All in Heating and Cooling

In the wake of the recent storms, more than 2 people have lost just about everything.

Flood waters, winds, and torrential rain have left more than 2 without homes to return to.

Most are just thankful to have escaped with their lives. There are some that were not so fortunate. Anyway, my Aunt’s home was one of the few that sustained damage but not so much that it was a total loss, and furniture and flooring on the lower level will need to be replaced but the upstairs was virtually untouched. As my friend and I were starting the cleanup, miraculously, the power came back on. I thought that was great because the uneven temperatures outside were in the upper eighties and all I wanted to do was turn on the a/c. My Aunt has one of those wall mounted ones so I figured it would still work since the water level had been below that. Well, I didn’t realize that there was an outside component and well as it had been under water for sure. The air handler that is outside was completely ruined. Worse yet was the fact that his homeowners policy did not cover the replacement of appliances. They told his that he could have added a rider for that but he never did. Now he will be stuck footing the bill for the replacement of the outside component and will have no air conditioner until an Heating as well as Air Conditioning serviceman can come make the repairs. I feel entirely poor for his and have to disclose that I was entirely blissful to head back dwelling after helping out for a few afternoons.

 

 

Heating and cooling service

I like to suppose that I am a savvy shopper.

By this I mean that I know how to spot a bargain and take luck of deals whenever possible.

I am always on the lookout for coupons and sales in order to make my difficult received dollars stretch as far as possible. There are, but, times when I forget the easy rule of saving currency, never buy an item that is out of season. I am not simply referring to the items in the grocery store either. Did you ever stop to suppose that things like appliances have a season too. Take my Heating as well as Air Conditioning component I bought this summer, I went a/c shopping on the hottest afternoon in June. This was the worst time to buy a portable a/c because the prices were jacked up and there were no deals to be found. Stores and dealers knew that if you were buying a component on a afternoon like that you would be willing to pay anything just to cool your home. If I had thought about it last fall when all of them were at the end of the summer time prices I would have gotten a far better deal. The same can be said for your heater. If you need to replace it in the middle of winter then you need to be prepared to pay top dollar for it. If you know that your system is failing you may want to look into the replacement in the middle of Spring or Summer as the prices will be lower. Heating as well as Air Conditioning companies are trying to get rid of last year’s models at that time to make room in their stores for new inventory.

 

 

heater technician

I am sure that you have, at one point in your life, seen an older building or dwelling with steam heat.

• These aged radiators that are found in historic homes can be dangerous if not diagnosed, then they can also cause damage to wood floors or walls due the excessive moisture that they can put in the air.

There are valves on these aged radiators that release steam if the pressure is too great and this can be a problem. The other thing you will notice in a dwelling or building that uses steam heat is the constant noise that comes with them. You will often hear the pipes clanking as they heat up or cool down. You may also hear the hiss of steam as it escapes from the valves. There is one luck of steam heat over boiling water heat that you may not realize. Steam heat adds moisture to a certainly dry environment during the winter. Hot water heat does not. If you can imagine a boiler system that produces heat in the form of vapor it would be like residing with a humidifier in the room all the time. Hot water, closed loop system do not produce any moisture and you need to introduce it in other ways, then if you are in a dwelling or building that was built prior to the 50’s you honestly will see this type of system. Don’t be alarmed when you hear all those creaking and clanking noises or even that hiss of steam as it means that the system is toiling as it is supposed to.

 

HVAC tune-up

In the wake of the recent storms, numerous people have lost just about everything. Flood waters, winds, & torrential rain have left numerous without homes to return to. Most are just thankful to have escaped with their lives. There are some that were not so lucky. Anyway, my Aunt’s dwelling was one of the few that sustained harm however not so much that it was a total loss. Furniture & flooring on the lower level will need to be substituted however the upstairs was virtually untouched. As my buddy and I were starting the cleanup, miraculously, the power came back on. I thought that was great because the temperatures outside were in the upper eighties & all I wanted to do was turn on the air conditioner. My Aunt has one of those wall mounted ones so I figured it would still work since the water level had been below that. Well, I didn’t realize that there was an outside device as well & it had been under water for sure. The air handler that is outside was completely ruined. Worse yet was the fact that her homeowners policy did not cover the substitutement of appliances. They told her that she could have added a rider for that although she never did. Now she will be stuck footing the bill for the substitutement of the outside device & will have no air conditioning system until an Heating & Air Conditioning company can come make the repairs. I feel absolutely disappointing for her & have to admit that I was absolutely cheerful to head back dwelling after helping out for a few afternoons.

 

Cooling

I needed to make sure that my family was safe & the job was done officially

When finding something online is so easy, why should you take the time to travel to the store to find the best deal. The same can be said for companys to do the work for you. They are everywhere & on so numerous sites that there is no reason to go meet with them at their office. To me that just seems like a waste of time & gas in my car. I put out a request for bids on re-insulating my attic & fixing the leaks in the ductwork that was up there. I explained what I was looking for in detail & then let people supply me quotes on completing the job. Of course I went with the lowest bid, wouldn’t you? Well I have had nothing however headaches since that time. Not only did the woman show up two afternoons late, she has not finished the job officially & the cost is more than she quoted. My family is furious at me & my child keeps telling me that the woman seems sketchy. She said that she worked for a local Heating & Air Conditioning corporation & was doing the job on the side to make extra money. She also said that she could get the substitutement parts for the ductwork at cost, none of that turned out to be true. When I started to feel something was up I called the corporation & asked about him & they said they had fired him long ago. As much as I hated to admit that I had made a mistake in hiring him I absolutely had no choice. I needed to make sure that my family was safe & the job was done officially. I fired the woman I had hired & contacted the woman that was listed on a site that was insured, had a five star rating & numerous client reviews that were favorable.
Wifi thermostat

When I learned that I was going to be travelling for a month for work I decided that it was a perfect time to have some work done on the house.

I have a friend that is willing to let my company in & out & keep an eye on things so I knew that the timing was perfect.

Seeing as I live alone, no one would care if the water & Heating & Air Conditioning system was off during that time. I had to leave the electric & gas on so that the Heating & Air Conditioning company could test the current system I was having installed. I had wanted to have some of the windows substituted with ones that didn’t leak & the Heating & Air Conditioning system substituted for a long time however having all of that going on while I was dwelling would make me absolutely uncomfortable. I need to have things in order or else I get absolutely stressed & the idea of living in a construction zone seemed like an impossible situation. I decided at the last minute to have some of the plumbing substituted that still had the outdated lead pipes too. I met with the general company & went over all the plans. I felt like I was living in one of those makeover shows & I would come dwelling to everything all current & substituted. I left for my trip feeling great about the choices I had made. When my Heating & Air Conditioning corporation called to walk me through installing the app for my current programmable system I felt even better. After that I was absolutely looking forward to going dwelling from my supplier trip.

 

air purifier

I found that simply running a dehumidifier, at the time a portable one, seemed to make it cool however tolerable

Often times, when people are feeling uncomfortably overheated it has more to do with the amount of moisture in the air instead of the temperature. It can be as overheated as eighty degrees however if the humidity is low, you can feel absolutely comfortable. This is why when people transfer to the Southwest they typically say it is a “dry heat”. I am not sure I agree with the fact that one hundred degrees is comfortable without humidity but I get their point. In my own dwelling I have found that simply turning on the dehumidifier on a overheated summer time afternoon eliminates the need for the air conditioner. In fact, when I run the entire system the dwelling absolutely feels too frosty in some cases. Simply removing excess moisture is absolutely all that is needed. When I had my current Heating & Air Conditioning system installed I made sure to add on a powerful dehumidifier that could be operated independently. I know that the typical A/C removes moisture too however it also artificially cools the air. I don’t absolutely like going from the temperature outside to a cold frosty house. I would set the temperature to seventy however on a ninety degree afternoon it felt like I was walking into an ice box. I found that simply running a dehumidifier, at the time a portable one, seemed to make it cool however tolerable. Not all the people agrees with this & most people just like the air conditioning system & that is good too. I did find that using this machine saved me money during the summer time months to so it could be worth looking into for your own home.
hvac maintenance

Owning rental properties can be a great thing for investing in the future, and however, when you live in a double & rent out the other half, it can be a hassle as well.

This is mostly because you see your renter on a afternoon-to-day basis & know everything that they are doing.

If you hear a loud crash or see something that is harmd you may tend to overreact. This is the case with my hubby & I because when my buddy and I decided to purchase our first dwelling my buddy and I knew my buddy and I wanted something that would help spend money the mortgage. My associate and I decided that purchasing a duplex was our best chance & for the most part it has been. The rental agreement that my buddy and I have with our renter includes the cost of heating & that became a problem, and when my buddy and I first bought condo my buddy and I were renovating it so my buddy and I knew that heating both spaces was expensive however felt that it could be kept under control. When’s our first renter moved in my buddy and I realized that my buddy and I no longer had the ability to adjust the temperature on their side & my buddy and I found out that they were using way more energy than my buddy and I had done. My associate and I decided to talk to her Heating & Air Conditioning corporation & see if there was some way to have a programmable system put in that my buddy and I could adjust when needed. My associate and I had a talk with the renter & told her that my buddy and I would be controlling the temperature & ask them what they wanted it set at. When she told us that she would like her dwelling to be at 69° my buddy and I told her that was unpassable, and she did not like the frosty Winters however my buddy and I told her that if she wanted her locale to be that overheated she would have to spend money her own energy cost. This made a giant difference in her choice & she agreed to keep it at 74 instead.

 

air quality

Some days I think there are ghosts in my home.

I do live in an older farmhouse and there have been specific times where I have been scared out of my wits because of things I have experienced.

There was this one time where I put my coffee cup in the living room and I set it down on the coffee table and 5 minutes later my coffee cup was in my kitchen sink. It was the weirdest thing because the living room got really cold and when I went to go look for my coffee cup I could not find it. There was no one in my house, it was just me. A recent incident that I have experienced is that the temperature that I set my thermostat for is not that temperature. At first I thought it was the ghost playing a trick on me again but what I found out was that my thermostat was not properly calibrated. When a thermostat is not properly calibrated it can be super annoying because even after a thermostat ends up being calibrated they lose their calibration again shortly after the heating and cooling technician works on it. Digital thermostats I have learned never lose calibration and they are extremely accurate. Unfortunately I have an older mercury style thermostat and this can happen. I have heard that digital thermostats can save me up to 30% on utility costs due to the accuracy of them. Now I know that this time it was not the ghost in my home it was just my thermostat. I think I am going to have to update to a digital thermostat.

 

propane boiler

Now that we’re in the cooling system and out of the heating system in our area due to the increase of temperatures outside, I can recollect multiple furnace problems that occurred.

These problems were due to irregular heating, ventilation and cooling maintenance.

I went to one home that was located in a more rural area and when I went to take a look at the heat exchanger it was cracked. This is a rather costly expense and it can certainly be prevented if there’s regular maintenance. I received another call right after this one that there was a very loud squealing sound coming from a homeowner’s basement that was from the furnace. There was a frayed blower belt. This was an easy fix for me and not as costly as the heat exchanger for the homeowner. All I had to do was go in my van and find the correct sized blower belt and replace it. People don’t realize that if your furnace is making loud and irregular sounds that don’t sound normal there is something wrong with your furnace. I had a woman wait to call me a week and she stated that there was a scraping sound. The woman should not have waited a week to call our heating and cooling company. It turns out that after I inspected the entire furnace, there was worn out ball bearings. She told me that she didn’t run the furnace much after she heard the sound but by the look of the scraping sound she had to run it for a few extra hours. These were the most common issues I had to inspect and fix as a heating and cooling technician this past winter, all which can be avoided by regular HVAC maintenance.

a/c worker