3 Remodel Rip-Offs

on the build show today three remodel ripoffs at best they may not live up to their expectations at worst they may be a total scam now here's the executive summary if you don't have time for the whole video power to attic ventilators total scam smart thermostats actually pretty dumb window replacements on a remodel never live up to what they say they're going to today's build Cheryl hoods dig into all the detail on these three remodel ripoffs let's get going number one powered attic ventilators these are a massive scam people you do not need a powered attic ventilator whether it's wired to your electricity or solar-powered there are total waste let's talk about the science behind this one real fast I drew a sketch for you so we could kind of dig into those details where does the heat come from that's in your attic that these fans are supposedly pulling out most of that heat comes through radiation if you think about your roof most of the rooms in America are dark asphalt shingles and the roof has pitched perfectly to capture those rays from the Sun and as those rays that radiation heats up your attic what's happening your woods getting hot your decking is getting hot if you were up in a traditional attic in Texas in the summertime you probably couldn't even touch the backside of the sheathing it's so hot as that radiation drives into our attic do we really think that a powered attic fan is gonna cool it down now if you watch their advertising and you look at some of their online ads they're gonna say oh this is gonna pool cool air through your soffit vents and then drive that hot air out but is it really gonna do that with that radiation this is kind of a kin to putting your hot pocket in the microwave and expecting that you could put a little fan on the microwave window and blow enough cool air in there so that hot pocket wouldn't get warm with the radiant energy from your microwave the Sun is a giant microwave in the sky that's heating the entire Earth and if you were sunbathing with your bikini on and you put a little fan on you do you really think that's gonna cool you enough at the beach to keep you cool and not feel hot no way you would need a jet engine now a couple other things that these do which is even bigger problem is they can actually depressurize your attic check out this little sketch right here let's say this is a traditional southern house where it has some ductwork into the Attic like my house house anytime your furnace kicks on you're losing a little bit of that cold furnace air to the attic and so there's a little bit of negative pressure in your house now when that attic fan kicks on and blows out the bigger the fan the more negative pressure in your attic which means that all of your penetrations in your drywall ceiling your can lights your vents even wires that are through your top plates are gonna want to pool cool air from the house and in fact that's a lot of the action that's happening when there's temperatures in your attic or cooler with a power to attic fan is that they're sucking the houses cooler air out of there now actually as I was doing a little bit of research for this video I was looking at some websites and trying to see what people were saying about their solar attic fans look at this one that I found that I could not believe some of the claims this is making like look at this diagram right here this diagram is basically claiming that you could cool your attic temperature by like 60 degrees plus with an attic fan that is so unbelievably not true it's crazy and there there surmising that your house temperatures would be 10 degrees cooler by using this attic fan this is this is so much of a absolute scam like I can't even believe that they would have this and what's worse is some of the manufacturers of these attic fans are saying oh we're solar so it's totally not worth so we're not using energy right for this we're getting free energy from the Sun the problem is these units are not cheap and they're not free and they need install I'll put a link below to a couple articles especially a great one from my friend Allison bales and energy Vanguard it really really digs into the science on this but the bottom line is it's a scam next up smart thermostats these are gonna typically run you about 250 maybe even more dollars and I like how you've got Wi-Fi integration I think they can be a benefit in a couple of ways but energy savings is not one of them now I have to admit when I went on to try and find some of the ads that I remembered from a few years ago when they started coming on in the market I seem to remember them saying like oh you can save 25% energy on your energy bills and the idea is oh we're gonna change the thermostat based on understanding what you're doing in the house so when you go away to work we're gonna turn the thermostat up the problem is there's just not enough energy savings there to justify 250 bucks your dumb thermostats gonna do all you need the problem with these smart thermostats though is sometimes they can be almost too smart for their own good there's a particular setting on a really popular one called air wave and that setting leaves the fan on for several minutes after the air conditioner stops running particularly as we talk about cooling now I did a quick diagram on this let's think about this if you've got a central air conditioner let's say an up flow box like a lot of houses in Texas the idea is in the summertime you're bringing that hot air in it's going through the furnace and inside the furnace is the AC coil it's often referred to as the a coil it's a shaped kind of pyramid shaped it gets cold from the free on line that's running to it so it's usually around 50 some degrees there and what happens as that hot air runs through that coil it sheds its heat the other thing that happens is that coil is the dew point temperature which means that any moisture that's in that air is gonna accumulate on that coil just like if I had a glass of cold water here you would see water formulating on the outside of the glass and the longer that is on your on your tabletop the more water kind of drips down on the bottom that water is called condensation and your AC has a condensate drain the problem is that AC needs to run for at least 10 minutes before enough water accumulates on that coil to drip down the drain now like most houses in America if yours is oversized meaning you have too big of an engine outside you have a real big coil that gets real cold it's gonna cool your house from relatively quickly especially a mild days now if it's a hundred and two out it's gonna run a lot and that's no problem but if it's not a hundred and two out let's say it's 85 degrees out your air conditioner may only run for ten minutes and then turn off and that's going to satisfy the setpoint temperature now my coil has a bunch of moisture on it but that moisture hasn't run down the condensate drain and if that air wave setting goes for another 10 minutes if we keep blowing air by it we're basically rehydrating that water that's on the common state drain we're sending it back in the air which means that we haven't dehumidified and ultimately a lot of houses in the south people kick down their air conditioner to get comfortable in the summertime to you know 70 - 70 maybe even 68 degrees because the humidity is elevated now I've talked about this a bunch I really think that you need a separate dehumidifier but if you don't have a separate dehumidifier do not use the air wave switch and for heaven's sakes don't use the fan on no that's where the fan runs all the time the only time you might consider using the fan on mode is when you've got allergies and you've got things in the house you're trying to filter out other than that you should use the auto mode which is only gonna run the fan when the coil is cold to run air and as soon as that fan turns off that coil is cold that water is still going to continue dripping down if there's not air flow past that so that smart thermostat actually might be dumb when it comes to comfort in your house and the last one replacement windows you know again I think the window manufacturers have gotten better and actually the the local replacement contractors I've gotten better about not advertising big savings numbers but it wasn't that long ago that I saw ads about 40% savings on your energy bill if you replace your windows that is so not true it's not even it's not even a question let's look at what the EPA says in terms of what you could save if you go to their Energy Star website and you look at window replacements and what you could save by going from single pane to double pane windows and that's that's pretty typical still in America to see some houses the single pane windows if you go from a single pane to a double pane they're saying that you might save a hundred and twenty six to four hundred and sixty-five dollars annually on your windows because of this window change from single to double the problem is it's very climate specific to get to that top for sixty-five year you got to be in a really cold climate we're talking about the very upper levels of America and certainly into can maybe you could expect to see that going from single to double the problem though is the payback is forever on this if you multiply 465 times let's say 30 years which is the time of your mortgage that's just shy of $14,000 now if you're in a more mild climate anywhere from the middle of America down let's say a Texas where I am I think it's more likely you're gonna save a hundred and twenty six dollars multiply one hundred and twenty six times thirty thirty seven eighty not even four thousand dollars so that five six eight thousand dollar bid from that window manufacturer or local window rep I should say for changing your windows out you're talking about a lifetime of house or ownership before that's gonna really save you the kind of money that they might advertise so be really cautious about that the reason why you're gonna change those windows is mainly aesthetics maybe resale value and maybe comfort changing from a single to a double pane window that has full sun means that you're gonna have a much more comfortable house especially with low e coatings on windows today it's also going to look nicer and you have the opportunity to change the action on the windows typical single pane single hung or double hung windows have brush seals that's a lot of those seals that look like this and they tend to be prettier leaky when the wind is blowing they're gonna lake even new windows that are single or double hung are more err leaky than a fixed pane of glass or then glass that has a casement style operation so i tend to always look for what windows could i fix in the house that i'm not gonna need to operate and what windows could I switch to casements and of course you can also change to clear glass rather than all those divided lights and that's certainly gonna modernize houses that's what I did in my house and that's been a great change guys hopefully this was helpful for you in no way shape or form by saying that you shouldn't use a smart thermostat I actually have one and I like it I love being able to control my temperature when I'm away on vacation to leave it really high for a week and then come home and cool it down right before I get home I also think that window replacements are a great idea but there's not the energy savings there and if you didn't get anything from this video my hope is that you will member that power to attic ventilators are totally stupid and you should not do one do not fall prey to the online advertising you see there guys if you're not currently a subscriber hit that subscribe button we've got new content every Tuesday and every Friday follow me on Twitter Instagram all the whys we'll see you next time on the build show [Music] you

Channel: Matt Risinger

Views: 351,021

Rating: 4.5892205 out of 5

Keywords: remodeling, matt risinger, build show network, bad remodeling products, how to remodel, construction, risingerbuild, attic ventilation, smart home, smart thermostats, replace windows, window replacement

Id: _pQ443d-NsE

Length: 12min 15sec (735 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 30 2020