The Heating & AC Blog

I hate to be the sort of person who complains during my times of need.

However, I cannot get over how poorly this room was designed at the local women’s shelter.

You see, about a month ago I had to leave my house because the living situation was becoming too dramatic with my boyfriend. I went to a local women’s shelter and they assigned me a room to stay in for the next few weeks. I was expecting the shelter to be in deplorable condition, honestly. I was ready for a sleepless night of heat and humidity, because I anticipated that the facility had a 30 year old AC unit. I even brought my own miniature fan to provide some sort of air movement in the assumedly sweltering room. When I arrived, however, I found that my worries were unfounded. Not only was the entire shelter wonderfully air conditioned, but my room was actually a bit too chilly when I walked in. The AC was flowing nicely from an overhead air vent, and I was shocked to feel all the cool air flowing over me. The thing is, there’s actually too much AC for my preference. Because of the placement of the air vent overhead, I can’t escape from the cold drafty breeze no matter where I stand in the room. Here I am, freezing my butt off in the middle of June in the deep south. I don’t foresee this being a comfortable stay at the shelter for long. Of course I didn’t think to pack my winter coat or flannel pajamas when I left.

Cooling and heating business

Have you ever had one of those years when nothing was going right? It feels like bad luck is knocking at every door.

Everything that possibly can go wrong, will.

Even things that you don’t normally worry about are suddenly blowing up in your face. This is quite literally what happened to me the other week when our AC unit died dramatically. The entire cooling unit became clogged and broke down for good. I was already having a really bad week, but suddenly I was sweaty on top of all the other stress. I didn’t know what to do because when I called the local HVAC company, they were booked solid for another week. It looked like I was going to be experiencing our first 90 degree days without any modern cooling system in my house. Thankfully, bad luck had my back this time. At the same time as my AC unit broke down, our entire block was closed off for construction. I could not even get home to sit miserably in my overheated apartment that night. Feeling disgruntled, I went to my friend’s house instead. Wouldn’t you know, as soon as I walked in the door I forgot about all my troubles. My friend actually had a working air conditioning unit, and the sensation was awe-inspiring. I stopped feeling bad for myself the second I was surrounded by cool, refreshing air. It wasn’t until two days later that I could return to my own hot and sticky apartment. Luckily by then the HVAC company was able to send out a technician to repair my AC.

HVAC home services

Recently I was lucky enough to go on a week long road trip into the wild canadian landscape.

I had never been into canadian territory before and was super excited to embark on this trip.

The only thing that really concerned me was the cold and temperamental weather we were about to encounter during the end of canadian winter. We currently reside in a warm and humid semi-tropical climate and I’ve become embarrassingly accustomed to having warm air around me at all times. The prospect of dealing with cold and blustery winter weather was not something that thrilled me, but I decided it was worthwhile to go on the trip anyways. When we arrived at our destination I was completely impressed with how the citizens have adapted to living in such a difficult climate! Everyone wears heavy winter clothing to support an active outdoor lifestyle up there. They walk from place to place in thick boots and Eskimo coats rather than relying on heaters aboard cars and buses. They have also figured out an ingenious way to keep cold air out of their residential spaces. Namely, this fancy 2-door entry system that I encountered at several locations served to efficiently trap warm air inside and cold air outside. The premise was simple; there was a vestibule with two doors leading to the interior and only one automatic sliding door would open at a time. After passing through the first set of doors, you had to wait patiently for that passage to completely close before the next door would slide open. It greatly limited the amount of winter air that could rush into the indoor space. Sure, it took a few extra seconds to enter each building, but this system was highly effective at keeping the brutally cold outdoor air outside where it belonged.

New air conditioning information

I’ve always been a big fan of road trips. I know that they aren’t for everyone – a lot of people say that they can’t sit in the car for that long of a time and they get restless. I don’t usually feel that way. I can easily settle into a drive and sit comfortably for up to 12 hours at once. It’s no problem to stare off at the scenery and let my mind wander gently from topic to topic as the hours fly by. One of the biggest recommendations I can give to anyone who normally feels tortured by long road trips is to invest in a van. Having enough space is essential for comfort. Recently, we even rented a large cargo van for one of our trips. This thing was amazing! It drove like a dream and we had so much room for our belongings. The one downside of having so much space was trying to maintain the proper air quality within the cab. As we drove on our long trip, the outdoor air drastically changed from a warm and humid air quality to a dry and bitterly cold climate. The van wasn’t exactly equipped to combat the brutally cold and blustery air outside, it turns out. Even with the onboard heater blasting at full power, we noticed that the air temperature fluctuated wildly from hot to cold. The heater seemed like it could not maintain a high level of heat or air flow. It also felt like the cold air from outside was easily permeating the uninsulated metal walls, chilling the van from all sides. Thank god we know enough as expert travelers to keep extra blankets on board. I don’t think the van’s heater could survive our heating demands.

 

Cargo van needs two heaters

I’m no pet sitting expert. I generally try to keep my dog with me at all times instead of leaving him with strangers. He travels with me just about everywhere I go, and there are few instances in which I can’t keep him within sight. Generally when I do run into a scheduling problem and find myself looking for pet care, I’m able to pass him off on a friend for a few hours. Recently, however, I found myself in a situation in which hiring a pet sitter was necessary. We were out of town and the hotel where we stayed didn’t allow dogs unattended. As we searched for a pet sitter on Rover, we realized that the prices were quite high compared to usual. We pulled the trigger, and only later found out why all these pet sitters set their service rate so high; the cost of heating their homes. You see, the weather where we were visiting was quite cold and snowy. Apparently the cost of energy necessary to heat a house is quite significant in this city, so people don’t take their central heating lightly. They go to great lengths to insulate their homes and save on energy expenditure whenever they can to reduce monthly utility costs. The problem with introducing a large dog into this equation is the amount of cold air that passes in and out every time the dog needs to go outside. Opening the door for even a moment greatly reduces the indoor air temperature, and their furnace must work overtime to heat the air again. That weekend we learned that Rover includes the cost of high quality pet care, as well as a small payment to the energy company.

Space heater for sale

When we were arranging a trip to Montreal, we sure never expected that there would be major consequences for going in the winter.

I mean, we expected some uncomfortable consequences, such as freezing our butts off outdoors every day.

We weren’t expecting balmy weather or anything. We realized that the weather might be stormy and icy. What we never anticipated, however, was the possibility that it would be more costly to go in the winter. Who would want to go during the darkest, coldest months of the year, afterall? Well, no one. And that’s partially because the cost of staying in the city skyrockets as the temperature plummets. When we started looking at hotels, the prices seemed rather high compared to other cities and the figures we had seen in Montreal before. I wasn’t’ sure if there was a major concert or festival happening that might drive up the interest in renting a hotel room, but in fact, it was nothing of the sort. The large increase in price was due entirely to the low winter temperatures… because the hotel has to compensate for the cost of heating. Apparently they don’t get great deals from the energy company and have to worry about their clients using too much heat in their facilities. If there is a ton of heat pumping into every room, the hotel’s bills increase hugely until the air temperature evens out again. I didn’t understand how it could be such a significant energy expense for them… until I arrived and realized how cold it was. I truly abused the heater in our hotel room, running it at maximum speed and heating power. Thank god it was already included in the price of the room.

 

 

hvac

I’ve always been a large fan of road trips.

I know that they aren’t for everyone – a lot of people say that they can’t rest in the car for that long of a time plus they get restless.

I don’t usually feel that way. I can absolutely settle into a drive plus rest comfortably for up to 12 hours at once. It’s no problem to stare off at the scenery plus let my mind saunter gently from topic to topic as the hours fly by. One of the greatest recommendations I can give to anyone who normally feels tortured by long road trips is to invest in a van. Having enough space is essential for comfort. Recently, we even rented a big cargo van for one of our trips. This thing was amazing! It drove like a dream plus we had so much room for our belongings. The one downside of having so much space was trying to maintain the regular air quality within the cab. As we drove on our long trip, the outdoor air harshly changed from a hot plus humid air quality to a dry plus bitterly frosty climate. The van wasn’t exactly equipped to combat the brutally frosty plus blustery air outside, it turns out, even with the onboard heating system blasting at full power, we noticed that the air temperature fluctuated wildly from hot to cold. The heating system seemed like it could not maintain a high level of heat or air flow. It also felt like the frosty air from outside was absolutely permeating the uninsulated metal walls, chilling the van from all sides. Thank god we know enough as expert travelers to keep extra blankets on board. I don’t guess the van’s heating system could survive our heating demands.

Heat pump install