What To Know When It's Time To Replace Your Air Conditioning Unit Print

Staycation is back!  Taylor, AZ!  Accomodations at The Heritage Inn B&B in Snowflake, AZ.

Farmer Greg's deep dive into rain and other sources of water harvesting and why it matters.  1000 square foot of space = 600 gallons of rainwater per inch.

Water sources to repurpose include City Water, Evaporative Coolers, Condensate, Graywater.  Graywater is water from bathroom sinks excluding toilets and washing machine.

Discussion of 'plant the water' first then direct to the landscape around it.  Why Greg doesn't recommend storage tanks.

Discussion of five components to a water harvesting system.  Where It Comes From/Source Of Water, Collection, Distribution, Landscape and Design. 

Art Ludwig Book:  Create An Oasis With Greywater

Discussion of Passive Water Harvesting.  The water that hits the roof is directed to the places you want the water.

The costs to consider designing a water harvesting system with tanks.

Discussion of the inexpensive passive watering system.  It operates by itself directing water to designated area. 

Never dead end water and greywater in dirt.  It needs an open space.  Greg explains the open space with a tank with no bottom.

BOOK:  Rainwater Harvesting For Dryland And Beyond by Brad Landcaster.

Discussion of greywater.  Up to 80% of home use can be from greywater.  Legal guidelines to use in landscapes.  Never store it.  Use it on shrubs and trees.  Not vegetable gardens.  

Greg set up his graywater system with permits.  Explains why.

Greg discusses the guidelines for managing graywater use.

TEXT:  Can you use graywater on the lawn?

Arizona Graywater Regulations

Urban Farm's Smart Water Harvesting 

Be aware of what you're putting down the drain for graywater.

Andrew Dobbins of Intelligent Design A/C Plumbing in Tucson and Rich Cooley of Suntrac USA talk about the Suntrac Hybrid Climate Systems.

How Home Energy Audits have changed the way A/C units are sized, air leaks and heat gains are found to find efficient ways to cool your home.

Andrew explains how he found the Suntrac system in his goal to make a system last longer, use less energy and lower repairs.

It uses the heat of the sun thru parabolic mirrors to do the compressor's job.  In turn, lowering your energy bill by 50%.  For 2 or multi stage A/C units.  

The compressor is the most expensive component to operate.  

CALLER:  In supercooling a home, during the shutdown of on peak hours when the temperature could be 4-5 degrees higher than the set level, does the compressor work at higher speed to cool?  Can Suntrac help run compressor lower?

Suntrac drives capacity up, less strain, low maintenance and energy bill.  Don't have to supercool and run your A/C at a set confortable temperature.  Compressor operates on low range because the heat of the day is adding  the energy to the refrigerant instead of the compressor.

Discussion of refrigerant and its function.

Explains how the Suntrac system works with a variable speed.  Suntrac produces the heat and pressure that the compressor normally does, it ramps down to low stage.  Could reduce the A/C portion of your bill as much as 80%.

Discussion of the commerical installation of Suntrac in Hawaii and the reduction in amp usage doing the same load.

Solar Tax Credits and Rebates can cover installing new A/C, Suntrac and duct sealing.

Explains the Suntrac tracking thermal panel following direct path of the sun and how it works.

Southern Arizona Tucson Area:  idesignac.com

Phoenix Area:  gosuntrac.com

Explains the 2020 26% solar tax credit.  Any upgrades that requires installing solar get the tax credit.  So a new unit, Suntrac, duct sealing all get the tax credit.

Suntrac can be installed with an existing 2-stage or mulit stage unit.  Tax credit applies just to the panel.

Happenings from around the The House!

EMAIL:  Listener wants to know if Rosie's supercooling bill has increased since the APS rate plans increase.

Discussion of innovations in decking.  Steel construction.

The Number One Question Of The Week:  Is replacing a shower head a do-it-yourself job?  Rosie has some tips.

The 'Weekly How To' on Remote Home Monitoring.  

Jarod Wright of Tekna Home Security.  What you should know about 'do-it-yourself' home security systems powered by the internet and wi-fi.  And the gold standard thru a traditional security company using cellular.   Tekna services the entire state.

Followup on device used to keep wasps away from the pool.

Takeaways from today's show!