The Heating & AC Blog

I love fried fish, but I don’t like the odor of fried fish in my home, three days after we had it.

I tried different cover-ups for the odor, but nothing worked.

When the fragrance of the spray dissipated, I was smelling fish again. There is nothing worse than the smell of old fish. I knew I needed an air purification system to help keep the bad smells out of my house. Last week, I called the HVAC company and asked what it would cost to have a whole-home air purification system installed. They sent an HVAC technician to the house to check out my HVAC system. It’s funny that I never realized how many things had to be right with the HVAC system before they could install a whole home air purifications system. I had to have a newer HVAC system if I wanted the air purification system to work properly. They wanted to know if I just wanted the HEPA air filter, or if I wanted a UV light. I didn’t know what the UV light was for, or if it was needed. I laughed when I told my husband all the questions they asked about the HVAC system before we could discuss the air purification system. Two hours into my discussion with the HVAC technician, I knew I would not get the whole home air purification system for the house. The cost and work involved was crazy, and I thought a portable air purification system would work just as well. My husband agreed with me and told me he would go along with whatever I decided.

 

heating and air conditioning system

I no longer physically go into the HVAC company to do any work. My husband is the manager of the HVAC company and he runs most of it from the office. I owned the HVAC company when I met my husband. He came on as an HVAC technician four years after I took over the HVAC company from my father. He was fine with being an HVAC technician and the manager of the other technicians, and I appreciated his wanting to stay behind the lines. I enjoyed being an HVAC technician, but when my father offered to sell me the company, I couldn’t refuse. I hoped that someday I would have a son who wanted to be an HVAC technician. At that time, I would give the HVAC company over to him, and he could run it. Now that I am staying at home more because my wish for a son came true, people have forgotten that I am the owner of the HVAC company. Last week, I made an appearance and headed back to the office. The secretary stopped me when I walked in the door and asked if I had business with the owner. I laughed and told her I was the owner and wanted to talk to my husband. I could see her face turn red when I told her who I was. It was time for me to come into the office more often now that our son was in school, and maybe I could get back into doing some HVAC work again. I was getting bored sitting at home all day, and I missed working.

cooling technician

When the HVAC technician arrived to do my furnace service last month, he asked if I wanted him to change the air filter. I thought changing the air filter was part of the service and cleaning procedure. When he said he could add air filter changes to my maintenance agreement; my first question was how much extra would that cost me? He told me it was a minimal amount, but it would save me needing to do it. I’m not sure what he was thinking, but I felt insulted. I had been changing the air filters in the HVAC system since I was about fourteen. I had no brothers, and it was just my mother and I. If she wasn’t home and the air filter needed to be changed, I was elected. One or the other of us had to do the job. I told him I could change my air filters, but I appreciated the offer. He told me that if I changed my mind, I should call the HVAC company and he would gladly come to the house and change it for me. Now, I was thinking he was flirting, but I couldn’t be sure. When he said he wouldn’t want me hurting myself while changing the air filter, I bristled. I told him I was perfectly capable, but thanks for the offer, and showed him to the door. I wanted to tell him he didn’t need to return, and I would be okay with a different HVAC technician, but I didn’t want to make him an enemy. It’s just that if I ever saw him again, it would be too soon.

 

boiler repair

For the last two weeks, I had been asking my husband to take the air conditioning unit out of our bedroom window.

I could feel the icy wind coming in around the side of the air conditioning unit, and I slept on that side of the bed.

Since I didn’t expect him to change sides of the bed with me, or quit taking all the blankets, I knew I had to get rid of the air conditioning unit. While he went to town for me, I laid a carpet on the floor and pulled the window open. I thought it was going to be easy to remove the AC unit, since I was the one who installed it. I had one side of the AC unit lifted over the lip of the window. I was trying to get the other side up, but nothing was happening. No matter how hard I pulled on the AC unit, I couldn’t get it lifted up out of the window. I felt around to see if I had missed something, when I felt my hand connect with something sharp. I pulled my hand in, only to see blood coming from several small pinholes. After pulling the AC unit forward, I realized my climbing rose bush was growing in through the air vent holes in the back of the AC unit. I had to lower the window and get a pair of clippers to cut the rose bush away from the AC unit. It only took a few minutes to remove the AC unit, but I made a note on the calendar to get rid of the climbing rose bush before summer.

 

clickable link

My husband and I weren’t cheap, but we were frugal.

We didn’t have money to throw away, and in purchasing a new furnace, we wanted to get the best for what we could afford.

We didn’t want to give up savings for efficiency, but we didn’t want to give up on efficiency just to save a little of money. We wanted to compromise between savings and efficiency. After a long discussion and a lot of research, we knew what we wanted in efficiency ratings. We figured that for the extra money we would spend on an energy and heat efficient furnace, we would save on the energy bills. That would be a bigger payback for us, than just saving money. With the cost of energy nowadays, every penny we saved was a big plus. Oil is now $6 a gallon, and we want to use as little as possible. Until it becomes a necessity to use the oil, we are using our wood-burning stove, but we can only get wood for so long. Once the snow starts, it cuts our wood shed off to us because of where it is located. That’s when we’ll be using the furnace. We have a bit of time to decide which furnace we want, but if snow comes earlier, it cuts our decision time in half. Next month, we’ll purchase the new furnace, and keep it on just enough to keep the chill out of the house until the wood-burning stove warms the house up. Conservation and quality of life are our two chief concerns this winter.

 

boiler installation

When I needed a new furnace, I wanted the same money-back guarantee I received from every other vendor I purchased from. I wanted to make sure that if I didn’t like the furnace, they would refund my money or give me a new one. I said this to the HVAC technician, and he gave me an odd look. He told me he wasn’t sure that was possible. They gave me plenty of choices for a furnace. A professional HVAC contractor would explain the difference between every furnace and tell me which was the most efficient in heating and energy. The HVAC contractor would measure and take notes so they would get a furnace that suited my heating needs and those in efficiency that I required. Even though he gave me answers that would suit the everyday person, I wasn’t happy. I wanted a guarantee that if I wasn’t pleased with how the furnace worked during the first sixty days, I could return it. He eventually told me he couldn’t make that guarantee, and I would need to ask the HVAC contractor when he came to the house to discuss the new furnace with me. I’m not sure I’ll follow through with the purchase from this company if I don’t get some kind of guarantee. I don’t want to be stuck with a furnace for the next twenty years, if it isn’t exactly what I want. I’m thinking I’ll talk to several other HVAC companies in our area, and see if they’ll offer me some kind of guarantee. If they don’t, I’ll go with the best price on the furnace I want.

heat pump install

I own the local HVAC company, and I seldom take emergency calls anymore.

• Last week I was at a Christmas party and had a couple of drinks when my phone went off.

My after-hours secretary told me there was an emergency at the church and they had no one available to do the job. I couldn’t go out and work. I wasn’t even sure I should be driving. I told her to find an available HVAC technician and get them on the job. She said she had already tried all the HVAC technicians and they were all at the same party I was at. I sent out a message to everyone, and nearly every man at the party lifted their phone. I breathed a quite loud ‘ugh’ and started walking. I asked everyone if they thought they were in a condition to handle an emergency at the church. One young lady had only been with the HVAC company for two weeks, and she told me she could do the job. She didn’t drink and she could have her boyfriend go along if that was okay. I wanted to make sure she felt capable of doing such a large job as a church HVAC system. When she told me she was ready, I told her to call me if she needed help, and my wife would drive me over. When I hadn’t heard anything from her two hours later, I called her. She told me she had just finished the job and the furnace was working again. She asked if it was okay if she came back to the party?

 

commercial air conditioning