Thursday, January 27, 2011

4 Simple Steps to Easy Air Conditioning Savings



Looking for ways to save on your electricity bill this summer without turning your home into a sauna? With commodity prices potentially on the rise and a still fragile economy, more and more people are looking for new ways to save. Follow these easy-to-implement ideas to maximize the efficiency of your air conditioning system and start saving today.

Replace or clean your air filter monthly

Aside from having your air conditioning system serviced before the Spring season, the next best thing to do is to clean or replace your air filter monthly. As the filter becomes more and more constricted, your system has to keep working harder in order to try to reach and maintain a given temperature setting.

Open doors and window

While this may seem like a simple and obvious idea, when you open up your home and allow the breeze into your home, when you turn on your air conditioning system it will be starting at a much lower temperature. So while the outside breeze certainly may not be enough to cool your home to your desired temperature, it can definitely bring the inside temperature down several degrees, greatly reducing the time your air conditioning system functions in order to bring the temperature the rest of the way down to your desired setting.

Set your thermostat higher in the evening

Without sunlight entering into your home, you may find that you don't need to set your thermostat as low in order to stay comfortable. Also in the evening, people tend to relax and this lack of activity tends to leave one with less of a need to "cool down."

Ensure that your attic is properly ventilated

Your attic absorbs a fair amount of the heat in your home, and so installing (or opening) an attic vent can reduce your cooling needs. Aside from passive venting, one may also consider an attic fan, which actively circulates the air and can provide even more cooling savings.

Katrine have been writing articles for nearly 2 years. Come visit his blogs more often for tips and advice that helps people with the interest for furnace repair charlotte and great passion and knowledge for hvac repair charlotte and all the different options & providers available in the market today. Find out for more info also here FURNACEREPAIRCHARLOTTE.COM

Sunday, January 16, 2011

5 Things to Know About Your HVAC System



A great HVAC system for your home or place of business is critical for the comfort of you and your guests. There is nothing more important to the maintenance of your comfort than what comes from these systems. You will want the right system so the air you breathe will be scrubbed free of dust, smoke, moisture, pollen and other allergens which may be harmful to you or your family. Now is the right time to go ahead and choose a professional HVAC contractor to make sure that you will enjoy excellent air quality.

The right size units are critical to the area you seek to service. A professional will assist you in making the right choice. The operating costs for a unit which is too large will be extravagant. A unit which is too small, may too, cost you more, as it will constantly be straining to keep up with the demand. For the whole system to work properly, your inside and outside units should have the same rating.

Want to avoid problems? Regular maintenance is the way to go. This will eliminate surprises and HVAC troubles. Expensive repairs come from little problems. Here are a few:

1. Your system must drain. If the drainage tube or water pan become clogged, water damage to your property is sure to follow. It is not unusual for a ceiling to collapse because an attic water pan has overflowed. It is not much fun to be greeted with your ceiling on the floor, when coming home from a hard days work.

2. Moving parts which are out of condition equals less cool. There are many moving parts in your system and they must be properly maintained. There are pulleys that perform poorly if not properly lubricated or if they become loose.

3. Air Flow. Filters clog fairly quickly. Dirt and pollen clogs the filters and some gets by. Once in your system, everything becomes less efficient. It causes the motor to have to work harder to put out a lower volume of air and it has to run longer to get the temperature where you want it to be. The strain on your equipment will mean you will have to replace everything in the very near future.

4. Duct Work. Duct work should be inspected regularly. If there are problems there, it can easily increase your costs by 2x or 3x. A new option is ductless systems. This is a particularly prudent option if you have a new room or a far room where traditional ductwork would have to be extensive. In regular maintenance, you want your HVAC contractor to check all the joints in your existing duct work. It is no fun to find out you have been heating and air conditioning your attic, because some duct tape gave way on your duct work.

5. Overall Efficiency. You can save a lot of money on your heating and cooling bills if you have an efficient system. The improvements, in recent years, have been remarkable. It is quite conceivable that you will be able to pay for a completely new system out of your energy cost savings. Professional service techs see poorly matched and inefficient systems in the field every day. Those owners are literally blowing money away. Make sure that your system is not doing that.

The time to pick your HVAC contractor is now. Establish a service contract and a relationship. One day, when it is 90 degrees outside, your unit is going to fail. It will be the same day that 350 other units have failed in your city. So when you desperately start calling AC service companies, it is too late to figure out who is reputable. You will end up at the mercy of who is available. Usually those are the worst contractors - otherwise they would be too busy to see you! But if you have a service contract, you will get moved to the top of the list and life will once again be grand. Invest the time to find a great HVAC service company now.

Gris have been writing articles for nearly 2 years. Come visit his blogs more often for tips and advice that helps people with the interest for furnace repair charlotte and great passion and knowledge for hvac repair charlotte and all the different options & providers available in the market today. Find out for more info also here FURNACEREPAIRCHARLOTTE.COM

Thursday, January 6, 2011

Air Conditioning - Make Your Summer Cooler



Very few people nowadays are still not familiar with the technology that is air conditioning. Almost all the houses in the United States are equipped with air conditioners to stave off that annoying heat when summertime comes around. Probably all the cars in America are equipped with air conditioners. There are not too many facilities left in the country that is not equipped with air cooling machineries which is why there are not too many people who are not yet aware of this technology. But most people don't know how this convenient gadget came to be.

Air conditioning, according to historians, was already a concept being used by the Chinese and the Romans in ancient history. Back in Ancient Rome, engineers fashioned some of the houses to let in aqueduct water within the walls to cool them. In ancient China an inventor named Ding Huane, constructed a rotary fan that was used to cool air. His machine had to be operated manually though which made it uncomfortable for the one operating it. In Persia during medieval times, they used wind towers and cisterns to keep buildings cool during summertime.

There were several accounts of the concept of air conditioning being applied to actually cool infrastructures back in ancient times, but the air conditioning that most people are familiar with today was invented back in 1902 by a man named Willis Haviland Carrier.

Carrier invented the electric air conditioner back in 1902 when he was trying to solve a problem with a publishing company. Sackett-Wilhelm's Publishing Company was looking for a way to improve the process of manufacturing in their factory and the humidity of the place was proving to be a hindrance. Carrier's aim was to lower the humidity and thus improve the working conditions of the employees. By sending air through cold coils, Carrier was able to lower the temperature and control the humidity of the printing plant. His invention was so successful that people started using these machines to cool their own homes too.

The term "air conditioning" didn't come from Carrier though. Stuart W. Cramer, who hailed from Charlotte, North Carolina, was the one who coined the term and he did so when he was looking for ways to increase the moisture in the air in a textile mill. His process of combining moisture with ventilation to change or cool the air brought about the term. Carrier liked the term and incorporated it to his company's name.

Back then, air conditioners used methyl chloride, ammonia and propane which were highly dangerous substances. It was only in 1928, when a man named Thomas Midgley Jr. invented Freon, a chlorofluorocarbon gas, which is present in most air conditioners of today.

Air conditioning has changed the way people live. It is almost impossible to find a house in the US where air conditioners are not being used.

Linard have been writing articles for nearly 2 years. Come visit his blogs more often for tips and advice that helps people with the interest for furnace repair charlotte and great passion and knowledge for hvac repair charlotte and all the different options & providers available in the market today. Find out for more info also here FURNACEREPAIRCHARLOTTE.COM