OK, I promised some fun stuff so here is one to try.  This is how to make Lolipop Chicken Legs on your grill using a chicken leg rack (Available at most home improvement stores)  Try it. Even people who don't usually like chicken legs will LOVE this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwgwIsasFzI

Ok, here are the links to the other two of the 3 part video series on tankless water heaters.  Hopefully this will help dispel some more of the myths and misinformation out there about these products.  check them out and share them with your friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MRPIYPiZQU  Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S--xnF6w1no  Part 3

Enjoy!

Ok friends I did it.  After countless home shows, posts, blog responses etc, I decided to make a 3 part video series on tankless water heaters to go with my Tankless 101 Article.  This is the first one dealing with the most common questions I get.  Check it out and share it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_mSGRc9lc

We have a visitor that is hanging around the Gregg Compound lately.  It is a Barred Owl and he seems to have insomnia since we see him frequently in the day time.  Here is a great close up video of him as I use my Ninja Skills to become invisible and walk up to him in  broad daylight!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk4-d4yMN6s

Like and Share this with your friends on Facebook.  It's not every day you get a look like this at a wild owl.  Very cool.

I recently went to training on Seisco electric tankless water heaters and have some news to report.  There are some major differences with how electric tankless water heaters operate and how they manage energy!

I have updated my tankless water heater article with this but to give you a little more detail; here is what they do differently:

First, Seisco controls power to the elements completely.  When the unit is signaled to turn on (By thermistors, not a flow sensor) it begins by using 10% of its power capacity split between all elements.  Other models slam on full power and then throttle back from there.  This causes a much greater load on the electrical panel, can cause light flicker, and will cost more money to operate the unit. They also control the power to each element to balance the power usage between them offering better power management and temperature control across the entire range of operation.  This gives them a huge advantage in that when figuring on the panel load this appliance adds only a fraction of the load instead of the full power you would have to figure for other manufacturers.  A 133amp RA32 only has a panel load of 54amps! (Per NEC 220.2/220.3)  This means most homes with a standard 200 amp service can have this unit installed without a major electrical upgrade.

The RA series units also have a fully vented chamber.  This means the air bubbles released from heating water in the chambers is vented out of the unit instead of collecting at the last chamber where it will burn out the elements faster.  As stated they use thermistors instead of a flow switch or sensor which gives them a super low activation rate of just .25GPM!  This makes them IDEAL for multi-family and condo projects where gas is not an option, and low flow fixtures used.

Seisco also offers point of use units and they have a full range of hydronic heating units designed for radiant floor heating with a range from 17,100btuh to 95,564btuh.  This gives a person doing a small radiant heating zone a great and inexpensive heat source that takes up virtually no space and is energy efficient.

The biggest thing I want to report is the Seisco SUPERCHARGER!  This is one of the most awesome things to come out in the tankless water heater world in some time.  It is designed to go directly downstream of a tank water heater (Gas or electric) to boost its capacity.  When a tank begins running out of hot water (After about 2 showers or filling one tub with most 50 gallon tanks) you feel the temperature drop.  This drop is usually only a few degrees but to your body it becomes uncomfortable and you have to get out of the shower, or wait for the tank to “recover”.   With a Supercharger, you would set it a few degrees below the set point of the tank.  When the tank is fully charged with hot water it simply flows through the Supercharger and nothing happens.  But, when the tank temperature drops even .1* below the set point of the Supercharger it will fire at as little as 1 amp and bring that temperature back up to the set point. It will continue to adjust and raise the water temperature back up to the set point as long as water is flowing and up to its full capacity.  It does this with 0 pressure drop and by being able to take water at 100*F, 90*F or even 80*F and raise it up to 115*F or more, instead of 2 showers you now have the capacity of 4 or more without adding another tank, or having a large upfront cost of more expensive equipment!  In fact even after the tank temp drops way down, you can normally take one shower at a time endless hot water and this thing can keep up!

This product gives consumers yet another viable option for increasing their hot water capacity to meet their needs.  Since this unit does not do anything until the tank loses temperature, you have a very small impact to your overall energy use and bill!  Not bad. 

If you need more hot water, don’t want to go into a full blown gas or electric tankless water heater conversion, you might want to look into one of these for your home!

This week has bought cooler weather to central VA.  The trees are starting to change, the acorns are falling and even though there are hopefully a couple fishing trips left to take, thoughts are turning to hunting season.

I’ve been busy too with setting up a you tube channel you can check out that has some fun cooking videos on it as well as some things related to shooting bows, hunting, etc.  You can check out the you tube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/scottnra

So, we have a new pellet grill coming.  A Royal  Tailgater model won off of a contest on Facebook!  Thank you to Ken Fisher of “date night doins for two”, and Matt Kouba of Royal Grills!  I look forward to getting it set up and cooking on it.  I’l be posting videos for sure!Fall Tips:It won’t be long before winter is here either. 

Right now is a slow time for people in the HVAC industry.  Now is the time to have your heating system serviced and don’t forget your gas fireplace if you have one.  They need cleaning too!  Maybe last year you thought about adding a blower or remote to it.  If you use a wood burner fireplace or woodstove get that chimney cleaned!  There are hundreds of preventable chimney fires every year because people overlook this!Maybe your old boiler barely made it through last season. 

Now is time to get that stuff done.  Don’t wait until its 10 degrees outside and it conks out on you.  You’ll be without heat for days because everyone will be booked up.  You may even be able to cash in some rebates that are out there.  Whatever you have been putting off, get it done before the cold sets in.

So get out and enjoy the fall while preparing for the winter and getting ready.

Spring is here and the fish are starting to bite!  The pollen is awful here in VA but the weather is great.  I love spring.  I love the colors of the flowers and the blooming bushes and trees. (other than the pollen of course)

That reminds me, if pollen is bugging you too take a minute and change your air filter on your homes HVAC system!  Clean filters save you money and keep your home's HVAC system running efficiently and keeps your air clean!  You might even consider replacing it with a better pleated air filter or having your HVAC contractor install one of the great new electronic air filtration systems.

While you at it, resist the urge to open up your windows to let that fresh spring air in if you live in areas like mine where pollen is a problem.

I love Spring, but there is a big part of it I want to keep outside to maintain my indoor Air quality so when I am done enjoying nature...I can away from it in my home.

I hope you are able to take time out of your day to enjoy it with family and friends or simply go outside for a walk.  If you are blessed enough to be able to enjoy the outdoors like we fishing, or hunting (It's spring turkey season here) or otherwise enjoying being outdoors, I hope you have a great and safe time enjoying all nature has to offer.

At the very least this spring take a litttle time and go out and "smell the roses".

It's been a while since I posted but I wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Not happy holidays...Merry Christmas. That is what it is and I am proud to not participate in the PC dilution of my favorite holiday to celebrate the birth of our Lord.

If you celebrate a different holiday during this time period, good for you and I sincerely hope you enjoy it. I have no problem with that at all and respect your right to do as you please.  If you have a particular problem with Christians and Christmas in general…well too bad.  Get over it so we all can move on with our life and stop trying to ruin other peoples day.  We don’t do it to you. Now that we have that settled...  I hope you will enjoy time with your friends and family, some time off to have some fun, relax and reflect and even to re-group to get ready for the New Year ahead of us.  Take just a little brake, dig out a bible and read Mark 3 And the angel said to them “Fear not: I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord!”

This month in PHC News there is a GREAT article on page 22 written be Richard Di Toma about employee costs, expansion etc. it will help a lot of you better undertand your employee costs! PHC News is a free publication and I highly recomend you subscribe if you are in the plumbing and heating business. If I ever re-write the book, I will ask permission to include this article - It's that good!

It will help you understand your actual labor cost (even if it is just you) and help you understand why you seem to be always working so hard and actually taking home so little even when you are charging what seems like a lot of money.

You HO's out there, if you get your hands on this artice, you will understand why those rates seem high.  They are, but it's not because the plumber is raking it in, it is because cost are a lot higher than you know and without beoing able to make a profit after covering the cost, you would not have any plumbers to call when you need them!

This past weekend my son Evan and I went to the Capitol BBQ Battle in DC.  We were introduced by a great friend of mine to none other than Myron Mixon of Jacks Old South BBQ team. (From TLC’s TV show BBQ Pitmasters)  Now I confess that I have not seen the show yet, however I will be watching it for sure from here forward.  I have however read of Mr. Mixon in various BBQ books and knew him already to be the biggest deal on the BBQ circuit so it was kind of cool for him to meet me.

Haha just kidding, it was me the amateur BBQ Pitmaster wannabe that was honored to meet him of course.  It was like being a go-cart racer being able to hang out with Dale Earnhardt in the pits.  Very cool.

We hung out a bit and then Evan and I walked the event and took in all the sights and smells.  Bought some rubs and sauces from Jacks Old South and generally enjoyed the event.  When we swung back by the Jacks Old South Pit we noticed that David (Myron’s Son) was set up selling the rubs and spices but they did not have any way of people sampling anything and that was hurting their sales.  We talked about it a bit and since I happen to know just a little about sales and wanted to help I humbly asked if it would be ok to help out.  David said Sure, go for it. 

After a mad scramble and finding some small sample cups we started getting the patrons of the event to try the rubs and sauces they had brought with them.  These guys have some AWSOME stuff!  The rubs and sauces sell themselves once someone gets a taste and sure enough by the end of the day we were running very low on sauce and had put a big dent in the rubs!

As the contest progressed, I got to watch from the pits how the team worked together to prepare the entries and run the smoker and other things probably secret so I’ll leave out any of the details but ya’ll…Oh…my….gosh!  You should be so lucky as to put teeth to the Brisket that Myron Mixon creates!  I have never had such a thing in my life!  Hell, you won’t even need teeth!  That stuff is melt in your mouth good!  Now I’m not sure why they did not get first place in brisket but the guys who won must really have something to beat this. (Cool Smoke out of my home town won that one and congratulations to them!) 

The chicken thighs Jacks Old South entered won 3^rd place and they were also awesome!  I even was asked to run block to clear the crowd for Mike (The runner) to get the chicken to the judges’ tent in time. (They always cut it close)

While I was gone Evan stepped up and helped out with the selling with David and was doing a great job.  Not too bad for an almost 14 year old at his first time ever doing anything like that.  I was really proud of how well he did.

At the end of the day Myron and David asked if we could come back Sunday.  Since we had so much fun and really had no other major plans we said sure and Sunday we were back at it again.  I decided to show off a bit and really put in the effort to move some more of Myron’s new best seller cook book (which he was signing for everyone who bought them) and more of the rubs.  In just a couple hours we sold out of all the remaining sauce, we had a big dent in their books and the rubs were going like hot cakes. (For a good reason…They are awesome!)   Heck, I wish was as easy to sell my book as it is his!

We stayed for the awards ceremony to see what all that’s about and really enjoyed watching as the teams all got their prizes.  Many of which were small teams and to get to see their excitement as they took the walk was really cool.

I heard from people who have seen the show on TLC that Myron comes off as a sort of rough guy but have to tell you that after spending two days hanging around him and the team, He is as gracious and welcoming a guy as you will ever meet.  I watched him sign dozens and dozens of books for fans and shake hands and with hundreds of people, always with a warm smile.  He seemed to truly enjoy meeting every person and I can say he is one class act all the way around.

We were even more honored to be asked to join them in Galax, VA for an upcoming contest in a few weeks.  We are going to do it.  I think we are just about hooked on this BBQ contest stuff.  I’d really love to try a small local event sometime but one thing I learned at this one was how much I don’t know yet!  I will definitely have to get into one of Myron’s cooking schools and try my hand at this eventually but for now, I’m am perfectly happy to be a small, temporary part of one of the best teams in BBQ.

With the help of my son (cameraman) I have made a couple of short cooking videos.  Cooking on the grill is one of my favorite things to do and sharing good grilling recipes is fun (and yummy)  here is one of my more recent additions. (I hope the link works)  Once I get the hang of posting stuff like this here, I'll add more and...I'll make a deal with you: If I get up 500 hits on this blog or 50 people who "Like" my blog on facebook....I'll make public...my Super Secret....simple...soon to be award winning....CHICKEN RUB! But only for a little while for those of you who helped me spread the word.

Here's the video on ABT's
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdRBBGY3KcI

Well we have an exciting weekend this weekend.  My little girl is graduating High School!  She is going to a local well known medical college to study to be a radiologist and will minor in Music.   Tonight will be some work to prepare for weekend festivities etc. and a cookout on the grill. (One of my favorite things to do!)

Saturday is her big day and the ceremony is downtown so that will take up a lot of the day. It is a bitter sweet moment for me because it seemed like just yesterday she was little bundle in my arms looking up at me.  I remember many times holding that little baby wondering about how her life may be.  Here we are with the first part of it passing and the next chapter beginning to be written.  We are so proud of her.

For father’s day I will take my son and a couple friends fishing in a club tournament in the bay.  That evening will be cleaning fish (Hopefully!), cleaning and putting away gear and enjoying a few frosty beverages.

Time moves so fast!  I hope you are able to take time with your family at every chance.  I’m sure none of us at the end of our lives will be lying on our death bed thinking “I wish I had one more day to go to work!”  There are things you have to do, things you want to do and things you should do.  Take time to stop and enjoy it all and give thanks for what you have.

Think of this;  If you gave your kid a toy, would you want them to set it aside and let it rust or ignore it, or would you hope they would wear it out playing with it?  You would want them to enjoy it and play with it and remember you gave it to them.  I thank God for all of the blessings my family enjoys!  As long as he chooses to let me hang on to them, I’m going to enjoy all of it to the fullest.  I hope you do too.

For this first post I’d like to share with you a near disaster at our house that happened last year. With the grilling season in full swing I think it’s timely to share this now so that you can avoid this kind of mishap.

I was cooking ribs on a charcoal “bullet” smoker.  The upright kind that looks like R2D2 from star wars.  I had cooked the ribs (Which of course were great!) and left the smoker out all night to finish burning down like I have done countless times before. It sits on the pavement in an area with nothing around it to catch fire so no big deal.

Well the next day comes and goes and in the early evening I decided to finally get around to cleaning up the smoker from the night before. (This is about 20 hours after cooking on it!)  As usual I take the thing apart, and dump the coals and ash in a little area just in the woods off the back yard kind of behind where we park the boat at the edge of the yard.

 I complete a few other chores outside that take and hour or so and make a run to the store.  On the way home I spotted a neighbor of mine and stop to chat near the end of the very long drive that leads to our house.  I’m talking to him for a few minutes when the cell phone rings.  I see it’s my wife and I figure she’s calling to see where I am.  When I answer the phone, she is screaming and going nuts!  The only thing I hear is FIRE, THERE’S A FIRE!!!!!!!!!!

OH CRAP!  I hit the gas and explode down the drive to see flames at the edge of the woods right behind my boat!  The one that holds 80 gallons of gas in the tank!  I slide to a stop and bolt into the garage and grab the fire extinguisher we keep there, run to the fire that now has flames about 10’ up a tree and a spot about 10’ around burning on the ground and hit the lever.  FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!  I am able to knock almost all of the flames down before it runs out but it is close and the fire is not completely out as I yell to me son to bring me the hose and turn it on. (Our hose will reach this area)  With disaster averted, I spend the next hour hosing and raking and hosing and raking the entire area and searching the nearby woods for any hot spots with my son just to make sure everything is cool again.

 About the time I was hosing it down my neighbor I was talking too comes running, huffing a puffing with his fire extinguisher to help.  But by that time I had it pretty well under control.  Everything from the answering my wife’s call to getting the flames knocked down took probably less than 2 vary scary minutes.

So why would I go on the World Wide Web and embarrass myself admitting this fiasco?  Because it was too dangerous and too easy a mistake to not share it so everyone can learn from my screw up.  Here is what I hope you take from this story as well as what I learned:

1.       S#!T HAPPENS  and it happens FAST!  You better be ready when it does and so better everyone else!

2.       If you cook with charcoal, spend a few bucks and get a small ash can! (Or at least hose them down when youre done)

3.       A fire extinguisher at every floor in your home and garage is a must!  We now have 3 in the garage, one outside and two more in the house.  Also I had a fire extinguisher “class” with the family the next day to make sure everyone knew what to do!

4.       Train EVERYONE in house what to do if there is a fire!  The little fires, how to handle it before they become big fires, the big ones how to run and call 911!  You think they know, but they don’t.

5.       Buy more fire extinguishers!  They don’t cost that much.  Buy MORE than you think you need.  You can even find reconditioned ones for less money at the companies that sell and refill them for a great price.

6.       And lastly…yours truly is not invincible and not so smart that I still can’t screw up royally once in a while. (***Blush)

Enjoy your summer and be safe!