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Summer Vacation, Here We Come!

5/31/2025

Summer is here and this means leaving your house for an extended period of time. Here are some tips and tricks to getting your house ready for when you are gone this summer!

Securing your home:
1. Make sure you lock all the doors and windows. I will put cut broom sticks in windows to help with securing them.
2. Set your security system if you have one. If you are able to program your lights, that would also help where it will simulate someone being home.

Managing your utilities:
1. Adjust your thermostat or set to vacation mode. I tend to set mine at 79 degrees when I am on vacation. I have tried turning it off completely but then I came home to an oven and I noticed things got damaged due to excessive heat.
2. Turn off the main shut-off valve to the home. These tend to be located outside in the front close to your home. You will see a pipe that leads from the ground into your home with a shut-off valve attached. If someone is not house sitting, I strongly encourage people to do this. This will prevent major leaks in your home if a pipe breaks while you are gone. I had friends that went on vacation and their bathroom water pipes burst, flooding their home. They got notice from their neighbors who happened to walk by and notice water coming out of their front door. I had to go over and turn the water off and then mop up the water for them.
3. Make sure to set your water heater on “Vacation Mode”. This will help save money and energy while you are gone. You can also install water detectors that will go off and send notifications to you when there is a leak.
4. Unplug electronics and appliances to reduce energy consumption and help prevent electrical issues. Just do not unplug your fridge/freezer unless you are removing everything from inside it.

Household Tasks:
1. Clean out the fridge with all perishable items. It is the worst when you come home from a long trip and you open up the fridge just to get a whiff of rotting food. Make sure you take out all the trash once done so nothing is rotting inside your home. You do not want to come home to maggots and flies all over your home.
2. Freeze a cup of water. Once frozen, place a coin on top and set in the freezer. If the power goes out when you are away you will be able to notice when you return. Depending on how far the coin fell and refroze in the cup will determine how long the power was out for. If the coin is towards the bottom of the cup that means everything in your freezer thawed out for some period of time. At that point, I would throw everything away to prevent food poisoning from spoiled food.
3. Sewer traps - I recommend putting a small amount of vegetable oil down your drains if you are going to be gone for awhile. Drains have a p-trap where they hold water so sewer odor cannot escape. If you are gone for some time, the water in the p-trap will evaporate, causing the sewer smell to be present. By putting a small amount of vegetable oil down the drains, it will help seal the water so it cannot evaporate.

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Let's talk about water heaters.

5/1/2025

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Most homes have them but they are usually tucked away inside a closet or in the garage somewhere. Do you even know what kind you have in your home? There are 2 types - tank vs tankless. For homes that only have electric, you most likely have a tank-style water heater. Those lucky to have natural gas or propane lined in your house may have a tankless water heater. When choosing a water heater I recommend 2 different brands.

For tankless, gas water heaters, the Navien NHW-A series is one of the best brands in this industry. They are currently the #1 manufacturer of all gas tankless water heaters in North America. It’s a great option for homeowners to save on their energy bills while enjoying faster hot water. Here are just some highlights:

No “cold water sandwich effect”. This series is the first non-condensing gas tankless water heater with their ComfortFlow built-in recirculation pump and buffer tank so the user won’t experience the brief period of cold water flow after a hot water demand is initially met. Navien has fine-tuned their recirculation system to allow for internal and external recirculation, even without an external line or crossover valve. This series has 5 different recirculation modes: internal, always on, intelligent preheat, scheduled, and on-demand HotButton.
Indoor or Outdoor! This series can be installed both inside the home and exterior depending on your preference. For indoors, you would choose the NHW-AI heaters, and for exterior use you would select one of the NHW-AE.
These tankless water heaters operate on either natural gas or liquid propane, so we could always add a propane line to your house if you are not already plumbed for natural gas.
0.81 UEF compared to the traditional tank-style water heater of 0.58-0.61 UEF. UEF is the Universal Energy Factor rating that measures the energy efficiency for residential water heaters under simulated standardized conditions for a 24-hour period. 0.81 means that 81% of the energy put into the water heater was used to heat the water, while the remaining 19% was lost as waste heat. The higher the rating, the more efficient and will cost less to operate.
Navien uses a stainless heat exchanger and stainless steel burner which gives you better performance and durability. Other water heaters use copper heat exchangers that do not last as long as the stainless one. This along with other durable components that Navien uses is backed by a 15-year warranty.

For a tank-style water heater, I would recommend the Essency EXR electric water heater. This innovative, new take on the water heater is sweeping the nation. Essency is the first electric water heater that has all the advantages of a tankless heater.

The EXR uses SmartCore Technology to detect requests for hot water and instantly heats your water on demand, at exactly the right temperature. When the hot water is turned on, fresh water is run through a heat exchanger. The water you use never mixes with the water stored in the core tank which acts as a heat source, which results in immediate hot water for the whole household.
Longevity. The traditional tank-style water heaters last only 6-8 years, but the EXR is built of a tough polymer material that last 3x longer than metal. It is powerful and lightweight and scale cannot form inside the tank. It can last 30+ years.
Essency is the first residential electric water heater with an industry-leading 80 gallon First Hour Rating, which allows it to handle even the largest of households.
You can control the water heater with the touch of an app. You can customize your water usage with Vacation, Boost, Water Saver, and Heat+ functions. Wifi allows the user to detect early warning alerts and install upgrades, which further extends the EXR’s lifespan.
The EXR heater doesn’t consume the 55 gallons of water that is stored in the tank. Instead, the static water acts as a heat storage. The tank is only filled once during the unit’s initial installation. The water will remain in there throughout the life of the water heater.

Please give us a call so we can evaluate your existing water heater and see which one best suits your home. Our technician, Craig, is knowledgeable with both of these brands and can answer any of your questions you may have as well as install them for you as well!

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Summer Vacation, Here We Come!

Let's talk about water heaters.

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