The Heating & AC Blog

My fingers were numb from the cold, and I would have used a cup of steaming coffee before my first home service of the day.

I was on my way to a duct cleaning.

Not many people contact the heating corp for that service compared to a furnace/heater tune-up or cleaning a washable filter. Most homeowners forget about the ductwork needed until there is a problem in the HVAC duct that needs fixing. As an HVAC repairman working for a local heating provider, I loved it when a.home owner asked for energy-saving help tips because there is so much that homeowners can do to reduce the amount of energy consumed during whole-home heating. I have a gas furnace that I installed. Installing an intelligent temperature regulator was my first step to saving energy. Since we have a zoned system, when we turn on the gas fireplace, the thermostat will adjust the temperature settings so that the boiler installation runs less to heat the living room since there is already another heat source. When we are out of the house, the thermostat automatically adjusts the temperature settings to a much lower temperature, saving energy. There was only a slight increase in the energy bill when my partner started working from home. The house I went to that morning belonged to an elderly couple. After finishing the job, they insisted that I stay for their late breakfast, but I politely declined because it was not very professional. She, however, gave me two cinnamon rolls to go. I picked up a coffee on my way back to the office, and I had my first meal of the day.

commercial ac

This part was both exhilarating and a bit stressful.

Now that the new addition is complete and my wife and I are the lucky recipients of this new master suite, I have to say it is a success. However, I wasn’t exactly sure of that before we undertook this project. Honestly, I really thought there was another way to deal with the situation without adding to the house. There had to be a way to find peace among the heating and cooling comfort of our home. The boys would eventually figure out just how to live together. But, as my wife kindly pointed out, if I wanted that peace so I could enjoy the air conditioning, I better go get it. And of course, she was right. The idea that our boys were going to suddenly just get along every day was folly. The fact that they had to share a room didn’t make that prospect any more probable. We had to get them their own rooms and that meant we needed more rooms. Selling the house and buying another house was out of the question. So that left only having an addition put on that would be that bedroom would actually solve the problem. However, it was going to be our room and it would come with its own HVAC equipment. This part was both exhilarating and a bit stressful. The renovations were a bit to deal with for sure. However, knowing that this would end with us having our own bedroom suite and bath made it worth it. One of the best parts of this whole thing was the ductless heat pump that went into the new master suite.

 

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It’s so cozy and warm in my home because I sealed it up tight and insulated it

So I knew I was in for a real change when it came to weather. Moving from the air conditioning of the south to the north where they have HVAC equipment I hadn’t ever seen was my first clue. No really, I knew what I was in for. Having spent my entire life in the south meant that I had never experienced the intensity of a northern winter. So I wasn’t trying to kid myself. And that’s probably worked out for me in the end. When I first moved to the north, it was still summer. Granted, it was a much different sort of summer than what I had just left. Our summer comes with heating and humidity levels that both end up hanging right around the century mark. So leaving all that HVAC cooling was pretty nice. I ended up here where the end of summer meant that the nights were cool but the days were still warm. For me, it was more like the end of fall or the beginning of winter. So I knew right then that I needed to make HVAC heating a priority for my first winter. The house I purchased came with a new gas furnace. That was a really bonus since I really didn’t know anything about HVAC heating. I did know enough though to go online and learn what I needed to do for my new place when it came to winter preparations. Man, am I ever glad that I did that. It’s so cozy and warm in my home because I sealed it up tight and insulated it. The HVAC heating is on and keeping me warm but it’s also not costing me a fortune either.

 

digital thermostat

Normally, I like to be sure that we are up to date with the stuff in our house.

I suppose it’s really more about the value of the house than it is any sort of convenience sort of thing.

Like, I don’t have some huge 70 inch TV or anything like that. A normal TV screen is enough for me. However, I do have a very cool built in entertainment center. This is to maximize the entertainment experience while I relax in the air conditioning of my house. And when it comes to air conditioning, I have always believed that the heating and cooling of a home is simply essential stuff. When we had to replace the HVAC equipment a decade ago, we got the latest in residential HVAC equipment available. And of course, I’ve made sure that there has been consistent HVAC maintenance for that HVAC equipment as well. So I guess I was sort of surprised that I didn’t get the smart thermostat sooner than I did. I mean the HVAC technology for the smart thermostat has been out for more than 7 years now. I can understand sort of waiting for the first couple of iterations when it came to the smart thermostat. But after that, I really don’t know what I was waiting for. What I now know is that smart thermostat HVAC technology is just such an upgrade in experience. Not only does it take dealing with the thermostat on a daily basis out of my hands, it takes care of the HVAC output much better than I did. That also has led to seeing about a 20 percent drop in HVAC cooling costs since I had the smart thermostat installed.

 

 

a/c workman

This is starting to get a bit toward the part of winter that I like.

The fact that we are over halfway through this winter makes me happy. February is still a brute there is no doubt about that. The gas furnace is still on much of the day and night. But we are nice and warm in our home just was we are every year. And I like to take a bit of pride in that to be honest. Being warm, cozy and not allowing the cost of HVAC heating to destroy the household budget doesn’t exactly happen by accident. There was plenty of preparation that went into having this sort of experience inside our house. And knowing that we are going to power through February is a great thought. Because after February, the worst of winter is pretty much behind us by then. There is still plenty of need for HVAC heating and such. That can happen all the way through April some years. However, when it’s time for the air conditioning, all we have to do is get the air conditioning tune-up from the HVAC technician. We know that’s all that needs to be done because the HVAC cabinet connected to the central air conditioning is the last thing I take care of. My winter preparations always end with me covering the HVAC cabinet with a special, molded plastic cover that fits right over it. Prior to that, I have put in plenty of hours sealing up and insulating the house as well as making sure the gas furnace gets serviced.

Air conditioning supplier

I think my wife has been cheering for the end of our HVAC unit for some years now.

This is a sneaking suspicion of mine because I have never seen her smile quite the way she did when the HVAC technician broke the news.

I happened to be standing right behind my wife in the doorway of our home. The HVAC technician had started breaking the news to my wife about the old HVAC unit. It appeared that the old HVAC was on its last legs and we needed to get an HVAC replacement plan underway. I can’t say I was all that stunned by this news. I mean the HVAC unit was put in when the house was built. And that was almost 25 years ago. But I was a bit stunned to see the look on my wife’s face as she thanked the HVAC technician for the heads up. She couldn’t meet my gaze but also couldn’t suppress a deeply amused grin from her face either. For the last several years, I’ve heard all about how great zone controlled HVAC is. This is from a person who is indeed super sensitive to the thermostat setting. But nothing was going to happen when it came to upgrading the heating and cooling until it was time to replace the HVAC unit. So now, my wife was finally right where she wanted to be. The old HVAC unit was officially on the way out and she was going to be central when it came to choosing the new HVAC equipment.

Smart thermostat

So prior to selling the family home, I had sold exactly zero other homes in my life.

The home my wife and I raised our family in was the first house we purchased.

And we purchased that house with the idea of having a family. We were quite young back then but we knew that we wanted to bring up a family in a nice home with great heating and cooling. The idea that we would be selling it almost 30 years later was not on our minds back then. But the heating and cooling equipment we had installed all those years ago played a big part in us deciding to sell the house. The old HVAC unit had finally succumb to all those season of heating and cooling our house. So since we were upgrading the HVAC unit, we thought maybe we should make some other upgrades with the thought of selling the house. This was sort of a weird thought as that home had been our only house and leaving it would be tough. But since we needed to do some upgrades, including the HVAC unit, we thought it might be wise to think about selling. To this end, we called a few realtors and settled on one who actually knew our house. She was excited to be involved and was instrumental in helping us get the best price for our home. I was especially listening when it came to her data about the HVAC equipment. She showed me comps that steered me right to the sort of HVAC technology we needed for prospective buyers.

smart hvac