0:03
Before you start your next do it yourself project. Listen to this. You got this is on the air you got this is hosted by ABT plumbing, electric heat and air owner Andrew Twidwell and Rosalie Brown, with a helpful hand here are Andrew and Rosalie.
0:18
Hi, this is Andrew Twidwell, owner of ABT plumbing electric heat and air, once again with You Got This, the show of DIY do’s and don’ts. That came out kind of fast. I’m still a little hopped up on the bean this morning. So yeah, I’m looking at Rosalie, our co host here. She says she’s drinking water, so we caugt her at an awkward time.
0:37
Are you trying to say it’s usually coffee or booze? Because you’d be corrected? But yeah,
0:43
I forgot to clear liquid. large glass, so I’m assuming it’s water. I know it’s 12 o’clock somewhere, but it’s not 12 o’clock here.
0:52
Listen, in the morning I had that could be that could be bad guy
0:55
that was like it we’re just talking about and Betty saw it on Facebook. So yeah. You gotta you gotta tell Do tell. Let’s just started the show with that this roll right into your experience this morning because that was quite the urban wildlife experience. The interface. The Urban Wildlife interface happened right there next to your house.
1:16
Yeah, so let me just say this. I lived as the we got to know each other many years ago because I lived in Nevada County. And I lived in Wildwood. I lived in Nevada City proper. I’ve lived in the mountains. And on top of a mountain. I did I mean, yeah, I mean, so I have had the experience where I would be close to wildlife. I then as you know, at one point in my career, I worked at a zoo. And I had access to all kinds of animals and had some weird exchanges there. However, and then yesterday, ironically, I was out in nature for like a five mile hike and saw a deer saw hummingbird but didn’t see anything scary. This morning, though. Oh boy, got up and took the dog out. And I don’t think I’d had coffee at all by that point. Because you know, you got to get out. You got to take care of the dog. So I get that.
2:16
We get up and get the dogs out. Right in early sunrise. But we got our coffee that’s already been made. It’s ready.
2:24
I mean, look, you guys. You guys are a team.
2:27
Okay, we’re weld machine is true.
2:31
You know, I stumble in, in and out of life all the time. Like I told you how I slept last night. I woke up at three in the morning thought I was dying. So I was barely Okay, conscious. So I get him outside. And you know, you you’ve met Theo, the dog, not for you your son? Theo, my Theo is pretty big about um, I don’t know, 85 pounds. He’s a little slim right now. I’m a big guy. So we go out to the back. And he’s taking care of business. And I spy with my little eye. This coyote. I’ve had an eye on him to last, you know, this third, third or fourth sighting this week. And I always see this one loan. He looks like he’s older. He’s young, that something’s not exactly right. Like his balance isn’t 100%. He doesn’t seem very, I don’t know. Like, he doesn’t seem like he knows what he’s doing. So he seems fairly harmless. And he again, there’s a fence between us. And he’s up a hill in a Greenbelt. Kind of, you know, not super interested in me. But I find him fascinating. I just find them beautiful and fascinating. So this morning, Theo is doing his thing. And my eyes go up to the top of the little hill and I go, Oh, look, there he is. And then I went, wait, 12340 I was like, Yeah, I’ll look. It’s a coyote pack. So I’m kind of watching and feels not super interested yet. And so I kind of do to do. And at one point, I look, and I think, wow, that guy’s really, that Cody seems to really be hunkering in. Like, there’s like a focus going on here. And I’m like, wait a minute. And next thing I know, I’m not even kidding you. All of a sudden, there was two now I’m glad it was only two. Two literally went from the top of that hill boom, bounced into the cyclone fence. That was
4:19
crazy. Me and them? Did they go headfirst into the cyclone?
4:23
Or they? Absolutely. They I think they intended to slow down. Right. But so there’s a bunch of like stuff on the ground, like, like leaves and whatever. And so I think that they had intended to come in hard, but I don’t think they intended to kind of go up against fence. Well, when they hit the fence. I mean, I’m sorry. It’s a good thing. I was. Yeah, I think I left. I think I left my body. So I had to kind of, there’s a bunch of things you’re supposed to do for coyote encounters. And those are all well and good. But I think that those are not meant for I think when there’s a pack thing going on and they’ve kind of dialed in Things are a little different. But um, my dog was kind of like, oh, what’s up? You want to start something? Are we playing? What are we doing? So you can see, he was kind of, you know, I thought the one thing you’re not supposed to do is kind of you’re not supposed to kind of pull away and seem to be running away. So obviously, I did not run because I don’t run anyway. But um, yeah, so I got the dog. And as we were kind of like, okay, come on, let’s go. Let’s go. Let’s go. I can see the little leader, the aggressive guy was kind of making a beeline for a spot in the fence that I would consider fairly weak. And fairly, it has a big boulder by it. I’m like, oh, that could be used to jump. So I was like, Okay, let’s get into it. So maybe we inside a little freaked out whatever and fed the dog and I’m pacing and I’m just like, I’m Buzz like, I’ve got all this adrenaline. Yeah. And the dog finishes cuz your prey doesn’t finish finishes his breakfast and like, I look forward, he’s snoozing. He’s just like, so he goes into comatose. I’m walking around buzzing going. Coyote, Coyote, Coyote, so, you know, again, the irony, just like there’s all these things you’re supposed to do, right? So we know that you’re supposed to make noise, just as pure bigger. But again, I would say, I think that’s before you’re really in their sights before they really are hunkered in unfocused, because when they get into like, like hunting mode, I think that’s a little different. And
6:27
even if there’s a false posture, or whatever, like that, that’s attack or whatever. That’s still freaky.
6:33
Yeah, I mean, I think at that point, you know, the best thing to do is kind of, you know, obviously, get out of there, which I did. But, um, but the, here’s the part that was funny. So I, I mean, the whole thing is kind of funny, I guess, because I’m fine. But, um, so I come back in and I’m making my coffee, which at that point, it kind of didn’t meet. Yeah, so. So I go on Google. And I’m like, I know that their stuff I’m supposed to do, but you know, you go blank. And so I look and I’m like, Look, I have a whistle coming at something completely different. I’ve ordered a whistle up a website for something completely different. So that’s on its way. So I will be taking that with me on my little jaunt into the back. But the white large rock, right, but the one thing, the scary dog doesn’t do it. So the one thing that really kind of stood out to me was that the experts, which I probably know some of them because of my past career, the experts say the number one deterrent for a coyote is Wolf urine. Well, okay. With that, I don’t know where I would locate wolf urine. I don’t want to be on that website mailing list. Yeah, I don’t know. So I mean, I guess wolf urine is a possibility. I probably won’t go that route. But yeah, so anyway, so I am a little bit. Fortunately for you, you’re the only one who has to see me. But you know, I got sunglasses on. I’m a little bit I think I’m a little disheveled. I was like I was like, slapped on my face. A little out of it today. But that was my wildlife and
8:08
your experience and wildlife. And it’s scary, because you were there, you said that you were above you on the hill. And that’s always freaky when you’ve got an animal that that could potentially harm you. Whether it’s an elk, or a deer with antlers, or even a bear. I know I had an experience with that. And on banner mountain, I was hiking with the dog years ago, between the ditches between the Gracie in the lower ditch and came around a corner and there was a bear and it was about 20 or 30 feet above me and maybe, you know, 10 yards or something like that. Easily. Could easily jump had been what been on me within seconds. Right. And but of course, you know, I like to take photography, so I had to pull my phone out get a picture.
8:54
Oh my God. See, that’s the thing. I think that there’s there’s
8:59
no and that’s, you know, pictures.
9:01
No, no, I mean, since the thing too is like, I’ve thought about that. And so I don’t I don’t typically have my phone on me. You know, morning. I usually try not to dive into that hellscape until later, but, but so I didn’t have my phone on me. But I will once the whistle arrives I will be carrying that with me. And, you know, I should probably send out a notification to the neighbors in advance. Hey, if you hear like, let’s you know, I’m probably gonna be
9:26
the whistle. Yeah, yeah, I want to know that, you know, some coyotes literally ran down a hill and ran into the face. I was on the other side of
9:35
I did put some feelers out and you get pushed back with a bunch of the usual you know, let’s just say the community think about, you know, well I better friends wouldn’t change it because coyotes can I mean, it’s just like, okay, like
9:50
I do where like I’m I’m not giving you a solution. Just be aware. Be safe,
9:55
or don’t I you know, I had my the best of eyesight ever got and then we’ll switch into our actual show what we’re about the best advice I ever got was when I worked at the zoo. And every once in a while people think it’s made up but it’s true an animal would get out. I’m not I’m not making that up. And we had a lioness one time who scaled the fence. So I know about set scaling, by the way. Um, so the lioness got out of her enclosure. And fortunately the zoo was not open yet. And so we had a whole hunt down that lioness without getting you know, killed yourself and dark gun on the lot. And so after it’s all said and done, everything’s great. My boss ends up using a dark gun tranquilizing returning said cat to safety. So we’re talking about afterwards doing a little debrief, and he said, you know, you don’t have to be the fastest you just have to be faster than the guy next to you. And I mean, tell me that’s not true. Come on. Yeah, that’s so true. Said horrible advice, but true.
11:01
Oh, my actually joking about that the other night because our little dog is getting very old, very slow. He’s trailing behind us as we’re walking in. I’m like you did in the wild, he does be picked off the sick and tired, right? The sick and injured, they’re the ones who get picked off.
11:15
I’ve reached that age where I could be the sick and injured. So I really need to, I need to up my
11:23
resemble that remark. Thanks, Andrew.
11:25
I’m gonna get off the radio and go to
11:29
talk about the stuff we do you know, this DIY stuff. You did find some great information. We’re kind of getting the show done a little earlier than normal, just because we’ve got plans. But yeah, I like this one. This is good. So this is I think that is this one we’ve shared before.
11:48
Which one are you talking about? Sir?
11:50
The thermostat one?
11:51
I don’t believe we’ve gone into it in depth. I mean, we’ve kind of listen, the one thing that we do talk about I think when it comes to H back and stuff is we kind of go over it real quick. Because when it gets to the nitty gritty, right, not everyone can do the deep dives. No
12:05
one’s gonna have gauges, no one’s gonna have any, right. No one’s gonna do all the statistical tools yet.
12:10
Right? So we’ve touched on thermostats a little bit, but I liked this information, because I felt like it was kind of more of a simple but more of a deeper dive on, kind of, you know, figuring out if your thermostat is a problem, or if
12:22
Yeah, and ironically, you know, it’s one of these things, we get calls all the time for people that say my thermostats broke, you cannot replace it. And I’ve also had calls for people saying, Yeah, my showerheads leaking, can you come and replace it, with thermostats, a switch, that most of the time, it’s either switching on or switching off. And that’s pretty much all it does. So it’s, it. It’s a fairly sophisticated piece of equipment, but it is one of the things that rarely breaks because it literally all it does is, you know, it’s a thermostatic switch switches, the electricity goes through it, or electricity doesn’t go through it, it’s just turning the system on and off. It’s usually the system itself. That’s the issue, not a thermostat. But there are some things that you can look for when you are when you think and maybe the thermostat, you can kind of diagnosis yourself when you’re when your system is not functioning. You know, one of the obvious thing is, you know, the systems just won’t turn on if the thermostat turns on, check, check it by adding fresh batteries a lot, ironically, you know, the thermostat themselves have some of them have power from the furnace, but a lot of them don’t. And they require two double A batteries. And when those batteries go out, and they can take, you know, three to five years before they go up because they use very little electricity. It can be simply as simple as replacing batteries, pulling the thermostat off the wall. In the back, you’re gonna find two double A’s, it seems some nine volts, but those are pretty rare but mainly just to double A’s and maybe triple A’s but usually double A’s are replaced the double A’s and more than likely that’s going to fix it. But that’s going to be a system. When the system you’ll still see you may not see a display on there, because the power is just completely gone. But you actually may see the system you may see a display because it’s got to mechanically turn a switch on and off. And there may require a little bit more electricity than the LCD screen. So check that I’m going to kind of read through this. The system stays off the thermostat wiring could have defects in it. So it could be a thermostat, the communication wires that go between the thermostat and that’s actually more likely than the thermostat again, it’s it’s weird, but the thermostat rarely goes bad. That can be a little bit more tricky to figure out. But you can you know you can arm out the wires and see if you’ve got continuity through the wires but you’re going to have to that’s kind of a higher level DIY project. You probably just going to want to get somebody in there to check and see if the communication Waring’s good because more than likely It is, it’s pretty rare that they go bad unless somebody has been messing with something or hanging pictures or something and might have put a nail through it. But again, it’s pretty rare. The system starts and stops. So the thermostat, you know, we have a setback is what they call it is. So the system, it will turn on at a certain temperature and then turn off at a certain temperature. So you don’t want that temperature to be 72. So, you know, the system comes on, it’s when it gets to 72 and comes right back off. And turns on 72, you have to have a, you have to have a range there, right. So if you set your thermostat to 70, to one, likely you got a two to three degree setback. So it’s going to get down to, you know, 71, before it actually turns on, and then it’s going to go up to 73 or 74. Before it actually turns off. So you have that kind of there’s a there’s a window in there, the calibration could be off, if it’s cycling, often. We’ve seen that, you know, it’s something that you can program or some of the older ones have like old mechanical lever in the back that you change. But most of them most of them are going to be electronic these days. So the setback cubbies funky. But again, it’s not one of the things that typically just kind of goes bad, it’s usually setup, right? Your fault, the false temperature reading in the home, your thermostat might be reading the temperature. And when you check the temperature, room temperature, it can be harder a cooler, this contributes to higher energy bills. So yeah, I mean, it is an electronic piece of equipment. So you can potentially have, it could wear out. But again, we rarely see that. But if you do see a huge disparity between your thermometer that’s in your house and your thermostat. You can either adjust accordingly on your thermostat, or you can place the thermostat, depending on how how much bugs you how OCD you are about it, I personally would just you know, if it’s turning on and off at a higher temperature to setup, you know, go to a lower temperature or whatever.
17:11
I will say though, when you’re replacing if you do try to replace your own thermostat, be very cautious about it. There is something that we’ve said in the industry for a long time that when the Nest thermostats came out, they made us contractors a whole bunch of money because a lot of people went and tried to replace it themselves. And they did turn the power off to the unit and they fry the transformer or they fry something inside their fryer board. They do some damage to the first it’s so
17:43
expensive, expensive, expensive mistake.
17:47
It happened these things happen to me it was like you know the garage door I was talking about me replacing the the light sensors without turning the power off. And I fried the board. I mean these things happen. You know, even even people that actually been doing this for a long time. And I know I’ve done it on you know what it is? I know what it is, but I can fix it. But you
18:04
know what? It’s because you get arrogant because you go oh, I got this. I got this and you got a little too much. I got this in Yeah, you got to sit back for a minute and go did I do all the steps the first thing I would tell my children that’s how I approach things. What would I tell my children? Oh, I would tell them to cut the power first. Like that’s the first thing that would come to my mind but not you you go ah,
18:27
even replacing outlet sometimes I you know, again, coming from the age of being born and raised Gen X the 70s Electricity Yeah, it’s like your fingers kind of thing. Right? It’s still hot. But any of it Yeah, you know, if you do go so far as to want to replace your thermostat. There’s quite a few things you can try it. I don’t recommend it because some thermostats needed the power line and not all thermostats are wired with it. So you got to wire a whole new system to it or not use that thermostat change to something else. Also you can damage the system but if you do go so far as that read the instructions and check them twice. take it really slow because you can that little savings you’re trying to do can end up costing you more money in the long run because you can do damage the electronics if we got to replace the motherboard and motherboards are really expensive. Hopefully the transformer goes out but if the motherboard goes out now you’re talking there you’re talking way more than what your thermostat just cost you way more than a service call and and it’s a motherboards literally it’s computer so it’s think of it as a laptop. That’s what you fried is a laptop.
19:44
So frustrating to right because all you’re trying to do was you watch your videos. You watch the YouTube video you took Andrews advice and then you did it and then boom so don’t take Andrews advice on you got this when it comes to that. Take a
19:58
cost for entertainment value You only take a cautious approach
20:01
when something involves high and electronic pieces of equipment, that
20:06
electricity at all. I mean, because most people are it is a foreign thing that most people it’s you know, unless you’ve worked with a lot, it’s difficult to understand how electricity actually works, right? It’s just magic, right? fairy dust from behind the wolf. But
20:21
I wish I can live in that world. I wish I could live in that world. Good job.
20:27
Be very, very, very cautious when you go to replace a switch of any sort, especially a thermostat because you can do 1000s of dollars with the damage to your furnace, while maybe not 1000s, but you’re up into the you’re definitely three to five figures before you’re done.
20:43
So hey, while we’re on this topic of H back now, it’d be a good time just in case people turn us off at the beginning or the end. And they actually listen in the middle. I don’t know what people do when they hear our voice.
20:53
But we’re getting pretty close to the to the end. So let’s talk about it. Yeah, well,
20:57
um, so I’ve heard this cool story that right now, you abt has a cool special going on? For H fac. So you want to talk about that for a second?
21:08
Yeah, ironically, I mean, it’s been really hot. But you know, things have slowed down a little bit. So we’re doing a little special for our safety inspection. So I want to keep guys busy, you don’t want to, you know, take advantage of the slow time for us and get these people out to check your furnace and your air conditioning. Because we still have, you know, we’re still gonna have some hot days, we know that this is going to be on today. But we are all you know, we’re also at the tail end of it. So what we’ll what we’re doing is we’re offering a both a furnace and a stack, or excuse me, a furnace and AC so Heating and AC safety inspection on your system to make sure it’s running properly and efficiently. And it’s only 49 bucks until the end of September, or the evening of September, September one, right. I can’t even remember some of these things, we have so many specials going on. So for 49 bucks, we’ll get a trained technician out there and take a look at your system and make sure it’s running safely and efficiently. Go through it and check both the furnace and the air conditioning, make sure everything’s working the way it should, it’ll save you money in the long run. Also, manufacturers recommend that you have this done every year, you can void your warranty if you don’t have your system checked on a yearly basis. So you definitely want to have that thing checked. I have had situations where companies have said no, we’re not going to honor that, because when was the last time you serviced it, and it’d be five years you know, people before somebody services it. So it’s like a car, you know, a new system is the price of a of a nice used car. So definitely want to take care of it just like you do oil changes on your car, you want to do the same thing with your furnace, sophisticated piece of equipment that we tend to forget about. So I was come out and take a look at it and take advantage of our personal season right now or so, period right now, for 49 bucks, you know, it’s kind of a no brainer, cuz you’re gonna save $40 and energy bills anyway, by the 10 by the years and so if you even just change the filter, anyway on that doesn’t give us a call on Oh, you can reach us at 530-230-9092 The number again 530-230-9092. And while we got a little bit of time, if you do are thinking about your furnace, and AC definitely changed that filter. Even before we show up because furnace filters, we don’t carry all the furnaces, furnace filters on our trucks, because they’re literally hundreds of different sizes. So you know, see what you got, go to the hardware store, pick up a couple dollar furnace filter, pick up two or three of them and replace them. Well,
23:37
you know that the coolest the coolest thing that you taught me with like having to like replace flappers and other things, because I’ve done some of that, by the way. You take photograph, right, you take out your little cell phone and take a picture because what I do appreciate about small town is that if you go to one of the retailers that’s local, and you show them what you got, I mean, obviously you can bring the thing in depending on what it is right? I didn’t really want to take up I don’t want to bring in my wet gross flapper. But
24:04
yeah, first off, there can be really nasty, oh, they are less heavy replaced.
24:09
But if you take a photograph of it, it really helps or again, with the filters, you know, you can even kind of measure and whatever. But I do think that the I just had a situation with my own that I ever replaced filter and it changed everything. So any of those. And that’s
24:23
way more efficient. So if you are interested, take advantage of $49 safety inspection. 530-230-9092. Check us out on the web at easy as att.com Like us on Facebook. We got this information and entertainment on there all the time. And with that, that’s our show. We’ll catch you next week. Thanks for listening. Right.
24:41
Thanks, Andrew. Thanks, Rosalie. Now let’s get that project started. You got this. We’ll be back next Friday morning at nine o’clock on King Anzio, Newstalk 830
Transcribed by https://otter.ai