by RevContent | Jul 1, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
Your heating and cooling appliances help keep your home comfortable throughout the year, but without regular inspection and maintenance, they can become a threat to your family’s safety. These tips can help you keep on top of necessary maintenance and the professional attention these appliances need to remain safe and efficient all year round. Maintain Your Heating and Cooling Systems In addition to boosting your energy efficiency and, thus, saving you money during operation, proper maintenance can help prevent common safety issues with a heating and cooling systems. Here are some basic tasks you need to stay on top of: Clean and replace the air filter regularly. Clogged filters can result in toxic carbon monoxide fumes leaking into your home. Replace furnace filters once every three months and AC filters once per month during the summer. Clear blockages and debris. Remove weeds and overgrowth within a 2-foot radius of your HVAC unit and have your technician check for blocked or faulty pressure release valves on your boiler. Prevent electrical fires. You can inspect all of your electrical cords for fraying or cuts and ensure none of them are buried beneath rugs or furniture. Plug window AC units directly into a wall, never an extension cord. And make sure your technician checks for loose connections — these can be dangerous and often occur with the natural heat expansion and contraction in heat pump units. Use a surge protector. In the event of a power surge, this device will shut down your heating and cooling unit to prevent damage to the system. Keep Your Family Safe Kids and pets need to be kept away from...
by RevContent | Jun 17, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
The summer heat can bring on the budget blues when it starts to reflect on your electrical bill. The best way to keep your costs down and your home comfortable is to stay on top of bi-annual HVAC maintenance. Doing so helps your unit last longer and provides you with greater energy efficiency, reducing its cost of operation. Here is a list of maintenance tasks you should perform this summer to save energy and save some money. Clean or Replace Your Air Filter Tackling this maintenance task alone can reduce energy use by as much as 15 percent. It’s recommended that you replace your air filter monthly during the summer. Use a Programmable Thermostat Replacing your thermostat to a programmable one allows you to take advantage of the times when the house can stand to be warmer, such as when it’s empty or at night, in order to be more efficient. Invest in a smart thermostat that you can communicate with via a cellphone app so you can cool your house ahead of your early arrival. Keep any heat-producing appliances away from the thermostat, including TVs and lamps. Don’t Fiddle Speaking of thermostats, set the temperature to your comfort zone and no lower. Contrary to popular belief, a lower setting will not cool your home any faster. Take Advantage of the Night If you live in a place that gets cold at night, take advantage the chilled air by opening windows in the evening to ventilate the home. Remember to close windows when you wake up to seal in the cooler air accumulated overnight. Open Vents, Seal Windows Closed air vents...
by RevContent | May 19, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
Even though it might be apparent that an air duct cleaning would be good for the health of an HVAC system, homeowners tend to put it off when the immediate benefits seem low. It’s often not until the AC is running around the clock that cleaning the ducts is given thought, and that’s months after the idle dust from the winter hiatus have been pumped into your home. To help push the cleanliness of your air ducts to its proper position on your list of household tasks, just think of how a pristine pathway for your HVAC system’s hard efforts will reduce your energy consumption and your utility bills. Reduced Cost of Maintenance The most insidious source of AC system malfunctions is the small particulates that float through the household air and gather inside the air ducts. Eventually, these granules of terror can make their way into more sensitive equipment and physically inhibit their operation. These parts will work harder, generate more heat and have a much higher likelihood of suffering a major malfunction. Wiping out all of the dust collected inside the airways can keep the levels low enough to avoid excess strain on the equipment. Replacing a single compressor can cost more than $1,000 for parts and labor, so anything that can be done to avoid injuring this vital component should be given priority. You won’t have to replace your air filter as often, either! Improves Efficiency of the AC System While small and light, dust is still substantially more solid than the mixture of gasses and liquids that run through your AC. When the fuzz starts...
by RevContent | May 5, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
An air conditioner can seem like an almost magical device. Just run a current of electricity through it and the fans and coils start working together to blast away the overbearing heat of a midday sun on a summer day. All of this is possible through the manipulation of the physical properties of the refrigerants that run through the veins of the AC system. What Is Refrigerant? The term “refrigerant” refers to any substance that uses an ability to easily undergo phase transitions to siphon heat from another substance. Over the years, dozens of different materials have been used, each assigned a designation (noted R-Number) to keep track of their properties. For in-home and office air conditioning, the refrigerant of choice has been R-22, a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) named Chlorodifluoromethane. This has recently been replaced by R-401a, a mixture of R-22 with R-152a and R-124, which has less impact on the environment. The total range of possible refrigerants even includes familiar names like carbon dioxide and ammonia. Each AC unit is designed to operate with a specific refrigerant, although some interchangeability does exist. How Does the Refrigerant Work Inside an AC? The refrigerant is first put under pressure by a compressor, shifting it into a liquid state. As it passes through the compressor, it also serves as a lubricant. It then passes by the outside air where it emits heat before coming into contact with the evaporator coil. The refrigerant morphs back into a gas and replenishes its heat supply from the air surrounding the coil. The now chilly air is guided into the nearby room or ductwork where it cools your building. Do...
by RevContent | Feb 25, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
Life is too short to spend fiddling with things when there is a product to do it for you. That includes your HVAC system. New technology is making it possible to to monitor and control everything from your thermostat to your air filtering system by pre-setting your desired temperature and letting the technology take care of itself. Consider these options for making your life easier and getting the most out of your HVAC system. Humidity-Sensing Fans When summer heat strikes, high humidity levels can make you feel hot and sticky and pose a risk of mold and mildew in your home. The good news is that by installing humidity-sensing fans, you can relax as they handle the situation on their own. These fans detect a rapid increase in humidity and turn on automatically to exhaust the moisture. Whether the boost in moisture is the result of long showers, steaming veggies in the kitchen or just natural humidity, the humidity-sensing fan has your back. Ventilation New technology has produced smart ventilation systems that automatically adjust to the needs of your home. It is attached to all fans in the home with one fan designated as the master fan. It automatically monitors fan use and adjusts the system to maintain proper ventilation. It even works independently to control all fans in the home to create optimal ventilation throughout your living space. This system improves indoor air quality and makes your home more comfortable. Energy Management Systems Although it may sound a little like science fiction, technology now allows you to connect all your systems to monitor and control energy use. These wireless systems...
by RevContent | Jan 28, 2016 | HVAC Contractor
You’ve heard that leaky ductwork is inefficient, but do you realize that replacing faulty ducts can save you a good deal of money on an ongoing basis? If you live in an older home that has never benefited from a ductwork upgrade, or a newer home that seems to have poorly designed ductwork, then there could be significant savings in your future! Cost Savings Your heating and cooling bills can be some of the most expensive parts of owning your home, especially in periods of peak usage like late winter and mid-summer. If your energy bills over the past few years have skyrocketed with no real change in your habits, your ducts may be to blame. While it would be nice to think that everyone can get a huge benefit from upgrading their ducts, you need to have a qualified HVAC contractor review your particular situation and make a recommendation before you decide to make major changes. Stay Healthy Inside Poor ductwork may be more than just a money drain — they may also be costing you and your family your health. Dirty air can infiltrate ducts and contaminate your indoor air. If you have dust or pollen allergies, this type of backdraft can make those problems even worse. Mold is another concern with aging ductwork and one that also can cause an allergic reaction. Some types of mold are quite toxic and can cause an excessive reaction, a problem that repairing or replacing those old ducts can really help alleviate. Dash Those Hot Spots If there are certain places in your home that you just cannot seem to get cooled...
Recent Comments