All in Heating and Cooling

About ten years ago the House Flipping craze began.

I don’t mean that it was the first time people have bought houses to flip – that has been happening for decades – but when it became popular.

To this very day there are several different TV shows about people who buy, renovate, and sell old houses. Let me tell you that it seems a lot easier on TV than it is in real life! I have put together a small team of experts who work with me, and over the years we have gotten pretty good at the process. There are six people on my team, and Luke is the one who specializes in HVAC systems. Every member of my team is valuable, but Luke with his HVAC certification is one of my key workers. Before I buy any house I always send my team in first to check for “red flags.” For example, Luke inspects the HVAC system to make sure it’s still in working condition, or good enough that he can make it work. If Luke finds that the entire HVAC system is garbage and needs a full replacement, then I pass on that house. Just like having bad plumbing or a rotten roof, an unusable HVAC system turns a good investment into a money pit. Without Luke’s expertise in the HVAC industry I might lose a lot of money on certain houses, so his insight is quite valuable. Luke has been bugging me for a raise, and I have to give it to him because without his HVAC wisdom my team won’t be as strong.
Dual fuel system

When I cover up the windows tightly it reduces that exchange, and traps the cooling air inside.

When the household budget gets tight, I have to make hard choices. It was nice being able to go out for a meal once in a while, but restaurants are so expensive these days that was the first thing to be eliminated. I haven’t gone out to eat in six months, which is a bummer until I realized that choice saved me several hundred dollars. Since I am not going out, it means I am driving my car less often. This saves a lot of money on gas and upkeep. I’m considering selling the car, to save money on insurance payments. The hardest choice to make was reducing my dependence on air conditioning, so that I could save money on utility bills. The weather has been so hot, I loathe the idea of shutting off the central air conditioning even for a few hours, but it seems I have no choice. One change I made was to cover all the windows in my bedroom and living room with heavy blankets to reduce the heating exchange through the windows. As the AC runs, much of that cooling is lost because of the heat exchange in the glass. When I cover up the windows tightly it reduces that exchange, and traps the cooling air inside. I also shut off the air vents into the bathroom and kitchen, to reduce the floor space being cooled by the system. Of course, the means that when the A/C is running I have to stay inside those two rooms, because the rest of the house is no longer being air conditioned. Let’s hope it helps.

a/c care

Much to my surprise living without an air condition for the last three months has been pretty tolerable.

The weather has been much more temperate than usual, which was a pleasant surprise. I open up the windows for a crossbreeze, and while the days are a little humid, the nights have been lovely. As a big bonus, my monthly utility bills have dropped by more than half. This has enabled me to set aside a little money, so that I could get the AC checked out before the temps start rising any further. Hopefully I also have enough money to get the A/C fixed, but that all depended on what the technician had to say. The man came over last weekend and spent about thirty minutes doing a full HVAC system inspection before talking to me about the results. I don’t speak HVAC, so most of what he told me sounded like gibberish. I asked the HVAC tech to cut to the chase and tell me how much it would cost. When he said it would cost two thousand dollars to do all the necessary HVAC repairs, I thanked him kindly and asked him to leave. It might as well have been a million dollars! Instead I will invest a small fraction of that money into a small, portable air conditioning unit. This device is only powerful enough for cooling down one room, but for a summer this hot that will be better than no cooling at all. Maybe when I win the lottery I can afford to get proper A/C repairs done.

 

indoor air quality

As a graduate student, I had my apartment, and worked a full-time job.

I was still studying to be a lawyer, but I had some work ahead of me.

I got home from work one afternoon to find the air conditioning had broken. I had to study for some exams I was taking the following week, and I only had two days to study. There was no way I was going to get any work done when I was sweating into my eyes. I went some place to where there was air conditioning. I placed a phone call to the HVAC company and told them I was going to be at the library. Before they got to the house, they could call me, and I would meet them on the porch. The library was less than five minutes from my apartment. I left my apartment and headed to the library. The air conditioning was on, and I relaxed and started working on my paper. I kept my phone on the table in front of me and turned the volume low. I wanted to hear when the HVAC technician arrived, but I didn’t want to disturb other students who were studying. I had my books open for less than an hour when my phone buzzed. The HVAC technician was standing on the porch waiting for me. I packed up all my papers and my books and headed out into the steamy heat. By the time I got there, I was a hot mess, but the HVAC technician was going to get my air conditioning working again.
air conditioning expert

It was so hot and dry in our house when the air conditioning didn’t work that I feared I would become mummified.

I didn’t worry about dying from the heat, but I didn’t want to get mummified while I was sleeping.

I told my house what I was thinking, and he rolled his eyes at me. He told me you had to be dead to be mummified. I thought the heat would kill me and no one would know it. He said he would definitely notice if I had died, because he would be missing a meal. I slapped him and shook my head as he laughed and walked away. I am still worried about the air conditioning breaking. We lived in the desert, and we hadn’t had the air conditioning unit serviced in over six months. Anything could happen to the AC unit when the temperatures were always around 100 degrees. I called the HVAC company and told them I needed to have the air conditioning unit serviced and cleaned. In this area, I didn’t want to go without air conditioning. Two days later, the HVAC technician was outside working on my AC unit. He told me the AC unit was working fine, but he suggested we changed the air filter more often. With all the dust, the air filter was nearly clogged. Now I had to remind my husband to change the air filter every 3 to 4 weeks. I had a hard enough time trying to get him to change the air filter every six weeks. I wonder if he would show me how to change the air filter?

 

local hvac

My sister is an HVAC technician and she’s the only woman I know who works in that profession.

Whenever she first got out of school then she told us that she was going to go to her local technical school to get her heating and cooling certification, none of us could really believe it.

My sister was always really prissy back when we were growing up. She was not interested in getting her hands dirty at all when we were kids. Even when I was out climbing trees and things like that, my sister was always in the house playing with dolls. So whenever she told us that she wanted to go into the trades, and specifically she wanted to become a heating and cooling technician, we were all really shocked. Apparently, she had been doing a lot of research on different jobs and she found out that HVAC technicians always have quite a bit of job security. That’s especially true in the area where we live, for some reason. My sister has always said that she does not want to leave our hometown, so finding something that has job security here in our area was really important to her. Much to the surprise of everyone in our family, she ended up doing really well in her classes. She graduated at the top of her class and she got her heating and cooling certification. Now, she is a heating and cooling technician here in town and she really loves her job. She is the only female at her company and she really likes it that way.

 

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My brother dropped a little heater on his foot when he was helping me clean out the attic in our house the other day.

We needed the electric space heater because it’s been so cold around here lately.

The heating system in the house does not seem to be working correctly right now for some reason. I don’t know what to do about it, though. I don’t really have the money to have an HVAC company come to look at the furnace right now. All of the money in my home repair fund is gone at the moment because we had to replace our kitchen door not too long ago. I was still working on building that money back up when the heating system stopped working correctly. Unfortunately for me, the weather started cooling down a whole lot during that same time and now we are stuck here in a house that feels way too cold all the time. That’s how we ended up in the attic the other day in the first place. I figured that since we couldn’t afford to get the actual heating system fixed, I would try something else instead. I decided to get the electric space heater down from the attic but I couldn’t get to it because of all of the junk in the way. My brother came over to help me move everything and get the space heater out of the attic. That’s when he ended up tripping on a box in the attic and dropping the electric space heater right on top of his foot!

live link

I’m signing up for an air filter service this month.

I have been thinking about it for a long time now and the other day I decided to just go ahead and do it.

I was watching an ad online for this air filter service the other day when I was playing a video game and all of a sudden, it dawned on me. I always knew that the concept was a good one, but for some reason, I just never thought that it was necessary for me for some reason. I always thought that eventually, I would get it together and be able to remember to do things like that on a consistent basis. I mean, other people in the world do it and I felt like I should be able to do it too! However, over the years, that has not really turned out to be the case for me. I just can’t remember it for some reason. I am not good at remembering anything like that, ever. It makes me feel really dumb and I don’t really have a good reason for it. I never get my brakes changed on time or my oil changed in my car at the right time, either. It’s just a problem that I have. I don’t really like being this way, either, but that’s just how it is. That’s why I have to sign up for this air filter service. I know that in the end, it will be a good thing for me. I think it will definitely be good for the HVAC system in my house. I just wish that it wasn’t necessary for me!

 

a/c install

My grandpa said that he is way too hot at the nursing home where he is staying.

He moved in there about six months ago, and it was very traumatic for our whole family.

We were not ready for him to move out of his big house where we always used to have all of our family get togethers and things like that. However, my grandpa was adamant that he was ready to move into this place and be among people who could help him on a regular basis. He was having a lot of trouble moving around, and he did not want to be a burden to the family. I can understand that, but I was still sad about the fact that he had to move out of his house. Anyway, I told him that he never needed anything at all, then he could call me up any time, day or night. The other night, my phone rang, and it was my grandpa. I was really happy to hear from him, but then he told me that he was having issues with the heating and cooling system at the nursing home. He said that they keep the temperature turned up so high in there that he feels like he is living inside of a furnace most of the time. Also, they won’t let him crack the windows because they say that it is a safety issue. He told me that he wanted to have his own little air conditioning system installed in his room, so I told him that I would talk to the director of the home and get back to him.

 

 

hybrid heating

All of this talk about heating and air conditioning equipment has me more curious about learning about the HVAC industry than ever

I am amazed at how much I have learned about HVAC technology within the recent years. I guess it is because my husband is a heating and air conditioning worker, and oftentimes when he is done working, he will talk about his day and the A/C equipment he deals with. I guess I have been memorizing a lot of the things he says, because now when I look at different kinds of heating and air conditioning devices, I can usually name which type it is. Naming the type of HVAC machine seems to be my specialty. For example, off the top of my head I can name several systems. Like the central air conditioner, window A/C and ductless A/C. Then if you include heating systems, there is the gas furnace, space heaters, boiler systems and radiant heated flooring. It is funny how just a few years ago, if you asked me anything involving heating and cooling technology, I would have no clue! It just goes to show how much you can learn in a short period of time. All of this talk about heating and air conditioning equipment has me more curious about learning about the HVAC industry than ever. I think I am going to go and check out a few books from the local library, and talk to my husband’s HVAC corporation to see what else I can learn. Even my husband is surprised at my eagerness to learn everything I can about his career field and the technology that surrounds it.

electric heating