Save Energy with Proper Insulation

     Almost half of your electric bill goes to heat and cool your home. If you want to save money on your heating and cooling bill, then start by looking at your home insulation.

     Insulation is important to minimize, or eliminate the heat exchange/loss inside your house. Good insulation keeps the interior warm during the winter, and cold during the hot summer. A well insulated house allows your heating and cooling systems to effectively work as needed. The proper amount of insulation can save as much as 10% on your monthly electric bill.
   If your house has air leaks, or if it has insufficient insulation, air will pass through
 and heat exchange will be greater in areas where insulation is inadequate. This will result in heat loss and make your HVAC system run more, and use more energy. Even if your cooling in the summer, and their are leaks or poor insulation, the cool comfortable air will pass right out of the house. Many mobile homes and manufactured homes are perfect examples of this. Because of the style of construction, they have inadequate insulation in the walls and ceilings, so they fail to trap and keep the warm or cool air in the house.

     Make sure you consider factors such as building design, budget, local codes and climate when selecting the R-values of insulation material. Consider parts of your house such as the attic, floors, kitchen bathroom, windows, walls, doors, etc. If you are building a new home, check on some construction materials that provide both structural support and good insulation.
     Some utility companies offer incentives or rebates, to upgrade your insulation.  For more information, contact your local utility company to see what they offer.
     Be sure to read more of my home tips at hvaccomfortguyjerry@blogspot.com or go to our website at www.greensheating.com.

The Most Important Day In The Life of Your HVAC System

     The single most important day in the life of your furnace or air conditioner, is the DAY IT'S INSTALLED. That may seem to you like a strange statement. My blog today is designed to explain why that is true. Simply stated, you can purchase the most expensive, highest efficiency, top rated brand, and, if it is not installed correctly, then you will not get the service, or efficiency that you shelled out your hard earned money for.
     There are several factors that are involved in having a properly installed HVAC system. First and foremost is the importance of purchasing a matched system. That means, the furnace, condensing coil, and air conditioner (or heat pump) should be the same brand. You will also find that there are a number of condensing coils to chose from to match up with the air conditioner, and your HVAC company should and can do a correct match in order to give you the highest efficiency possible.
     The next factor is duct work size. To deliver the correct amount of air to your home the duct work has to be sized properly in proportion to the cfm's (cubic feet per minute) coming from the blower motor in the furnace. To give you an example: Let's say your duct work is sized to handle air movement from a 3 ton blower motor but your blower motor is a 4 or 5 ton blower. Obviously you are going to get back pressure because your duct work cannot deliver that much air efficiently. The opposite of that is true as well. If you have duct work designed to deliver air from a 4 ton blower and your furnace only has a 2 ton blower, then it is going to have a hard time warming or cooling your home. In either case, it will cause increased wear and tear, and shorten the life of your equipment.
     The last factor I will mention is the importance of the correct refrigerant charge. That means too much Freon, or too little Freon in your A/C will also be a problem for your system.
     The North Carolina Alternative Energy Corporation, which is a non-profit organization, examined air conditioning manufactures' efficiencies, versus the actual efficiencies that resulted after installation. They found that 90% of the units tested exhibited some sort of energy-wasting, comfort-robbing problem! What were they? 54% had a incorrect refrigerant charge. 70% had incorrect air flow, 93% had duct leakage, 47% of the units were over sized for the home. So, the hope of @comfortguyjerry is to help you see the importance of hiring a quality company, with the a long standing reputation for doing the job right the first time. Remember, The most important day in the life of your HVAC system, is the day it is installed. Check our website at www.greensheating.com.

Why Preventive Maintenance?

     Preventive Maintenance is not a luxury. It is sound financial management! Heating and cooling equipment today is too expensive and too technical, not to invest in a good quality preventive maintenance program.  Think of it in the same way as the preventive maintenance of your car. You regularly schedule changing the oil, replacement of belts and filters, so that when you get in your car, you know that it will run efficiently and safely.
     Since we live in the high desert area of Boise, Idaho where it is plenty dusty at times, regular maintenance will decrease stress on the system, thus postponing costly replacement. It will reduce energy consumption, thus saving you money on utility bills. Since heating and air conditioning account for nearly 50% of your total energy usage, the amount spent on regular service and maintenance, is a worthwhile investment. Even a film of residue on the coil and fins of the condenser will increase power consumption. Just cleaning a dirty condenser can increase capacity by 20% or more, while decreasing operating costs by 15% or more. The main caution I can give you is this:  Some companies only change your filters and neglect other critical components such as the coils. Don't assume they are going to do every thing listed on your agreement. Make sure you are there when the service is done so you know that it was done according to your contract. .
     Literally, it will cost penny's a day to have your HVAC professional set you up on a program. The contract usually includes two visits yearly to your home. One in the spring and one the fall. In the spring they will clean the coils and fins, replace filters, check all the electronics, compressor, and Freon levels in your A/C. In the fall they will come and clean your furnace, change the filters, check your heat exchanger, electrical system, blower motor, burners, and their flame. There is usually a 12 to 14 point check of your equipment.
They will also check your thermostat to make sure it is functioning properly. Preventive maintenance assures that your entire system is thoroughly cleaned and inspected. For more information, check our website at www.greensheating.com. We are your Treasure Valley HVAC professionals.

Keep Allergens At Bay This Spring!

       Are you still sniffling, sneezing, and dealing with watery itchy eyes this spring? There may be more allergens in your home than you know. In fact, the air inside your home can be up to 5 times more polluted than the air outside. Because while today's homes do a great job of keeping out the elements, they also hold in airborne particles that can aggravate breathing difficulties.Nearly 72 trillion particles enter the average home every day, and remain in the air. Most homes generate around 40 pounds of dust every year for every 1500 square feet of space. Again, trapped inside your home. Plus, one ounce of dust can contain up to 40,000 dust mites, one of the most common household allergens.
     Solution? Today's air needs tomorrow's air cleaning system. I am talking about a electronic whole house air cleaner that is installed right in your duct work near the furnace. Several manufactures of HVAC equipment offer a product like this. I have been impressed with Trane CleanEffects whole house air cleaner. This product has been designed from the ground up to clean the air like nothing before. CleanEffects quietly makes the air in your home feel cleaner and fresher as it removes allergens. This air cleaner will remove up to 99.98% of allergens, and trap particles as small as .1 microns. How small is .1 microns? It is 100 times smaller than a human hair, so it is very effective in removing spores, mold, pollen, pet dander, dirt and dust. What a welcome relief for anyone with respiratory difficulties. There are a half dozen or so ways to filter the air coming into your home, and Trane CleanEffects is 100 times more effective than a standard one inch filter and delivers more clean air to your home than any other filtration system. It's performance has been verified by leading experts at the Harvard School of Public Health. For more information go to www.trane.com or www.greensheating.com, and "breath easy".

Allergies, Clean Air, & You

     You know the misery! The itchy eyes, the runny nose, sneezing, and coughing. Even if you stay inside most of the time there seems little relief. In fact sometimes the symptoms of allergies get worse. Why is that?
     Well, it is reported that in the spring most allergy symptoms are caused by pollen or mold spores. In fact, up to 72 trillion allergens find their way into your home every day! Mold spores can irritate the respiratory system. Dander from pets can float in the air and be an irritant.

Then there are those pesky dust mites that lurk in bedding, upholstery and other soft material and generate irritating waste particles (poop) that become airborne. Of course DUST is the big culprit. Did you know that the average home generates about 40 pounds of dust per year in a 1500 square foot home. Yikes! If you live in the Treasure Valley of Idaho you know what I am talking about, don't you?
     The other factor in allergies and clean air is, homes built today are more airtight then ever, trapping more allergens indoors. So now 70% of U.S. households are affected by allergies or asthma.
Solution? Improve your indoor air quality by installing a 'whole-house' electronic air cleaner such as,

TRANE CleanEffects. As published in BioMed Central Journal, Trane CleanEffects has been shown to remove up to 99.98 percent of particles and allergens from the filtered air. It traps particles as small as .1 microns! That is 100 times smaller than a human hair. If will even capture influenza virus. comfortguyjerry has one in his home and my wife loves it. Check our website for more information at www.greensheating.com.

Do More than Air Condition Your Home

The weather will soon begin to warm up in southwest Idaho and so we start thinking of how to stay cool. Comfortguyjerry says that air conditioning is NOT the only answer. There are several other factors to consider and things we can do to stay cool AND stay energy efficient.
Feeling comfortable in hot weather  requires two things to happen together. Obviously the first consideration is the temperature. The one we often don't think about is relative humidity or RH for short. The RH and the temperature have to both be low enough to keep you from sweating. Here in the Treasure Valley we live in what is called high desert and the humidity is fairly low all the time. The lower the RH the hotter it can be and we still feel pretty comfortable. Living here it can he 80 outside and we can handle it but if you live in Florida or North Carolina in it's 80 with humidity at 70% we are sweltering! So ideally we want to keep our humidity in our home at about 40-50% to be comfortable. In some areas people have to install dehumidifier's to deal with excessive humidity. We rarely if ever do that in Idaho. Traditional air conditioning units are good at removing excess humidity from the air. However there are other things we can do to help stay cool with out lowering out thermostats more and more.
FIRST: Dress for the weather. If its hot inside your home wear light weight clothing when at home and you may be able to adjust the thermostat up a few degrees and still be comfortable.
SECOND: Turn on a fan. Air circulating on your skin will make you feel cooler. So think about ceiling fans or circulating fans that can move the air toward you. If you are not having it blow on your skin then it is not going to do much good, so shut if off when your not in the room. Make sure your ceiling fan blades are turning clockwise in the summer and counter-clockwise in the winter for them to be the most efficient.
THIRD: Open the windows and doors when it 's cool at night or in the morning. Then before it gets too hot, close them all up, usually around mid-day or early afternoon. Use the air conditioner until it cools down enough that you could open doors and windows again. You will stay comfortable and also save energy. The trick to this is don't let it get too hot in the house before you turn on the air conditioner. It will take more time and energy to cool down the house to the desired temperature.
FOURTH: Sun shining on widows produces a lot of passive solar heat, heat, heat. Close the blinds and drapes on the south, west, and east of your house. You might even consider installing outside awnings or sun shades if you receive a lot of intense heat. Sun rooms are just that. Sun Rooms. They can turn into a real sauna and literally warm up the rest of the rooms adjacent to them and then your A/C will work overtime to trying to keep up with the demand at the thermostat. For more information follow us twitter @comfortguyjerry or like us on Facebook page at Greens Heating and Air Conditioning. Consult are website at greensheating.com Stay cool my friends.