The Heating & AC Blog

Getting my own place has been something of a dream for me since I was a kid. My home life wasn’t very good. While we had lots of stuff and a big house with super quality heating and air, it wasn’t a happy home. Once I got myself into a good college, I knew that I wanted to go my own way completely. That meant that I would have to figure out on my own how to get my own place and live my own life. My parents are just the sort of people that you are either totally with them or totally against them. So, I haven’t had any help or support from them since I left for freshman year of college. But I’m awfully thankful that I studied hard and earned a good degree that allows me to work in a nice building with zone controlled HVAC. The job is a passion and the career earning are promising. Still, I had to save every dime in order to get the downpayment for my starter home. But I did and now I have my own place. It needed a lot of work to really become a home but I had lots of friends and the internet for that. However, I had to take care of the heating and cooling right away. When the HVAC contractor saw that the ductwork was also no good and had to be replaced, we had to scramble a bit. Ripping out and replacing ductwork was going to be really expensive and out of my budget. But the HVAC professionals came through for me with a ductless multi split system that is just the best.

 

Heating device

I gave it three tries. That seems more than fair for sure. But, it looks like we’re not going back to what is a promising little, local restaurant. That’s a shame too because it has nothing to do with food or service. The reason we won’t be going back is because the commercial HVAC in that restaurant needs to be replaced. I’m actually not even sure that it’s even a commercial HVAC application that’s attempting to provide the heating and cooling to that space. But whatever it is, it’s so not enough. Our local climate is on the hot and humid side. Like there are HVAC cooling needs that can crop up as early as mid March with days in the mid to upper 80’s. Now at our home, we don’t go right for flipping the thermostat over to HVAC cooling. Yet, when we are spending money for dinner out, we have the basic expectation of at least average quality heating and air. That’s just not what we got with this excellent restaurant that opened this year. It’s June now and we’ve tried three times. The last time, we actually had to have our entrees boxed because it was so stifling hot in there. I made it clear to the owner that we loved the food, the service was excellent but until they got the air conditioning figured out, we just wouldn’t be back at all. I hate to see such a talented chef and impressive staff get undercut because of something so basic. I hate to think that all those people could lose their jobs this summer because of a lack of basic HVAC cooling.

 

a/c workman

I’m already over summer and it’s not even the middle of June yet.

That doesn’t bode well given that I can expect this mix of heat and humidity to continue through September. The heat pump is now kicking on much earlier in the day even though I have the thermostat in summer mode. This means that I keep the thermostat setting no more than 15 degrees cooler than the peak heating of the afternoon outside. During the spring, I try to not over do the HVAC cooling in order to acclimate to the higher temperatures. Yet, it’s just June and I’m sick of the heat already. I work at home so having the thermostat in the low to mid 80’s during the afternoon can be a bit much. But I have fans pointed right at me that sort of fake out my skin to make it seem cooler. However, I’d much rather run a fan than the HVAC unit. The fan costs less than one tenth what the HVAC equipment does to run. Yet, you just couldn’t get by with this sort of heat and humidity without some HVAC cooling. That wouldn’t be possible. Plus, the HVAC cooling process is also responsible for balancing the humidity levels inside the house. And that helps the air feel crisp and cool even at 82 degrees when it’s 97 outside. Plus, having the humidity levels balanced means I don’t have to worry about mold and mildew inside the house. I know I get cranky about the heat in June every year. But, I’ll find my stride soon and I’ll for sure be thankful for the HVAC cooling I get from the heat pump this summer.
a/c workman

She even said she would make a huge jug of lemon water if I wanted with ice-cubes inside to keep the water extra cool

The other day my wife was telling me we had to go into town to get some lemons. I thought it was strange to drive an hour round trip just to get some lemons, but she said we needed to do all our big food shopping anyway. So we made our way to the store and we were cranking the AC system the whole time during the drive. Now mind you, I don’t always like to crank the AC system in the car because I realize it burns extra fuel and gas prices are insane right now. This day though, it was hot, so I had to crank the AC or I wouldn’t have felt too well during the drive. I was very happy about the fact that the AC in the store was ice-cold and it was very pleasant. It actually made you want to take your time at the store, which we did. We didn’t feel rushed at all. I eventually asked my wife what she needed the lemons for after seeing her so happy when she found some really nice ones in the store. She said that of course, she was going to put them in her ice-cold water so that she could stay cool and refreshed. I don’t know why I didn’t think to have lemon water. She even said she would make a huge jug of lemon water if I wanted with ice-cubes inside to keep the water extra cool. Considering all this blazing hot weather we have been getting, I thought that sounded perfect. I was planning to do some grilling outside. That’s actually a huge energy saving tip by the way, to cook outside when it’s really hot so you are not putting too much stress on your cooling system.

a/c set up

The other year, my buddies and I chose to go hang out at the pier and do some fishing.

• Over the years, we have fished at many locations, but mostly places where we would go camping.

We’ve never been serious fishermen or anything, it’s more just a hobby. Sometimes we would catch some fish, and other times we would just hang out and not catch a thing. It didn’t necessarily matter if we didn’t catch anything because we would always have a bit of food with us to enjoy a nice dinner regardless. Well, when we started hanging out at the pier, we were shocked at how many fish we were catching. We honestly caught so many that we ended up letting a lot of them go and at that point, it was basically a sport for us to see who could catch the most. The only problem is that it was very chilly out there. I remember telling the guys that I should have brought my portable heater inserts for my jacket. They all looked at me surprised when I told them about the heater inserts. They were actually a gift from my wife and I hadn’t even used them yet. Of course, I made sure they were charged and ready to go for a time that I thought I should try them out. That first fishing trip at the pier would have been perfect, but we still had a great time even though it was chilly. The next time we all went to the pier, my buddies had heater inserts too. They said they were all curious what they would be like and we all enjoyed these heating devices for the first time together and loved them! They kept us nice and toasty even though we were wearing light jackets.

 

Business

I remember the first time my wife and I moved out to the area where we live.

We moved to a small peaceful town so long ago that’s away from most of the major cities.

With crime getting out of control and everything, we just wanted a country home where crime is virtually unheard of. And believe me, we did a lot of research when it came to finding the most suitable location to raise a family peacefully. I wanted it to be like back when we were youngsters and could play outside with friends without worrying about getting killed in a drive-by shooting or being kidnapped. So we have a nice home where you can’t even see your neighbors. Still, the people were so friendly and our neighbors came to see us to welcome us to the community. They told us all about the best local contractors to go through and everything. That was perfect because one of the first items of business on my agenda was to have the HVAC system serviced. We had an old boiler that we had tuned up and it worked fine for years with regular HVAC maintenance. The cooling system we had ended up dying and we had that upgraded to a high velocity cooling system which is highly energy efficient. I honestly couldn’t believe how much the energy bills went down with that HVAC upgrade. Soon, we are looking to have our old boiler upgraded too. We would like the heating system to be extremely energy efficient as well, that would be amazing.

 

a/c repair

He said I would have thermostats in different areas of the home for customized temperature control

I remember last spring season when I was consulting with an HVAC expert. This guy asked me personally what I was looking for in an HVAC system. He asked if I wanted something highly energy efficient, something that provided ultimate comfort, or something that would outlast me. I remember joking asking if I could have all of those things. But I ended up telling the guy it didn’t necessarily matter, so long as I could have my house feeling like a glacier in the summer season. That definitely got the guy laughing, but then he became serious and told me what he would recommend if I was all about experiencing pleasant cooling in my home. He started telling me about high velocity HVAC systems. He said a new ductwork system would be installed that was more narrow than traditional ductwork. He explained it was necessary to achieve the high velocity heating and cooling in the home. He even spoke of how he recommended that I have the system be a zoned HVAC. He said I would have thermostats in different areas of the home for customized temperature control. Basically, he said if I was working in my office, I could crank the AC so much and not affect the rest of the home, thus saving on the energy bill expenses and having my dream fulfilled of feeling like I’m on a glacier. I’ve actually hiked up a mountain with cousins and we went to hang out by a glacier lake before, and it was such a pleasant experience, so why not feel like that at home sometimes?

 

The HVAC expert suggested going for a high velocity HVAC system