iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Guys who say they see plenty of leaks on propress systems be like

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Got an email from my son's chem teacher because he was competing with his friend to see who could handle acid on their hand the longest. Realistically that one is 100% on me. I doubt he even knows it's against any sort of rules

081

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Just spent an hour with Bill Spohn on the building and HVAC science podcast. Should be out in a couple weeks. It's going to be much weirder than my first appearance which was already quite weird

040

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Back in 2002 Armin Rudd observed that standalone dehumidifiers worked better than ducted. I remember when this study dropped and it only took 24 years to figure out why. Ducted dehumidification fails because

100

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

We drafted a marketing postcard and one of my employees thought it would be funny to write "we only poop using bidets" in an edit and wrote "make sure to proofread this" in the email. So now we have 1200 postcards that say we only poop in bidets

191

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

I was talking with a ground source heat pump installer about a pump control problem I had and he said "oh we just set them to run constantly, otherwise they freeze." There are so many layers to how bad this is

150

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Today I was in my buddy's truck that has a tonneau cover so I checked inside some tool bags that were sitting on the rear seats and it was just different types of lotions. Swear to god

130

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Did a 10 round open mat yesterday at a gym one of my buddies opened. It was fun but then this morning we were drilling throws and I got accidentally launched into the stratosphere. It's probably been 8 to 10 months since my last day completely off running or rolling, but it's starting to feel close

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

A surprising thing I'm finding is that when dehumidifiers are ducted into AC systems they usually have 2 independent failure modes, both of which render them nearly useless

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

This dude's water bill went from 3k gallons/month to 200k and the water company suggested putting dye in the toilet tank to check for a leaky flapper. He used 4.7 gallons/minute for the month of July, I don't think that's going to be it

040

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

Many people believe that we could significantly reduce construction defects via increased independent verification, but I think this is totally overblown. Most problems aren't driven by misaligned incentives, information assymetry or whatever. It's largely a competence problem

160

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

If you're a tech consider carrying spare electric panel cover screws on your truck. They're often missing, and also somewhat important. You'll probably be taking plenty of panel covers off anyway

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

When my daughter wears this outfit in public I'll sometimes turn to her and act startled and people immediately know I've mistaken her for a bear

031

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I wish there were a way to measure, but it feels like construction projects have substantially increased their ratio of words to output, which is probably not a good trend.

120

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

North American platform framing continues to beat prefab partly because we don't worry if 2x4s are upside down. Countries where carpenters maintain inefficient site building practices probably tend to lose more ground to prefab

150

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Buy this table and I'll throw in the George Clinton memoir

000

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

There's a pervasive urban legend that a contractor can't use the word mold to describe mold. So almost everyone in HVAC uses terms like "biological growth" because synonyms are a brilliant loophole for evading fake laws

060

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

People often confuse dehumidifiers with humidifiers and then imply that I'm pedantic for correcting them, but it actually seems important given they have intuitive names and opposite functions

060

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Oh that's nothing. One of my clients had an HVAC contractor pack asbestos pipe insulation in the return plenum to reduce noise

030

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Asbestos kitchen exhaust piped through heat/cool duct return

110

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

A sentence I could do without is when people or companies say they "went into crisis mode". It feels like the great majority of the time whatever mode they were in can be inferred from context clues vs a formal declaration

010

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

I sometimes worry about my daughter going off to college with the interpersonal habits of a construction worker. Eg loudly double-slapping the body of a vehicle to indicate safe clearance for driver departure

030

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

If you guys need me I'll be fixing remedial building construction errors in one of the highest income zip codes in the country

120

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 03/08/2026

The wires at the sawmill won't stop touching. It's like they can't keep their hands off each other

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Over the course of both my carpentry and HVAC career probably 90% of my work has been renovation or repair of existing homes. People often don't fully grasp the level of difficulty these entail relative to new construction

151

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

On balance tape measure clips have probably been net negative because they give people the illusion they can do real work with a tape clipped to their pants and no tool belt

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Working on a fun little euro tilt/turn window installation this week. I'll try to remember to take pics and videos. A lot of people end up with replacement style windows which imo are complete garbage. It's not much more difficult to install quality windows with good water management

150

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

These two feel slightly contradictory and I wonder which is the most true

230

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

My daughter just really likes s'mores cookies ok?

030

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Guy who answers his phone late afternoon on a Friday

130

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Furnace condensate generally has a slightly lower ph than sodas. Increasingly where furnace condensate is discharged to either a sump or sanitary sewer, inspectors require a ph neutralizer be installed, citing the plumbing code section below

152

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

People with high humidity be like why's my house so humid

171

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Diversitech minisplit drain connector instructions appears to have the pipe placement backwards. As shown, both connections rely on hose clamps for water tightness, which is a bad practice. Done correctly this is probably the best system for connecting minisplit drain lines

021

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

I ordered shorts for my Swiss vacation but they won't arrive in time. I have many spare jeans tho. Is it too ugly American to make some last minute jorts?

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 11/07/2026

My daughter wants to run a half marathon this summer and today is her long run. Water bottle on the mailbox brought back an absolute flood of memories

010

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I can't believe it took until 2026 for someone to invent a receptacle diffuser

260

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

This house was designed by the dean of architecture at Princeton. My guess is the design predates AC so they intended to open the damper on summer evenings. Anyway, here's a damper connected to a furnace fan that's been directly pulling outdoor air into the duct system for 60 years

140

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 07/07/2026

Tips for job site anger management

150

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

One of the biggest changes to residential construction over my career is the decline is job site activity. The median construction site in my area has 0-2 workers present despite homes being larger. 25 years ago job site crowdedness was a huge problem. Today there's no activity

270

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 04/07/2026

My son bought this and now he won't stop calling me libtard and is convinced he could take me in a fight

050

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

A partial explanation for why many contractors don't like cleaning up other people's work

030

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

When was the last time you heard someone in your house scream "oh my God he's got a knife"?

1110

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

HVAC companies largely don't train receptionists to give technical guidance with one exception. During heat waves they are told to falsely claim that air conditioners can only make it 20f colder than outdoors, so this week expect to hear that 86f indoors is gtg

020

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

People keep approaching me on my lawn to ask if I'm ok

030

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

Last weekend I was fixing an AC electrical short for one of my wife's friends who also had a plumbing leak. I carry a few plumbing fittings and press tool jaws so something that would have been an hour for me to inexpertly solder took 10 minutes for a robust connection

140

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 28/06/2026

We once had a carpenter give notice because he found "a better opportunity" but when we pressed him it was that he wanted to party at the shore for summer. Unfortunately he got caught up in the opioid epidemic and died of an overdose a few years later

040

Jesse Smith @jessetayriver.bsky.social · 27/06/2026

Duct systems outside conditioned space are a significant driver of wasted energy and codes have become increasingly strict on sealing and insulating them in response. Research is mixed but it's likely that the penalty for unconditioned attic duct systems is 15%-35%

140