I'm at home, I want to be cozy.
Yes.
Cozy and warm.
And, you know, my kids want to be cozy and warm.
And so that's what I decided to do for myself.
But looking at your home envelope is important to consider because when someone, when you're
spending thousands of dollars on a new system, you want to be happy with the results.
Absolutely.
You don't want to be like, oh man, I really wish I kept that gas.
I know I got these incentives and I got this tax credit.
And there are actually also TVA rebates.
If you're installing contractor is in that quality network.
There are incentives there, especially with split heat pumps.
Uh, you know, there are some that actually have a hyper heat condenser and you don't
need auxiliary heat.
Hmm.
Yes.
And so there are certain applications where that's much better for a customer to consider.
And it takes a lot of that load off of TVA.
That auxiliary heat is the most inefficient part of a heat pump.
And so with that newer technology, which is fantastic, we've had some really good reports
back from customers where we put that type of system in.
It's still important to consider what about my house?
Right.
The application's everything.
Yeah.
And you know, you mentioned that some of the differences in that heat, right?
And that drier heat is, I mean, it's going to feel hotter, right?
Just like, I mean, just like an air conditioning system is designed to remove moisture, right?
Not to push out cold air.
It's to remove moisture, which makes the air more comfortable.
So, you know, the same thing that that electric heat, because it is a slower, uh, and as by
design, it is, it's not going to be that, that quick push dry heat, which I mean, let's
face it, first kicks on with gas.
It just comes out.
Yeah.
It comes out ready to go.
It is.
It's ready to go.
Well, Eric, thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Hey, if you've got HVAC questions, needs, check out AA Air.
You can find them online at yourcomfortablezone.com or you can give them a call at 865-213-1354.
Thank you so much for joining us this morning.
Hey, if you've missed anything from today's show, you can go to hissecurity.com, go to
the ATH radio tab to find the recordings of the show.
I again want to thank our guests this morning, Jonah Lindley with Ash Busters and Aaron Gillison
of AA Air Central City Heating and Air.
Hey, you've got a topic or guest you want to hear on the show, send us an email at thehouseathissecurity.com.
Around the House is produced by Newstalk 98.7 with guest coordination services from B Media
Savvy.
Tune in next week as we wrap up Breast Cancer Awareness Month with a cancer survivor story
and we'll spotlight the holiday events with a town of Farragut as in store for you this
year.
Hey, go Vols!
Go Big Horns!
See you next week on Around the House.