The Heating & AC Blog

My grandma and grandpa’s house is the best to go to when my whole family is in town.

My grandpa likes to set everything up in the backyard with chairs and tables.

My grandma cooks a plethora of food to feed all of her children and grandchildren. It is the best time. She’s Italian so she cooks a lot of homemade Italian food that she has grown up with. She’s the best cook out of our family. Sometimes when she’s cooking, she has the oven on and the kitchen gets a little hot. My grandma will tell me to turn the thermostat down so the air conditioning unit can kick on. I’ll go to the thermostat and turn the knob. At my house I have a programmable thermostat. I mentioned to my grandmother if she’s asked her HVAC provider about having a programmable thermostat. She told me it wasn’t something that was on her mind when they would come to her house. She said she had an appointment with them next week. The week after I went to her house when the HVAC technician came. I mentioned to him about the programmable thermostat. He recommended strongly that my grandparents install one. This is because it can save energy and money all year round. Not to mention it’s easy to operate. Having a programmable thermostat allows you to set a certain temperature when you’re home and when you’re away from home. My grandparents were interested because they’re always looking to save money now that they’re retired.

a/c tune up

I have been told that I am a hoarder.

I’m not as bad as the people on that one television show.

But I like to keep things that are sentimental to me. I guess it’s true because my house isn’t as updated as I would like it to be. A lot of my friends don’t come over anymore because it’s not a cool place to hang out at. I guess I could update my house a little bit. But it does its job. I have a roof over my house, a bed and a living room with an older TV. I could get one of those new smart TV’s that are very thin. I just don’t see myself spending a lot of money though right now on it. However I do need to get a new HVAC system. I called my HVAC provider to come to my house and do their periodical checks. I asked my technician if I needed to replace my system since it’s about ten years old. He said that it wasn’t necessary to do it this year because it still functions properly. He recommended replacing it in about two more years. In the mean time he told me that I could install an optimizer control to make my existing HVAC system operate more efficiently until I get a new one. It adds specialized microprocessor controls to optimize performance. Once I replace my old HVAC system I can use the optimizer on my new HVAC system to have it run even more efficiently.

 

 

air conditioning filter

Retirement is not exactly how I envisioned it, it is better.

My husband and I both worked for so many years and raised our children so we decided that it was really time to experience the life we always wanted. Being strapped to the same dead end job for thirty plus years taught us to cherish every moment we have left together. The kids think that we are a bit nuts but we decided to sell the house that we lived in for all those years and buy a large boat to travel the cost. We have challenges at times finding places to dock especially during holiday weekends. On those occasions we need to anchor out and unfortunately the weather is not always cooperative. We have been out off the coast and the temperatures have been less than ideal. We had a few times when it was freezing cold and we did not have any sort of heat aboard the boat. During the pleasant months it was great and we tried to travel North in the Summer and South in the winter but we were still caught off guard at times. I really wish we had an HVAC system on board so we could go where we want when we want. I have been reading about some systems that are safe to have aboard and really think that we need to talk to an HVAC dealer at one of the ports to look into having one installed. What good is it to live a life travelling on our boat if we can’t be comfortable where we are. I have even been tempted to get a hotel room at some ports just to be comfortable for the night and that just doesn’t make sense. I love our retired life and don’t want anything to change, except the temperature control on our boat.

dual fuel system

Living along the southwest coast can be a dream life for sure.

Beaches, sunshine and the ability to head to the mountains or the shore in the same day is really amazing.

We have lived here all of our lives and even though life is great most of the time there are some things that we deal with that people around the country may not realize. Did you know that we never even flinch for the most part when we have tremors. Yes I mean tremors like the kind that come with seismic activity. Earthquakes and tremors are a normal way of life for us and feeling the earth shake has nothing to do with emotional connections. One thing that we learned early on was that our HVAC system had to have special connections when it came to our ductwork. We can not have the conventional ductwork because our has to be flexible in order to stay in place during the shaking. If we did not use that type of product we would constantly have to bring in repair people to fix the cracks and disconnects. We even have our HVAC unit is sitting on a flexible pad to prevent it from getting damaged during the rumbling. These things are a small inconvenience for living is a nearly perfect environment. The freedom to live life in the outdoors year round and make the most of just about every day is so worth it. If you ever have the opportunity to live in an area like this you should definitely consider it. You should also make sure that your home and all the appliances are set up and built to withstand what comes with it.
a/c rep

Mom and dad have planned a trip to go and see my grandparents over the Holidays.

I am looking forward to seeing them but wish that they were coming here instead. I dread going to their home because it is always sweltering hot. I never want to say anything because I don’t want to make them unhappy but they keep their house and nearly eighty degrees. You head in from minus thirty and feel like you stepped into a sauna. I can’t sleep at night because it is so warm and I have even been known to open my window to let in the cold air. The one time when my mom came into my room while we were visiting and realize that I opened the window she was angry with me because I was wasting energy but then she realized that I may have needed the cold air just to feel comfortable. She tried to explain to me that as you get older your overall temperature changes and many older people need the extra warm in the winter to not feel achy. I’m sure I will understand this more as an adult but for now I just wish with a would come and see us instead and we could just keep their room warmer. We even purchased a separate HVAC unit for the guest room for just this purpose and the rest of us remain comfortable while they can keep warm too. The mini split unit in that room can heat or cool it to whatever temperature they want and is even controlled by a remote. I hope next year they come to us instead.

air vent

I was excited when I heard that the town was going to be picking up large junk last week.

I had been storing several things in the garage that I wanted to get rid of and looked forward to having the extra space to use for something else.

When the day arrived I was surprised to see that they left several items at the curb. When I went to inspect what was there I realized that it was two portable heaters and one of the small window air conditioners. I called and wondered why they had left these items. They said that they were not authorized to pick up anything that had to do with heating or cooling. They said that many of these items contain dangerous chemicals or materials that were not allowed in landfills. I was surprised by this but I guess it made sense. There are places that recycle these items but you need to pay them for the disposal. Government regulations require that these items be properly broken down or neutralized so that they are not harmful to the environment and these facilities have the ability to do that. I was not happy about paying for these services but at least I now have extra space in the garage and know better in the future and how to get rid of those types of items. This will also affect what I purchase in the future because I will always think about how I will dispose of that new item in the event that it breaks or is no longer of use to me.

new heating units

Running a residential cleaning service can be very profitable.

My company is still small and we are trying to build our client list so we take on some jobs that others would not want.

I have found a way to ensure that we have enough money to cover the costs on a monthly basis while doing this. We have partnered with a few rental properties and offer full cleaning of rental units once the tenants move out. This service is provided on a flat rate fee basis but there are times when we have to tack on extra fees. When this happens the former tenant lose their security deposit because the property owners much pay for the extra charges. One of our clients owns a few older homes in the city that have been divided into multiple units. They had some issues with a tenant moving out and when they called us in to clean the place we had to wear hazmat masks for the initial sweep through. I wouldn’t go into detail but it was one of the worst that I have seen. One area that really needed cleaning was the HVAC vents. They were coated with dust and grime. The weird thing was, they were in the ceiling. I had never seen this before and had to ask how they worked. The owner said that the ductwork was in the ceiling and that the vents we saw along the bottom of the walls were simply cold air return. The vents in the ceiling were opened and closed by a pull chain which I also found strange. We were very glad when the service was done but I will never forget that unit.

geothermal heat pump