Hey guys, I Want to do a video on one of the probably biggest problems that we see facing our industry today. As time has gone on, we've seen homes get more and more tighter. That's the verbiage that a lot of guys use that it's a tight home, They're more insulated, they're more resistant to air being able to come into the home, and what they're doing is trying to separate that outdoor air. A lot of times, it's either really hot or cold outside, and they're building these houses more and more tighter.

Now you might say, well, Josh isn't that a good thing? Shouldn't houses be as efficient as possible? And the answer is yes, the tighter they're built, the more efficient they'll be the better. They'll hold on to that energy. If you're heating the home or cooling the home, it'll hold on to that. But unfortunately, in addition to that, the answer is no.

Some of these tighter homes are creating issues that we've never seen before in the industry, not just the heating and air industry, but just in homes in general. Back in the old days, we would have homes that could bring breathe. They can allow ventilation better folks had foundation vents that they would open allowing air to come in that way. and so we're just seeing a lot of issues pop up health-wise for folks when it comes to the indoor air that they're breathing and also just this home itself not being able to inhibit things like mold growth if you're a new homeowner.

If you've got a house that's a little newer I Want to go through a few things that you might need to know? I'm not saying it's necessarily something that you need to drop right away and just make sure you get that repaired, but it's some things that maybe you should think about if you have a newer home, a tighter home before you do have bigger issues. I Was just helping someone last week on our guide where I help folks with the purchase of a new heating and air system and we were going over some of this stuff because although they had a home that was 10 or 15 years old, it was built tighter back in the day, it did have an encapsulated crawl space and it did have some of the ventilation techniques that we see today that are now code who am I my name is Josh oh who's the HVAC guy for homeowners YouTube Channel If you've never seen our content before, we cover all things HVAC Mostly for homeowners trying to help you in the Journey of buying your next heating and air system or maintaining the one you have now trying to save you energy and so on so give us a subscribe. We would definitely appreciate that. Let's go ahead and dive into this.

Let's talk about some of the issues that some of these homes face when they're built tighter. One of the issues that we see all the time is sizing of the heating and air system and the ductwork. and now that we've now moved into an age where some of these tighter homes years ago, the tighter homes were just treated different, right? So you had homes that you were replacing the heating and air system in, you didn't necessarily have to worry about it. Now we're starting to see some of these homes that were built with these newer standards to make them Tighter And because of that, now we're seeing systems be replaced in some of these homes that may have not been installed correctly.

And now you have guys that are trying to get this all figured out and help these folks moving forward. And so some of these issues that we've seen over the years is systems being oversized asked for the home not having a proper heat load, heat loss calculation done on the home. The system is oversized and because of that that can create issues in itself. mainly the short cycling meaning the system Heats or cools the home really fast, shuts off, and you just constantly have this up and down, up and down and you might say, well, Josh isn't that good Don't we want it to reach temperature really quick and then shut off in cooling? That's a huge issue for a couple reasons.

The number one reason is because it may not be removing enough humidity from the home and that short cycling is not allowing that system to do what was originally intended to do keeping your home not just a certain temperature, but also a certain humidity for your comfort. A higher humidity home will feel warmer in general, but it will also create other issues that we'll go over in just a second. The other thing short cycling will cause is higher utility bills. if you've got a system that's constantly spiking on and off.

if it's a single stage system or a multi-stage system, inverters are a whole nother animal for a whole nother video. If You haven't seen any of my videos on on inverter. HVAC Systems: Some of them can actually help account for some of these issues we're talking about, so definitely check those out. An inverter system has the ability to ramp up and down at Griffin air.

We installed Daikin and Daikin has systems like The Fit that are barely running. At times, they're super quiet, they're super efficient, and they don't do some of these issues that we're talking about like short cycle as much. but getting back to the housing when you're talking about a really tight home and the system is not removing enough humidity. you see, folks have to account for that by installing dehumidification and things like that and that gets back to what I was just talking a second ago.

With the short cycling of that system, it's less comfortable in the house, but it also creates an environment where things like mold can grow in your home if there's high humidity levels and that mold has somewhere in the home that it is allowed to grow, it's got humidity, it's got something to feed on, and it's got the right temperatures and so on. We've seen folks have literally mold all underneath the under part of their house where the joists are simply because the humidity levels are so high in their house. Now there are things you can do. If you have that issue or you think that issue may arise because of the humidity levels or the tightness of your home, you can do things like encapsulate your crawl space.

The problem we're seeing with the crawl space encapsulation is it's the Wild West out there right now. It's one of the things that we do at Griffin Air and not all crawl space encapsulations are created equal. If you haven't seen my video here of crawl space encapsulations, definitely check that out. One of the things we talk about is how some people are doing other techniques rather than doing the proper encapsulation where everything is super airtight and then having dehumidifiers and making that crawl space a drier conditioned crawl space, making the air in the home safer to breathe, but also doing things like inhibiting mold pests and so on.

Another thing we don't see folks think about enough is ventilation. The trade is actually called HVAC and the reason is called H Back. It's not just heating and AC A lot of folks skip that middle letter the V Now there are tons of videos on just this topic alone. I'm not even going to scratch the surface here, but the biggest thing that you need to understand is if you have a tight home to keep that air safe to breathe and you're not just breathing recycled air all the time, you need to have some sort of fresh air ventilation being able to bring that into the home and that can be done different ways.

One thing I've noticed is depending on what part of the country you're in, it may be done differently. There are certain parts of the South that if you're going to bring ventilation in the home, you need to bring it in venting through a dehumidification type system, not just a forced air ventilator. But as we see these homes that are not just built tighter. but they do have the conditioned crawl spaces they have the insulated attic spaces, ventilation has become a big deal.

so that way the air in your home is safer to breathe. We have actually had customers want our guide tell us after having ventilation installed in their home that they didn't have before? they actually felt better. They they were not just breathing that recycled air all the time. and they were breathing in this fresher air and they literally felt better on a daily basis.

I would say definitely get a pro involved on that. Don't just cut a hole In the side of your house, but with proper ventilation, you're not just making the air you breathe safer and all of that, you're also diluting the unsafe air the more fresh air you're breathing in. If there is any unsafe air in there, you're diluting it with all this good air and that's one of the things we hear. Heat and air guys talk about a lot on some of these channels that they go over ventilation even more in depth.

So what do you do if you have a house that is newer? Maybe you have a house that's old enough that it's now time to replace your heating and air system, but it is still pretty tight. I Live in a house like that? My house is about I Don't know, 10 or 15 years old now, but when it was built, they built it with some of these higher standards keeping the house very tight when you have that. I Would almost say that you need to kind of start over if it's time to replace that heating and air system. I Would have a proper heat, low calorie relation done on that house before you do anything and then when the contractor comes in to give you bids and quotes to replace that system, make sure that they're sizing the ductwork and making sure that that is all good as well.

Just because the system was installed originally with the builder does not necessarily mean it was installed correctly. In fact, I would argue that the majority of the time that it was installed incorrectly, that at least something was installed incorrectly. and with all the things we have today not just having the ductwork size properly, but you can also do things like Duck blast tests and blower door tests making sure that everything is running as efficiently as possible. These are all things that if you're going to have that system replaced, you're going to have your heating and air system replaced and you're going to spend that kind of money.

Why not do it right? Why not just spend a little bit more and make sure everything is on the up and up and have them look at some of these newer Technologies newer things that they can do to improve the indoor air quality in your home. It's not just about having that system turn on and give you a little AC during the day. May Maybe that was the case back in the old days when you had this real loose home house that could breathe and you just kind of shove Heating and Air in system in there. It didn't matter the size, just dump a bunch of cold air in there.

so that way the folks are comfortable. These days you've got to worry about a little bit more than that. and if you do it right, you can have years of low utility bills. Great air to breathe, and higher Comfort levels.

So anyway I Hope this helps. Thanks for watching. Please hit that subscribe button. We'll see you next time.