The Growing Opportunities For Valuable HVAC contractor Strategies

Your HVAC Should Be Working For You, Here's How

An HVAC system is a key component to any home, and if it goes bad on you then it can be a major problem. If you would like good tips on keep an HVAC in good working order, then the following article will do just that. Keep reading to get a quality HVAC education.

Although most people are thinking of their heating systems during the winter months, air conditioning is also important. When installing a new furnace or heating system, make sure the air ducts are also set up to work with your air condition system. Using the ducts for both heating and cooling is the most economical choice.

When seeking a new contractor, ask loved ones for referrals. They'll often have already had someone in for similar work and will know who to trust and who to avoid. If your family hasn't used anyone, ask co-workers or other people you trust in your community for some references.

If at all possible, install double-paned windows in your home instead of those with a single pane. Double pane windows can minimize the use of your air conditioner in hot weather since they keep the indoor air cooler. Conversely, they keep warm air in during the winter.

Your HVAC unit requires regular maintenance at least two times per each year. The fall and spring are the optimal times for this maintenance. Although there might not be any noticeable issues, it is important to provide regular upkeep to prevent bad things from happening.

You should be sure to change the air filter of your HVAC system once every six months. Neglecting to do so can cause dust particles to clog the air ducts. In turn, your system will not work properly and you will find your bills going up. It's worth spending the time to clean the filters.

One of the most important things to consider when purchasing a new heating and cooling system is the manufacturer's warranty. Units come with a variety of warranties. Choose one with a long warranty for maximum long term savings. Generally, it is advised that homeowners should purchase the extended warranty if one is offered.

The correct HVAC system should have sealed air ducts to minimize heating or cooling loss as air travels to different rooms. The heating or cooling requirements of different rooms in the home should be taken into consideration. There is no reason to increase energy usage by controlling the temperature in rooms that are used very little.

Make sure to make a well-informed decision on the size of your HVAC. If the unit is too large, it won't cool more than a smaller unit, just less efficiently. Always look through the manual as well.

The energy efficiency of a unit should be taken into consideration when purchasing a new heating and cooling system. Although you should be concerned about the price of a unit, the efficiency of the unit will save you thousands over the lifetime of the heating and cooling system and should weigh heavily on your buying decision.

Use plants to increase your air conditioner's effectiveness. An AC unit fully shaded by trees and shrubbery can operate up to 10 percent more efficiently. However, do keep spacing in mind. Air flow must not be constricted, and technicians need room to work when they come out to service your unit.

When dealing with HVAC contractors, make sure that you get everything in writing. While verbal contracts are legal in many places, it is usually very difficult to prove them. Having everything on paper is a great way to make sure that no ons is confused about any aspect of the process.

Improve the efficiency of your air conditioning by installing ceiling fans. Change the airflow direction of the ceiling fans. During the summer, the blades should move in a counter-clockwise direction. During the winter, the blades should move clockwise to help move the hot air in the ceiling down into the room.

Be careful of sounds in your HVAC. If the condenser fan begins to make a grating or clicking read more sound, the blades could be hitting an obstruction. If blades get bent, don't try straightening them. You could unbalance them and cause them to hit the condenser coil. This could loosen the motor in the fan. Try replacing the bent blades with new ones. Make sure the new blades can freely rotate without wobbling.

There is a lot to think about when you install an air conditioner unit. For example, a big unit won't remove humidity while a small unit won't cool enough. Placing it in the wrong place can make it less efficient, and not insulating your home adequately could render it almost useless.

Learn the rules and regulations regarding licenses and insurance before hiring an HVAC professional. This way you can check to make sure that any contractor you consider hiring meets any requirements. This can prevent a costly legal process, especially in case of an accident on site. Without insurance, you could be held liable for damages.

If you feel like you are spending too much money on your heating and cooling, there is a simple way to reduce this cost. Raise or lower the temperature depending on the season. A single degree in temperature change can equate to almost a nine percent savings in cooling and heating costs.

Every season inspect the outdoor condenser unit of your HVAC system. Remove any weeds and leaves that may be obstructing air flow to the unit. Hose off the inside and outside of the unit to remove any dirt build up. Cover the motor with plastic bags prior to rinsing the unit so that you do not get it wet.

Is your home's electrical set-up ready to handle a new air conditioning unit? Most homes have 115-volt circuits in place, but larger air conditioners need 230-volts to be used. Some smaller units may need their own dedicated circuit as well to ensure your home doesn't go dark when you turn them on.

Determining the right HVAC service professional to provide repair or replacement work can be tough when a certain amount of know-how is lacking. To really ensure that the best approach is being taken, some advance research is essential. Hopefully the material presented above has fulfilled readers' needs for useful insights in this realm.

Can the AC filter in your home, office or local mall protect you from Covid-19?

When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced last week that malls in New York could not reopen until they installed high-efficiency particulate air filters capable of trapping the virus that causes Covid-19, Harvard environmental health researcher Joseph Gardner Allen was thrilled.

"I've been writing consistently since early February about how healthy buildings should be the first line of defense against the novel coronavirus," said Allen, who directs the Healthy Buildings program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

"I'm really grateful that we have a leader in the country -- somewhere -- who was finally talking about healthy buildings, ventilation and filtration," Allen said. "That hasn't happened before. It just hasn't happened."

A push to action

Allen was one of 239 scientists who wrote an open letter to the World Health Organization, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health agencies, asking for a change in their guidance to the public on how the novel coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, can spread.

Current guidance only focuses on "hand washing, maintaining social distancing, and droplet precautions," according to the letter, published Monday in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

The health agencies are ignoring the tiny droplets of virus that sputter and spray from our mouths, become aerosolized and then float away into the air, the scientists said, as a likely means of transmission.

"They don't want to talk about airborne transmission because that is going to make people afraid," co-author Donald Milton, a professor of environmental health at the University of Maryland, told CNN in a prior interview.

"The best vaccine against fear is knowledge and empowering people to take care of themselves," Milton said. "Why wearing a mask is important is because it blocks the aerosols at their source, when it is easy to block them."

MERV ratings

In his edict to New York mall owners, Cuomo was talking about HEPA filters, which have the highest MERV ratings, between 17 and 20.

What's MERV? It stands for "minimum efficiency reporting value," and it's how filters are rated in their ability to trap tiny particles. The MERV ratings go from one to 20: Filters with higher MERV ratings are more effective than filters with lower ratings.

At the highest end, HEPA filters are used by hospitals to create sterile rooms for surgeries and to control infectious diseases, and are able to remove 99.97% of dust, pollen, mold, bacteria and other airborne particles with a size as small as 0.3 microns. For comparison, Covid-19 is thought to be between 0.06 to 1.4 microns.

"Filters are rated at their worst performance, so 99.97% is the worst it will do," Allen said. "And that's rated for a particle size of 0.3 microns, but smaller and larger it actually does better. So the point is that it's capturing nearly all particles."

Unfortunately, most businesses and home owners may find it difficult to retrofit their existing system to accommodate a HEPA filter, or any filter higher than the rating recommended by the system's manufacturer.

Doing so can actually impair the system's performance: Smaller pores in HEPA air filters make it more difficult for it to push air. Using denser filters can affect the efficiency of the unit and strain the fan, while decreasing indoor air quality -- the opposite of what you desire.

"HEPA filtration is not always going to be feasible or practical," Allen said. "But there are other filters that can do the job. What is recommended now by the standard setting body for HVAC is a MERV 13 filter."

High-efficiency filters in the 13-to-16 MERV range are often used in hospitals, nursing homes, research labs and other places where filtration is important.

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