HVAC Information For Homeowners

Well, I got caught up and the heat pump ran for hours with very obstructed airflow.

It was closer than I want to ever be to losing my entire residential HVAC. At least the heating and cooling equipment. I guess smothering a heat pump wouldn’t effect the ductwork all that much. But I came so close to having to replace the rest of the HVAC system. And it was all because I did something I knew I shouldn’t do. It’s January and when I sit on my porch and look at the garden, I know it won’t be too much longer before I’m tending it again. We live in a part of the south that doesn’t see freezing temperatures much at all. But we still get a cold snap or two in January and February which needs a bit of heating. The growing cycle for some of the stuff in our garden goes all the way into November. And that’s how I almost killed the heat pump. I was weeding the garden and tossing all the refuse onto a tarp. Well, the tarp got all wet and I wanted to dry it in the sun after I emptied the weeds into the compost. When I draped the tarp over the HVAC cabinet outside of my house, I knew then that this was stupid. But I was so sure that I’d remember to pull it off before the heat pump kicked on. Well, I got caught up and the heat pump ran for hours with very obstructed airflow. Thankfully, I remembered before it was destroyed. But I still called the HVAC professionals to have them come out and inspect it. Who knowingly throws a tarp on an HVAC cabinet? What a stupid move that was.
air conditioner service

There’s is one constant in my adult life.

And that is the fact that I really stay grateful for the life I’m so fortunate to lead.

I come from pretty humble beginnings. I didn’t even have residential HVAC in our home when I was little. And that was back in the 90s. We had a wood stove to provide all the heating we ever would need. But there was no central air conditioning to enjoy some cooling over the summer. Coming up that way really was good in other ways. My parents were proud people and taught me always do my best and give thanks for what I had. Well, after four years inside the radiant heating of my college dorm room, I got out of college and got a great job. From there, I’ve been really lucky to enjoy my work and make a great living. My wife and I live in a really nice home with all sorts of amenities and the very latest in residential HVAC. We don’t have any children and so we make sure to pay it forward in other ways. So when we found out that my wife’s cousin had her entire world turned upside down due to the pandemic, we wanted to help. Our home has a basement and we decided to turn it into an apartment for this awesome lady. She just needed a place to feel safe and get back on her feet. The HVAC company really helped us out by providing and installing a ductless heat pump. I have to say that the residential HVAC in the basement really does set that space off as its own apartment.

air conditioning repair

While we’re just weeks past celebrating Christmas in this house, I got my big present in October.

But it didn’t come without some stress before I finally received it. My awesome present was the latest in residential HVAC and a whole mess of HVAC technology. While I knew that HVAC technology has advanced over the last 25 years, I have to say I’m overwhelmed by how much. The heat pump that went out of here in the back of a truck was one we put in 26 years ago. It was the first appliance my wife and I ever bought. We got a steal on our house all those years ago and one of the reasons was because the residential HVAC was so old. With plenty of HVAC maintenance, we got every bit of our money’s worth out of that old heat pump. But we ended up rolling the dice to see if it would get through one more summer before we replaced it with new heating and cooling equipment in October. It was a tense summer as the heat pump definitely got a bit overwhelmed by August. And the air conditioning costs began to spike a bit. But we got through to October when the HVAC professionals installed our new HVAC unit. Again, I can’t believe all the HVAC technology that comes with this thing. There’s zone controlled HVAC as well as smart thermostat inside the house. And the SEER rating on the equipment is triple what the old one was. So HVAC technology is making it much cheaper to enjoy quality heating and air in our home.

 

 

cooling system

I never would have thought that January could be one of my favorite times of year.

• That’s because where I grew up, January and February were brutal when it came to cold.

I could hardly leave the house and all the heating from the gas furnace. Luckily, I went to school in the south and ended up getting a job down here after I graduated. So I’ve been enjoying these lovely winters for a long time now. The weather is really nice this time of year where I live. It doesn’t get a whole lot worse than maybe the mid forties at night and I can deal with that. The heat pump hardly even comes on throughout the winter. I can enjoy this weather for another couple of months before the temperatures begin to rise again. Spring arrives early around here and that comes with an increase in temperature. So the air conditioning comes on much sooner down here than it does where I used to live. That also means that spring cleaning comes earlier as well. I don’t know if it’s just tradition or what but, I really do like to deep clean the house at the beginning of spring. And part of that deep clean is having the HVAC professionals come out and do the ductwork cleaning and ductwork resealing. I like to get this done just about every year. It really does improve the indoor air quality and control the dust. On top of that, making sure that the ductwork is completely sealed maximizes the efficiency of the heat pump. And our heat pump will be running to provide cooling in our home up to 8 months of the year. So that makes a big difference in air conditioning costs as well keeping our indoor air quality good.

new hvac equipment

I learned the hard way about the effects of direct sunlight heating.

And it was a lesson learned indeed.

But where I grew up and lived all of my adult life, direct sunlight heating was a good thing. That’s because during the cold winters, I would enjoy sitting in the window with the warm sunshine on my face while the gas furnace was heating our home. But that was up north and it’s a different animal down south. My wife and I learned all about it within six months of moving to the south. Our living situation now is radically different from living in the city up north. First of all, we have property and no neighbors. So when we moved into this house, we didn’t put up any sort of window treatments. Instead, we enjoyed the view and didn’t have to worry about nosey neighbors. We moved down here right after Thanksgiving and were blown away by how mild the winter weather was. We knew it was going to be better, but we had no idea what we were going to experience when it came to perfect winter weather. However, it didn’t take long for us to realize that direct sunlight heating is not a good thing down south. Once the air conditioning kicked on, the first utility bill blew my mind. The HVAC professionals were kind enough to point out that I needed solar shades or drapes to reduce the high cost of air conditioning in my home. I called them in a panic thinking that the air conditioning was all messed up. They came out and gave me my first lesson when it comes to cooling a home down south.

 

quality ac service

I was against it all at first. To my way of thinking, I just wanted to ride the wave of a hot real estate market all the way to the bank. But I really wanted to just sell the house “as is” and move on. So renovating and doing things like replacing the residential HVAC were not at all appealing to me. Told, this has everything to do with the fact that I was not all that wild about selling our family home. There were just so many memories and I was just so comfortable there. But the fact of the matter was that it was just too big of a place for just my wife and I. Simply paying the heating and cooling utility costs we’re staggering for two people and a dog. And once the kids were gone, the house did seem cavernous. Now that we’re older, just taking care of the place took way more time then it used to. So it made sense to sell and turn the page. At the same time, I was afraid of doing too many upgrades. I did want to get the latest in residential HVAC and HVAC technology because I might not want to leave. Thankfully, we had a really great realtor. She brought us all the data that we needed to understand how important new residential HVAC was to getting all we could for our home. I was on board after I did the numbers and we got to upgrading appliances as well as the heating and cooling equipment. The number we got for our house sure made dealing with all those memories, the renovations and moving worth it.

 

air purification

The pandemic really turned things a bit upside down in our home.

But we are super grateful to have come out the other side without anybody having serious problems from the virus.

That’s something to count our blessings over. But there is another positive that came out of the last two years. I’m definitely paying way more attention to my health and that’s a direct result of the pandemic. For sure, focusing on my health was well overdue and it’s a shame I had to wait for a global health crisis to snap out of it. I’m in my mid forties and I’m finally getting in decent shape. The company I work for sent us all home to work from the central air conditioning of our homes. I was surprised that I actually took to working from home. It simply freed up my schedule and I was able to commit to a more healthy lifestyle. From the very beginning of working from home, I made sure I got out of the air conditioning for a walk a couple of times a day. And that just grew from there. My diet changed, I lost weight and I even got more into exercise. With that focus on health, I also wanted to improve the indoor air quality of my home. And I was able to do that in a way that didn’t cost me a whole bunch of money. I simply replaced the cheap air filters that I was using with HEPA filters. They remove more than 99 percent all the contaminants in our air. And that’s a big improvement.

air filter

It’s been about four years since we had the residential HVAC replaced in our home.

We inherited the last heating and cooling equipment when we bought the house.

At the time, it was not even ten years old and got the green light from the HVAC professionals. So we went with plenty of HVAC maintenance and got another decade and then some out of that old HVAC unit. Once we upgraded to the latest in residential HVAC and HVAC technology, I was thrilled at the level a comfort in my home. The process of replacing the HVAC equipment was pretty painless. The HVAC contractor was really great and did a super job when it came to helping us get the right HVAC unit for our house. But I was also just so excited after the installation that I didn’t do something the HVAC contractor suggested. The HVAC professional suggested, among other things, to really pay attention to the HVAC warranty. First, it was imperative that I register the HVAC warranty with the factory within the first 60 days. I was able to do that, thank goodness. But I didn’t read the warranty the way I should have. And that resulted in me voiding the warranty about 2 months ago. I came home to find HVAC unit not working at all. So I tried working on it which is clearly forbidden in the HVAC warranty. Don’t be like me. Read the warranty for your heating and cooling equipment and leave repairs to the HVAC professionals. I had to learn that the hard way and I’m still kicking myself for voiding that HVAC warranty.
wifi thermostat

It’s not going to be too much longer before I hear that chorus of heat pumps firing up again.

But man, it has been so nice to be able to enjoy the quiet when resting outside, but during our winter, there is entirely little demand for heating.

So the heat pump rests & that provides all sorts of peace & quiet for me. But as we transfer on into December, I’m relishing this last bit of winter. While I easily dislike it for folks up north who get battered with horrible freezing & lots of snow & ice, I sure love this kind of winter. It’s the sort of winter time that I grew up with but completely took for granted. That all changed when I took my first task out of college. I ended up way up north where you had to have a gas boiler or a boiler to keep you sizzling during the winter. That tuned to me in real quick to just the sort of winter time I wanted to experience the rest of my life. So as soon as I could, I turned my back on the gas boiler & welcomed the heat pump back into my life. As much as I love the winter time weather down here, I know that I have to pay for it with the heat & humidity that has coming. It will not be long before I call to have the Heating, Ventilation & A/C company come out to do the air conditioner tune up. But separate from air conditioner, residing here would be torturous during the summer, not only does the air conditioner give the cooling comfort we need, it also balances the humidity in our homes.

electric heating

It’s so interesting to be part of a village community.

• This is all up-to-date to me as I’ve never lived in a village before.

And I have to say that it’s everything I had hoped it would be. I grew up inside a sizable house building in one of the greatest cities in the country… Even after four years inside a dorm room with radiant heating, I still had to go back to the city. My first job straight out of the tranquility of that university town was right back into another major city. So that meant living in an house building again with radiant heating & almost no air conditioner. I could deal with that sort of Heating, Ventilation, & A/C situation & the close quarters. But living in those sizable house buildings you tend to not get absolutely close to your neighbors. Beyond maybe a brief wave or some eye contact, there wasn’t much rapport with my neighbors when I lived in the city. So when I took a up-to-date position that was headquartered in a rural town, I was happy to be a homeowner & a neighbor. Recently though, I had to help a friend with an Heating, Ventilation, & A/C problem. He called me one evening well after supper to see if I could come over & help him with his heat pump. Being a up-to-date homeowner, I had just had up-to-date residential Heating, Ventilation, & A/C installed. So I knew quite well that only Heating, Ventilation, & A/C suppliers should be working on Heating, Ventilation, & A/C equipment. As much as I wanted to try to help my neighbor, I thought the real help would be giving him the Heating, Ventilation, & A/C truth.

 

a/c representative

I never would have thought that December could be one of my favorite times of year.

That’s because where I grew up, December plus December were brutal when it came to cold. I could hardly leave the house plus all the heating from the gas boiler… Luckily, I went to school in the south plus ended up getting a job down here after I graduated. So I have been enjoying these beautiful winters for a long time now. The weather is particularly nice this time of year where I live. It does not get a whole lot worse than maybe the mid forties at night plus I can deal with that. The heat pump hardly even comes on throughout the winter. I can prefer this weather for another couple of months before the uneven temperatures begin to rise again. Spring arrives early around here plus that comes with an increase in temperature. So the a/c comes on much sooner down here than it does where I used to live. That also means that Spring cleaning comes earlier as well. I do not know if it’s just tradition or what but, I particularly do like to deep disinfect the house at the start of Spring. And part of that deep disinfect is having the HVAC professionals come out plus do the ductwork cleaning plus ductwork resealing. I like to get this done just about every year. It particularly does improve the indoor air quality plus control the dust. On top of that, making sure that the ductwork is completely sealed maximizes the efficiency of the heat pump. And our heat pump will be running to give cooling in our home up to 8 months of the year. So that makes a large difference in a/c costs as well keeping our indoor air quality good.

 

a/c care program