Knowing Your Thermostat

You may be surprised at how influential a thermostat can be in heating your home efficiently, potentially producing lower fuel costs if it is used with energy savings in mind. Your thermostat should be able to meet your needs by making the appropriate adjustments to your furnace’s heat output at certain times. More complicated scheduling may result in a need for a more complicated thermostat, but often, simpler thermostats will do the job, as long as they are used correctly.

Electromechanical Thermostats

Electromechanical thermostats are the simplest and oldest kind of thermostat. They use a mercury based device to measure your home’s temperature and turn the furnace off and on when it goes above and below the set temperature. This type of thermostat is cheaper and less complicated that the other digital options, but it does not offer any programmable functions. It is also less accurate than the digital thermostat options that have grown quite popular. If you do have an electromechanical thermostat, any changes in temperature settings will have to be input manually. For instance, you will have to adjust it every time you leave your home so your furnace is not working to heat an empty home. These thermostats are not necessarily less efficient than newer ones; they simply need to be maintained to lower fuel costs and create energy savings.

Digital Manual Thermostats

With an upgrade to a digital manual thermostat, you will have several benefits that are not available in the older, electromechanical models. Due to the more advanced device that measures the temperature in a home and the more precise controls, these kinds of thermostats are more accurate and are able to keep your home at the desired temperature without as much fluctuation, adding some energy savings. Also, they do not contain any mercury, making them safer and more environmentally friendly to have in your home. While these thermostats tend to be more efficient, they still require you to be actively adjusting the temperature to match what your home needs at the time. This option offers a great deal of opportunity to increase your energy savings as long as you are willing to adjust it when your furnace does not need to be used.

Digital Programmable Thermostats

Digital programmable thermostats are the most advanced but often the most complicated type of thermostat. They offer all the benefits of the manual digital thermostats and a great deal more through programmable options. They allow you to set your furnace to your schedule without having to put the effort into changing the temperature every time you leave for work or go to bed. Each product will have varying options, of course, and it is important that, when buying a thermostat, you consider if it has the features required to meet your needs. It may also be wise to find a user friendly unit that will be easy to use and program when you need to make changes. This option is the least time consuming while remaining quite energy efficient, but you will still need to make manual changes for unexpected events, since the unit cannot predict them. As long as you continue to pay attention to your home’s heating needs and react accordingly, energy savings will flow your way.

Improving Your Indoor Air Quality

Ensuring your home’s indoor air quality is important to maintain home comfort and a healthy living environment. There are many harmful substances that can seep into your home, endangering you and your family. Some of the most common threats are radon gas, carbon monoxide, and molds. All of these things, once present in your home, will circulate via the ventilation system and spread throughout your living space. Thus it is important to have a system of prevention set up and regularly test for these harmful substances to ensure you and your family are not inhaling them for long periods of time if they are present. Thankfully, there are many solutions to these problems.

Radon

Radon is a natural gas that seeps up from the earth into your home, and long exposure has been shown to increase the likelihood of developing lung cancer, second only to smoking. Unfortunately, radon gas is invisible, has no smell, and has no taste; but there are tests that can be done to make sure your home’s radon levels are safe. If your home does test positive for unhealthy levels of radon gas, there are radon cleaning and radon mitigation methods that you can use. If radon gas is a concern for you, our HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air condition) professionals can help by performing radon tests and radon cleaning, filtering the harmful radon gases outside your home where it can dissipate. Also ask about preventative methods to guard against radon gas building up in your home again.

Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide is another deadly gas that has no smell or taste, but, unlike radon, carbon monoxide is released via burning fuels, such as your furnace. Too much exposure results in flu like symptoms and, eventually, death. One of the easiest ways to know if you are at risk is to install carbon monoxide detectors over any potential hotspots like your furnace and kitchen. Bedrooms are also good places to have detectors, so you do not spend a whole night unconsciously breathing in deadly gases. During your regular HVAC check-ups, ask our specialists to look for any carbon monoxide leaks, so they can be repaired before any damage is done. If your carbon monoxide detectors are kept in working order and you actively prevent any carbon monoxide leaks, your indoor air quality will have much higher odds of being free of this dangerous gas, and knowing that will surely increase your home comfort and peace of mind.

Mold and Allergens

Molds have become an increasing problem in modern homes, especially when humidity builds up in places like bathrooms, where mold can grow easily. Furnace filter changes are effective at reducing the amount of mold and other allergens circulating through your ventilation system. You might also want to consider installing air exchangers in parts of your home that produces a lot of humidity in order to reduce the amount of moisture in those areas. Duct cleaning—a service our technicians can provide—is another method to improve your indoor air quality. The cleaner your air, the healthier you will be, and the healthier you are, the more home comfort you will experience. 

Alternative Heating and Cooling Systems

If you are looking to replace or buy a new heating and cooling system but want something that may be more efficient or more environmentally friendly than a traditional furnace system, you have a few options to choose from. Keep in mind that each of these alternative heating and cooling systems can operate efficiently but it depends on your home’s location, size, and layout. Hopefully this will give you an idea of what your options are, but remember to talk with one of our professionals to get more personalized information about what kind of system would create the most energy savings for you.

Geothermal Heating and Cooling

Geothermal heating and cooling uses heat pumps to harness the Earth’s natural heat supply. This type of heating system offers high energy savings because the heat is already there. It only needs to be redirected into your home. The cooling process is similar, only the heat is directed out of your home and into the ground. This kind of heating and cooling system’s level of efficiency fluctuates based on the location of your home. After all, some parts of our planet are warmer than others, and in certain areas, this type of heating and cooling system competes very well with more traditional furnace systems. If you live in a region that often becomes quite cold, you may need to have another type of heating system to pick up the slack, but since a geothermal system features such low fuel costs, it may still pay for itself over time. Speak with our professionals about whether or not this kind of system is a good fit for your home.

Solar Heating and Cooling

While solar heating and cooling systems offer tremendous energy savings and extremely low fuel costs, they operate best in locations and times when they can get the most out of the sun’s energy. During the summer months when the sun is out and the solar panels can soak up a lot of sunlight, a solar cooling system will be able to run quite efficiently, but in colder and rainier months, when the sun is further away and often covered by clouds, a solar heating system may not be able to keep up with the heating needs of your home. Ultimately, you will need to consider if your home is a viable candidate for a solar heating and cooling system based on its location and whether or not it will be able to provide you with the required home comfort during the various seasons.

Infrared Heating

Infrared heaters produce radiant heat; so, unlike a heating system that circulates warm air through your home, infrared heaters affect the specific areas they are in. This type of heater runs on electricity, but it lowers all other fuel costs to zero unless you have a supplementary heating system, which may be necessary for larger living spaces. If you live in a smaller home or only need certain areas heated, infrared heaters can be very energy efficient, as they produce heat quickly and can be placed wherever they are most needed. Whether or not they are for you depends on your personal living situation, which you can discuss with one of our professionals to choose the best heating and cooling options for you.

Four Things to Remember about a Fall Furnace Tune Up

Now that the fall is approaching, you may be thinking about your upcoming heating costs. If you are, a good place to start is to perform a fall furnace tune up. Tuning up your furnace is very important to the not only your bottom line, but also to your health. Keeping your furnace in optimum condition will keep your indoor air quality at a comfortable and healthy level. There are four things you should remember when you are performing your tune up.

Not all furnaces are alike.

There are many manufacturers that produce furnaces and each manufacturer have parts for their furnaces that are uniquely theirs. They have their own plans of how their furnace is to be maintained. Parts of one brand of furnace may be located in a different area than on another brand of furnace. You should take time to read the manufacturer required maintenance schedule that is recommended in the product manuals. The manuals will show you how to perform the cleaning, which parts should be moved and how to move them, and where to locate and how to replace parts that can be replaced by you. 

Do not forget the filters.

When you are inspecting your furnaces, do not forget to check the filter. The filter can get clogged and that can decrease your indoor air quality. Dust and dirt can be released into the air and it can be a serious problem for people with breathing conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis, or emphysema. It could also trigger allergy attacks to those who are sensitive to dust, pollen, and pet dander that could be circulating thorough your home. A dirty filter can also make your furnace work harder than it needs to, causing your fuel costs to rise. To lower fuel costs and see real energy savings, make sure you keep to a regular schedule of filter changes for your furnace.

Do not forget your humidifier.

If you have a humidifier in your home, you should also inspect it and change or clean the filter. The humidifier is important to the indoor air quality and improving home comfort. If the humidifier is not working properly, it could release too much moisture in the air that can cause damage to your home such as mold and mildew which could lead to lung infections and fungal respiratory problems. It could release too little moisture, which could also cause damage to your home and affect your health, especially if you have breathing difficulties. You should regularly clean or change the filter to make sure that it remains in good condition and provide years of service. 

Clean and inspect your ductwork.

The ductwork is part of your HVAC system and should be maintained as well. Duct cleaning will make sure that the heat that is produced by your heater is allowed to flow freely throughout your home to maintain home comfort. Keeping your ventilation and ductwork clean will also keep your furnace from overworking and using extra energy. It is important that you check to make sure that you do not have any leaks around the seams and that there is no accumulating moisture or cracks. You can also have a contractor to inspect and clean your ductwork for you.