Wildfires are wreaking havoc like never before, and in this episode, Eric G and John Dudley dig deep into the fiery chaos, sharing crucial tips on how to keep your home safe when flames are licking at the edges of your neighborhood. We’re talking everything from the annoying smoke that seems to invade your space to the smart tech that can help defend your home like a superhero in a cape (or maybe just a really advanced sprinkler system). With over four million acres already scorched this year, it’s not just a hot topic, it’s a hot emergency. We’ll dish out advice on securing your space, maintaining air quality, and even how to outsmart those pesky embers that want to crash your BBQ party. So grab a snack, settle in, and let’s get your home ready to handle whatever Mother Nature throws our way! Navigating the wild world of home improvement, we kicked things off with some thrilling updates. Picture this: my girlfriend's kid is about to dive into homeownership with a shiny new starter home! But hold your horses, because yours truly is on inspection duty. Armed with blue tape and a heat gun, I’m ready to uncover any hidden gremlins lurking in the corners. It’s like being a detective, but instead of solving mysteries, I’m solving the case of the dodgy drywall. From foundation leaks to landscaping woes, we shared some laughs and horror stories about home inspections, emphasizing that just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s perfect. It’s a wild ride out there in the world of real estate, and we’re just getting warmed up. Buckle up, as we transition into a serious discussion about wildfires. With record-breaking acres consumed by flames, we dissected the alarming state of wildfire preparedness in the U.S. We reminisced about a mind-blowing 747 firefighting aircraft that could dump tons of water but sadly never got the government contract it deserved. The debate took flight as we touched on the need for better forest management and the crazy idea of using tech to fend off these raging fires. Spoiler alert: it involves sonic waves and some seriously cool gadgets to save homes from smoke and flames. So, join us on this rollercoaster of home tips, wildfire wisdom, and a healthy dose of humor. It's more than just around the house; it's around the wild world of homeownership!

Takeaways:

• Wildfire season is a serious concern with millions of acres burned this year, so staying informed is crucial.
• Keeping your home safe from wildfires involves proactive measures like installing ember-proof vents and fire-resistant landscaping.
• In wildfire-prone areas, technology can enhance home safety, including automated sprinkler systems that activate when fires are detected nearby.
• Ventilation during wildfire smoke is key—avoid running your dryer, as it can pull in harmful smoke particles into your home.
• Regularly check and maintain weather stripping around doors and windows to prevent smoke infiltration during wildfires.
• Using air filters efficiently during smoke events can significantly improve indoor air quality, so have a backup filter ready.

Links referenced in this episode:

• aroundthehouseonline.com
• frontlinewildfiredefense.com
• sonictech.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Amazon
• Frontline Wildfire Defense
• Sonic Fire Tech

Thanks for listening to Around the house if you want to hear more please subscribe so you get notified of the latest episode as it posts at https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/listen

If you want to join the Around the House Insider for access to the back catalog, Exclusive Content and a direct email to Eric G and access to the show early https://around-the-house-with-e.captivate.fm/support

We love comments and we would love reviews on how this information has helped you on your house! Thanks for listening! For more information about the show head to https://aroundthehouseonline.com/

Information given on the Around the House Show should not be considered construction or design advice for your specific project, nor is it intended to replace consulting at your home or jobsite by a building professional. The views and opinions expressed by those interviewed on the podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Around the House Show.

Foreign.

Ready to turn your house into the home you've always dreamed of without the headaches or huge bills.

You're tuned to around the House, the nation's number one home improvement radio show and podcast with expert advice that's helped millions tackle everything from remodels to repairs.

Hosts Eric G. And John Dudley have got you covered with the best advice and information about your home.

Now let's get this hour started.

Welcome to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

I'm Eric G. John Dudley.

Good to see you, my friend.

You too, brother.

What's happening, man?

We got a lot to talk about today and I want to talk about wildfire heat, smart home stuff.

But I want to start out with something a couple little updates real quick before we dive into the show.

And first off, my girlfriend Elisa, her kid just put an offer in on the house this week, which is going to be awesome.

And I'm excited for them getting their first place a great brand new build starter home.

But I don't think the builder is going to be happy because they asked me to do the inspection.

So I got to jump on Amazon and order about six rolls of blue tape so we can go through and walk the house.

What's, what's protocol at that point?

They have to fix that stuff.

The builder themselves, since they want the.

Sale, they're going to fix it.

I mean, it's the first sale right.

Of the house.

Yeah.

So they're like, I mean, landscaping in the front.

Yeah, yeah, landscaping was.

Isn't in yet.

So there's a lot of little things like that.

But I mean, it's pretty much set up and staged on the inside.

So there it's, the house is almost there.

And if they get the offer and everything in they'll be that inspection process, which means I get to go over there and looking forward to it.

I'm going to be bringing my, my tape measure, rolls of tape, my heat gun.

I love having that temperature sensor, walking around, seeing where they miss the insulation and, and all that stuff.

I was just gonna say get yourself a insulation depth finder.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I love going through with the, with the temp gun because I can go through and go missing in that corner.

Missing in that corner.

So it'll be a good one.

You really do need some other hobbies, brother.

Oh, no, this is, I'm looking.

I haven't done this in a bit.

So I am not a certified inspector, people.

But for family, I will go out and give a great job and if you listen to last year when I had an inspector inspect my house for sale, it was comical on the things that they snagged.

And like that foundation, you've got an active water leak.

And the, the driest part of the year, no water leak there.

And it was epoxy that was.

That had repaired the foundation.

He didn't bother to climb over underneath there and take a look.

So it was funny.

But I'm looking forward to that.

Man, it's gonna be fun to get out the driving by.

I drove by real quick beforehand just to eyeball it and I can already see there's going to be some issues.

So it'll be kind of fun.

We'll leave it for that.

I might even film some of it.

That could be kind of fun just to get my.

To see what I'm finding afterwards.

So it would be kind of a good one to show you.

Hey, this is what happens.

I wish I could have been in there a little earlier to see what it looked like before drywall.

But we'll, we'll find some stuff in there, I'm sure.

Yeah, yeah.

It's good content though, because it keeps everybody aware.

Right.

Just because it's a new house doesn't mean it's a good house.

I mean, man, there is an inspector.

To provide that public service announcement.

Like, hey, when you do check this out and make sure.

Well, like you mentioned, that the AC unit's not 6 inches from the fence.

Yeah.

There's some stuff already just driving by.

You can see that.

You go, okay, this is gonna be an issue.

And of course it's a, it's a.

Here's the thing.

New homes can make sense out there.

It's in a cute little neighborhood.

It's a great thing from that.

It is one of the big top three national home builders, which to me with those construction projects, I've had problems with this builder down in Florida with a friend that at the time I was getting their house built down there and they built a huge smart home community that was solar powered, green, all this stuff home.

Forgot to put it all underground.

Yeah, they forgot to put it all underground.

And since it was in Florida, they built it at a CMU concrete block.

And the master bathroom had such a bow in that wall because I don't know if it was windy or what that the bow in the wall.

They couldn't hang a flat mirror on the wall because the bow was too big.

It would break the glass.

Wow.

So I'll be bringing my six foot level for sure.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's.

Yeah, you know how it goes.

Honestly.

Well, we had that discussion episodes back about the difference between like I was, I'm a fan of the turn of the century homes with real dimensional lumber.

And does the like engineering and architecture make sense?

Not by today's standards at all.

Is it standing a hundred years later?

It sure is.

Yep.

Like so far, you know, something to be said for that versus the little stick frame track home, 80s homes.

80S track homes.

Right.

With the LP sighting that was bowing.

Out and every neighborhood's named Lake something, Lakeland Hills, Lakewood Shores, Lake View, like something terr already.

Exactly.

Well, man, I wanted to talk, I wanted to pivot here a little bit and talk here about wildfire, heat and smoke.

I mean across the country.

This is going to be probably one of if not the worst wildfire years in US recorded history here because we just have so many things going on across the country.

I know, Johnny, you're down in Columbia and you probably don't catch that local news that we have up here, but we've already had 4 million plus acres burned in the US of land.

And in Oregon where I'm at here, we've already had over a million acres.

So that's about the size of Connecticut we're talking about.

So it's.

Luckily I get news briefs from you, so that helps.

Yeah, and that's the thing, man.

I mean it's bad out there.

And so I wanted to talk a little bit about it because we've got so many things here.

We've got dozens of fires, there's not enough people fighting them, there's not enough air support.

And a couple years ago, man, I loved it because I was probably a little more than that.

I think it's been out of service now for three or four, but a company had built a 747 tanker so they would land at the airport, they'd have fire trucks or pump trucks loaded up with tons of water and would take off and it could drop an Olympic sized swimming pool of water over a huge area.

And unfortunately at the time the US government didn't give it a contract.

And so they eventually parted the plane out and they had the whole system.

It worked great, had no issues.

But I tell you what, it would just dump tons and tons of water and it was sad.

I don't understand what the politics were because clearly they were there.

But I think we should have a dozen of those around the US and, and that's a big enough plane that if it's, if there's Fires in Spain or over in Europe.

You could send it over there pretty easily.

Honestly, it's super ridiculous that we still.

It's the old man on the moon theory, if we actually did put one there.

But who cares, right?

Look at the stuff we do.

Look what's happening with technology and everything else right now.

And we can't figure out how to put out a fire.

Like, guys, whether that's.

Whether that's a 747 or B52 bomber or 12 up her state or what.

You know what I mean?

Like, totally.

Yeah, it's a fire.

Cut the 300 haircuts out on Capitol Hill and let's get serious about solving.

I almost said a bad word.

Things like that, like, yeah, it's just.

It befuddles me consistently right at scale.

I'm just like, what?

Yeah, yeah.

And then the problem is, is we haven't been managing the forest correctly here.

What happens is, is when mother nature was purely involved and we stopped getting involved or didn't had gotten involved yet, we'd have these small fires that would go burn the underbrush and not take the trees out.

And so that fuel didn't exist.

Now that we're putting out, every tiny little fire that those fuels keep getting burnt up and burnt up and are built up, and then when they catch on fire, it takes the whole forest out, which usually never happened back in the days because there was a fire that cleaned it up every handful of years, and it never got that big.

Now the underbrush is 12ft high, and it burned such a hot fire because we've kept the fire out of there.

If you're going to keep the fire out, you got to manage this stuff.

And there's no physical way to do that.

Yeah.

So it's got.

We got to have a whole different forest service management to get through that.

Now, Johnny, when we come back, you mentioned technology.

I want to talk about some of the cool technology out there that has come out recently for helping defend your home, because I think that's so cool.

And there's so many new products coming out that homeowners, at least if you.

If you don't think they're taking care of it around you, at least you can defend your home.

We'll talk about that just as soon is around the House returns.

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What's up?

This is Sticks it in ya and.

Satchel from Steel Panther and you are.

Listening to around the house with Eric.

G. Yeah, we love Eric G. And you should too.

1987.

I never wanna leave.

Welcome back to the around the House show.

Hey, if you wanna find out more about us, head over to aroundthehouse online.com John we've been talking about Wildfire Prep and there is some really cool technology, man that's been coming out for people to put around their homes.

Yeah, we have the capacity to solve so many problems and we still refuse to do the simplest things.

So somebody's got to pay attention to it.

One of the companies out there, Frontline Wildfire Defense.

And where I think this stuff is important is if you install a system like that, your insurance company is going to be really, really happy with you.

Which usually means if they're happy, you've got lower rates.

So if you can put something up there that's going to reduce or eliminate the risk of a wildfire ticking your home out, it's really cool.

One of the first ones I saw and I've seen these guys online, Frontline Wildfire Defense.

So what these guys do is they basically do copper pipes on the roof with sprinklers.

Yeah, it's what you see in commercial buildings on the inside.

And so basically they just went through and built a smart home system that can actually defend itself with automated fire sprinklers and technology and will give you real time wildfire alerts and basically going, hey, we see the fire coming, it will measure those temperatures, watch what's going on.

So they've got their second generation out and they have fire tracking software and turns on automatically fires within seven miles of your home and it's 100 times faster than traditional sensor based systems.

Now I haven't tested any of these, John, but that sounds like a pretty good deal from what they're saying.

Yeah, sounds pretty cool.

The only thing I thought immediately when you said within seven miles there's a bunch of water going out for no good reason.

Yeah, damn dude, that's a lot of water.

I dial that back maybe and the cool thing Is though, is you have an app.

So you can sit there and put the app on and then go, no.

But the thing is, when you're talking about fires, it's those embers that are the number one threat.

There's companies out there and there's new building code that's requiring these ember proof vent screens and stuff.

Because that's usually what happens is you get those embers and they hit the soffit vents, you know, or underneath in the crawl space fence.

And now you've got it hitting the sawdust from when they built the home in the crawl space or whatever.

Or it's hitting the bark around the house and that landscaping stuff and it's catching on fire and you're going, but that's.

They basically those wind driven embers, they cause up to 90% of structure loss during a wildfire.

So it's not just the flames, it's just that ember stuff.

And we saw that we need to do.

We need an inexpensive solution that just encapsulates the entire house.

Right.

Like a Jetsons kind of thing.

You just push a button in this big dome shield.

Right.

Foam dome just.

Yeah.

Basically covers it in suds like it's the airport when they do the planes and they, they hit that more like.

The, the Kingdome or something.

Oh yeah.

The big concrete encasing that slides over the whole house.

Or I don't know what, I don't know what material would be correct for that application, but something that just like locks you in your own private Idaho and protects you from.

That would be awesome.

That would be awesome.

But I love, I love what, what Frontline is doing here.

That's a good one.

Now there's other ones out there and you're seeing different sprinkler systems.

There's another company I've seen where you mount these.

It's more portable.

This is really a hard plumbed section where you got to put in copper, you know, copper pipes and stuff like that and all that, which isn't that big of deal.

There's other ones though, where you can basically, if you've got a swimming pool, you can deploy this.

Put the sprinklers on the corner of the property or whatever.

The plan is that you give them is you give them a property map and they've got a pump and so basically it drops into your swimming pool and it will use your swimming pool water to cover the property with a ton of water.

So you can sit there and let it go and it will, you can walk away.

Don't have to worry about automation on this.

It's real manual, but it does work.

It will put all that water out there and reduce that risk.

And I think that's kind of cool, too, for the people that are like, oh, man, I don't want to have to do this.

Will my HOA allow it?

Let's get down the list of stuff out there.

But I think it's kind of smart.

See, I love this stuff because I'm like, what if I'm just like, okay, what.

What's the range of these sprinklers?

How much output?

And then I'm thinking, why wouldn't you just make like something with.

I mean, obviously be definitely more expensive, but something with the pressure of a fire hose or at least a third of that.

You know what I mean?

Not just.

That's what this one is.

They've got them, and they got fire hose pressure.

So it's dumping gallons of water a minute.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

So that's pretty cool.

My favorite, though.

And.

And again, this is new tech that's out there.

And so again, I'm not vouching for these guys, but it looks really cool.

And again, I haven't played with any of these, so there's no endorsement here, but sonic fire tech.

This is cool.

This is revolutionary acoustic fire suppression technology that deploys concealed ducting in your ceiling.

And so this is using sound waves to blow the fire out.

It disrupts the fire.

What?

I mean, yeah, you said acoustic, and I was like, whoa, now we're talking weapons.

I mean, how to.

How does that work?

You can mount this inside and outside your house.

So traditional fire suppression systems, that water inside can cause more damage than the fire itself when the sprinklers go off.

This is that same kind of thing.

So this does it without any water, any foam, any chemical discharge.

You can use it outside as well.

So it has autonomous early detection, so it identifies threats before flames spread.

I saw a video where they lit a little kind of tiny barbecue outside underneath some plants, just like a little hibachi barbecue.

And it read it in a second or two, Just a little tiny flame.

And there's no collateral.

Collateral damage on this.

So it's no flooding, no nothing.

And it is absolutely crazy.

So it uses something you can't hear.

Basically breaks down the combustion cycle.

Almost like blowing out a candle does it?

Looks like it blows out a candle.

Wow.

Totally frequency based, right?

You hit the right frequency based, cuts that out.

Wow, that's crazy.

And I saw it, and it's.

And it saves your windows.

Yeah, yeah.

Wow.

And here's the part two that I thought was wild.

Yeah.

And it's sonictech.com.

I think what's super cool about this is that they make them even like almost like a leaf blower where you can walk around and put the fire out for firefighters and stuff.

Wow.

Isn't that awesome?

So now we're back to the 747 in my opinion.

Right.

Like, right.

We could do that with sound.

What the hell are we doing dumping gallons of water or fire retardant when they could just like send the bullhorn out and get it over with?

Absolutely.

There you go.

Send rope 20 robots into the woods with frequency based acoustic stoppage.

Like, and get it over with.

Like, there you go.

Why not?

Right?

All right, we'll talk about that.

Let's talk a little bit more about that just as soon as around the House returns.

If you want to find out more about us, head over to our beautiful website that Johnny built RoundtheHouse online dot com.

We'll be right back.

Don't change that dial.

Before we head to the break, a quick word about the folks who make this show possible every single week.

Our sponsors are the reason around the House stays on the air and in your feed.

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Supporting them is what keeps this show coming to you and we don't take that for granted.

Stick around.

We've got more around the House coming up right after this.

Welcome back to the around the House show, your trusted source for everything about your home.

Johnny and I have been sitting here talking about fire technology to help put out wildfires around your home and help defend your house a little bit.

And we were just talking here about sonic fire tech and Johnny, you were just bringing up that.

Could you imagine putting that on a 747 and flying over the woods or the.

The wildfire and just putting it out?

That's an interesting thought process.

Why is it us thinking of that?

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Hello.

Hello, State government.

You paying attention that thought everything.

I guarantee it's cheaper than the lives of firefighters.

And all the water we're dumping and the chemicals you're putting everywhere with the fire retardants and.

Yeah, I mean.

Right.

And if it saves the windows on your house, it's probably not going to kill all those animals either.

Right.

Well, think about this.

Think about putting that on the.

On the Boston Dynamic robot dogs and just sending a pack of under loose.

Right, yeah, that's why.

Yeah.

I mean I was thinking of all the different Boston Dynamics demos they have, right.

Everything from soldiers to whatever sandpaper.

It's.

I mean, I don't know, like I was telling you during the break, I just, I get so.

I don't really get angry.

I just befuddled by the fact that we have so much capacity to solve so many issues now and we just let the, the most costly, some of the most important things slide by.

Nah, let's just worry about the crack on the sidewalk.

Who cares if the roof caves in?

What?

Right.

Yeah.

You're missing the entire point.

And you would think that the insurance companies that are losing billions of dollars would all get together and go, hey guys, it's cheaper us for us to fund this.

Right?

Seriously?

Yeah, to turn around and go, hey, we're going to spend $300 million.

We're gonna put a chip in 50, we'll call it a day.

Exactly.

You chip in and you send these things out there and you help the fire departments out there put these things around that are going after communities and stuff.

Can you imagine if they just had big semi trailers that rolled up that were on quick response and the robots jumped out and went to firefighting?

Seriously.

And again, that would be community oriented.

People working together for the good of people.

And unfortunately, that's one thing I'm always ranting about because we just don't have enough of it.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't know.

This is great stuff.

Do my little part to make it a little bit better, but man, big stuff like that.

Come on, guys.

Somebody, somebody step up.

Elon, somebody, you know, like.

Yeah, anybody?

Hello?

Yeah, it would be so much better because the cool thing is there's just no environmental damage.

That's one of the problems you see out there with, with what they've been doing in the forest in years past is they would put fire retardant in that water.

So if they were putting it in the helicopters of the planes and of course, what's it got in it?

It's got pfos and everything else in those fire retardant chemicals.

So now we're, we're putting all that stuff in the forest.

And of course that water runs downstream usually and ends up in somebody's drinking water supply.

So.

Well, this is the same water growing your food at some point, dummy.

You know what I mean?

Crap that we're dumping and yeah, no, just doesn't that kind of it.

Right.

It's.

I mean when you say it out Loud.

It sounds archaic at this point.

We do what?

We just put water on it.

We have guys with shovels and rakes.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

Really?

Yeah, yeah.

Doesn't make sense.

But we can make.

Well, I won't get there.

Well, Elon can make a. Elon can make a rocket come back and land on its own perch.

But we can't figure out how to get that figured out.

Right.

But we can figure out how to have unmanned wars.

Really?

I mean, yeah.

Enough.

I mean, yeah.

I mean even.

Even.

Yeah, even drones with, with, with the capacity to haul a.

Haul a hose around would be a better move.

Yeah, it's just what it is.

Well, I wanted to talk to you today because there's so many people out there and it's going to be the east coast first.

And if you're close to the fires here, which is a lot of our listening audience about keeping that smoke under control and kind of my first step.

If you're in one of these wildfire smoke areas, there's a couple things I want you to do.

One, keep your windows closed.

Keep everything tightened up in the house as best you can.

And the biggest mistake I see people do is they on run their clothes dryer during this point.

This is the worst time to do it because you've got a clothes dryer that's pushing out a 150 CFM of air outside your house.

Well, guess what?

That's 150 CFM cubic feet per minute.

So it's 150 basketballs of dirty smoky air you bring in when you turn that dryer on because it has to replace the stuff that's in the house.

So kind of simple.

You don't want to be using the fans unless you have to.

Anything that's moving air out of the house, you're going to bring in outside air that normally would be fresh, but it's not.

And that is one of the first things I think that's the biggest mistake is do the laundry when you're done or drip dry it or do something like that inside the house.

Don't sit there and run the clothes dryer.

It's bad.

What about the blow dryer?

We're good there.

Oh yeah.

Your hair can look amazing.

There's no problem with that.

Just checking.

That's important.

Oh yeah, it's important.

Now the other thing too is, is make sure you always have an extra air filter sitting around.

But this is where I actually change my H vac filter and my fan settings and go from either the recirculate or the automatic, I turn it to on because I want that filter to be always run in the air.

Don't forget to turn it off.

But set an alarm on your phone, a reminder alarm, in two days or whatever, when you think the smoke is going to be better, to turn that off because your power bill is going to go up.

It's not great for energy consumption, but it's going to filter the air 24 7, which I think is pretty.

Pretty smart to keep it as clean as you can.

So, Johnny, I rolled our friend Caroline up the other day on Instagram.

It was so funny.

There is a company out there speaking about air quality.

This was kind of fun.

Little side note, here they are putting in this air, this injection of essential oils into your H vac system so your house can smell like a nice hotel room.

So you drill a hole in your ductwork.

This injects this oil smell, essential oil smell.

And I'm like, holy smoke.

Yeah, you're.

You're.

But here's the thing.

Any of those things that are putting something off, you're still vaping.

I mean, you're vaping whatever's in that because you're gonna breathe it.

Yeah, And I set her off on a tangent on that one.

She's like, are you kidding me?

And I'm like, really?

Yeah, she.

I mean, she said that was just so unhealthy, Which I completely agree with, because that's why I senator.

But anytime you're putting those oils out in your air, those end up in your lungs, and oil in your lungs is not a.

An awesome place to be.

You're not supposed to smoke oil.

Who knew?

Who knew?

No, I thought.

No, no, no.

I went, really?

Because I thought you were gonna say.

She was like, oh, Eric, you're being paranoid or something.

I thought she was gonna say it was fine.

I was like, no.

Yeah, that would have been crazy.

Come on.

Yeah, it's an Instagram ad that's going out now, and it's some injection.

Then, of course, their model is.

Is.

We'll sell the unit, but you got to buy our oils, so just buy.

Some incense, for God's sake.

What's wrong with you people?

Come on.

Clean your house.

Clean your house.

Yeah.

Done.

Yeah, yeah.

And quit living like you're 22.

Maybe that'll help.

There we go.

There we go.

But you know what I mean, that's just the nutty stuff that I see.

And I go, are you kidding me?

Really?

So that is not gonna help you get better indoor air Quality.

That's the worst part.

So it was kind of funny.

If you're vaping already, what's the difference?

Go ahead, smoke the oil, kid.

Ouch.

Just get out the Marlboros at that point.

Better for this plant at least.

Yep.

My gosh.

I don't know about better for you, but it's not going to be worse.

That's for danger.

Nah, come on.

I'm 40 years in, plus look at me, healthy as an ox.

There we go.

As you're coughing from the coffee.

There we go.

There we go.

So when we come back here, Johnny, I want to talk a little bit.

A couple things you can do here with the heat and the smoke that will help you keep your house clean and keep it so you can manage this.

Especially for people like in our apartments, we don't have too many choices.

That's the worst part for people living in apartments.

Or, or you're in a rental and you're kind of stuck with what you've got.

We've got some tips here for you as well.

Around the house.

We'll be right back after these important messages.

Don't change that dial.

Welcome back to the around the House Show.

Johnny got me laughing right off the bat with the, with the bunny.

I love it.

Magic bunny.

A magic bunny.

Bunny.

Heckle bunny is back in the house.

That is awesome.

So, man, one of the things that I see people fighting this year especially because all across the country electricity has gotten, geez, it seems 10x more expensive.

What was a hundred dollar bill is at least a $400 bill for electricity.

Yeah, it's gotten crazy.

And why is that?

What happened to Hoover Dam?

Come on.

You know what happened is our green push here got rid of all the cheap coal and natural gas fired power plants.

And so they went across the country and said we're going to be greener.

And they've been trying to shut those all down and now they're using solar, wind, that is.

Which is so many more.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And a lot of them were doing.

It on government subsidies 20 years ago and they're still trying to pull that off.

Like, come on, guys.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

So now our electricity bills are so much more expensive.

And if you're an apartment or a house that doesn't have, I mean, I think it's 45% of the people like in my metro area here in Portland don't have ac.

It just doesn't exist.

It's kind of like when Seattle, we had that same thing up there.

And I think it's yeah, we got a.

Something's cut.

There we go.

We back.

Yeah.

Okay.

It.

I saw it, said it was reestablishing, so I'll jump back in.

Johnny.

In.

In Seattle, Portland, everything else like that in the Pacific Northwest, a lot of people don't have AC.

I think it's 45% in Portland don't have AC.

And almost none of the apartments do out there as well.

So when it gets to be 100, 105, or like it was a handful of years ago, 117 degrees, it's pretty brutal.

And for many of these people, their only answer is window air conditioners.

And man, those things are so inefficient and so expensive to run.

That can add two or three hundred bucks on your apartment electricity bill for a month, which really hurts people.

Yeah.

But on that day, you really don't care.

You're like, I don't care if it's a thousand dollars.

I'm gonna die.

I'm gonna die.

Right?

And some of the tricks that I do, and this is what you can do to really help.

And I did this with my house before.

I had the.

I had window air conditioners in that thing and I had just the little portable ductless, the ducted ones that have the little round tube that goes out through the window.

Because I couldn't put a window air conditioner in because I had these different type windows that I couldn't.

More casement stuff.

So I had to build something in for that.

But long story short, what I like to do is in the morning when it's maybe in the 60s outside, AC's off, I open up all the windows, I turn around, turn on all the bath fans, the kitchen fan, anything that's ducting outside.

And I try to bring in that cool air in so I can do that.

Once I get the temperature down and kind of equalize the outside, I shut it up, I close all my blinds, I go into hermit mode and trying to keep it as cool as I can.

And then I crank the AC on and try to pre cool it as much as I can.

I don't care if at 10am I'm 62 degrees in the house.

That usually means that, well, it'll be 74 at 6 o' clock in the evening.

And that's kind of where I want it to be.

And that will kind of help you get there as best you can, is pre cooling, plan ahead and then shut all those blinds.

And the thicker of the blinds you got, the better because that will help insulate that.

Because that's where all your heat gain and heat loss is, is through those windows.

Living in Arizona for eight years, you learn that stuff pretty quick, right.

It's brutal.

You get up at 2 or 3, probably 3ish, and open everything and you better have it all shut by eight or you're in trouble.

Absolutely.

And.

And these days you don't have to go in and add.

Let's say there's so many houses out there that have baseboard heaters and Cadet electric heaters with the fan on them and that stuff in the wall for those situations.

I would take a look.

If you're going to be there for a while, maybe you don't want to put on a whole ducted system.

But man, the mini split systems are getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper.

And that's kind of cool.

The other day.

Yeah.

See you're.

You're pricing them with instabit all the time now, right?

Yep.

And so super common.

And it's saving a ton of money.

And.

And I know so many people.

I've got a family member that has an AC unit that's sized incorrectly, but they still have three bedrooms upstairs with window air conditioners in them to supplement it to keep the bedrooms cool.

And I'm like, man, seriously, you'll probably save enough electricity by replacing that and upgrading it.

Then it's probably going to pay for itself in those summer months.

Especially when you've got that.

And he's got.

Got oil heat as well.

Which these days isn't amazing.

Wow.

So I would be trying to get out of that and get into a.

A heat pump situation.

Now one of the things, Johnny, I don't.

You haven't seen this because you're down there, but they just changed as of January this year they changed the refrigerants again in our H Vac as well.

Yeah.

Which is expensive out there.

Now here's the problem I have.

If you look on the label of these, you'll see a flammable label on the side.

Because I believe the refrigerant they're using is propane based.

Okay.

I don't want a leak in my indoor system.

Yeah.

And be filling my house up with propane.

Yeah.

Especially if you're a smoker.

What's indoors or.

Or that stuff's all regulated, Right.

Oh, it is.

Yeah.

That's.

Yeah, yeah.

They were forced to do that by the U.S. government.

They had to.

Everybody had to change.

They could not after January 1st build the old systems.

And that's unfortunate.

I know the government has pushed back a little bit that with some EPA regulations where they can still service the other ones.

So they said you can't make the parts, can't make the Freon.

And I believe the EPA is in the middle of changing that back right now so.

To save people some money because I get that was probably bad for the environment.

But if you've got to spend.

If you're living paycheck to paycheck and you got to spend $10,000 to.

To get in and retrofit to fix your AC system.

Yeah.

That becomes bad in the environment as well, because now your neighbor's robbing you.

Right.

Oh, it's insane.

So I mean, the one thing I got to say with that is we got to put some common sense into H Vac systems out there and nowadays to be able to meet these energy efficiency standards.

Now you've got a computer inside, you got a computer outside, you got all these electronics in hot exposed elements, and that's not the best place to put a whole cpu.

Yeah, I won't rabbit hole.

Okay, well, you said common sense and that just kind of negated anything that really ever happens.

I.

Common sense to H Vac and about everything else.

Right.

And it's like the old car parts theory, right.

They make it last only this long because.

Right.

It's job security.

At some point you're like, oh, I see where you're doing this and this you talk about common says, same things going on with permitting, same things going on with.

What's the inspector going to pick on this week?

It's just there's so much nonsense.

Great example, man.

Great example.

So tired and I'm a little grumpy and I just have no tolerance for nonsense right now.

I feel like my great grandma.

Oh, yeah, I get that.

I mean, great example.

But one last thing too, brother.

With people out there.

Wildfire smoke.

I've had to do this before.

If make sure.

Right now it's a great time to make sure that all the weather stripping around your doors, that entry door, the one going out to the garage, wherever else, are nicely sealed up.

Make sure everything's adjusted, make sure it's looking good.

And then of course, make sure all the caulking and stuff is good around the house, as well as clearing all that debris out there, making sure you got nothing flammable up against the house and making sure that things are looking good in case you do get a fire in your area that you're going to be ready for it when the time comes.

Two things, qualifiers.

One beach towels work as well if your weather stripping is not good.

Little damn beach towel.

As soon as you said, like, make sure nothing's up against the house.

So we talked about this the other day.

I the absolute visual popped in my head.

Right.

Of especially in the northwest of just the spider web infested like sheet of plywood and some firewood and spare tire and all.

I gotta go clean that.

The old wooden ladder that's leaning up against the house you've been meant to take to the dump for the last four trips that you didn't.

Yeah.

I guarantee there's 92 reasons why I'll do that tomorrow.

Right?

Yeah.

So true.

It's so true.

Johnny, thanks for having just.

I love chatting with you on the show like this, man.

I always appreciate all your hard work on the show and it's always fun to have you on here, brother.

I appreciate you.

Oh, it's always fun, man.

We make it fun.

All right.

We do.

It's always a good time.

Hey, guys, if you want to find out more about us, head to around the House online dot com.

Thanks for tuning in.

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